im not positive on this but ill answer anyways.

a physical affair is when someone likes the sex, and such things with that alone. you dont have to have sex with another for this, but quite often it has.

a emotional affair is one with feelings for the other person ie. love keep in mind you dont actually have to have sex with the person with this affair.

so more or less one is lust the other love.

i suppose in my opinion a emotional affair is worse, because a physical affair is only for sex which means they usually have no real feelings of love towards the newcomer. in a emotional affair it usually means the person loves/feels drawn towards the newcomer, which puts a even more serious damper on the current relationship.

personally if my girlfriend ever cheated on me i would end the relationship no matter what type, but everyones different.

i dont think one is worse than the other..i think they are both equally as bad...there is no excuse for it at all whatsoever...and rememeber the saying..karma is a you know what...

and for a guy to just hook up and try to play the "but it was just sex" card...thats B.S. bc boy if you cared about me you would NOT be with another woman in any way

I wonder if there is any space in a whole new generation and era to relook at monogomy and perhaps look at alterantive types of relationships. My husband took me on as a second wife a while ago, and while not recognised by law, we have formal contracts set up, and i couldnt be happier with the arrangement. i used to be a classic commitment phobe and this suits me so well. I love his first wife and his children (4) with her, she is younger than me, yet I feel no jealousy or anger towards this. I just think it is absolutely the man I love has space in his heart for all of us. He also allows me to happily engage in friendships with other men. Is there space yet for this type of thinking or do people still feel they want to possess their partner?

...no...
im selfish, if im with a guy, he's mine and i'm his..there is no sharing..thats basically a cop out to me..you dont want to get serious and make the commitment to one person so you stay "open"..um no..either you love ME..and ME only and i'm enough for you physically and emotionally..or you can get out and i'll find me a real man that is ready to devote himself to me and me only

if they dont have a law for that then theres a reason! i m not judgmental of what people do, but some christians believe in marriage between a man and a women. i dont look at it as one partner wanting to posses the other. some people get married and they shouldnt.
i dont understand..your husband will think i life wife #1 better, she's prettier, her xxx is beter, she's sweeter. but once he gets bored he goes to he other women. isnt this confusing for the kids. what about std's if he allows you to sleep with other men. is his first wife allow to sleep with other men?

Sounds great...You have the perfect "open marriage", within an "open marriage"....Should be great as a new Reality Show...

Hope you don't have kids...

Some people can deal with poly, some can't. There is alot of negative press about polygamy these days...religious based and only the man can have more than one wife...the wife is faithful to the man.

Polyamory...which I think is what this poster is talking about is a love without limits type arrangement. Polyamorists believe love is just added to when they take on a new partner, not taken away from the old partner. They liken it to when you have another child you don't love the first any less, just make room for more. They revel in their partner's joy and happiness with their other partners. They tend to believe that jealousy is just another stronger emotion or mix of emotions...anger and fear mostly. Sometimes they will live together as a family and all adults will take on the role of mom n dad regardless of biology. They are adamant that it's not about sex but love of all.

At any rate...interesting reads. I believe cheating is cheating weather its emotional of physical. I feel the emotional affair tends to be so much more involved and would be harder for me to deal with but no way would he get away with the "its just sex" excuse either.

My now ex husband had an emotional affair with a woman he worked with. I was just as devastated by this as I was when I found out he was having a sexual affair with a different woman he worked with. The difference for me between the two was with the emotional affair, he would tell the woman all of his feelings about the things that troubled him and when I asked if he wanted to talk, he said no so it created a distance between us. The sexual affair was just him going through what he called his mid life crisis. Well, too bad for him.

Open relationships are fine if it works for you. I don't feel that anyone has the right to judge anyone else who is doing something that works for them.

well the problem with them is that to have a physical effair you dont neccesarily have to have an emotional effair. but if you have an emotional effair it usually leads to a more physical effair.(an emotional effair is were you fantasise about someone other than your mate, such as porn, or just masturbating about someone other than your wife)