Why are married women looking for men in the Strictly Platonic section of Craigslist? Is this acceptable? Same goes for men looking for women in this section.
If you are married, and your mate was looking for a friend specifically of the opposite sex on craigslist. Would you find it fishy?
To whom? Some people accept it, and to them it’s acceptable.
I’d certainly expect her to discuss it with me first, and explain in detail why she was looking for specficially male companionship. And if she had a really persuasive reason (which I can’t really imagine, but maybe that’s a failure of my imagination), I could conceivably be OK with it.
If my hypothetical spouse posted the ad without telling me ahead of time, then yes, that would be seriously fishy. At the very least I’d consider it evidence of a serious problem with our relationship.
Could be that those people are polyamorous or have some other similar “arrangement” and are looking for potential others with their spouse’s blessing…
Oregon sunshine, I would think that people looking for something along those lines wouldn’t post the ad in the “Strictly Platonic” section. Then again, I don’t actually know; I’m unfamiliar with the rules of etiquette for polyamorous relationships, but I feel certain they are complex.
They are likely dissatisfied for whatever reason with their marriage, and if they posted in the romantic section they would feel like scum so they post in strictly platonic to convince themselves they aren’t trying to cheat. And if it turns into something (ultimately that’s the goal, though they delude themselves that it’s not) then it won’t be their fault because they weren’t cheating on purpose.
To follow up: I just went and looked at the “Strictly Platonic” section. It is NOT strictly platonic, which makes me feel somewhat naive.
So yes, I would suspect that any “married woman” posting there is either (a) looking for sex on the side (with or without her husband’s consent and/or knowledge), or (b) a scam artist seeking to prey on men who will respond to ads purporting to be from married women looking for some on the side.
Or, of course, © married women who sincerely just want some platonic male friendship. Some of those ads were really sad.
Plausible deniability?