When monogamous couples break up over cheating, we blame the cheating. When open couples break up, we blame openness itself. But both usually fail for the same reason: broken communication and unmet needs, not the relationship structure.
And I think that happens a lot too, where people will have one really bad experience with somebody who wanted to be open or was open, and it becomes a referendum on open relationships and not that person. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, it's like a little bit of a double standard. Maybe the example I use often is if a monogamous couple ends their relationship because of cheating, they ended it because someone cheated. Like, that's the reason. If an open couple breaks up for any reason, it's usually because, well, they were open, so that open relationship was destined to fail. But with cheating in a monogamous relationship, I'm like, well, they actually ended because of monogamy, so that monogamous relationship was destined to fail because somebody had wants, desires, and needs that they didn't feel like they could communicate with their partner, so then they breached the trust, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
