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There are so many rules and regulations when it comes to relationships. And for many people, those stakes are raised when that relationship turns into a marriage. Suddenly, there are places you can’t go and things you can’t do. And your payoff for all of these restrictions is getting to be with the one you love.
When you frame it in these pessimistic terms, no wonder both men and women struggle with cold feet.
But that’s not the point of this here essay.
I mention the rules and regulations because recently on Steve Harvey’s talk show, he spoke about one of them.
“When you’re married. You’ve got to have some parameters. A woman cannot call my phone.”
He was saying this during a Battle of the Sexes segment, so it was a group of women on one side and a group of men on the other. When he said that, the women immediately started chiming in with their dissension, claiming that the only reason such a rule would be necessary is if there were already a trust issue in the relationship.
He responded:
“It’s not a trust issue, it’s keeping everything where it’s supposed to be. It’s not about trust.”
Being that it was Steve Harvey offering this opinion, I took it with a grain of salt. Y’all know he’s known for his sexist and old fashioned viewpoints. But the more I thought about this point, the more I realized there aren’t too many men who would sit on the phone with a woman who wasn’t a family member or some type of romantic partner. There are those people who are best friends with someone of the opposite sex and maybe they talk on the phone occasionally. But those people are a rarity. And honestly, the only reference I have for that type of relationship is Brown Sugar. And y’all know how that turned out.
Still, I don’t know if there needs to be a hard-fast rule set in place. Life is full of exceptions and rules don’t always apply. And I wouldn’t want to think I would be banned from speaking to someone on the phone for the simple fact that they had a penis.
What do you think about this segment? Do you think married people should keep their conversations with the opposite sex limited? Why or why not?
