The Most Underrated Act Of Love
Why “Staying Attractive” Is The Most Underrated Act Of Love
The survey of 2,000 British adults in steady relationships pinpointed the 36-month mark as the time when relationship stress levels peak and points to a new trend of “pink passes” and “solo” holidays away from partners and spouses that many Britons resort to in order to keep romance alive.
The poll compared feedback from those in short-term relationships (defined as less than three years) and people who were married or in longer-term partnerships.
The findings showed that 67 percent of all of those surveyed said that small irritations which are seemingly harmless and often endearing during the first flushes of love often expand into major irritations around 36 months.
More than half of the Brits surveyed (52 percent) who were in younger relationships said they enjoyed sexual relations at least three times a week, compared to just 16 percent of those in relationships older than three years.
These findings should come as a surprise to no one who’s been in a serious relationship. After the honeymoon stage — that blissful period where nobody farts, everybody still pretends to love each other’s families, and all intense arguments are quickly followed by even more intense (and still real) orgasms — relationships tend to lose a bit of their luster. This isn’t a bad thing, though. Once you’re off the contact high from the proverbial new car smell, you’re able to more accurately assess whether it’s something worth saving.
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But, what did surprise me is what exactly was most often cited as the number one “passion killer.”
Money issues? No.
Displeasure with monogamy? Try again.
Incongruent sex drives? Nope.
Extended contact with Eric Williams? Not this time.
Done guessing? Ok.
The top 10 everyday niggles and passion-killers: 1. Weight gain/lack of exercise, 13 percent; 2. Money & Spend thriftiness, 11 percent; 3. Anti-social working hours, 10 percent; 4. Hygiene issues (personal cleanliness), 9 percent; 5. In-Laws/extended family – too much/too little, 9 percent; 6. Lack of romance (sex, treats etc.), 8 percent; 7. Alcohol – drinking too much, 7 percent; 8. Snoring & anti social bedtime habits, 6 percent; 9. Lapsed fashion-Same old underwear/clothes, 4 percent; 10. Bathroom habits – Stray nail cuttings etc., 4 percent.
Yup. You read that correctly. Weight gain was at the top of the list. In fact, if you add weight gain/lack of exercise (13%) with hygiene issues (9%) and lapsed fashion (4%), 26% of the people responding to this survey cited something appearance related as the number one reason why they’re grown a bit more lukewarm about their mate. Admittedly, this was a pretty small survey, but when you think about all the sh*t we talk about money issues, sex drives, meddling friends and family, ambiguous commitments, and uncertain futures, its pretty funny to see that apparently all most of us need to keep the spark alive is a gym membership and a working Macy’s charge card.
Department store chain credit rip-offs aside, it’s really not all that surprising that appearance and physical upkeep plays such a large role in determining our intra-relationship passion, and it’s all due to the fact that the more serious a relationship gets, the more you see.
Anyone who’s ever had a job worth having knows that most of these types of jobs hold new employees to some sort of probationary period. Sure, you have the gig and there’s really not much of a chance that you’ll get let go, but you make sure to be on your best behavior — i.e. no 80 minute lunches, blue jeans on casual Fridays, or p*rn downloading on the office laptop — until that grace period passes. The new relationship honeymoon stage follows the same train of thought. Things are still new, and you’re still going on frequent dates, dressing up for these dates, and making sure that you’re wearing your newest (and freshest) undergarments in anticipation for what’s going to happen after these dates.
Once the honeymoon/probationary period fades, though, you start getting a little comfortable. The beard that was perfectly trimmed every time you saw him has now been replaced by a 3, 4, 5, and 6 day old stubble that, along with making him look a bit scruffier than you like, is beginning to irritate you whenever he gives you head. The inside joke you share about how her butt has gotten bigger since you’ve started dating is substituted with the thought that her butt isn’t the only thing on her that’s getting bigger now. You’ve now officially seen his penis flaccid more than you’ve seen it erect, and he’s officially seen your hair in more stages of “undone” than actually done.
Again, this is one of the hallmarks of a truly serious relationship. You get to a point where you’re not only comfortable with your mate seeing your “warts,” you actually want them to see them so you’re sure they’re into the real you and not the probationary period you. But, when you add this post-probation mindset with the weight gain that occurs after 3 to 6 months of going to the Cheesecake Factory every other weekend, it’s easy to understand how a couple can become a bit less enthused about each other’s bodies and how this lukewarm feeling can eventually lead to a loss of passion.
How do you rectify this? Well, nature has made it so that certain physical changes are inevitable, and any adult should realize and accept this. But, while staying “attractive” — and, in this case, “attractive” is completely arbitrary – is far from the only thing a person in a relationship needs to concern themselves with¹, doing what you can to stay reasonably fit and “take-out-in-public-worthy” is just as much of an act of love and compassion as supporting your mate through grad school or delivering them homemade chicken soup while they’re under the weather at work. I know that wasn’t the most politically correct thing to say, but PC has no reign over what seems to actually matter to us.
Anyway, falks, what do you think? Do you consider staying attractive to be an act of love?
Also, did the results of the survey surprise you, and if you were asked to name your number one passion killer, what would it be?