Yeah, the fourth clause is key there. Finding out that you’re not attracted to a potential sex partner only after you see them naked is a no-win situation, and you have two defensible options. Depending on how comfortable you are with casual encounters, you can either resign yourself to some polite sex to spare them…

Seeing someone’s naked body, being turned off by it, sleeping with them anyway,

Yeah, it’s heartbreaking to read and conjures up bad memories of college. The LW’s comment about knowing the asshole for 5 years (ie, since her freshman year of high school) and wanting to remain friends is the real dingleberry on the shit-cake. I had friends who were hung-up on terrible guys, and I was the kind of…

Yikes, I want to give that first letter writer a gentle hug. What a fucking awful thing to do to anyone (but especially someone who you consider a friend!). I’ve slept with people I wasn’t really attracted to, but man, I don’t tell them I’m unattracted to them while the wet spot’s still drying. I don’t ever tell them!…

The fact that he only told her afterwards is what really tips it from asshole to “I hope this guy is on a watch list.” Seeing someone’s naked body for the first time and then going “I changed my mind; I’m not into this anymore” is shitty but is at least recognizable as something that could happen to a well-meaning but…

All this guy had to do was say that he didn’t think a romantic or sexual relationship with the letter writer would work (and that would be true, even if he didn’t go into further reasons), the fact that he chose to insult someone who he probably knew was insecure demonstrates that, unless he apologizes, this guy isn’t…

I have quibbles with this interview but I do like that the AV Club is focusing on an important and sadly obscure film instead of the billionth essay about the billionth blockbuster that we have all seen and all have opinions about and have already read about because you already wrote an essay about it, a year ago.…

Agreed. And I don’t think I get the people who take Penny Lane’s saying that she’s 16 to William literally. She’s obviously joking about age; I believe the extended cut even has a scene celebrating her birthday where the mystery of her age is kind of a joke.

That was my first thought as well. It would have never occurred to me that Penny and William would be anything more than friends after the movie. 

I thought the movie heavily implied that Penny was continuing her itinerant lifestyle and William moving on from his hangup with her being part of his growth?

I agree with everything you said, and I also feel like those are some super valid questions. Like, how does this guy know his niece is a virgin? What makes him so sure she is gay? Her *and* the guy she’s marrying that he surely doesn’t know nearly as well. Even if the kids realize later on that the LW’s hypothesis was…

Like most people said, an established relationship can usually withstand a temporary separation, but it’ll still strain things. I do know a few people in long distance, long term relationships within academia, though - folks who couldn’t get professorships at universities in the same cities/states.  It seems to work…

He’s tracked my phone to make sure I’m not going anywhere “unapproved” and if I don’t tell him everything I’m doing he gets upset.

Regarding the depression issue, I’ll say it can be very hard to be the non-depressed half of a couple as well. I’ve been married to a spouse with moderate depression/anxiety problems for 10 years, and we’ve been together for 15. She has been in treatment for a very long time, and while it helps, the issues never…

We made it work, but primarily because a) we only lived ~3 hours apart and visited each other regularly and b) it worked out with our general life plans (I was just out of college, he was finishing his undergrad; then we both moved north and he went to grad school and we lived closer to each other and then we moved in…

Have you tried dating women?

Yeah, that’s straight up abusive relationship warning sign #1.  Well, maybe #2.  #1 is finding out they put it on the phone without asking/telling.

The minute someone you are in a relationship with wants to track your phone to know where you are, run as fast as you can.

Unless LW1 has been with their niece 24/7, in and out of the bedroom, they have no idea what said niece has been doing, and with whom. They may not have lived together, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t having sex (with each other or others). Hell, just because it’s 2021, if they both have strictly religious families…

I mean, assuming that they are in fact gay and aren’t just incredibly religious, it does suck all kinds that those people in LW1 feel they have to live their lives hiding their true identities and it is good that someone in their family is willing to be supportive.