10 Reasons Why Men Cheat

The title of 10 Reasons Why Men Cheat (2022) is a misnomer. What writer-director Joseph A. Elmore Jr. labels as “reasons” are lame excuses that only serve to defend selfish behavior rather than address the underlying issues at hand.

Cheating consists of a lack of respect for the partnership and a yearning for something new. People cheat based on their personal desires and opportunities. You can’t justify it by listing out various subjective reasons. You can’t condense the complexity of human relationships into a Top Ten.

Elmore, however, is not interested in rationale so much as in rationalization — specifically something along the lines of “men don’t cheat on women, women make men cheat on women.”

Confirmed bachelor James (Keith Berry II) and his estranged former lover Jaguar St. Claire (LaToya Ward) cross paths at a wedding. This leads to much bickering as to whether he cheated on her, and if he did, why. James, presumably to curry favor with Jag, agrees to let her in on the reasons that men cheat.

He swears her to secrecy and resorts to euphemisms (e.g., “potato chips”) because “men can’t just openly talk about women and sex anymore. We can get into a lot of trouble for that shit with the MeToo movement and all that.” Especially when, by “openly talk about women and sex anymore,” he’s referring to a sort of passive-aggressive misogynistic discourse — every reason boils down to something women allegedly are or something women do or don’t do.

We learn that “a woman will pick one flavor of potato chip and that becomes all she ever eats.” A man can’t settle on one flavor of potato chip because “they all taste so good.” I’ve heard that before, but with ice cream instead of potato chips. This statement reduces women to a stereotype of being simplistic in their choices while portraying men as more complex and varied in their preferences. It fails to recognize the diversity and individuality of people regardless of gender.

The second reason is “nin...