I'm writing to you to settle a dispute between my husband and me. We have been married for six years. We're not terribly adventurous, but we're not totally vanilla, either. However, there is one issue that is driving me insane: my husband constantly pesters me to have anal sex. We have tried it in the past, and it is NOT my bag. I don't enjoy it AT ALL. But my husband will not stop pestering me. He thinks if we just keep trying, eventually I'll come around to liking it. I'm pretty GGG, Dan, but this is one thing where I draw the line. He thinks I'm being unreasonable; I think he is. Do I need to give in, or does he need to get off my back? — Needing Expert Advice

SAVAGE LOVEI think we should all be — as I've written about a hundred thousand times — good (in bed), giving (of pleasure, of indulgences), and game (for very nearly anything), aka GGG. And I frequently like to remind married people — particularly, married people who value monogamy — that they willingly assumed sole responsibility for their spouses' sexual fulfillment.

That said, NEA, we are each entitled to our likes and dislikes.

But before I let you off the anal hook: I'm assuming that your all-caps emphasis — "NOT my bag," "don't enjoy it AT ALL" — means that you find anal penetration to be a physical trial and/or an emotional torment. "I could TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" or "There's nothing in that for ME" or "That leaves me COLD" are not good enough reasons to refuse to occasionally indulge your spouse in whatever it is that gets him/her off. While it would be wonderful if every couple's sex life consisted entirely of acts that both partners found equally thrilling — so egalitarian! So fairzees! — a fulfilling sex life is too important, particularly for monogamous couples, to trust in coincidence alone.

Okay, NEA, getting back to your ass: you tried it, you didn't like it, and you don't have to keep doing it. And, yes, your husband should stop pestering you about it, NEA, but you do have to let him grieve — grieve for the ass he isn't going to get from you and, if you're monogamous, grieve for the ass he isn't going to get anywhere else.

And speaking of anal…

Nancy Elliott, a state representative in New Hampshire, wants to ban same-sex marriage in that state — where it's been legal for less than three months — and here's her reasoning: "We're talking about taking the penis of one man and putting it in the rectum of another man and wiggling it around in excrement. And you have to think… would I allow that to be done to ME?"

Where to begin? How about here…

If you're wiggling your penis around in excrement when you're having anal sex, Representative Elliott, you're doing it wrong. You would think this would be obvious even to people who've never had anal sex, but apparently not. So let me break it down for you, Representative Elliott: you don't have anal sex with an ass full of shit for the same reason you don't have oral sex with a mouth full of food. It's messy and no one wants a mess. (Except for the people who do want a mess, of course, but they're a blessed rarity.) An empty, douched, and lubed anal cavity isn't that much dirtier than an empty, flossed, and brushed oral cavity.

I will concede that excrement is for anal what Representative Elliott is for the New Hampshire State Legislature: a PR disaster. But excrement-free anal sex is easy. Make sure there's some fiber in your diet, be regular, and only go for it when you're empty — no anal during your butt menses! — and you'll never get excrement on a single wigglin' dick.

And now a question for you, Representative Elliott: Are you really sure you want to make it illegal for buttfuckers to get married?

"According to a 2005 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," a commenter whom I'm going to quote at length (hey, Baconcat!) wrote on a blog in reaction to Elliott's remarks: "forty percent of men and thirty-five percent of women between twenty-five and forty-four had engaged in heterosexual anal sex. Some studies put the incidence of anal sex in the heterosexual population as low as twenty-four percent and some as high as fifty-six percent. Averaging those numbers, let's say thirty-eight-point-eight percent of heterosexuals engage in anal sex. Ninety-six percent of Americans are straight. There are 190,000,000 adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five in the United States, so that means 70,771,200 adults are engaging in heterosexual anal sex. Four percent of the adult population is gay, or 7,600,000 people. Roughly half — 3,800,000 — are gay males. Polls indicate that between fifty-five and eighty percent of gay males participate in anal sex. Taking the average — sixty-seven-point-five percent — that means the number of gay men having anal sex comes to 2,565,000."

Math is hard, Representative Elliott, but see if you can't wiggle this into your cranial cavity: 70,771,200 is more — a whole lot more — than 2,565,000. Anal sex in America is primarily a heterosexual pursuit. So if you really want to protect the sacred sanctity of marriage from the unholy taint of penises wiggling in rectums, Representative Elliott, you need to ban straight marriage first. (We needn't protect marriage from lesbians, of course, because lesbians don't have anuses.)

I am a twenty-six-year-old female who likes anal sex. The problem is my boyfriend's dick is too big. It's about nine inches long, but the real issue is girth. I enjoyed anal sex with a previous partner, but my BF and I have done it only once. It was fairly unpleasant, even though we used copious amounts of lube. Are there ways to make anal sex possible for us? — Achingly Needs Anal Love

SAVAGE LOVEStop trying to wiggle that monster into your rectum, ANAL, and focus instead on fingers and toys and orgasms for you, cheeky-fucking for the boyfriend. (Think titty-fucking, but using your ass cheeks instead of your tits.) Have lots of orgasms with toys of various sizes in your ass. Then every once in a while — when you're feeling it, when your ass feels like it's ready, when you're not having your butt menses — ease the boyfriend in. He should stay absolutely still while you get yourself off with your hands or a vibrator. The next time you're feeling it, put him in and let him move around just a little while you get yourself off.

The goal here — and it's a long-term goal — is to make anal sex as pleasurable for you as it is, or will be one day, for the boyfriend. Take your time, ANAL, don't rush things, and thanks for being one of the 70,771,200 straight people out there who prove every day that you can have anal sex and access to legal marriage, too.

I am an eighteen-year-old female college freshman. My boyfriend is also eighteen. He recently confided in me that he wanted to wear my panties and a dress while I wore his boxers and fucked him in the ass with a dildo. I have been reading your column since I was thirteen. Had I never read your column, I might have assumed my boyfriend was gay or thought he was gross or thought I was gross for liking the idea. Instead, I helped pick out a dress I thought would look sweet on him, and we had a wonderful time. Thank you so much! — Loves Boys In Panties

SAVAGE LOVENo, thank you, LBIP, because every time a straight girl sticks something up a straight boy's ass, a bigoted state representative dies a little inside.

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