Spouse Endorsed What?

A New Solution to an Old Problem
18 May 2006 Article from Couldn't Help Noticing

A little while ago, there was an article in ESPN The Magazine that millions of American men would have ripped out to show their wives. Most of these men don’t normally think that their wives are interested in an article from one of the most popular sports magazines in America. Yet, one article in the recent edition will catch the eye of both sexes. I can imagine the scene now, as if taken directly from a sitcom. The beer-bellied man shoving the pages at his wife saying, “See! She understands! Why can’t you be more open-minded?”

The reference is to the marriage arrangement of NBA basketball star Andrei Kirilenko and his wife Masha Lopatova. Masha, a pop music star in her home country Russia, discloses her angst at Andrei’s numerous road games and superstar status: “Male athletes in this country [USA] are extremely attractive. They get chased by women. It’s hard to resist. It’s the way men are by nature.”

So, she came up with what she calls “Andrei’s allowance”. According to the article’s writer, “Once a year he can have sex with another woman. One night. No affairs, no divided loyalty. She can live with that. It was her idea, offered as a gift.” How is it that she can live with that? “When I’m aware and I let him do it, it’s not cheating,” Masha says.

What is Andrei’s response? The article is about his fit into his conservative coach’s offensive system, so the following response may be a double entendre, “If something is not allowed you, you want to get it, if it is allowed to you, you will not need it.”

Of course, men all over the country will think this is great logic. Unfortunately, this is a most absurd justification for infidelity. The irony is that Masha proclaims her knowledge of man’s nature but then completely falls prey to naïveté on the same subject. Does she really think that if Andrei accepts her “gift” and acts upon it that there will be no divided loyalty? That it would be only one time? Further, if she knew that tonight was the night that Andrei was accepting her “gift”, how much will she be able to “live with it” as she sits at home reading a nice bedtime story to their young child?

Hopefully, our imaginary beer-bellied friend will have a wife who will see through this charade. Unfortunately, Andrei and Masha are ever so real. As Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen say in Pure Sex, “Sexual immorality, such as adultery, is profoundly destructive. And when a society has abandoned itself to it, as ours has, the effects are disastrous.” The effects are clearly seen in Andrei and Masha’s relationship and the millions of men who may think that this couple is on to something.

Noticed by Marty at 10:15 AM