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When your Sir has serious sexual hangups…
Hi friends. I have been here for a couple months now (I think?) but am not married to Sir. D/s been an undertone in our relationship, particularly physically, since the beginning, but nothing formalized yet. We also have not had intercourse yet, but lots of sexy play and talk with bondage, pain play, etc at the center. Both of us were in long marriages previous to beginning dating each other and I have been treading carefully with how to introduce the idea of D/s more formally.
Last weekend we had a couple of events that led to conversations where he revealed to me that he has an extreme amount of shame and guilt surrounding sex. Wow! This does explain some situations where he has withheld or seemed to go hot/cold, and I thought it was part of him messing with my head, but I think maybe, it was his head being messed with. I feel terrible that my pushing for this dynamic may have led to his discomfort (but at the same time, I know I have been very mindful about not pushing too hard, and he’s not angry at me, just frustrated with himself and uncertain what to do next.)
He isn’t 100% sure where the shame and guilt is coming from. It seems some of it is him worrying after rough play, wondering if he went too hard. I have assured him nothing he’s ever done has harmed me physically or emotionally and that’s what a safe word is for. But it seems to go deeper than that. He has shared that in his first marriage he felt a lot of shame around sex in general – somehow tied to having a sexual need, and it’s something he’s been exploring in therapy for a long time, but hasn’t solved. I don’t know what to do with this! I have been pretty sexually uninhibited my whole adult life and while I can be very patient and compassionate, I don’t know what to DO, if there is actually anything I can do. And I can sympathize, but I can’t empathize, as I have never felt much (any?) shame surrounding sex.
We are both Christian but his background/upbringing was very different from mine; I believe mine (while definitely far from perfect) was more accepting and empowering in many ways, while he came out of his childhood feeling degraded and disempowered by both his parents and his church.
I am willing to be patient, caring, loving, and most of all, submissive to his needs, if that’s what he wants or needs from me, BUT, I have told him, it will be very difficult for me to feel I cannot be sexually free and uninhibited or if I start feeling like the shame/guilt is trickling down to me. He has said that I am “free to be me” and that nothing he feels has anything to do with what I’m doing, or NOT doing, it’s all in HIS head. I love him, and things have been moving in a great direction and, I believe, toward a lifetime commitment. But, this has thrown me for a bit of a loop. We are both in our 40s; is it possible to work past and through this stuff at this age?
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