Recently, I heard about a woman who spent almost a year abroad trying to earn money to support herself and her husband in the Philippines. A few months shy of her first year, she found out her husband was having an affair with her former colleague. The discovery sent her home in an effort to pick up the pieces of her marriage.

Naturally, she felt torn up, betrayed (who wouldn't?) and at the same time ashamed that her marriage had ended in shambles. The man promised to stay with her, but warned her that he couldn't guarantee that he'll remain faithful to her. Eventually, it was revealed that he wanted both to stay married to her and keep his girlfriend.

For a time, the man kept lingering in her life, calling her up every now and then, wanting to talk to her, to see her, even to have sex with her, saying this is still part of their marital obligation to one another, since they're still married (this makes me wonder just how blockheaded some men really are). The woman showed signs of caving in and still wanting him for some time, until eventually, it all became too much and she was able to muster up the strength to order him out of her life.

Men tend to get away with cheating on their spouses. People find reasons to explain this away, saying men are naturally polygamous, that men are really wired to cheat and they somehow just tend to forget that they're married or in serious relationships. Poppycock. This is exactly why men feel they're all the more excused for committing adultery, and these same things are what women tell themselves to make themselves feel better about their partners' infidelity.

Because of the straying man, women now feel like they're the ones who should make an effort to keep the relationship together; men=immoral, women=moral, and must therefore be responsible for the task. They continuously persist in performing their wifely duties and look the other way, hoping that what they do is enough for their husbands to stick with them. Society also tends to blame women for men's cheating ways, saying that there must be something wrong with the wife to make the husband cheat. Conversely, the other woman is also blamed, with people thinking she's the scheming tart who wove a trap to ensnare the weak male. Men, for all their claims of being the stronger sex, are now portrayed as weak and helpless, easily falling prey to the charms of women and completely devoid of the power to resist temptation.