Why Do Men Cheat

Why Do Men Cheat?


    Well, I've decided to blog about Google's auto-completes.  I typed "why" into Google and the second auto-complete on the list was "Why do men cheat?"  The first was "Why is the sky blue?"  I'll get to that one later.  This one sounded more interesting.  Let me start off by saying I am by no means qualified to answer this question.  I am neither a counselor nor am I a cheater.
    Now, I'm not going to bash Google for being sexist.  That only came up the way it did because it is commonly searched.  Judging from people I've known and stories I've heard, I'd say men and women are about even in the cheating department.  As a rule (and there are exceptions to every rule) women are more open about being hurt.  They want to talk about it.  They communicate.  But us men are not usually like that.  When we're hurt, we don't want to talk about it.  We bottle it up and let it fester.  We believe we're just supposed to suck it up and move on.
    So now that we've leveled the playing field, let's attack the elephant in the room:  Why?  I believe men cheat for the same basic reason that women cheat.  They have needs that are not being met.  I'm not giving anyone a pass here.  Cheating is wrong.  It's not an excuse, it's just a reason.
    But what are those needs?  Well, for men the need is usually sexual.  For women, the need tends to be emotional.  This is a broad generalization and there are no absolutes in life.  I'm just saying "usually."  I don't want to get hate mail from women insisting that they DO have sexual needs or from men saying that it IS okay for us to have emotions.  I know this already!
    Perhaps these needs that are not being met stem from a lack of communication.  It's difficult for a partner to meet a need they do not know exists.  Or maybe the partner simply WILL NOT meet them.  There could be many reasons why a person seeks to fill a desire outside of their relationship.  In a way, it's easy to see why a person would cheat (not that it's okay!).  Maybe, instead of asking why do people cheat, we should be asking why do people stay in relationships in which their needs are not being met.
    My guess is that we have MANY needs.  The person we are with probably fills most of those requirements but not all of them.  It could be that the cheater really loves their partner and can't stand to lose them but can't control their need either.
    I'd love some feed back on this.  Not sure if this helps anyone, but I hope it does.