"Are you saying that familiarity breeds contempt? Like, seeing someone burp, for instance, takes the mystique and sexiness out of the picture for you?"
Nope, not at all. I NEVER felt contempt for my X. I always thought he was one of the handsomest men I ever knew. He never disgusted me in any way. However, after the first thrill died down, I don't think I found him sexy. Not sure I would find anyone sexy that I knew really well.
"Furthermore, do you think this is a fair way to approach romantic relationships? That the instant that person becomes human, it's all over?"
Fair has nothing to do with it! This is feelings, not actions, right? You feel what you feel! And I think my X is the one who felt that the instant I became human, it was all over. I NEVER thought it was all over and never wanted it to be. Well, until very recently when it just got too painful to have feelings for him anymore, due to his obvious love for OW. Which is exactly the way HE probably felt all those years we were married and he felt rebuffed.
And of course I totally agree with your observation that it is morally acceptable for me to socialize with other people but not for him to sleep with other people. That said, I will state that I did not consider his infideltiy a marriage-breaker. I was more than willing to forgive and to explore what went wrong, even though I was woefully unprepared to understand and it would have taken a very skilled counselor to help us. My X was the one who had already emotionally left me by that time.
