Rational Sexpectations

So this friend of mine discovered two colleagues doing the horizontal mambo in her office room. She was traumatized and was expecting me to support her decision: get them fired.

I didn't. Support her decision, that is. Instead, I was questioning to figure out what it was that traumatized her.

1. Was it the betrayal she felt? She wasn't told before?
2. Was it the fact that one of them may have been cheating on someone else?
3. Was it that it was in the office?

In short, that conversation went nowhere. So this got me thinking.

In Bangladesh, in 2010, sex is not a taboo subject. People do it. People talk about it. People talk about how much they are enjoying, or not enjoying it. People talk about other people doing it. This is very different from 1993, when I first left town. I almost never heard about it. Now I'm sick of hearing about it.

In western world, your arena of flirtation would be at a bar or a park, where you get to test the water before you invite them to your place. In Bangladesh, it's not acceptable for opposite sex to go out socially, and you're definitely not bringing anyone home. So office is the flirting ground, and maybe also the stomping ground.

Blame it on the shortage of real estate. But workplace romances are here to stay. And sooner Bangladesh accepts it, the sooner we can move on to more scandalous things.