Without delving into issues of definition and existence versus magnitide, fidelity and it's opposite are conscious choices.  I strongly suspect these gentlemen wilfully sought you out and chose to employ your services - that is to say, it didn't 'just happen'.

Speaking as a divorced man myself, your gentlemen must bear equal responsibility for the state of their marriages, even if their contribution is the enabling of their wives' behaviours.

Ultimately, it's not what happens to us, but rather how we manage what happens.

You last sentance is exactly the reason why the only thing I'll ever marry is my work.  I've seen so many people get burned by their partner's cheating that it would be foolish to think it couldnt happen to me.

I do believe what goes around, comes around.  If one willingly is the "other" man or woman, doesn't that give some future partner license to cheat on you and the world license to seek to have some future partner of yours cheat with them?  You can never tell what happens inside a marriage of course, but certainly the "other" party has no axe to grind against the cheater's spouse.  If you put bad stuff like that out there, I believe it will come back -- I've seen it over and over again.

"people universally and inherently suck"

ouch, sweets, you just turned sideways and damn near disappeared. in a few more years you'll realize that people don't actually universally and inherently anything. In the meantime though, it's a great justification for anything, so keep on doing what thou wilt.

I've got to agree with blackavar here.  I don't believe that people universally anything.  I do believe that for most people, if they are anything like me (and I don't consider myself out of the ordinary in any sense), there is a daily balancing act between selfish tendencies and truly working towards being a stand-up human being.  

My ex-wife and I agreed on one thing in the beginning and that was to try to be as honest as possible.  Acknowledging that people grow and change, there are times that people grow apart.  Your clientele don't end up at your door because all people are cheaters, or that people in general suck.  They made a decision not to live by their vows.  

Perhaps the role-playing is a way for them to try to step outside themselves and act out with as little guilt as possible... "hey, it wasn't me."  Married couples roleplay too.  Married couples make honest agreements to engage in "alternative" activities and lifestyles too.  That's hardly cheating.

Have to go with what AHG says here.  We're talking about a question of percentages.  Humans generally speaking are capable of some heinous acts.

On a broader sense--you said that your work has made you privy to a lot of insights into marriage dynamics.  Could you extrapolate?  Do you think there are specific reasons men would choose a dominatrix over any other specialized sex worker?  What do you believe they get out of it?  

And what do you get from it?  Presumably there is a reason you chose this niche and you enjoy it, or it satisfies something.  I'm not exactly plain vanilla, though not a one trick pony either.  I've been with women who are into light role-playing and get off on relinquishing control and just being taken... I think there are several perfectly reasonable motivations there, but since you're the resident expert, I figured I'd ask.  

airheadgenius-

So what if most people don't visit a dominatrix. There is other evidence to show that being happily married is a rare event.  For example, the rate of divorce in the US is a little bit over 60%. This percentage tells me is that 1) most people are not happy with their marriages and 2). You have better odd of walking away ahead after playing roulette then you do being happily married.

Hi Fishnets--I was just wondering if you thought there might be specific things that drive some of it... personal histories, emotions, etc.  I totally get that it's empowering to test limits though, and a leap of faith and courage to let go and submit.  

I think the same dynamics can be played out within relationships too, but perhaps that is more rare.  Letting go of control can be powerfully intoxicating in many scenarios, sexual and otherwise.  That's been my experience anyway, though more from a dominant end.  I've been involved with a couple different women who never truly got off until rendered helpless.  It was kind of a new experience for me having been raised in a generation where people simply did not relinquish control.