'Women are like your favourite food... '

As a teenager, my father told me and my then boyfriend that we should not get intimate because:

"Women are like your favourite food. You will get sick of them, if you have the same one too much."

Standard purity culture arguments are toxic enough, but this was on another level. I don't remember his exact wording, but I remember feeling disposable. I am not sure what my father was aiming for with his words, but from my observations of his romantic relationships, teenage me felt that his statement rang true.

While I do NOT agree with this sentiment, it has unfortunately seeped into my subconscious. I find myself obsessing on whether I am interesting / pretty / enticing / upbeat / some other descriptor that I have decided I must be for my husband. I'll trawl the internet at 3am, reading yet another anonymous opinion about how to make men happy. I do want to make my husband happy, and he wants to do the same for me. He has never shown any sign of thinking like [Prev:: this idea is well-rooted] and proving difficult to destroy.

Anyway, I hope he won't say this kind of thing to my teenage sister. Also, this is one of the many out-of-pocket things that makes me think [supports:: (15) Reparations are not charity and can be cashed] because how easy would it have been to just not say this and damage a young person's psyche? 😭