Consent and cuckolding

I am a widower of 2 years, I was married for 31 years and the last 10 years I was a cuckold to my wife. In the last two years I have been listening to podcasts and reading blogs on the subject of cuckolding (sometime called “Hotwifing”) and one question I always ask when given the opportunity is, “If your partner asked, would you quit?”. Keeping in mind these are not swingers and these are “one sided” relationships where the wife is playing and the husband is not.

The question is posed to both husband and wife. In every case (20 or 30 I have asked) the husband always says yes. In many cases the wife says no. I have had wives interviewed in separate venues and they sometimes gave contradictory answers. The most recent being a wife who on “Keys and Anklets” said she would honor her husbands wish to quit if he asked then on another blog (I think it was called Cuckold Consultant) said that if she didn’t have her husband's consent she would cheat.

My question to you is, if consent is not needed can this be called in any way, shape or form “ethical non-monogamy”? If consent is not needed is this just a form of psychological abuse akin to the old tradition of men “sleeping around” on their wives where the wife knows, but due to family and financial considerations is forced to tolerate it?

Are some men trapped in a bind where considerations of financial well being, staying in their homes, having access to their children or even having any form of companionship outweigh the involuntary tolerance of their wife’s sexual activities and as a result they put on a brave face and “play the game”?

Consent is always needed. For everything.

There are always nuances to 24/7 style relationships. People who expand concepts of domination and submission outside of the bedroom may want someone who will basically be able to tell them what to do or “force” them to do some things. I have heard of 24/7 relationships where a Dom/me/x has control over the life of a submissive to the point of being able to encourage them to take care of themselves better.

And, not gonna lie, I’ve seen the appeal in having an authority figure who you have to be accountable to. Some people even incorporate aspects of punishment into this where punishment isn’t something that the person wants. So you can, in effect, have someone punishing you without you wanting that to happen at all.

However, I still believe there is a basic level of consent here that still applies. No one actually owns anyone and any Dom/me/x who believes they do and any relationship where a submissive (or a cuckold in this case) cannot say “Nope. I’m done with this. This ends now.” does not have a relationship. It’s effectively abuse.

And this applies for any kind of relationship which doesn’t include kink elements. Obviously, breaking up with a partner is never an easy thing for anyone to do and it is easier said than done in many, many types of relationships. But if you truly, truly do not have a choice or feel like you could not leave without being physically or psychologically attacked — that is a problem.

In my opinion, there is nothing ethical about cheating. It’s not for me to tell someone in a cuckold relationship whether or not they should continue to stay with someone who has effectively admitted they would cheat on you. I know I wouldn’t. But I feel quite confident in saying that consent is always needed.

And anyone, regardless of the type of relationship they’re in, who cheats or who does something against the consent of their partner — that is cheating. I don’t know if I would stretch so far to call every incident of cheating “psychological abuse”. People who may be psychologically abusive may also cheat, but they aren’t necessarily one in the same.

Additionally, I would say that one does not necessarily have to be a cuckold to feel like you must tolerate behaviour from your partner that you object to because you either do not have the financial means to go out on your own or you worry about the effect a split might have on children and whether or not you’d be able to see them as well as a fear of losing a companionship. That’s a very common concern for a lot of people.

And in all cases, kink based or not, I would always advise any adults to not put their eggs in one basket so to speak, to always have some level of their own independence or a way out and to not tolerate someone’s behaviour, if they find it truly objectionable or against their consent, merely because a current relationship is more comfortable or at times preferable to being alone.

Lastly, I’d like to address the fact that I feel like there’s a comparison here that, on a macro-level social scale, doesn’t really match up. Historically, women have been overwhelmingly subject to not only being sold as property to men, but also being treated like property. In the US, marital rape wasn’t even considered a crime until 1987. There is a very, very long history of women being forced to marry men (outside of considerations of married love) and not because they actively chose to enter into that kind of a relationship.

They had no agency. They had no options other than being cast out of their communities or potentially killed. The history of the way women have been used as essentially breeding stock and the way women are still used that way today is extensive. And I feel like it’s not really adequate to make that comparison because in the situations you have proposed, these men have willingly and with the full rights and privileges as men, agreed to be in cuckold relationships from the start whereas many, many women throughout history did not have the same privileges.

But, to summarise, cheating is not ethical. Consent is needed in all relationships. You can only willingly give your power to someone if you have it in the first place.

And, on a personal level, I think any individual who is interested in a relationship where they do not have to care about the consent, wishes and needs of their partner is an asshole and not worth anyone’s time.

I hope this helps and good luck!