Currently the internet is filled with headlines reporting on the scandal between Adam Levine and his wife. Adam and his wife, Behati Prinsloo, have been married for 8 years and are the parents to two children, who are also expecting a third. Adam Levine has been the lead singer of his band Maroon 5 since 2001 and Behati has been a Victoria Secret model since 2009. The two have each found success in their respective lines of work.

It was revealed in late Sep. that Adam Levine had been cheating on his wife. Cheating in any context is terrible but the fact that the couple has two children together and they are newly expecting a third is the icing on the cake. The internet however found something to focus on in this situation.

One twitter user, @ihrachid, “the fact that adam levine cheated on his wife who’s a… victoria’s secret model with some random instagram girl is INSANE.”

Another  user on on Instagram, @jcramen30 said, “Adam Levine can cheat on Victoria Secret model wife. You’re not safe sister. Eat that pizza!“

The internet is flooded with posts focusing on the profession of the woman Levine cheated on rather than who Prinsloo is. The view that she is any less prone to being cheated on due to her appearance is misogynistic .

Jessica Wakeman writes in her article “Men don’t cheat because their wives are ugly”, “What I want to know is why we insist a woman’s beauty — which is highly subjective! — is some kind of barometer — which is highly shallow! — of whether or not her hubby will cheat.”

The media is full of excuses on why a man might cheat or bring down one woman to make another feel better.

Evan Marc Katz is an online dating coach for women. “Men, since the beginning of time, were designed to spread their seed. Because monogamy lowers the chances that our genes will survive, men are not, by nature, monogamous creatures” said Katz when asked why men cheat.

If men are genetically predisposed to cheating then why don’t all men cheat? While searching this fact, no results were found to back this claim. Katz’s idea of why men cheat is commonly argued by anthropologists because it does not take in to account LGTBQ+ relationships or the fact that evolution has occurred since the time of cavemen where they needed to spread their seed. So, it seems to be yet another excuse for men to validate their poor choices.

Living in a world where everything is posted online for all to see creates another issue when it comes to cheating scandals. The blame is always being passed from one person to another and yet it tends to fall the most heavy on the mistress. In Levine’s cheating scandal many are blaming Sumner Stroh, who was the woman who he had the alleged affair with.

However, Stroh defends herself in a Tik Tok video, which has since been deleted, saying, “At the time, I was young, I was naive and, quite frankly, I feel exploited.”

It is a common theme for the mistress to come off as evil when frankly that isn’t necessarily the case. Men are aware that they are cheating and choose to throw away a relationship. The woman is not always aware that they are the “other woman” so it is unfair to put the blame on them completely. But it is also unfair to put the blame completely on men. There are two sides to every story and then there is the truth behind it all. The truth being anywhere from an unhappy relationship to an unhealthy partner.

Society needs to reevaluate the way we view relationships especially those in the public eye. There will always be things that don’t make it in print so we cannot place blame or make assumptions based on the minuscule knowledge we have been given. However, the world needs to be reminded that people are complex creatures that we only know so much about and we all have feelings that deserve to be respected.