Originally posted on July 20, 2011.


I'm a 24-year-old female living in London, where I have just finished a degree in circus arts. I'm in a relationship with a great guy. The problem is that while I have had long- and short-term relationships before, he hasn't, and he can be very emotionally needy. For example, he can't/won't sleep without me in the bed. We've been together for 10 months, and he often tells me that I'm everything in his life. I've told him that under no circumstances is this normal, and I've confirmed my right to have a life outside of him. The real crux of the situation is this: I worked on and off as a stripper in a high-end club for two years. I haven't done it while with him because of the physical demands of my degree. Now I'm done and broke and want to return to this work. This is an issue for him, as you can imagine. I won't compromise: The job was great for me and allowed me such sexual (and financial!) liberation. I didn't orgasm for the first time until after I took control of my own sexuality via stripping.

I don't know how to handle this issue: He knew this about me when we met and says he hoped it wouldn't carry on. I feel upset that he hasn't accepted the whole of me and I guess part of me wonders if I'm in the wrong relationship. I love this man, but I feel trapped.

Clown College Graduate

My response after the jump...

Inexperience might explain extreme emotional neediness, CCG, but it's no excuse. It's just as likely that your boyfriend's clingy, manipulative shtick—he just can't sleep alone, you're his everything, if you go back to a job you loved before you loved him, well, he'll be vewy sad—looks to me like controlling, emotionally abusive behavior in pathetic sad-clown drag.

But you like him, CCG, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt, shall we? Tell your boyfriend that you're going back to your old job and he has a choice to make: Get over it or get over you.

If he sucks it up and makes an effort to change, he was just an insecure little douchebag and, hey, you helped him get over it! If he doubles down on the whining and clinging, then he's a controlling dick and you're well rid of him.