- December 19, 2011 • 5:30 am PST
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This year, I asked some of my favorite writers to reveal their broken relationships to the world. For our "Dealbreakers" series, they investigated factors that ended their previous romantic affairs, discussing rifts as serious as an ex's racist fetish and as absurd as a one-night-stand's sexy tampon request.
Everybody has at least one Dealbreaker story in them—the best ones prod at the psychological hangups of both the writer and their former loves. Writing them isn't easy. I interviewed eight of my favorite Dealbreaker writers about their experience baring their relationship history. Here's what happens when you hang out your dirty laundry—and your ex sees it.

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TED's Taboo: What's Too Controversial for the Hipster Confab?
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Is it Time to 'Occupy Teach For America'?
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We both knew a lot about music, but even if I knew the answer, I’d never win a fight.
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We fiercely defend marriage even as we perpetually redefine it. This year was no exception.

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A look back at a year in which a Tunisian man lighting himself on fire resulted in a group of students being pepper sprayed in California.

I was 17 and Susan was 19, and no girl had ever needed anything from me before. I felt mature.

Before I met Harry, I didn’t draw much of a connection between my obsession with cupcakes and worldwide systems of oppression.

“Aren’t you, like, a broken man?” I asked, my hand protectively covering my lips. “Probably,” he conceded.

Whenever I’d ask Gordon a serious question, he’d start re-enacting a courtship scene from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

We didn’t know where our relationship would go from there, but we both knew we didn’t want a divorce.
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I feel I’m doing our crippled economy a favor by shooting for zero offspring. She wanted four.

That night, I took a tour of Craigslist, clicking at its blue links until they all turned purple. I read all of his ads. He did more than "hang out."
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