In studying about cheating, I read many articles on the subject. One of the more thought provoking ones concerned how the construction of tract homes in suburbia and the advent of the pill have combined to increase the ease of affairs. I recognize that there are other factors as well, such as changes in morals and moral values which also occurred. I had not seriously considered suburbia and the pill in this way before. With the ease of access and reduced chance of pregnancy, more people took sexual risks. Behaviors that previous generations would consider scandalous were now attempted.
Neighbors now made passes at each other. Since people lived in the same neighborhoods, went to the same stores, watched the same television programs and attended the same churches, there was an increased familiarity. That familiarity lead to testing limits about what was allowed and tolerated. Cheaters grew restless and wanted something ‘different’ so they went for the nearby spouses. Your neighbor’s house was ‘like your own’ so if you went there, it did not seem alien or weird. It all felt familiar.
Having grown up in Pasadena, Texas, I was familiar with how many times shift workers took advantage of absent husbands and lonely wives. The problems with suburbia was not limited to shift workers. It was well known that men in uniform were also profligate in their ways with suburban women. Neighborhoods in suburbia became the new shopping market for cheaters looking for something new. If they did not find a woman in the neighborhood, they looked for them on the job. With the pill, the old fears of pregnancy were removed, along with the morals that were preached by not lived.
What seem to some to be wonderful inventions have had side effects few imagined.
Best Regards,
Jeffrey Murrah
