When you imagine who's looking for a little side action on AshleyMadison.com -- the infamous dating site for people seeking affairs -- your first thought is likely to be married men. And to be fair, you'd be right -- the membership skews about 70 percent male, according to CEO Noel Biderman.
But what about the comparatively few women browsing the site? Who are they and what's driving them to look for no-strings-attached sex?
In the latest issue of GQ, writer Teddy Wayne meets up with a few of site's women users -- "lady Don Drapers," the magazine dubs them -- and attempts to find out what's compelling them be unfaithful.
First up is Megan, a married woman who's worked for one of the most high-profile political figures in the country, all while carrying out affairs with an average of one to two new men per year, with "a few women sprinkled in."
"I'm a dirty old man trapped in a woman's body," she says. "I lust after younger men the way dirty old men lust after younger girls. I get dirty old men. I'm looking for eye candy. I'm very shallow."
Though Megan says her husband is "super-vanilla" and can barely handle her, she tells Wayne that she sticks around because they "have a really happy and functional house" and "he's also a fantastic guy and father."
Another woman, Gloria, claims to have slept been with “publishers of magazines, CEOs, politicians, managing partners at law or investment firms” -- all thanks to Ashley Madison. Gloria doesn't believe in lifelong monogamy, but won't leave her husband -- at least not yet -- because "there's still love that holds [them] together."
"I don't believe any one person ever fulfills a person's needs," she says. "And lifelong passion is extremely rare. If I left [my husband] and married someone else, it'd probably just be a matter of time until I had the same situation. It's unusual for a strong sexual component to remain after a few years, and I'm not willing to give up that part of my life."
The last woman Wayne profiles is Laura, a corporate-type stuck in a loveless and sexually unsatisfying marriage to a husband who lacks ambition. To compensate for what's missing at home, Laura seeks out "very rich and older and dominant" men online.
"In the workplace, it should be equal," she says. "But in the house, the only way it works is if there's a strong masculine and feminine component. You need to give your husband a blow job every day. He should feel like a king. Seeking it out in my sexual life is to make up for it in my real life. I want my husband to be dominant and more successful. I don't want to be the man in the relationship."
For more on the inner lives of the women who use Ashley Madison, head over to GQ.com, and to find out why our readers think women cheat, check out the slideshow below:
