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Conference turris::womannotes-v3

Title:Topics of Interest to Women
Notice:V3 is closed. TURRIS::WOMANNOTES-V5 is open.
Moderator:REGENT::BROOMHEAD
Created:Thu Jan 30 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 30 1995
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1078
Total number of notes:52352

241.0. "Lets be absolutely honest" by TINCUP::KOLBE (The dilettante debutante) Wed Jul 11 1990 20:52

    This is inspired by by the talk in the Big O topic. Several people made
    comments about requiring ABSOLUTE HONESTY. This in regards to faking
    orgasms but I imagine we can extrapolate that the rest of their lives
    and relationships.

    I don't believe in absolute honesty. I've seen it used to hurt more
    often than in love. I believe in situational honesty. Sometimes the
    whole truth and nothing but the truth is the right way to go. Other
    times truth shaded by love is a better option.

    Imagine, someone you love needs reassurance and support and you aren't
    in the mood to deal with it. What do you do? Snap at them to come back
    later because you don't want to deal with them right now? Or decide to
    place your need on the back burner for a while and be what your partner
    needs?

    I know that women in general have been *exepected* to act that way but
    it doesn't make it less valid when the time is right for me act that
    way. liesl
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
241.1what is truth?DECWET::JWHITEthe company of intelligent womenWed Jul 11 1990 22:076
    
    i am not comfortable with 'honesty' and 'truth'
    
    i do, however, believe passionately in fairness
    
    
241.2Philosophical rathole?YUPPY::DAVIESAGrail seekerThu Jul 12 1990 10:2310
    
     re: -1
    
    How do you decide on a "fair" course of action without havig first 
    made a judgement about the truth (of, say, a situation) or 
    about how honest you wish to be with other individuals concerned? 
    
                                                                    
    
    
241.3GOLF::KINGREat healthy, stay fit, die anyway!!!!Thu Jul 12 1990 13:233
    SOme things are better not said....
    
    REK
241.5honesty .ne. tactlessnessHEFTY::CHARBONNDthe angels won't have itFri Jul 13 1990 10:139
    'Being honest' doesn't mean 'bluntly, tactlessly telling the
    whole truth at all times.' It can mean 'refusing to lie, and
    telling the parts of the truth that -contribute- to the 
    relationship.' 
    
    Illustration : "Your technique isn't satisfying me." vs. "I like
    it when you do X and need/would like more of it." Both true 
    statements, one tactless, one accentuating the positive while
    leaving the negative unsaid.
241.6LEZAH::BOBBITTscreenage mutant ninja demosFri Jul 13 1990 10:4615
    re: .4
    
    Yeah.  What he said.
    Goes double for me.
    
    and when it comes to meeting someone's needs when you just don't have
    the energy or whatever - you may HONESTLY abrogate your own needs for
    theirs temporarily.  Love is giving, particularly when your loved one
    needs it most.  You balance your needs and their needs in your head,
    and if you feel they need more, you may decide you HONESTLY want to do
    what they need.  You don't have to lie to do it, though ....
    
    -Jody
    
    
241.7there are many truthsTINCUP::KOLBEThe dilettante debutanteFri Jul 13 1990 16:5816
<    'Being honest' doesn't mean 'bluntly, tactlessly telling the
<    whole truth at all times.' It can mean 'refusing to lie, and
<    telling the parts of the truth that -contribute- to the 
<    relationship.' 
    
    Yes, telling the parts of the truth that can help and not perhaps
    mentioning everything. That's what I call situational honesty.

    For all we say we want the whole truth I'm not sure that's what we are
    ready to hear. There have been times in my life when I needed to hear
    the brutal truth and learn to accept it. There have been times when it
    would have crushed what little confidence I had left and destroyed me.

    I wonder how many of us are even totally truthful to ourselves. And I
    know it's quite possible to lie to yourself, I've, unfortuantely, done it
    myself. liesl
241.9:-)GUESS::DERAMODan D&#039;EramoSun Jul 15 1990 21:3817
           <<< RANGER::$2$DUA8:[NOTES$LIBRARY]WOMANNOTES-V3.NOTE;1 >>>
                        -< Topics of Interest to Women >-
================================================================================
Note 241.8                  Lets be absolutely honest                     8 of 8
AERIE::THOMPSON "trying real hard to adjust ..."     25 lines  13-JUL-1990 17:55
                                                                  ^^^      ^^^^^
           -< what is TRUTH and how do we know it is REALLY true ? >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>    	Or the other approach - don't over-embellish and stick to just
>>    the ABSOLUTE AND TRUTHFUL FACTS of any situation ... 9/13/90 17:58
                                                           ^       ^^^^^
        
	So, why the two month, three minute discrepancy? I mean,
        if we can't trust you to tell us the time, ... :-)
        
        Dan
241.10this is what happens when you actually go to classDECWET::JWHITEthe company of intelligent womenMon Jul 16 1990 13:5321
    
    re:.0,.2
    
    i've re-read the base-note and i think its intent is different
    from what i was thinking in .1. 
    
    what i guess the base note suggested to me was 'rational ethics'. 
    that is, ethics based on the logical application of moral imperatives. 
    it is this tradition of ethics (pretty much mainstream in western 
    culture) that i'm not comfortable with. it implies that 'truth' is
    a) 'objectively' knowable and b) morally compelling. non-rational 
    ethics suggests that 'objective truth' is not knowable and that what 
    compels us morally has little or nothing to do with either 'objective 
    truth' or the application of rational/logical structures.
    
    
    so, more to the point of the base note, my feeling is that if
    you feel you are treating the people you deal with fairly
    based on what you know, then i don't think you owe everyone
    complete honesty.
    
241.11TINCUP::KOLBEThe dilettante debutanteMon Jul 16 1990 16:169
<    so, more to the point of the base note, my feeling is that if
<    you feel you are treating the people you deal with fairly
<    based on what you know, then i don't think you owe everyone
<    complete honesty.
    
    That's it exactly Joe. There is a time and a place for everything,
    including complete honesty. But some things are best left unsaid or
    kept for more appropriate occasions. liesl

241.13I don't want to know either!SENIOR::PENNINGThu Jul 19 1990 14:298
    
    
    I think that alot of things should not be said. As the old saying
    goes" What she doesn't know won't hurt her." I think "what she doesn't
    know would KILL her" if of course she ever found out.
    
    
    wildman
241.14a note of a different color!TLE::D_CARROLLAssume nothingThu Jul 19 1990 15:3031
>    I think that alot of things should not be said. As the old saying
>    goes" What she doesn't know won't hurt her." I think "what she doesn't
>    know would KILL her" if of course she ever found out.
 
Whoa, wait a minute, that's a far cry from "One doesn't always have to tell
the whole and absolute truth if it would hurt someone".

The statement above implies that you (generic) did something *deliberately*
that you *knew* you couldn't tell her, and that I don't think is ethical.

I am not a proponent of "complete honesty at all times is awlways the best
policy"; like some other people have said here, I sometimes think that it is
best to keep some things to yourself, or wait till a better time.

That does *not* mean it is okay to *do* bad things that you don't want someone
else to know about with the justification that you won't have to tell her
since it will hurt her to know.

So I guess what I am saying is that maybe you are right that it would KILL
her if she knew, and maybe you are ethically correct not to tell her, but you
are ethically WRONG to do something that would KILL her if she found out,
even if she never finds out.  Just because in some situations it may be
ethically okay not to be honest, that doesn't mean that it was ethically
correct to get yourself into such a situation in the first place!

ie: It might be ethically correct not to tell your wife you were cheating
on her, since it would kill her to know, but it was ethically wrong to
cheat on her in the first place, you can't turn around and defend yourself
by saying "what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

D!
241.15Who me?SENIOR::PENNINGThu Jul 19 1990 16:0415
    
    Hi D!,
    
        Seemed to get you a tad fired up, thats good. I have never cheated
    on my wife and don't plan too. I do how ever like to flirt. Which I do
    know could become dangerous. I was just thinking back to past
    relationships I have had, and then to be confronted by one of these
    flings and having my wife ask "who was that and what did you do with her?"
    Well if she knew it would blow her mind, and the ball is also in the
    other court when we happen to run into one of her old boyfreinds. I
    would inturn probably flip. 
    
    Sometimes silence says more than words.
    
    Wildman