Open mouth, spit out disgusting taste, close mouth

[drwex]

I am appalled. I probably shouldn't be. It's the Web, it's America. It's clearly commonplace. But... ugh.

I was trying to explain the difference between "discreet" and "discrete" to someone and went to Google for "discreet" to get a definition. What I got was narsty.

"Extramarital Affairs - Discreet Affairs - Discreet Relationships" - www.discreetadventures.com
"Discreet Housewife Dating" - www.lonelycheatingwives.com
"Affairs Made Simple" - AffairMatch.com
"Married Dating" - MarriedSecrets.com
"Married Dating Personals" - www.Desperate-Wife.com
"Lonely Housewives" - www.Married-Woman-Personals.com
"Extramarital Dating" - www.discreetadventures.com

And that's just on the first page.

I'm not exactly surprised - yes, I realize that there's a godawful lot of cheating going on. I am a bit taken aback by the brazen nature of the phenomenon. I suppose that ought not to surprise me, either. It's just more confirmation that I Am Not One Of Them.

Comments

[dpolicar]

I'd be interested, primarily as an academic question, to know what the overlap is between the activity on those sites and the actual cheating.

It would not surprise me to discover that they are close to disjoint sets.

[drwex]

You think these are sites for people into the fantasy of cheating? That's an extra layer of weird I hadn't considered.

[dpolicar]

Well, in the same sense that I know a lot of people who check job-hunting sites because they are into the 'fantasy of finding a better job.' Not in any formal role-playing sense, but just in the 'what's the harm in looking?' sense.

[drwex]

I suppose. And the theory then being that these sites make enough money from serving up ads to the gawkers to pay for themselves? It seems pretty far-fetched. Occam's razor and all that.

[dpolicar]

(shrug) Like I said, I'd be curious as to the overlap; I don't have a strong belief here. But that said, the idea of illicit-sex-themed websites that make their money from people surfing them and fantasizing doesn't seem that far-fetched to me.

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

Certainly, I would expect the number of people looking and fantasizing to be MUCH larger than the number who work up the guts to do something about it.