Cuckoldry

The cuckoo bird lays her egg in the nest of another bird, who instinctively incubates the egg and raises the hatchling as her own. The French, with their inventive pornographic imagination, used the name of this bird to describe a husband who nurtures, as his own, the offspring resulting from a deposit in his nest by another man. Or a husband with that potential.

Our word cuckold derives from the French word for cuckoo. This essay is prompted by criticism of a story I wrote about cuckoldry in which the critic said in effect "This isn't a cuckold story – where's the humiliation?" He clearly believed that if a cuckold was not humiliated, he was not a cuckold. There are cuckolds like that, but in fact, the different varieties of cuckolds are legion and should be of great interest to students of erotica.

Cuckoldry was a popular sport of the nobility in Victorian England, providing much amusement at social functions where double entendre was elevated to the level of an art form.

Consider a party where Lord B is in an upstairs bedroom with the wife of Lord A, who does not know of his wife's affair. Lord A believes she has gone up to rest with a headache. Downstairs guests mingle, converse, and sip punch.

Lady C, lightly dabbing her forehead with a delicate handkerchief says, "It's such a hot day. I would certainly not want to be riding today, even on the best thoroughbred."

This instantly creates, in all those who know of the affair, a mental picture of a naked Lady A astride a naked Lord B pumping away and working up a sweat. If Lady C says this in the presence of Lord A, who is a cuckold, ignorant of his wife's indiscretion, an instant challenge is presented to Lady D to produce a clever response. Perhaps,

"Quite right my dear, that would indeed be a labor of love."

Such double entendre was an art form in Victorian England – as was cuckoldry.

The story of Lord A is a cuckold story without humiliation, but with amusement for Lord A's friends. But what if Lord A knows of the affair and has concealed his knowledge to protect his dignity. Now you have humiliation that is private. And if others know he has concealed it? Well, humorous opportunities for nudging his dignity are legion.

My point is that both the humor and the potential for sexual arousal go far beyond some poor wimpy bastard on his knees slurping cum from his wife's pussy. I do not mean to be critical of such stories, but rather, to emphasize the infinite variety of possible cuckold stories. And the variety of cuckolds and their wives allow for a wide range of stories. I have tried to write only a few of them.

Not all cuckolds are wimps. Consider Bobby in Chapter 1 of my "Lynn and Bobby" (L&B) series. He has a choice between destroying his marriage and being a willing cuckold. His pain makes the story real, even as some situations that cause his pain may be erotic, but never humorous (except to his wife and her lover). Look at Ray, in Chapter 5 of my "How I Became a Cuckold" (HIBC) series. He is in a similar situation after he discovers that another man is fucking the woman he loves deeply. Both are angry and may be humiliated, but they do not derive any sexual arousal from their situations.

Contrast this with Dave in Chapter 3 of L&B and Jerry throughout HIBC. They both achieve intense sexual arousal watching another man make them a cuckold, and both delight in placing their chins on the "cuckold's chin rest" and performing their husbandly duties after another man has laid his egg in their nest. [Note: The cuckold's chin rest is that small bit of skin between the pussy and the anus. Non-cuckolds usually (but not always!) call it a ball rest.]

But the wives of Dave and Jerry are quite different. Dave's wife is deriving no sexual pleasure from cuckolding him. She is actually protecting him from public indiscretion. Jerry's wife, on the other hand, derives intense sexual pleasure from tormenting him. To simply label both as "cum sluts" as some people do, is silly. The women accepting the eggs in their nests are as different and interesting as their cuckolds.

In my story "My Best Friend's Wife" (written as LynnGK), the cuckold does not know he is being cuckolded. His friend is not doing him any favor – he is simply enjoying sex. The cuckold has a medical problem and can't give his wife sexual satisfaction. She abandons a dangerous promiscuity for a steady relationship with her husband's friend. There is arousal in the story – but there is no humiliation, no wimp, and no bull and the cuckold is ignorant of his status.

Or consider "Alice and Joe and Joan and Charlie", in which there is double cuckolding with humor but no wimps or cum sluts or humiliation.

In "Fred and Don and Tina" we have a true ménage a trois between two straights and a bisexual male. Certainly Fred cuckolds Don, but Don is in love with both Fred and Tina. Some would say Don is gay. Bisexuals are not gay. If you want to read about a gay guy getting cuckolded try "Just Off the Interstate."

I find it interesting to probe the minds of cuckolds, their wives, and their cuckolders, in all the infinite varieties and combinations. For this reason I hate to see the beautiful art of cuckoldry reduced to a simple story of wimps sucking cum out of sluts while bulls laugh.

It is so much more interesting to see a cuckold fighting a losing battle in his mind against the jealousy and arousal his fetish forces him to enjoy, as he watches the woman he loves spread her legs for another man, whether she enjoys it or is fucking the boss to save his job. There are so many ways to tell this story and to get into the minds of each character, that it is hard to resist this genre.