Savage Love

Help me be modern!

Confused In Canada

Help you be modern, CIC? But there's nothing premodern about your feelings, no area where you require "improvement," nothing you need to get over.

Look, kiddo, there's a difference between being a jealous asshole and being a self-aware sex partner. Asking your girlfriend to remain monogamous until you get your ass down to the U.S.? That's just stating a sexual preference, if I may repurpose that phrase. A sincere desire to be your girlfriend's one and only sex partner should not be confused with something as base as jealousy. Jealousy is not trusting your girlfriend when she's out of your sight; it's flipping out when other men notice her; it's making furious and baseless accusations of cheating. Jealousy is controlling/manipulative/abusive behavior masquerading as insecurity. Jealousy is a poison. And you're not jealous, just monogamous.

Open relationships are great—ahem—but they're not for everyone. Some folks aren't built to share a sex partner, don't want to share, and consequently shouldn't share. We're talking sex partners here, CIC, not large pizzas or pot stashes—a reluctance to share is not evidence of a character flaw. It's an alternate lifestyle choice, CIC, one that, while I don't fully understand it, I do fully support.

My boyfriend has recently confessed an interest in gaining weight and has asked me to explore this kink with him. He wants me to feed him during sex, and generally encourage him to gain weight. I love the man too much to care if he gains a little weight, but I don't think he's interested in gaining just a little. As much as I would love to indulge his kink, I also don't want him to bite the dust at age 40 from some obesity-related disease. Before I turn down his request, I wanted to ask you if you might have any ideas as to how this kink could be played out in a way that keeps us both happy and healthy. Thanks.

Don't Want To Kill Husband Material

Feed him carrots.

I am a 25-year-old straight woman who recently got out of a monogamous relationship with a man with herpes. He developed symptoms for the first time a year into our relationship and I believe him when he said he hadn't cheated on me. Presumably it had been lying dormant or his first outbreak was so small he didn't notice. Either way, it was quite obviously an unpleasant situation, but we handled it pretty well, I think.

Unfortunately, that relationship has now ended and I find myself not knowing how to deal with the thought of future partners. I've never had any symptoms and we were pretty careful (condom use, no sex during his outbreak) once we discovered the issue, but we had been having unprotected sex for about a year before the outbreak and I know that condoms are not 100 percent effective anyway. So here's the issue: Do I tell future partners in advance that I've been exposed and risk scaring them off over a disease I don't seem to have? I have been having nightmares about having terrible outbreaks and about spreading the infection, but I don't know if that's an overactive guilt complex or what.

I really have no idea how to handle this situation. I want to be responsible, but also not cause myself a huge amount of extra stress and possibly heartbreak. Help please? I'm tired of crying all the time.

So Sad Always

First, SSA, you might want to get tested—you do know you can get tested for herpes, right?—and find out, for sure, if you even have herpes. For info about tests and where to get 'em, go to www.plannedparenthood.org.