Wow, hello, everyone.

I'm going to put down my phone,

and totally resist the urge to snap a selfie to prove I was actually here.

As Riaz said, my name is Jessica O'Reilly,

and I am a sexologist.

A sexologist is, in fact, a real thing.

Do you believe me?

Three of you, okay.

So you're all on the side of my parents, I get it, that's cool, no problem.

I got the tiger mom.

Well, a sexologist; what does that mean?

That means,

I spend a whole lot of time talking about sex.

And almost no time actually having it.

(Laughter)

But I'm here today to talk to you about a serious subject.

We are in a time of crisis.

We have a global epidemic on our hands and it's airborne.

It affects the young and the old and knows no geographical bounds.

Now, this problem is not unlike other widespread crises,

the economy, climate change for instance.

But this crisis effects more of us,

in a more personal and perceptible fashion.

It tears families apart.

It takes the most detrimental toll on the most vulnerable among us

and it's contagious.

It's spreading.

Yet somehow, we're captivated by it.

I'm talking about the crisis of the modern monogamous marriage.

Now, if I were to make you a 50/50 offer in any realm of your life,

would you take it?

If I said, invest in my fund,

there's a 50 per cent chance you'll see a return.

Or sign this business deal,

you've got a 50 percent chance of failure, but hey, why not?

Or hop on this flight,

you've got a 50/50 shot at making it to your destination safely.

Even if I offered you two free checked bags,

(Laughter)

you'd probably say no.

But the modern monogamous marriage

offers even lower statistical odds

when you factor in divorce rates and the rates of infidelity.

Now, in North America, divorce rates are over 40 percent,

higher, if you count your second and third marriages.

In my family sometimes we go on even above three.

Four, five, and six.

You know already about my husband's fights

because of Riaz.

So I might as well divulge some info.

Infidelity rates in North America are between 25 and 45 percent,

depending on who's asking and who drank their truth serum this morning.

And research suggests

that satisfaction rates in marriage plummet

after the honeymoon phase, never to recover.

Scary.

Now, many young people are actually opting not to get married.

Marriage rates are on the decline.

Maybe because they've heard that research shows

that married people are, in fact, no happier

than their single counterparts.

And have you heard of mate poaching?

Apparently, 60 percent of men -

shame, shame -

and 54 percent of women -

we're not better, not much better -

have tried to woo someone away from their current spouse.

What is going on?

So when we combine these statistics, we look at the numbers.

We see that in marriage

50/50 is in fact a best case scenario.

Marriage is in a time of crisis.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we do away with marriage; I'm a fan of marriage.

I even picked one up for myself.

(Laughter)

I've been happily married to my husband for eight years,

living with him for 13.

What I am saying is that marriage is a failure in human design.

It doesn't matter that research says that marriage is good for my health

and even better for men's health, somehow they always win.

And it doesn't matter that we all go into marriage

with the most noble of intentions, right?

To live happily ever after, to love our partner unconditionally,

to help them grow into the best version of themselves.

Because it doesn't always end up this way.

Because of this failure in human design,

marriage can be restrictive in personal growth,

and even repressive in its demands of absolute monogamy.

In any other realm,

if we saw failure rates like we see in marriage,

we would do something about it.

When the markets tumble, we do something about it;

we adjust interest rates,

we enact austerity measures,

we develop stimulus packages.

Right?

(Laughter)

If a car malfunctions in some way,

we issue a recall, so that we can repair it.

And if a superbug is unresponsive to a current vaccination,

we go back to the lab to develop a new formulation.

When something doesn't work,

when anything doesn't work, we innovate.

So why do we accept the monogamous marriage

in its current form, despite its design flaws?

Could our relationships not benefit from a stimulus package?

A temporary recall.

Just overnight.

(Laughter)

Isn't it time we go back to the lab to dissect the issues,

challenge the failing norm, and innovate?

Now, some couples have already done this.

They reject monogamy altogether.

Swingers for instance, I know a lot of them.

Surprise, surprise, the sexologist says.

They have sex with other people and it works for them.

Polyamorous have emotional, intimate, loving, and sexual relationships

with multiple partners and it works for them.

And open relationships come in a huge range of forms

that are custom designed by every couple

or threesome or foursome, or moresome,

00:07:06,973 --> 00:07:10,014 Now, I know many couples for whom open relationships have worked,

Rosa and Dan for instance.

After 22 years of marriage, they said, "Something's gotta give."

Their words, not mine.

So they decided to open their relationship up

and now they have lovers across North America,

and they couldn't be happier.

But like monogamy,

open relationships only work for a very small number of people.

An estimated four to five, not 45, four to five percent have tried it

with a good degree of success.

The problem with open relationships is that most of us just don't want one.

We're okay with other people being open,

but we don't want to share our partners.

Happily ever after with one true soul mate

has been too firmly ingrained in our subconciousness, since birth.

So what we've determined so far

is that over here we have the monogamous.

Monogamy works for a small number of people.

Over here we have the non-monogamous,

and that works for an even smaller percentage of people.

And the rest of us,

we fall somewhere in between.

So what about the rest of us?

Cheating isn't an option.

I'm not even going to go there.

So how do we find our happily ever after?

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests,

I submit to you

that the solution is to consider

the gray area of the monogamish.

(Laughter)

This term has been around for some time.

I remember hearing it as a kid

when I shouldn't have been listening to my parents friends

back in the 80s, but it became popularized by sex columnists,

Dan Savage, more recently.

And Dan used this term to describe his relationship

in which he is emotionally, and practically, and lovingly

monogamous with his partner,

but sexually they're allowed to do other things.

So to me, that's more of an open relationship.

So what I suggest is that we fine-tune the term -

the philosophy of monogamish -

to make it more accessible to the rest of us,

who fall into this gray area.

Let's use monogamish

to take the monotony out of monogamy

in a way that preserves the sanctity,

the safety, and the comfort of our relationships.

So, monogamish, what might this look like?

Monogamish couples might look to extramarital sources

for sexual stimulation.

But only in thought, not in action.

So if I'm monogamish,

there might have been a volunteer backstage

that was kinda cute.

So I took a second look.

I hope I didn't make him uncomfortable, never making him uncomfortable.

I might have had a break and thought about him a little.

I might think about him later tonight.

(Laughter)

But I'm never going to act upon that thought.

And this thought and thoughts like it

that are forbidden in so many monogamous relationships,

admitting to this thought serves to further stabilize my relationship

because when we put these forbidden thoughts

out in the open,

we serve to reduce their power, and we decrease the likelihood

that we'll actually act upon them.

So, we have thought, but not action,

and then we have talk, but not touch.

So monogamish couples might look to extramarital sources

for sexual arousal and pleasure in a talk format with no touch.

Flirting with other people comes to mind as a really good example of this.

So, bear with me a moment.

Picture this: you're at a bar, you're with you partner.

Say you're with your husband.

And there's a waitress and she's kinda cute.

Not too cute.

(Laughter)

We all have our limits.

So you tease him a little:

"She's really cute, isn't she? I think she was checking you out.

You look hot tonight, Babe."

She totally wasn't checking him out,

but they all like a good stroking of the ego.

With your coaxing, maybe, he even flirts with her a little.

Maybe you get in on that flirting, too.

Obviously showing her the utmost respect and respect for your relationship.

At the end of the night, you go home together,

you and your husband, not the waitress.

(Laughter)

Let's be clear here.

You go home and you continue the fantasy.

You weave it in the bedroom.

You even talk about having a threesome.

"Oh Babe, you look so hot tonight.

I totally want to bring her home with us.

Yeah, I'd love to, absolutely, don't you want four hands on you?

Can't you imagine, I'd love to share you."

It's just talk.

You pull out all the stops.

You drive him into a frenzy

and then you both get off, you have a great time.

When you're done,

you take him by the hand and look him in the eye and you say,

"Don't even think about it."

(Laughter)

And he knows and says,

"Of course not, Babe, that was amazing, thank you.

You're all I want.

Can I get you anything, a beer or a cheeseburger?"

(Laughter)

Isn't that how it should always end?

Alright.

You break the norms of rigid monogamy without ever touching another person.

It's just talk.

All the flirting, all the fantasy, the four hands, the waitress.

You're never going to that bar again, by the way.

So one shot deal.

It's just talk, nothing more.

Now, we have thought, but not action.

We have talk, but not touch.

And then we have couples,

who make this foray into monogamish territory, and they love it.

They relish in it, and they say,

"You know what? Things have never been better.