According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2001, 89% of Americans say that married men/women having an affair is morally unacceptable. However, when we hear about men having affairs, we are quick to jump to conclusions and assume that their partner wasn't doing something right. Regarding a scandal involving a New York governor a few years ago, Dr. Laura Schlessinger expressed: “…When the wife doesn't focus on needs and feelings, sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to do it to do it feel a successful person, to make him feel like his hero, is very susceptible to the charm of some other woman who makes him feel what he needs. This statement has such a negative impact on women's lives; we are instilling in them a sense of guilt and low self-esteem. Since these are the feelings that have been instilled in us, we respond to reading Ethan Frome in a similar way; we ignore Ethan's flaws and blame Zeena for all of them