The Vine: February 22, 2002
Dear Sars,
I have never asked for advice before, so here goes. I deeply care for this guy; in fact I think he may be the one, but I have deep commitment issues in the sense that growing up without any sort of male figure in my life has left me lacking the ability to connect with them on an emotional level. Added to the fact that my last and only boyfriend was a complete jerk, I have not been able to reciprocate, or even express, my feelings toward him in anyway. After failed attempts to hook up, I guess we’re taking a breather, but I miss him, and it is hard to move on. I have loved him for a long time, but given that nothing has come of this for years now, and I have driven all my friends crazy, should I move on?
Weary
Dear Weary,
You’ve got a lot going on here. You have issues with commitment and abandonment because of your childhood; you have lingering bitterness and self-esteem crap carried over from your last serious relationship; you have a whole cart of baggage in the form of “failed attempts” to make it work with the current man.
With all of that in mind, yes, I do think you should move on, and here’s why — you need to take a step back, look at all of these factors, and find a way to deal with them one by one. You need to think about why and how the absence of a father figure affects you as an adult, and to come to closure and learn to separate your last boyfriend’s jerkiness from your own self-worth. Those things exist as part of your tangle of feelings for The One, and you can’t untangle that stuff from the middle of the situation.
You have things in your past that you have to deal with, and until you do that somehow — therapy, journalling, jujitsu, whatever — you’ll keep failing to make emotional connections the way you want to. Unfortunately, you’ll have to let this guy go in order to get that work done, but it doesn’t sound like things have worked out with him thus far anyway; it’s for the best, and confronting these problems now will pay off down the road.
Sars,
I’ve just read the letter and your response to “Friends Are Frustrating,” regarding the plight of a girl and her “fuck buddy.” I was wondering where your opinion on such a set-up would usually lie. I’ve had one or two of these “friends” in my lifetime. I knew what it was from the get-go and wanted nothing more, making things clear from the beginning. Eventually the situation faded out with no hard feelings on either side, and in fact resulted in a hardy friendship. I admit, I wasn’t sure my being able to separate the act from the emotion (or the expected one anyway) was something I shouldn’t be disturbed by, but I’ve had healthy, loving relationships and as a result don’t think it’s a fatal flaw. I never felt like I was being taken advantage of, nor disrespected or disrespectful of the other person.
My point? After reading the aforementioned letter and your response, I started to wonder…have I fooled myself? Is it impossible to come out of those situations intact, or is it inevitable that they cause harm? My real worry is, does my having had this type of “relationship” indicate I am somehow psychologically in need?
Mind you, I’m referring to past events and taking hindsight to hypothetical levels — in a sense trying to retrace my steps, find a bad feeling, a consequence. I have found none thus far. Should I be getting myself to a therapist but quick, or do you think it’s possible to pull something like this off — no harm, no foul?
Wondering
Dear Wondering,
Sure, it’s possible. It happens all the time. I don’t think you’ve fooled yourself, and I don’t think you need therapy — I mean, maybe you have, and maybe you do, but based solely on the fact that you’ve had fuck-buddy arrangements? No. There’s nothing wrong with them per se. Not everyone is built for that distance, but it’s not inherently harmful.
The problem with fuck-buddy relationships in my experience, both in life and in writing an advice column, is that, most of the time, one buddy wants more than fucking but won’t admit it. I’ve labored under that same delusion — I wanted more, so I’d hang in there with it for awhile, hoping that it would evolve into a “real” relationship, thinking that maybe the physical intimacy would turn into emotional intimacy, and then into love. I didn’t want to hear “no” or “that won’t happen,” and I’d go around telling myself that I didn’t mind keeping it casual and I didn’t have time for a boyfriend anyway and it’s really quite modern and blah blah blah, because I wanted it to be true — I wanted not to care, but I did care, and that’s when fuck-buddy arrangements get, er, fucked up.
That’s where problems arise with fuck-buddies. I mean, there’s “fuck-buddies” as in “we are friends that fuck, no more, no less,” and then there’s “fuck-buddies” as in “I want to marry him, but he’s not about that, so I’ll just take what I can get and hope he comes to his senses.” But they almost never do.
I want to make it clear that I don’t judge anyone for taking a trip to Fuckbuddyville, regardless of their motives or of the outcome. Shit happens. Hope dies hard. Mistakes get made. It’s ideal if everyone’s on the same page with it — if both parties understand what’s going on, and don’t lie to themselves about what it means — but that doesn’t always happen. If it does, though, you shouldn’t assume that you have some sort of emotional disorder just because you haven’t gotten burned.
Short answer? The fuck-buddy set-up itself is fine. It’s just dangerous sometimes. If you can avoid the dangers and you feel okay with it, good for you and don’t worry about it.
Tags: boys (and girls) sex
Well, i ´m currently in the fuck buddy position, with an older man. He says he doesn ´t want a relationship – which i don ´t either (at least i don ´t think i do)- but then he says things or does things that contradict what he “wants” and for this reason, i am confused as to what i want. Do i wait? Or do i move on? I don ´t even know if i ´m staying, waiting for him or for the good sex! I am very confused as to how I feel. I don ´t know how to differentiate what i think i want, and what i do really want. And could you be more specific about the dangers of having a fuck buddy?