Guys lie about their number of sexual partners to make their numbers higher–and women’s relationship lies are usually to shrink the number of guys we’ve slept with! | Source: ShutterStock

Lies in relationships are generally bad, and the most common lie has, somewhat unsurprisingly, been revealed to be someone’s sex number – or, in other words, the amount of people one has had sex with. This is a bit of a bummer, because when you look at who lies about what, it’s clear that there’s still a stigma associated with having slept with a higher number of people if you’re a girl than if you’re a guy.

Over half of people in relationships admitted to lying about their sexual pasts, with women making their numbers lower and guys actually lying to make their number of sexual partners higher. Girls think guys will judge them if their number is too high, while guys think people will judge them if their numbers is too low.

Here’s why this is annoying: Other than the obvious slut-shaming double standard that encourages this sort of dishonesty, the number of people you’ve slept with is your business. Seriously. If you don’t want to discuss your sexual partners with your current partner, guess what? You don’t have to. As long as you’re both safe and comfortable enough to talk about what you want and like and you both have clean bills of health, who cares how many or how few people either one of you has slept with before? Just enjoy sleeping with each other now.

Other stuff women admit to lying about in relationships? Why we split with an ex (again, who cares–if it’s over, it’s over) and cheating (okay, even I can’t justify that one). And why do we lie in relationships? Well, we want the guy to dig us. Problem is, if you’re lying to him, he can’t like you. He can only like the projection that you’re putting out there, and that’s not fair to either of you. Because you’re awesome and he should recognize that–or be free to find someone he’s more genuinely compatible with than the persona you’re playing up to win him over.

And just to reiterate: Whether a guy is your first or your 51st, anyone who judges you based on the number of sexual partners you’ve had or who you’ve slept with doesn’t deserve to sleep with you anyway.

Have you ever lied about how many sexual partners you’ve had? What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told in a relationship? Has a guy ever lied to you about how many people’s he’s slept with? If a guy had a particularly high or low number of sexual partners, would you think of him differently? Tell us in the comments!

What exactly is slut shaming?

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