While talking in a chatroom some time back, one of the women in there called me a "male chauvinist". She'd clicked on my profile and found a link to this site and had read several entries. She'd called me a misogynist based simply on the fact of my libertinism, without knowing anything else about me.

Her line of reasoning was based on the erroneous logic that I could not possibly have any positive regard for women precisely because I was not monogamous, nor interested in a sexually exclusive relationship.

This assumes an awful lot that isn't necessarily accurate. First of all, her dismissal of me as a "male chauvinist" assumes that all women, without exception, are naturally monogamous and are not interested in anything but committed, exclusive relationships, and, because I am a libertine, that I couldn't possibly respect women.

While most women, for whatever reason, probably do want exclusive committed relationships, not ALL women do. My experience has borne this out time and time again. Trust me, female libertines most assuredly do exist. Just because such women may be in the minority doesn't make their preference any less true or less valid.

And I'm guessing that she assumed that I am deceiving my lovers in some way, by telling them just what they want to hear, and by making promises I have no intention of keeping, just to get them into bed.

Hardly. I figure that the women I'm interested in are fully rational adults with diverse needs and preferences, capable of making their own decisions. I don't assume that all women are sheltered innocents who are easily offended and need to be protected as if they were little children.

I always lay my cards on the table right at the beginning and every woman knows immediately knows what I am and what she can and cannot expect out of me. The choice to get involved with me is always fully theirs, even if they were the one who initially approached me.

If they can handle it, good; if they can’t, then no harm done.

And I think it works a hell of a lot better than playing games with them.

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