BONNIE KAYE'S STRAIGHT TALK
September 2018 Volume
19, Issue 202
Bonnie’s Mantra:
LIFE WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE THIS COMPLICATED. PERIOD.
COMPUTER RADIO PODCASTS - www.blogtalkradio/bonnielkaye Live on
Sunday night 8 p.m. EST or any time after the live broadcast!
After taking a summer break to work on a most
important project, my newsletters are now resuming.
NEXT HEALING WEEKEND
My next HEALING WEEKEND will be in the Orange County, CA area from
April 12 - 14, 2019. If
you would like to be part of this amazing weekend, please email me at Bonkaye@aol.com and put the word
“Healing” in the subject box. I will send you the details this month. There is
no charge for the weekend outside of travel, lodging, and food. This is a
life-changing experience for people who need help during the grieving and
recovery process.
ME TOO HEALING vs. WE TOO HEALING
I figured out something recently as I was watching the
morning news. There was a segment about the women who were active in the ME TOO
movement from the world of show business who first joined together to expose movie
producer Harvey Weinstein for his sexual abuse. The chips started falling like
a domino effect, and before long, there were dozens of women telling their
stories of abuse in the hands of Hollywood directors, producers, and high
profile movie stars.
On the segment, several of the women were telling how
they felt validated after they went public to tell their story. And when they
told it--no one laughed. No one said, "She must have known she was going
to be raped--after all, what does she expect? In Hollywood, that's how women
get jobs." Or, "She was asking for it. How stupid could she be to go
to a known predator's house alone for dinner?" No, those are not comments
presented by the public. Now there was an outpouring of sympathy for the woman
and disdain for the sexual predators.
Some of you are old enough (like I am) to remember when
things were very different. Twenty years ago when a woman was raped, she had
the finger pointed at her in an accusatory manner. People claimed she was a
tramp to start with or she dressed provocatively. If a woman was raped, well,
she must have been asking for it. Yes, those were scary times that caused so
many women never to report these horrific atrocities. This changed in recent
years as society became more aware of who the real victim was--the woman, not
the rapist. This change didn't come overnight--but it came. Today when a woman
is raped, she can stand up for herself although it is still takes a lot of
courage to let people know.
In all honesty, look how long it took these women to
stand up and say, "Me too!" A long time--from actresses to most
recently, Olympic gymnasts. Thanks to the
bravery of the women who said, "No more," these kinds of incidents
will not happen nearly as frequently knowing that they will not be tolerated
and exposed to the public for criminal charges. Women feel a little safer these
days to tell their stories because they are BELIEVED. In the past, when they
tried to be honest, they were often discredited and criticized and had all
kinds of horrible accusations thrown at them.
If this sounds familiar, well, it is. This is our life. We
are the voices of silence much like rape victims used to be. Why? Because
people don't believe our plight. They still believe that we: knew our husbands
were gay before we married....were desperate to get married so we
"overlooked" his secret...stupid for not seeing it because after all,
they knew....or the worst--he wasn't gay when he married us, so what did we do
to change him? He must have been straight because after all, we produced
children. How could a gay man have sex with a straight woman?
Straight wives are the true representatives of the real
sounds of silence. This is why people still view us "sad sacks"
creating our own misery--or worse yet, deserving it. We need to tell OUR stories. Telling
your truth is good because it is psychologically cathartic. But more
importantly, it is also breaking the silence on a topic that is widely
misunderstood. There is power of a collective voice--a voice that we do not
have yet.
WE
NEED TO LEARN A LESSON FROM THIS. "WE TOO" is our battle cry. I will be starting my "WE TOO" blog
this month. If you are willing to share your story--of course, anonymous or
fake name is fine--write to me at Bonkaye@aol.com.
BONNIE
KAYE KLASSIC
Some of my past writings are too important not to revisit. Here is one from 8/13.
FIGURING OUT THE RESENTMENT OF GAY HUSBANDS & WHO WE ARE
Last month I wrote about my new epiphany that "gay men don't think straight." I
had an overwhelming response from readers thanking me for this new discovery.
It really cleared up a lot of things for those women so they could stop the
self-blame of why their marriages failed or are failing.
I also want to reiterate for the record that although
people like to use the quote, "It takes two to make or break a
marriage," that does not apply to our type of marriages. In our marriages,
it only take one person to make it break--namely your gay husband. Sadly, a
number of you are still taking the responsibility for this. Why should you
absolve yourself from this responsibility? Here are some reasons.
As women, we go into marriages with certain hopes,
dreams, and expectations. We are looking for partners who can truly be partners
in every sense of the word based on the perceptions from observations that we
have grown up with. The partners we seek out are men who want to be with us on
a physical, emotional, and sexual level. While your husband is playing the role
of "straight husband," he tries his best to make sure that he is all
of these things to you. He has observed straight men from the time he was a
child, and as he grew older, he did his best to imitate them in order to keep
away any suspicion that he might be gay. And by the way, this is not a
"blame" thing on my part--it's an "understanding" thing.
When you want to be someone other than yourself, you do your best to study
everything from walking, talking, and laughing so you can play the role--just
like any other actor.
Some of these husbands are even homophobic. I used to
think they were putting on an act to throw us off guard. Although this is true
for a percentage of gay husbands, it isn't true all of the time. Some of these
men really are homophobic. It's due to "self-hatred" towards those who remind them of what they
are. They are the first ones to say the word "faggot" when they
suspect or find out someone is gay which is usually offensive to us--their
liberal wives who are pro-gay. They have no empathy for men who are going
through the "struggle." They work so hard to pull this off their
straightness that they have no sympathy for "weaklings" who give in
to that "other way of life." You know--an authentic gay life. They
really are homophobic--well, until they are in a sexual act with one of those
'faggots." Yeah, I wonder what they say then.
So when we add up all the clues, we breathe a sigh of
relief to know that our husbands are 'straight," not "gay." In
mathematical terms,
"married"
+ "father" + "homophobic" = STRAIGHT!
Getting back to my point, once we feel confident that our
husbands aren't gay, we start wondering why our marriages seem
"off-track." It doesn't start with anything major, but rather little
things. One of those little things that changes early in the marriage is SEX.
Side note: When women come to me and I ask them,
"How is your sex life?," a common response is, "Well, our sex
life is good." Almost all of those women who tell me that their sex life
is "good' or "normal" have very limited previous sexual
experience. Without fail, after they meet a straight man, they are kind enough
to write back that their sex lives are "great"
because they finally
understand what making love with a straight man is about.
Sorry--I had to mention that before I forgot. Anyway, as
the sex starts waning in your marriage in a short amount of time, you start
wondering why the frequency (which was never that frequent to start with) has
changed and why your husband seems to be pulling away more and more from you.
At first, you ask him gently, "Honey, is everything okay? Is there
anything bothering you that you want to talk about?" He quickly responds,
"No, not at all. Why are you asking?" At that point, he is seeing a
waving red flag and says to himself, "Uh oh, danger
ahead...shark...shark...shark..." In other words, is there something that
he has done to tip you off? Remember, when someone is living a lie that is
tightly wrapped up, he can't afford to allow that package to unravel in any
shape or manner lest it all falls apart.
At this point, GAY is the LAST thing on YOUR mind, but it
is still the first thing on his mind--as well as wondering if he has let any
hidden information slip out by mistake. Did he accidentally say something in
his sleep? Was it a glance at a cute guy that lingered too long? Another point
I'd like to make--as naive as some of you still are who are reading this--and I
say naive--not stupid so please don't think I mean anything other than
naive--some of your husbands have continued to have gay sex from the early days
of your marriage. It's not like there was a time limit on the "I do"
part he said to you in those vows like "I do for today, but I don't know
after the first year, five years, ten years." He really did hope those male sexual
attractions would fade if he promised to love and cherish you, but he had no
clue either that loving you would not be enough to stop them. You can trust me
when I tell you that I know that some of your husbands were having sex with men
shortly after your honeymoon--and some even on the honeymoon said to say. How
do I know? Don't forget--I counsel hundreds of gay men each year and help them
come out to you.
As time passes on in your marriage, you notice "The
Big Chill." It is now definitely directed against you. There are only so
many headaches, toothaches, and stress aches that any one husband can have.
When you start suggesting that "maybe there is something that he doesn't
like about YOU," well...you just opened his escape hatch. Yep--that must
be it. He quickly retreats for a moment by saying, "Don't be silly,"
but he is smiling as he says it. Why? Because he knows he can now use that
hatch to start his escape plan of blaming YOU.
The next time you try to bring up "the
subject," he injects some little thoughts. They start out with,
"Honey, why are you always thinking about sex? I don't think it's normal
to have sex on your mind all the time." TAKE A GIANT STEP BACK.
The weeks go by and you approach it again. "Honey,
I've noticed you have put on some weight. There's something that doesn't look
right about you. Maybe you have to start exercising." TAKE ANOTHER GIANT
STEP BACK.
Now, it's been several months. You've lost some weight.
You've had your hair colored. You went and bought a sexy nightgown. By the time
you put it on, he's fast asleep. You try to nudge him, but he's making loud
snoring sounds and is totally turned the other way just in case you're checking
out his eyes (which are usually squinted shut or wide open while he's doing
this. Well, TAKE ONE MORE GIANT STEP BACK.
Do you think he's avoiding you? No, not at all. Like you,
he has a mental calendar. Yours is saying how long it's been since he last had
sex with you. At the same time, he's counting how many days that it's going to
be before he has to do SOMETHING with you as his straight husbandly duty. He's
not avoiding you--he's just building up the courage to do something with you
that he dreads or at least is distasteful.
He knows you can only take so many steps back before he
has to make you feel as you are moving forward or maybe you will start talking
to friends and mentioning to them that you think something is wrong.
Now he's going to fool you. He'll suggest some drinks or
pot so you can both have some fun. After all, it's been weeks or months. Isn't
it time? You are so happy, that you do everything you can to make the mood a
real one--quiet candlelight dinner, bottle of wine, kids tucked away, romantic
music--and tonight's the night! After waiting for six months, it's your time to
shine. All is well with your world--you can take FIVE GIANT STEPS AHEAD!
YAAAAAY! Everything is
"normal" again. Those silly thoughts in your head can finally
disappear. Whatever it was that was paused is on full speed ahead now--until
you try to touch him again. This is where his resentment sets in.
He took care of you, didn't he? Didn't he prove he loved
you? Didn't he prove he was straight? And now you want more? What are you, a
nymphomaniac? Why do you always have to think about sex? What is wrong with
you? Who told you that marriages are like this? What are you, 18 years old that
you need so much sex? Uh oh, take
FOUR GIANT STEPS BACK.
Now
here is the irony of this whole situation. You think you feel
bad for feeling rejected? You gay
husband feels the same way because he feels just as rejected as you do when you
make him feel inadequate because he can't please you by having enough sex.
No matter what he does, it isn't enough. You are NOT being supportive of him
when you are finding fault in all of the things he is trying to do to be a good
husband to you. In fact, if you ask these men that you are divorcing if they
thought they were good husbands to you, the overwhelming majority of them are
going to say YES!! And in their minds, they were.
Some of them were good providers as far as providing a
home and an income. Some of them took good care of the house making sure it was
clean because you didn't exactly do the best job, did you? Was it ever clean enough?
They were good companions to you. They loved shopping and fixing up the house.
They were very sociable with friends. Okay, maybe they did seem a little
different when you were alone, but living with you could be frustrating,
couldn't it? You think you're right all of the time. You're very pushy when it
comes to many things--but the thing that you are the most pushy about is the
sex thing.
Okay--let's talk about "pushy" for a moment
since most of us have been accused of that. I guess it won't shock you when I
tell you that the majority of these men are very "controlling." SURPRISE!!!! No, it wasn't just your
husband/ex-husband--it's most of our husbands. Is this a coincidence? Of course
not. Gay husbands are so controlling because they live in the fear of their
secret "coming out" long before they are tired of living in the
closet. They can't control their sexuality, but they can sure try to control YOU!.
To a man who is controlling, anything that can mess up
his well-controlled secret life is a threat. By your questioning him on things
that just don't add up, that makes you PUSHY.
He does not need you to upset his apple cart. That's where more of his
resentment sets in. With the resentment, often comes the anger. Did I mention
to you that some of us were married to "rage-a-holics?" These are men
who "shout you down to shut you up." In time, we just shut up. We
stop asking. We become modern day versions of those Stepford Wives dutifully
doing whatever we think we have to do to keep the peace.
Think about it. When you went into the marriage, who were
you? Are you still that same woman or did your marriage stunt your emotional
growth? Were your expectations in your marriage fulfilled? Were you able to get
nourishment and praise so you could grow and reach your personal and
professional goals? Was your husband focusing on your happiness for real or
what he perceived should be your happiness? Did you become depressed? Did you
feel stuck? Did you have to justify your marriage by making excuses such as,
"No marriage is perfect," or "It will get better," when you
knew there was no way things were getting better? Did you keep trying harder
and harder thinking that if you cleaned a little better your husband would
finally love you enough? Did you take responsibility for his unhappiness by
believing those subtle little messages or not so subtle insults that YOU were the problem in the marriage?
You weren't attractive enough? Your body had a bad odor? You were too boring in
bed?
The problem is we are working in the dark. Even when we
suspect the truth, we can't put the big picture together. Look at it this way.
If you were told at your job that you have to put together a 5000 piece jigsaw
puzzle in order to get your next paycheck, at first you may look at it as a
challenge. But if you had no clue that there were 3 missing pieces, you can
imagine how your frustration would set in as you spent hours each day searching
over and over again for something that you could never find because you had no
idea it was missing. That's how most of our marriages are. Jigsaw puzzles with
missing pieces. We keep searching looking to make something right that is
always off balance. The more we question what is wrong, the more frustrated our
husbands get because in their minds, THEY
ARE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT.
When I told my ex-husband that I thought we should go for
therapy after a couple of years into the marriage, his response to me was,
"We don't need therapy. YOU are the one who is unhappy--not me." His
perception isn't far off from many of your situations. The gay husbands are
complacent. Maybe they aren't thrilled, but they aren't ready to jolt. They can
get by especially if you don't keep up that annoying sex stuff. And once you get continually "shut
down" in that department, you learn to "shut up."
Feeling a little frustrated? Let me ask you this. If you
had a husband who hungered for you, made you feel that being with you was the
best part of his day, planned fun events with you, sat next to you with his arm
around you or walked holding your hand, told you that you looked beautiful and
that after dinner, he wanted you for dessert, do you think you would have
turned out differently? If you had a husband who applauded your successes and
encouraged you to maximize your potential without worrying that you might say
the wrong thing to the wrong person--namely revealing secrets that he was
hiding--don't you think you would have been a different woman?
Funny--we usually end up saying that we don't really know
the men we married. Here's the true irony--we don't really know the women we were
destined to become because we were much too busy becoming the women we thought
our husbands could love more if we did more. Put your missing pieces
back into the pile. Now that you can solve the puzzle, don't worry about it
anymore. Start worrying about who you missed out on being for so many years,
and get moving. Life is still out there for you to take. Grab it and run with
it--straight ahead!
My
radio show will resume in October. Stay tuned for some wonderful guests!!
With love and hope,
Bonnie ♥
