Originally Posted by purplelirpa

I'll back you up on this, I would've told at least one of my friends about it. Also probably my mom. But my mom and I talk about things like this--this is how things were before I got my advice off of forums from anonymous people. The conversation likely would've gone something like, "Hey, my boyfriend masturbates to pics of my friends, Mom, how normal is that?" And she would reply, "Well, your stepdad actually fucks my friends, so not all that abnormal." And so then I'd have some perspective there.

But because my mom has anything but a normal sex life, I'd then probably call one of the friends and discuss it with her. I mean, if the guy is acting that unabashedly unapologetic about it, I wouldn't feel that guilty about not keeping his secret. If something hurts my feelings, I expect them to be at least acknowledged and discussed. If that doesn't happen, I'm going to be out searching for answers. From my mom, my friends, and then back to the boyfriend.

Alright, back to the topic at hand--Masturbation.

I masturbate a whole lot more than what it seems that most women masturbate. I watch couples, typically--like on youporn with the amateurs and all that. I like watching *real* people. But sometimes I like perusing facebook and looking through pics of people. Everything from people I wanted to date in high school but didn't to ex boyfriends to my boyfriend's friends. Disclaimer: I also cheated on my boyfriend with one of his friends.

My point here is that it could be harmless and it could not be. In my case, my normal masturbation habits have me looking at lots of different people at different times, of pics when they're in sexual situations and when they're not. Both personal and impersonal. And I also cheated.

The potential is there for it to happen. In my case, I was searching out emotional reassurance from the friend because I moved to a city where I don't know anyone. We happened to find ourselves alone in an incredibly romantic situation. I had already "primed" myself thinking about his friend in sexual situations and masturbating a couple of times looking at his profile and that made it all the more likely for it to happen.

Your boyfriend is also primed, conditioned, etc, to get off to your friends and roommate. It's a little concerning, especially given that these were saved files at one time, which could constitute multiple occasions of such conditioning. There's a potential there for him to be more vulnerable to them if a sexual situation ever does spontaneously arise, where he might not have been conditioned that way before he masturbated to pictures of them.

Ultimately, he'll need to explain the significance of it to you. I guess just keep in mind that the potential is there for him to cheat, but don't worry about it too much. He was honest, and that is key. That is a very important thing, in fact, because it shows that he values that more than saving face, which, like Plan9 said--shows he's got some big balls there. You know what to expect from him, and he wants you to know what to expect. You can work with that, you just need to ask some questions.