Recently, I found myself in conversation with a group of people, about the hottest news on pop culture right now – Brangelina’s split. The conversation veered off to how Angelina’s relationship with Brad, was the second relationship where she had moved from ‘other woman’ to wife/partner. Based on the fact that both relationships collapsed, this incited debate on whether or not relationship karma exists.
For those who are unaware of what relationship karma is, it is fairly straightforward: If you mess around in someone’s relationship, or cheat in your own relationship, your consequent relationships will suffer. So in Brangelina’s case, one dabbled in and broke a marriage, and the other wilfully cheated on his then wife, now Brangelina is no more.
So I asked a few people what their take on the matter was, and I got a myriad of responses:
Yeah it does!
“I think relationship karma does exist. Especially when it comes to engaging sexually with someone who is in a relationship. Your relationships after that can never be settled”.
“I do believe in relationship karma. Life works on a balance of returning what you give out. In essence, it’s all about receiving what you dish out. Just don’t take what doesn’t belong to you and you’re good”.
“I think people tend to cancel relationship karma as a real thing, because it manifests itself in a different form, to what was initially perpetrated. For example, I know someone who was consistently sleeping with a taken guy, and has had other sexual interactions with other guys in relationships. Now she’s finally ready to settle down with someone, but she keeps encountering fuckboy after fuckboy, and always getting her heart broken. To me that is too much of a coincidence – her messing around in other people’s relationships, now she can’t solidify a relationship of her own. Seems like karma, manifesting itself in a different way to what she perpetrated”.
Ummm, I don’t think it exists
“I find it quite hard to accept the concept of relationship karma. I think it just boils down to bad luck in a relationship. You win some and you lose some, and that’s not based on any of your past indiscretions”.
“Karma means, you reap what you sow. But there are people out there who have been so great but still get into trash relationships, and people who have been trash (by interfering in people’s relationships or cheating) who get into great relationships. That to me isn’t a case of you reap what you sow”.
Kinda sitting on the fence
“I don’t know if I believe in the existence of relationship karma. However, I do believe in the concept of ‘don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want to be done to yourself’. So if you wouldn’t want someone cheating with your significant other, don’t cheat with someone’s significant other. I guess it’s just a principle of basic decency that we owe others”.
“I guess I believe in relationship karma. But outside of that, in this age of women empowerment and solidarity, I just don’t get why a woman would put another woman through something that she wouldn’t want to be endure. Men are trash, we know that. And we actually hold the power. We have the ultimate say in a sexual relationship. It’s up to us to not give these men the space to continue to cheat and demean us. We can’t do that if we’re willingly hooking up with taken men. Sometimes the onus lies on women to change the dynamic”.
So what’s your take on relationship karma?
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