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My boyfriend and I have agreed to abide by whatever decision you make. We've been together for nine months. We are gay. We live in a college town. We both found jobs here after we graduated, so we stayed. Since his sophomore year, my boyfriend has had an "arrangement" with an older man, a professor at the university. Did I say older? I meant old. We are in our mid-twenties; this man is in his late sixties. The old man comes to my boyfriend's apartment once a week and cleans it. Does his laundry. Washes his dishes. He actually pays my boyfriend for the privilege. It's not much, fifty dollars, and the old perv says it's for my boyfriend's "time," since a part of their deal is that my boyfriend has to be in the apartment while the old perv cleans it. He's particularly pervy about how he cleans my boyfriend's bathroom. Dan, the old perv cleans my boyfriend's toilet bowl with his own toothbrush, which he then uses to brush his teeth the rest of the week!

There is no sex. (Presumably, the old perv goes home and beats off after cleaning my boyfriend's apartment.) None of this would matter if my boyfriend and I weren't talking about moving in together. I want this "arrangement" to stop. I don't feel comfortable using a toilet that a man old enough to be my grandfather cleaned with his toothbrush. This has been going on for six years — the old perv has been cleaning up after my boyfriend since he was living in student housing. My boyfriend says he likes the clean apartment more than he needs the money (and that's true, now that he's no longer a starving student). But I say all good things must come to an end, and if I'm moving in, we'll have to clean up after ourselves or pay a real cleaning lady to come around once a week, like regular people.

We agreed to leave it up to you. Dan: the old perv stays? The old perv goes?Toothbrushes Are For Teeth

SAVAGE LOVEThe old perv stays.

By allowing this man to clean his apartment, TAFT, your boyfriend is making an old perv very, very happy, and that makes the world a more joyful place generally (and your boyfriend's apartment a tidier place particularly). Your boyfriend isn't taking advantage of the old perv — fifty dollars is a much more reasonable fee than most sex workers would charge for the same service (yes, your boyfriend is doing very low-level sex work) — and while the toothbrush/toilet thing is a bit… creepy… and unsanitary… I'm sure you'll get used to it and/or be able to put it out of your mind. (Although I'd be giving the toilet an additional wipe-down if anyone — young, old, hot, not — were cleaning it for me with a ratty old toothbrush.)

Let's recognize this arrangement for what it really is: a successful long-term relationship. How many relationships — gay or straight, monogamous or open, where toilets are scrubbed weekly with toothbrushes or cleaned sporadically with toilet brushes — last six years! Sorry, TAFT, but I'm constitutionally disinclined to dissolve a successful six-year relationship in favor of a relationship that has yet to reach the one-year mark.

And I think you knew, TAFT. I think you knew I would side with the perv — was there ever any question? — which leads me to believe that you're secretly okay with this arrangement and an extra fifty dollars a week to put toward household expenses, money that you can invest in cases of Clorox Wipes. You wanted a little plausible deniability, a way for the arrangement to continue without having to give it your blessing, and needed some cover. And now you have it, TAFT.

I'm in a friends-with-benefits arrangement with a woman I get along with really well, and I am interested in a real relationship. I know she's open to it, but there's one thing holding me back: she's overweight. And while it doesn't matter to me, it restricts what's possible in bed. Do I talk to her about it? If so, how?Some Dude

SAVAGE LOVEIf this woman's weight didn't interfere with a friends-with-benefits arrangement — a purely sexual bargain — why would her weight and the limitations it places on what's possible in bed factor into your decision to take this relationship "to the next level," as the life coaches/douchefags like to say? Don't make the mistake of assuming the choice you face is one between some hypothetical skinny bitch with no restrictions and this big woman who comes with some restrictions. Everyone has their own limits, their own capabilities, their own tastes and preferences, SD, and only a handful of us wind up in long-term relationships with partners without any restrictions whatsoever.

As for how to talk to her about her weight: well, based on the furious and furiously defensive mail that pours in whenever the subject of weight comes up, I'd suggest you discuss it through a bulletproof glass partition. Or you could launch that real relationship, move in with her, and, presuming you eat decently and get regular exercise yourself, set an example of the kind of lifestyle choices that will bring down her weight and up her game.

I am a straight male. I have a problem ejaculating with a partner. I have failed to complete the act even when I arranged a session with two well-known porn stars I REALLY wanted. This despite sticking it nearly everywhere — no Greek — and in nearly every position. The only way I can reliably come is when I hump my mattress naked with a towel underneath me. What is my problem? I take Zoloft, which can have the effect of delaying orgasm, but that doesn't explain how I can get off so quickly with my towel, which I do daily, but I couldn't get it done in an entire hour with my favorite big-butted porn star who let me do whatever I wanted.Fucking A Towel

SAVAGE LOVEFirst, a stroll down memory lane: hearing anal sex referred to as "Greek" took me back to the days when I was a thirteen-year-old closet case reading the personal ads in the back of a purloined copy of the Advocate, wondering what the fuck fags meant when they described themselves as "Greek active" or "Greek passive," and why it was that Greek actives invariably described themselves as "French passive." It all seemed so mysterious and continental. Now, everyone is either a top or a bottom and romance is dead.

Moving on, FAT, it pains me to inform you that you've ruined your dick with that towel-and-mattress routine. You've trained your dick to respond to one kind of stimulation and one kind of stimulation only, a particular kind of stimulation that has very little in common with the sensations provided by big-butted porn stars. Your only hope is to stop humping the bed. Get some lube; use your left hand; use your right hand; invest in a Fleshlight; masturbate on your back, standing up, kneeling. Vary your masturbatory routine and habits and — this is the hard part — don't resort to the towel and mattress if you have difficulty getting off. You spent a lot of time programming your dick, and it's going to take some time to reprogram your dick, FAT. The only way to do that is to deny your dick — forever and ever, amen — the towel-and-mattress routine. Once your dick realizes that there's no going back, it'll adapt; it will begin to respond to the new and closer-to-human sensations that you're making available to it. Good luck.

Find the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at thestranger.com/savage.

Commentarium (32 Comments)

Feb 17 10 - 1:05am
Kevin

I don't know about the response to that first letter. It sounds like the old perv has a seriously unhealthy relationship with the boyfriend. Maybe they've made it last this long, but somebody who pays someone else to LET them clean their toilet with a toothbrush sounds like a manslaughter charge waiting to happen. He probably worships this guy and has a shrine in his closet or something. Some radical change (like say...a new serious boyfriend moving in) could set this guy off.

Of course, it's also possible that this is just how the guy gets off and there's nothing unhealthy about it. But I'm more inclined to believe the first scenario.

Feb 17 10 - 1:18am
thx3498

Maybe if the boyfriend moves in, the old guy will get turned off and take off on his own. Might not be likely, but possible.

Feb 17 10 - 1:19am
AK

Chill out Kevin

Feb 17 10 - 1:26am
Kevin

Yeah, I might be overreacting. The guy creeps me out though.

Feb 17 10 - 6:53am
Aporia

Props to Savage!! I agree - the perv stays. Your reasoning is solid.

Feb 17 10 - 10:15am
Lisa

The OP sounds more like a garden-variety submissive than someone harboring a semi-secret obsession.

Feb 17 10 - 11:59am
sean

Old perv? He likes kinky and happens to be sixty. So, what? Old perv? I`m sure you´d give him another name if he was twentyfive (not young perv, I mean). And yes, I agree, he stays unless he or his friend decide otherwise

Feb 17 10 - 12:48pm
Sarah

Extra fat doesn't get in the way of sex, as this guy has already figured out. It can, in fact, be extra fun. What does he think she's going to be unable to do that a skinny chick wouldn't ALSO be unable to do? Does he know how heavy 135 lbs is when you're trying to hold a girl up against a wall to fuck her? If he already likes her, and he already likes having sex with her, then he should focus on that, rather than how much he wants her to change in order to be his girlfriend. That's a recipe for disaster for any couple. My advice: this dude should tell the girl in question that he likes her and that he loves to fuck her and her thick body, but he doesn't want her as his girlfriend unless she loses weight. At least then the lovely woman would know what kind of person she's dealing with.

Feb 17 10 - 1:06pm
surfmadpig

Maybe they can charge the old guy double now that he'll be cleaning two people's mess :)

Feb 17 10 - 1:27pm
PF

Dan's advice is so beautiful. In the OP issue, the world of "everyone wins" vs. "my fears", he sides with "everyone wins". We all need practice in noticing our personal fears, which can be modified over time. His advice to FAT on losing the towel really points to that--The brain can change. It just takes some intention and practice to build new habits and patterns. Starting with recognizing that "maybe I'm at the center of solving my problem, not him/her"... We don't have to suffer forever if we don't want to. Go Dan!!! Go writers-to-Dan!!!

Feb 17 10 - 2:31pm
Clementine

Where can I find an old perv that has a crush on my messy roommates?

Feb 17 10 - 3:59pm
BWR

I want someone to come over to my house and pay me to clean it! I don't give a shit what he does with his toothbrush either.

Feb 17 10 - 5:18pm
Katherine

I wonder what happened to the guy fucking the towel.... it's pretty interesting.

Feb 17 10 - 6:54pm
CM

Dan needs a "stump the chump" episode, just like they have on Car Talk. Bring back the letter writers, see if they followed his advice, and how their situation resolved itself.

Feb 17 10 - 7:13pm
AlanK

Referring to a 69-year-old man with a harmless sexual eccentricity as an "old perv" is nasty...and not good nasty. May you all live to be 69 and find yourselves without--or unable to use--any sexual outlet. And may you all go to any decent gym--as in gym, not posing parlor--and see what a healthy 69-year-old man looks like. Bah. At 72 my father was as handsome a man as you'd ever want to see, swimming through the surf with his enormous pelt of graying hair catching beads of sea water. Double bah.

Feb 17 10 - 8:35pm
JD

This hypothetical skinny bitch can do more than an overweight woman, including holding my skinny ass against that wall while being fucked.

Feb 18 10 - 12:44am
John

Personally I have nothing against the old man but cleaning a toilet with your toothbrush and then brushing your teeth with it? That would creep me out just a little too.

Feb 18 10 - 1:43pm
Keith Whitener

I can imagine what my mother would say if she found out someone was cleaning my toilette with their toothbrush and then using it: Don't let them! If they brush and die they're going to sue you and I'm not going to pay the settlement!

Feb 18 10 - 4:33pm
R.M.

Okay, the old guy's been doing it for six years, he's clearly no threat and the apartment gets tidied, and there's an extra $50 floating around. What's the problem?

How fat is the fat woman? Is this guy annoyed because she's got an extra 15 pounds or are we talking morbidly obese? I wonder if it's less to do with what she can and can't do in bed and more to do with his fears of what his social group will think if he's with a fat girl. If specific positions, i.e. holding her up against a wall, don't work you can find others that will feel similarly from a penetration standpoint.

If he really cares about her and she's actually overweight- have an honest conversation with her. If she's that fat, she already knows and you can leave it up to her to decide if he's worth making a lifestyle change for or not.

Feb 18 10 - 6:41pm
meh

Some Dude's question brings to mind the age-old quip about fat girls and mopeds: both are lots of fun to ride until your friends see you on one. The main difference between a FWB and a girlfriend is the activities that occur outside the bed, mainly what your friends think about your mate.

Feb 19 10 - 10:14am
JP

Am I the only one thinking that TAFT might want to hide his OWN toothbrush if he moves in, just in case the old guy's the jealous type?

Feb 20 10 - 10:59pm
grnbnz

TAFT and his boyfriend could get an apartment with an extra half bath that is a no-professor zone?

Mar 25 10 - 4:23pm
me

TAFT why don't you always make sure you do a really disgusting shit or throw up before the old perv does his toilet/toothbrush routine? It will either put him off, or make him too ill to carry on.

Apr 18 10 - 3:00am
Jeff

Calculate how much money the old man has paid to clean that place, with the assumption that it is in-fact every week out of the year (for 6 years), its a ridiculous number...

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Oct 28 10 - 8:31pm
damon

why wont you come to my house to have sex naked at my house in my room...

Oct 28 10 - 8:31pm
damon

why wont you come to my house to have sex naked at my house in my room...

Oct 28 10 - 8:31pm
damon

why wont you come to my house to have sex naked at my house in my room...

Oct 28 10 - 8:31pm
damon

why wont you come to my house to have sex naked at my house in my room...

Sep 07 11 - 6:20am
kaufen Generika Cial

h4eNSd Can be also this issue because the truth can be achieved only in a dispute :)))

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