I visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, last week to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Coast, Halifax’s kick-ass alternative weekly newspaper. The paper brought me to town to do Savage Love Live. I took questions for two hours in the auditorium of a brand-new Halifax high school that has a full bar. The place was packed, the audience was rowdy, and things got dirty. Here’s a selection of Halifax’s questions and my answers …
Current celebrity crush?
Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
My boyfriend broke up with me 10 times over the last two years. But this time, he says he’s committed. Am I stupid?
You may or may not be stupid (impossible to tell from a short question written on a green index card), but you do meet a popular-if-somewhat-annoying-but-sometimes-eerily-accurate definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again — doing this boyfriend of yours over and over again — and expecting different results. Tell him this chance is his last, and don’t take him back a 12th time.
My partner is obsessed with Shania. He’s gay. Is this normal?
It’s gay normal. Sometimes it’s a Shania, sometimes it’s a Cher, sometimes it’s a Gaga or a Madonna or a Rihanna. My gay husband is currently obsessed with a Katy Perry. Maybe you and I should start a support group?
Married straight lady. My husband recently told me that he is bisexual. I couldn’t imagine something hotter! But he is also EXTREMELY monogamous. Suggestions? I want to have fun with this!
Strap-ons — like the ones they sell at Venus Envy, Halifax’s education-oriented sex shop and bookstore — are fun. Or, hey, you could push your husband to adopt the “gay normal” definition of monogamy: If you two have threesomes only with each other and one additional hot bi guy, then all your threesomes are EXTREMELY monogamous.
I’m a kinky, poly guy who meets awesome kinky, poly girls on the internet. Everything is great, except I never know when or if to go in for a first kiss. With my girlfriend, it took me six months to build up the courage! Thanks!
None of the kinky, poly girls I’ve met in Seattle, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Madison, Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, etc. are what you would call shy. So I bet if you told the kinky, poly girls of Halifax during your pre-meeting, internet-enabled conversations that you prefer to let the KPGs you’re with make the first move — including going in for that first kiss — you won’t have to worry about making the first move.
Is it weird that I, the girl, want to have sex more than my boyfriend?
Nope.
Is it inappropriate for me to flirt and attempt to have an affair with a married coworker?
Yep. Affairs with married coworkers are hot in theory and messy in practice. I would urge you to be careful — and considerate. Maybe this guy is dying to cheat on his wife, maybe he’s looking for someone to cheat with, but if you sense that he really, really wants to stay faithful and your flirtatious attentions are (1) torture for him but (2) harder and harder to resist, do him, his wife, and your karma a favor and go fuck someone else.
What ground rules should be set for a friends-with-benefits situation?
The most important ground rule: Be friends. Too many people are pointedly unfriendly to their FWBs because they don’t want their FWBs “getting the wrong idea,” i.e., they don’t want their FWBs to think they might be interested in something more serious. The result? Lots of FWB situations are all B and no F. No friendly gestures (friends sometimes give each other gifts), no friendly assistance (friends sometimes help each other move), no friendly concern (friends are there for each other during a crisis). Don’t want your FWB to get the wrong idea about your intentions? Use your words to tell your FWB that a serious romance isn’t in the cards. Then make a good-faith effort to be a friend to your FWB.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2013.