February Sucks

[Hubbell1973]

Oh No! Bear with me.

The story resonates deeply and has developed a life of it's own because it's so painful to read. George Anderson must be congratulated for that alone. I recognize the plot holes (MSR) and the hooker at the end plus the highly (somewhat?) unrealistic RAAC.

My question is: what do female readers think of it? My guess is that al or most of the 200, 300, 500 comments in some stories are written by men who feel the emasculation of Jim and react accordingly. As written, what do female readers feel about the story? If the characters were reversed would women feel the same way?

Possibly the best follow-on after six years was just written by GStein. it's worth the read.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

You might link to the story?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Oh No! Bear with me.

The story resonates deeply and has developed a life of it's own because it's so painful to read. George Anderson must be congratulated for that alone. I recognize the plot holes (MSR) and the hooker at the end plus the highly (somewhat?) unrealistic RAAC.

My question is: what do female readers think of it? My guess is that al or most of the 200, 300, 500 comments in some stories are written by men who feel the emasculation of Jim and react accordingly. As written, what do female readers feel about the story? If the characters were reversed would women feel the same way?

Possibly the best follow-on after six years was just written by GStein. it's worth the read.

I’ve never read it and - given the vibe around it - I have zero intention of ever doing so. Does that help?

Loving Wives is not a very woman-centric category.

 

[lc69hunter]

@Grendelpuppy took a very funny and different approach to the story, and pissed a lot of the incels off.

 

[Hubbell1973]

I've run into the incel cabal. Auto-delete.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Oh No! Bear with me.

The story resonates deeply and has developed a life of it's own because it's so painful to read. George Anderson must be congratulated for that alone. I recognize the plot holes (MSR) and the hooker at the end plus the highly (somewhat?) unrealistic RAAC.

My question is: what do female readers think of it? My guess is that al or most of the 200, 300, 500 comments in some stories are written by men who feel the emasculation of Jim and react accordingly. As written, what do female readers feel about the story? If the characters were reversed would women feel the same way?

Possibly the best follow-on after six years was just written by GStein. it's worth the read.

Just a heads up, your "my stories" link in your sig takes the user to their author dashboard, not your profile page. You want https://www.literotica.com/authors/Hubbell1973/works/stories instead.

That also goes for you, @lc69hunter. https://www.literotica.com/authors/lc69hunter/works/stories for you.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Just a heads up, your "my stories" link in your sig takes the user to their author dashboard, not your profile page. You want https://www.literotica.com/authors/Hubbell1973/works/stories instead.

That also goes for you, @lc69hunter. https://www.literotica.com/authors/lc69hunter/works/stories for you.

Hi, hun

 

[Hubbell1973]

Just a heads up, your "my stories" link in your sig takes the user to their author dashboard, not your profile page. You want https://www.literotica.com/authors/Hubbell1973/works/stories instead.

That also goes for you, @lc69hunter. https://www.literotica.com/authors/lc69hunter/works/stories for you.

Thank you sir / ma'am. I'll correct it.

 

[PennyThompson]

I barely have the attention span to read an eight-pager if in really invested in it, so I doubt I'll ever finish this one But I read the first two pages, and...

I think I can see why this is so notorious in the Loving Wives community! It's like it's engineered to maximally trigger the anxieties and traumas of guys who have pre-existing negative opinions of women.

Based on the prologue and the first two pages, it pretty much seems like Sexual Marketplace Theory: The Movie.

The idea that women place short-term value on sexual prowess, and long-term value on safety and economic stability. That women are inherently sluts who are only as faithful as they think they have to be in order to protect their own comfort. That they're all cuckholders (is that a word? ) who will immediately fuck a stronger hotter guy if they believe they can get away with it. It's the central tenant of pickup artistry, red pill ideology, and a lot of strains of incel ideology.

Maybe there are twists and turns later in the story that I'm not expecting, but also it kind of doesn't matter to me if there are or not? It also doesn't really matter how it ends, which seems to be what the endless variant stories are obsessed with? The core of it seems to just be red pill.

Not sure what else I have to say about it other than, the worldview icks me out, and I feel bad for the guys who believe the world works that way

 

[Hubbell1973]

You might link to the story?

Link to story by GStein https://www.literotica.com/s/after-linda-came-back

 

[Hubbell1973]

I barely have the attention span to read an eight-pager if in really invested in it, so I doubt I'll ever finish this one But I read the first two pages, and...

I think I can see why this is so notorious in the Loving Wives community! It's like it's engineered to maximally trigger the anxieties and traumas of guys who have pre-existing negative opinions of women.

Based on the prologue and the first two pages, it pretty much seems like Sexual Marketplace Theory: The Movie.

The idea that women place short-term value on sexual prowess, and long-term value on safety and economic stability. That women are inherently sluts who are only as faithful as they think they have to be in order to protect their own comfort. That they're all cuckholders (is that a word? ) who will immediately fuck a stronger hotter guy if they believe they can get away with it. It's the central tenant of pickup artistry, red pill ideology, and a lot of strains of incel ideology.

Maybe there are twists and turns later in the story that I'm not expecting, but also it kind of doesn't matter to me if there are or not? It also doesn't really matter how it ends, which seems to be what the endless variant stories are obsessed with? The core of it seems to just be red pill.

Not sure what else I have to say about it other than, the worldview icks me out, and I feel bad for the guys who believe the world works that way

The second half of the question is what if the roles were reversed? How would a woman react? Honest question.

The original and the latest follow-on were written by men with all the angst of violent and instantaneous rejection. The original has a weird RAAC ending while the follow-on a more expected one?

There's a huge plot flaw in the original story and everybody recognizes it.
Thanks,

 

[PennyThompson]

The second half of the question is what if the roles were reversed?

I dunno, I have a hard time taking the premise seriously enough to imagine myself in the situation.

"My partner and I were happy and committed for a decade, and then a hot athlete hit on them and they instantly ran off in front of me and spent the night with the athlete and all of our mutual friends said I was overreacting," isn't a sensical situation, IMO.

Like, the whole concept doesn't feel credible regardless of gender, unless the story is either a cuckold fetish fantasy, or it involves a witch or a mind control ray, or it's an anxiety dream.

I guess my first reaction would probably be to wonder if my partner had a sudden-onset brain tumor, or if my drink had been spiked and I was hallucinating the whole thing

 

[Hubbell1973]

I dunno, I have a hard time taking the premise seriously enough to imagine myself in the situation.

"My partner and I were happy and committed for a decade, and then a hot athlete hit on them and they instantly ran off in front of me and spent the night with the athlete and all of our mutual friends said I was overreacting," isn't a sensical situation, IMO.

Like, the whole concept doesn't feel credible regardless of gender, unless the story is either a cuckold fetish fantasy, or it involves a witch or a mind control ray, or it's an anxiety dream.

I guess my first reaction would probably be to wonder if my partner had a sudden-onset brain tumor, or if my drink had been spiked and I was hallucinating the whole thing

 

[EmilyMiller]

I barely have the attention span to read an eight-pager if in really invested in it, so I doubt I'll ever finish this one But I read the first two pages, and...

I think I can see why this is so notorious in the Loving Wives community! It's like it's engineered to maximally trigger the anxieties and traumas of guys who have pre-existing negative opinions of women.

Based on the prologue and the first two pages, it pretty much seems like Sexual Marketplace Theory: The Movie.

The idea that women place short-term value on sexual prowess, and long-term value on safety and economic stability. That women are inherently sluts who are only as faithful as they think they have to be in order to protect their own comfort. That they're all cuckholders (is that a word? ) who will immediately fuck a stronger hotter guy if they believe they can get away with it. It's the central tenant of pickup artistry, red pill ideology, and a lot of strains of incel ideology.

Maybe there are twists and turns later in the story that I'm not expecting, but also it kind of doesn't matter to me if there are or not? It also doesn't really matter how it ends, which seems to be what the endless variant stories are obsessed with? The core of it seems to just be red pill.

Not sure what else I have to say about it other than, the worldview icks me out, and I feel bad for the guys who believe the world works that way

This is why I have no interest in reading it.

 

[Hubbell1973]

Yes, you're absolutely right that's the primary plot flaw and almost everyone recognizes it. The Martian Slut Ray! It is so outrageously unlikely as never to happen. But it could.

Anything can happen.

As a work of fiction the author has taken this most remote of possibilities and triggered a huge amount of latent insecurities in the male readers (both incels and those who believe that their women belong to them). It's a fantasy so the author gets kudos for world building if you will in a highly unlikely firmament. It's located somewhere between Middle Earth and Reality.

Would a woman react in the same manner as the MP? Would she accept her 'loving' mate back after being utterly humiliated in public and blatantly rejected, then go along with the cheater's admission that the starlet was unbelievable in bed, but it meant nothing, so let's forget it ever happened. What are we having for dinner?

 

[PennyThompson]

Would a woman react in the same manner as the MP? Would she accept her 'loving' mate back after being utterly humiliated in public and blatantly rejected, then go along with the cheater's admission that the starlet was unbelievable in bed, but it meant nothing, so let's forget it ever happened. What are we having for dinner?

I mean, probably not? Nor would most men? But again, the instigating prompt doesn't make sense in a real relationship, so I can't say what a "realistic" reaction would be.

Was there prior infidelity from either partner?

Were there other stressors in their lives and relationship aside from "February was really cold and we were tired of being cooped up"?

Was one of them a secret psychopath or narcissist? I've known a few of both, and it's not really credible to me that they would keep it locked down for ten years with zero red flags.

Like I said before, in the real world things like this just don't happen with absolutely no prior instigating event, unless there's a mental or psychological crisis of some sort, like early onset dementia or a personality-altering stroke or schizophrenia

Seems like counseling would be necessary no matter what, but I think that's kind of a dirty word in Loving Wives

 

[PennyThompson]

I'm getting the feeling that you have a motive for asking this question that you aren't expressing?

 

[Hubbell1973]

I'm getting the feeling that you have a motive for asking this question that you aren't expressing?

After 20 yrs here, I'm a little late to the party on this story from 2020. I'm amazed at the sheer numbers of reactions and that they're so strong. I'm guessing they're 90+% from men.

I'm naturally curious. What do women feel about this story? Would she take him back as in the original ending?

In complete transparency, I just submitted Part I of a three part story, where I juxtaposed the characters

 

[NoTalentHack]

I mean, probably not? Nor would most men? But again, the instigating prompt doesn't make sense in a real relationship, so I can't say what a "realistic" reaction would be.

Was there prior infidelity from either partner?

Were there other stressors in their lives and relationship aside from "February was really cold and we were tired of being cooped up"?

Was one of them a secret psychopath or narcissist? I've known a few of both, and it's not really credible to me that they would keep it locked down for ten years with zero red flags.

Like I said before, in the real world things like this just don't happen with absolutely no prior instigating event, unless there's a mental or psychological crisis of some sort, like early onset dementia or a personality-altering stroke or schizophrenia

Seems like counseling would be necessary no matter what, but I think that's kind of a dirty word in Loving Wives

I agree with pretty much all of this. When I wrote my continuation (https://www.literotica.com/s/february-sucks-sessions), I decided to treat Jim as an unreliable narrator, not because he was dishonest, but because he'd internalized a bunch of shit over the course of his marriage.

I set it about a month after the end of February Sucks and treat the original story as Jim's first three sessions with his therapist, with mine starting at the beginning of the fourth, and one of the first things his therapist tells him is, "You realize this all sounds insane, right? I actually checked into your story as best I could, because I was worried you might be an undiagnosed schizophrenic." And then it goes from there to pick apart the way a narcissist can make crazy things seem reasonable, right up until they don't.

As to why it got so big, I wrote this about it in the afterword:

This story, my ending to February Sucks, is the reason I got back into creative writing after decades away. The original story bored its way into my brain, like it did for a lot of folks. I've reread it multiple times trying to figure out why it sticks in our heads so well. And I think I finally hit on the reason: it's like a nightmare.

I don't mean that in a metaphorical sense. Yes, if it happened to you, it would be a nightmare, the worst month of your life, but that's not the point. It's got nightmare logic throughout. Not weird nightmares, with zombies and falling forever and vampires and the end of the world; it's a lot more subtle than that. It's the type of nightmare where you dream that your wife did something outlandishly bad to you. Then you wake up actually mad at them, and then stay that way for the rest of the day. Maybe the rest of the week. You know it's irrational, and what happened in the dream was too outlandish to actually ever happen, but it's how you feel.

Any two or three things that happen in the original story would be plausible together: A famous person sweeps your wife off her feet AND it's in public. Your wife cheats on you AND she doesn't seem sorry afterwards AND a family friend tells you to suck it up and stay together for the kids. Either of those works as a reasonably realistic story. But if you take all of those and then lump on the fifteen or twenty other things that happen in the original story, it starts to feel like a nightmare. All it's missing are having all of your teeth falling out and having to take your final exam naked after missing all your classes for the semester.

So I wanted to find a reason that all of those things could at least conceivably happen in a realistic way. And the answer to that, the one I came up with, was simple: 90% of the things in the story happen because one pivotal character is a delusional narcissist. The other 10% are either because one character is a meddling busybody with a superiority complex or another is a predatory asshole that hits on married women. The strings of ANDs get turned into two ANDs and a BECAUSE. "A football player beds a man's wife AND his life becomes miserable BECAUSE she's a narcissist that surrounds their family with enablers AND also because his only source of outside help beyond that circle is an old-fashioned busybody with a superiority complex."

I'm still convinced that his naming the aforementioned busybody L. W. was a swipe at either the readers or certain other writers in Loving Wives, but I'm still not sure which.

That said, there's a long, long history of taking a cuck porn trope ("Honey, We Need To Talk," "The Hall Pass I never Thought She'd Cash In," "My Entire Family Knew About the Betrayal" and the like) and playing it straight; a huge chunk of BTB stories are predicated on this, and they come off like shower arguments. FS at least tries to approach it differently, treating it as a nightmare instead.

I think that's a big chunk of why it was so impactful (along with landing in the middle of COVID when we were all stuck at home): because near the apex of BTB-mania, it gave the cuck porn setup, then the angst in the middle sections about how Jim should proceed as expected, and it did give an absolute bonkers resolution like a BTB might, but zigged instead of zagging. If it had ended in a BTB, or even just Jim walking away and opting for a normal divorce, I doubt it would be talked about nearly as much.

 

[lc69hunter]

Just a heads up, your "my stories" link in your sig takes the user to their author dashboard, not your profile page. You want https://www.literotica.com/authors/Hubbell1973/works/stories instead.

That also goes for you, @lc69hunter. https://www.literotica.com/authors/lc69hunter/works/stories for you.

I can't figure out how to change it

 

[NoTalentHack]

I can't figure out how to change it

Up at the top of the page, click your name, then choose "Signature" under the menu.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m a major proponent of the ‘differences’ between men and women being mostly societal conditioning, but sometimes…

I trust @PennyThompson’s judgment, and I know enough about the story vicariously to be able to offer some thoughts.

Why should women have an opinion on a work so obviously targeting (maybe exploiting) male insecurity and with so little verisimilitude about how real women feel and act? It’s like saying, what do women feel about the portrayal of female interiority in Vixen Media Group’s output (said as someone who had historically enjoyed VMG vids alone or in company).

Why should we care? Why the demand, “But what if it was the other way around?” Who cares? This is not anything grounded in reality. “What if I had wings?” Um… that would be cool, I guess .

I suggest that February Sucks is of as much concern to the average woman here as is discussions about split-field coverage matching.

 

[Seurat]

I've read it. I've read every single re-do as well. While I can enjoy LW, the majority I find unappealing and unrealistic in such a way as to be distracting from a good story. Martian slut-ray syndrome.

Of the nearly 200 variations on FS alone (the story idea has been done quite a bit) I think I can count on one hand that portray the MMC or FMC or even the villain is a realistic way.


I'm also not a female, so I can't judge from there point of view, but I know how irritating to me it can be when a male character is distilled into nothing more than tropes. Why would I want to read something I doubt highly that I will enjoy. Caveat: I did write my own ending, but it takes a different tack on things and explains a lot of the reasons behind what happened and why Linda acted the way she did. Don't hold your breath waiting for it to be published, though.

 

[Hubbell1973]

I mean, probably not? Nor would most men? But again, the instigating prompt doesn't make sense in a real relationship, so I can't say what a "realistic" reaction would be.

Was there prior infidelity from either partner?

Were there other stressors in their lives and relationship aside from "February was really cold and we were tired of being cooped up"?

Was one of them a secret psychopath or narcissist? I've known a few of both, and it's not really credible to me that they would keep it locked down for ten years with zero red flags.

Like I said before, in the real world things like this just don't happen with absolutely no prior instigating event, unless there's a mental or psychological crisis of some sort, like early onset dementia or a personality-altering stroke or schizophrenia

Seems like counseling would be necessary no matter what, but I think that's kind of a dirty word in Loving Wives

Your comments are all spot-on. The use of the MSR trope is a huge plot hole in the original. That's why many have written fore-stories, Kalimaxos', February Sucks - Linda's Choice is one of the best; https://www.literotica.com/s/february-sucks-lindas-choice-ch-01.

Unfortunately, like in the OG, that story too goes awry at the end.

Thanks for your considered comments.