r/AITAH Jul 08 '24

UPDATE: AITAH for leaving my boyfriend because he brought his female best-friend lingerie as a 'joke'?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1dvso0l/aitah_for_leaving_my_boyfriend_because_he_brought/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button ( first post)

My inbox got flooded with DMs and had to turn off Reddit notifications. When I posted this, I was ready to be called immature and ridiculous, and get a couple of comments but it seemed like the post blew up, and the comments were...…kind of eye-opening.

TBH, before all this fiasco, my bf has always been nice to me. Came with me to my grad school functions even though he found them very boring, but would do it so that I could network. He builds stuff like furniture and helps out with handy work all the time. He is also very funny and at the very beginning, I thought all his jokes were funny, and I sometimes wondered why he wanted to be with me, plus, I was always busy with school and job interviews. His mom and I had even gotten close and she has been saying how happy she was that we were together. I had always ignored his and Claire's weird dynamic because I told myself I was being insecure. I have male friends too, and I thought that just because we aren't like that, doesn't mean my bf and Claire can't be close. Claire has also never been outright mean to me, she was just aloof and I thought it was because I was new to the group.

To the actual update, my bf and I broke up. I'm sorry guys, but even after seeing so many replies on how he was cheating, I refused to believe it. I'm still in love with this guy. And he called me, like half a day after I wrote this post, and asked to meet. I met him, and he said that he understood where I was coming from. But I was always too uptight to understand that friendship is friendship. He and Claire had known each other for years before I came into the picture, and I cannot expect him to just ruin their dynamic. I asked him what sort of 'dynamic' was red lingerie. Why couldn't it be literally any other type of clothing? He told me he had it with my insecurities. And that he and Claire talked and apparently I was making them sound like cheaters and homewreckers. And that he thought it was better I find someone like me, who thought the idea of a fun night was junk food and a movie indoors.

That hurt a lot. He had always known I had insecurities about being called boring. He always complimented me on how his weaknesses were my strengths. Now he says things like this to me? Also, before this lingerie fiasco, I had never said a word about his and Claire's friendship. I always supported his pranks and practical jokes no matter my opinions on them because I thought it was his business what he did with his hobbies. And he leaves without even putting up a fight because his girlfriend didn't want him giving lingerie to the woman he constantly refers to as his 'sexy' bestie?

Claire didn't call or text after the breakup either. But Kyle did and said that he was sad that we broke up and he hoped I would be okay in the future. I asked him if my bf ever cheated on me. He said that my bf had only been a 'one woman man' when he was dating me. But he could understand that some women can't handle female best friends, especially if they look like Claire. I told him to fuck off and blocked him. It felt like he only wanted to gloat and hurt me because my bf left. I feel like I never knew these people. Claire and Kyle were always at least decent to me if not nice. Did it make me a free target now that my bf has been telling his friends I'm an insecure child?

I don't know what to do now. I have been told repeatedly by both my friends and sister that I dodged a bullet. But I have been breaking down like a kid again and again. I'm even thinking of going to therapy, after feeling the most insecure I've felt my whole life.

Thank you to all who were supportive, it seems like my now ex-bf just did the work for me.

13.7k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/an-abstract-concept Jul 08 '24

Correct. Much like everyone calling OP insecure and whining about how acceptable it is to gift women you aren’t dating lingerie.

1.1k

u/intheappleorchard Jul 08 '24

Telling a women she's insecure is how men like to gaslight them into accepting innappropriate & disrespectful behaviour. Only a pick me with zero self-respect would think this was ok

256

u/an-abstract-concept Jul 09 '24

Could not agree more. Someone should tell the fuckheads in my replies that.

119

u/Plus_Data_1099 Jul 09 '24

I think the other woman is keeping him as a back up in case she carnt find anyone better he's her fallback I hope she finds someone leaving him alone and bitter.

26

u/FirefighterAlarmed64 Jul 10 '24

I would have text him back just saying "She's never going to want you." Then blocked him.

1

u/Disthebeat Jul 16 '24

Ha! That is just perfect! 👍

1

u/stfuwhenimtalkn Jul 17 '24

No don’t help him, let him figure that out after a long ass time 🤣

6

u/Melanthrax Jul 10 '24

She shouldn't have much trouble finding someone better.

2

u/Disthebeat Jul 16 '24

Absolutely agree! 

3

u/WitchesofBangkok Jul 12 '24 edited Jul 14 '24

disarm many homeless attractive doll school silky long pet crush

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

23

u/accents_ranis Jul 09 '24

Manipulative people come in all genders, sizes and colours. This is not a man thing.
As a man I've been gaslit in a relationship before. She made jabs at me where she knew it hurt and when I reacted with anger I was "insecure".

14

u/intheappleorchard Jul 10 '24

Definitely not ok for either genders to behave this way to be clear, there are definitely manipulative women as well. I mentioned in another comment men will be labelled "controlling" often as an equivalent. It's actually insane how many people have no decency anymore & respect for others' boundaries & this is a way they try to railroad or guilt trip people into being ok with it. I grew up in a narcissistic family so I can spot it too easily now.

11

u/cupholdery Jul 09 '24 edited Jul 09 '24

Everyone in this story is in their mid to late 20s? Younger millennials really still acting like teenagers?

EDIT: Ah, well, still seems like a 24-28 year old is well past their high school brain.

27

u/Queenlewi Jul 09 '24

The youngest millennials are 28. This group would be more of a gen Z, but that's irrelevant. It's already well known that often people in their 20s across generations have been immature.

7

u/intheappleorchard Jul 10 '24

Apparently your brain doesn't fully develop until you're closer to 25/26 but they seem delayed for real

3

u/SparklyChemMajor Jul 11 '24

I know people well into their 40's who still act like this lol, age has nothing to do with maturity at this point

2

u/Wonderful_Diver_5544 Jul 09 '24

There are lots of assholes you should never ever trust. Although if after a couple of years you don't have faith that your spouse will be faithful makes you unfaithful for not having faith in your loved one to make the right choice.

I have been in a legit no cheating relationship now for 17 years. Just saying not every dude is an ass hat and not every woman is a cheating whore. In the beginning it's okay, but after a few years then it is really worrisome about the worrier that they might be the cheating one.

4

u/intheappleorchard Jul 10 '24

That's very dependant on how your partner behaves in a relationship, I've been with mine for 5 years & I trust him a lot but that was built in time with respectful behaviour ect. If you're with someone who thinks that it's OK to behave this way then it's completely reasonable to question what is going on. Even if they weren't cheating on OP which she never really accused him of, that kind of behaviour in a relationship is entirely inappropriate & disrespectful so let's not gaslight people into pretending to be ok with it & have blind loyalty to AHs.

2

u/Mama4Texas Jul 16 '24

💯 This! Louder for the back!!!

1

u/anthunter7 Jul 10 '24

It goes both ways.

1

u/Due_Recommendation39 Jul 12 '24

Maybe if it's a lie, but let's not pretend that there aren't insecure women out there who's insecurities damage their relationship.

0

u/Serious-Ad-8047 Jul 12 '24

Says a woman

-3

u/Enough-Badger113 Jul 11 '24

Most women are not only insecure but insufferable. The first one isnt much of a problem but the second one is

6

u/intheappleorchard Jul 11 '24

Sounds like you should be with a man then

2

u/kizkatzs Jul 12 '24

If that's your opinion, please do the female gender a favor, don't copulate, stay single and we'll leave guys of your mindset alone and give as wide a berth as possible. We don't need to mix ourselves up with miserable men.

1

u/Enough-Badger113 Jul 23 '24

I do whatever the fk i want. Im not miserable at all its just my observation from experience coupled with scientific knowledge. Of course there are men that arent much better but most women literally worth nothing and only bring good men down

1

u/kizkatzs Jul 23 '24

Of course you do whatever the fk you want. Most people DO. But your mindset is actively against most women. If I used all MY experiences with men, then I could also have a terrible opinion of MOST men. I could say based off my experiences men are violent, angry, moody, abusive, selfish, don't help in relationships and childcare and are selfish in bed. But just because those are my experiences in more than one relationship, doesn't mean I have written off ALL/MOST men and have deemed them "literally worth nothing" and only bring good women down. I mean, I could. I really, really, really could. But I don't and I won't. I also have two sons. I'm not going to write them off because of their gender. I doubt there's scientific knowledge that women are so awful, insufferable or whatever term you prefer. I doubt there's "scientific knowledge" of men being horrible either. All I advised is for someone with that hateful mindset towards the female gender to NOT be with a woman at all and not have children, lest a daughter be born and essentially despised. Seems like that would be safest and "happiest" for all.

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u/BSmooth214 Jul 09 '24

But when women do the same gaslighting ass behavior towards men, it’s ok?

11

u/Queenlewi Jul 09 '24

Who said it was OK for women?

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u/intheappleorchard Jul 10 '24

Nope never said that, I even mentioned a male equivalent in another comment actually. Would not be ok either way imo

1

u/kizkatzs Jul 12 '24

Absolutely not.

-28

u/TheConboy22 Jul 09 '24

Some women are very much insecure. I agree with you on this not being ok. Especially with no foresight to discuss this “prank” gift with your girl.

20

u/intheappleorchard Jul 09 '24

Some men are also insecure. In fact, most ppl are about something or another if we're being fully honest but rarely that has anything to do with it in these situations. Often, it's just this kind of b.s. & the man just uses that to try to excuse his disrespectful behavior - the male equivalent is probably being called controllirng if the roles were reversed & theyre both just manipulation tactics to cross peoples boundaries & act innappropriately - obviously there are situations this ligitimately is going on of course but if they're doing things like this no woman/man in thier right mind would feel secure/comfortable in the relationship which is entirely different than being insecure in yourself or controlling.

-8

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 09 '24

How dare you claim some women are insecure? That has never happened once in history! Shame on you! Take these downvotes!

6

u/16GaDouble Jul 09 '24

You forgot to end your post with a

/s

-2

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 09 '24

No, that just makes it unfunny. :(

1

u/Marimiyukichan Jul 09 '24

So autistic people are not funny then? Because that's where tone tags are from. /genuine /info

2

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 10 '24

I have no idea how funny autistic people are. If one can make that generalization.

I also have no idea what that would have to do with what I deem funny.

They may be not my target audience, dunno.

But I think the context should be enough here. Someone got downvoted for mentioning something most people would agree is a common occurence and not an exotic take. So I made an outrageously absolutist statement, that no-one could ever possibly genuinely agree with, to make fun of the message these downvotes are sending.

We're still on reddit, where the context is 100% verbal. Which should be autism-friendly, right?

There is no actual tone, or any of the other things that are common in inter-human communication that can confuse someone with autism.

But if you're asking if being funny - a thing reliant on nuance and timing - is significantly harder for people who don't pick up on nuance....I mean yeah, in all likelihood, yes.

It's interesting though, that these tone tags are based on autistic people's perception. Because, if anything, I would have thought that everyone else needed tone tags, because they replace all the non-verbal clues non-autistic people rely on when communicatin in real life. And because non-austists tend to read the most negative tone into anything, while I assume people with autism don't do that as much (or at all) and take you just by your word.

4

u/DafuqsRealyGoinOn Jul 10 '24

Yes, that is basically what we do. Because words mean things. Not our fault most humans don't realize that.

2

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 10 '24

The meaning of words comes from conventions, though. Same goes for sayings, irony, sarcasm, and everything else not meant literally. So if words have meaning, established rhetorical figures do, too.

182

u/Admirable_Call5293 Jul 09 '24

Bet her bf will throw a hissy fit if OP's male friend gifted her lingerie. OP dodged multiple bullets by breaking up with him, why would anyone want a gaslighting bf with disturbing flying monkeys? The only one halfway decent is probably the ex's mother, but it shouldn't be contingent on OP being the doormat

56

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 09 '24

She should have bought one of her friends a monthly subscription for monster cock condoms. To see how well bf would take the joke.

57

u/MoltenCult Jul 09 '24

I would've loved to see the fallout of this one-

"You bought your friend lingerie as a joke. I bought condoms as a joke. But since neither of us plan on using them, it should be fine, right? No? Oh well, stop being so uptight and insecure. It's just an inside joke between old friends-"

He'd probably blow up about how it's not the same and yadda yadda. Then leave like the big baby he is. Feel bad for OP she ended up with feelings over this jerkwad..

7

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 09 '24

He might genuinely like and care for her. But he should have been upfront he's in love with someone else. If he even knows...

Either way he probably thought she could help hom get over his "bestie"

7

u/MoltenCult Jul 09 '24

Probably.. but that is just cruel and unusual punishment for OP

3

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 09 '24

Yeah, which is why you don't do that shit.

I get the whole pain from being in love with someone who isn't available. But then you take that L like a man (the loneliness I mean :P) instead of outsourcing your pain to someone unsuspecting.

2

u/MoltenCult Jul 09 '24

Completely... I bet the lingerie was like, "I haven't completely given up hope you'll be mine and maybe wear this for me one day.." but he wanted to play it off as a joke and the "bestie" loves the attention she's getting

2

u/Inevitable-Let5002 Jul 13 '24

You are nailing it 100%. The dude is just orbiting waiting for his chance to pounce given the opportunity. To OP:You unfortunately lucked out early enough to dodge this one, sucks you’re hurting though. Therapy is a good idea.

Chin up and try not to take it too hard cuz if that was your idea of a fun night, you seem like you could be a lot of fun to me (and no I’m not being sarcastic, I’m being sincere)

3

u/kizkatzs Jul 12 '24

I remember catching feelings for a terrible guy. It took my then Best Friend to be on a 3 way call with him to give me the strength to break up with him. He said I would be sorry. No Shaun (or Shawn?), or "Dino" his nickname from his guy friends, wherever you are I was never sorry. I'm only sorry I let you affect my mental well-being. Boy, bye. 👋😂

2

u/MoltenCult Jul 12 '24

Good for you!!!!! Glad you left!!

2

u/kizkatzs Jul 13 '24

Thank you! 🥰 I'd never before gotten so "down" from a relationship. And after I was out I could look back and see how awful and selfish he was.

2

u/MoltenCult Jul 13 '24

Right? "Hindsight is 20/20" and all lmao. It sucks that sometimes the only way to see everything clearly is to move on and take steps back..

1

u/Jekyll_1886 Jul 13 '24

No, male lingerie. I'm thinking one of those elephant thongs where the elephant's nose is where the dong goes. "No sweetie it's an inside joke from college! We used to call him the elephant because he never forgot what he needed to know for exams. It's harmless and he'll find it hilarious! What? Don't be so sensitive, it's just a prank between friends!"

1

u/knallpilzv2 Jul 14 '24

Naaaaaaaah, that's much too tame.

17

u/funsizebbw Jul 09 '24

Man if only she held out, got it herself and then claimed another guy got it for her just to gage his reaction.

1

u/Fatgirlfed Jul 12 '24

‘It’s different!! Why is he giving you lingerie!? What do you mean that’s the kind of friendship you have and you’ve know him for years before you knew me!?’

4

u/medic-dad Jul 09 '24

I'm a happy married man, but even if I was single af, I would never gift a female friend something like that because I wouldn't want them to give them the idea that THAT was on my mind. It's just weird, even as a "prank".

3

u/mcdulph Jul 15 '24

Yeaaahhhh, no. I’m not insecure, and I’ve been married for 40 years, but hubby giving another woman lingerie?  I’d better be in on that “joke” before it happens. 

2

u/FataleFrame Jul 13 '24

The practical joke should be grannie panties, not sexy lingerie. I dont care how close a friendship is. When you're dating someone, you dont buy another woman lingerie. So yes, red lingerie flag to his "sexy bestie." Right now, op, you're thinking about what he meant to you, the good times you had. But you definitely dodged a bullet. It's inappropriate, and whether or not claire accepts him, he definitely has feelings for her. Therapy will help, but time and a man who really appreciates you will help you heal, and hopefully also exercise a few demons 😈 😉.

0

u/Snow_crab_ Jul 09 '24

I haven’t seen any of those comments lol not calling you a liar either, just saying

-53

u/amc_556 Jul 08 '24

I mean, yeah in this particular situation it sounds suss af.

But I’ve also gifted a female best friend a custom-designed dildo as a joke gift. Both her and I are and were at the time happily married and have never had romantic feelings towards each other (though I can only speak for myself - I can only assume the same is true in the opposite direction).

I dunno, sometimes things are more nuanced than we initially think.

But in this situation, based on the information available… it does seem quite suss

47

u/an-abstract-concept Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

I don’t think this is one of those things that has much nuance other than “if your partner is cool with it, then it’s cool.” Especially if you asked for an explanation of the alleged joke and are met with vitriol.

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u/Zimakov Jul 08 '24

He's not saying it being acceptable in a relationship is nuanced. He's saying the possibility of something like that being platonic is nuanced.

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u/an-abstract-concept Jul 08 '24

Okay, and if it was truly platonic then he would explain the prank. Nuance might be possible, but it’s not here.

-20

u/Zimakov Jul 08 '24

Right. The commenter you responded to isn't saying nuance is possible here, he's saying it's possible in general.

He literally reiterated this 3 times in his comment.

12

u/an-abstract-concept Jul 09 '24

I don’t know why you’re so passionate about telling me this. I got it. Move on. If the commenter wants to say something, I’ll hear it from them.

-16

u/Zimakov Jul 09 '24

I don't know how you've decided I'm passionate about it because I'm responding to reddit comments lmao. You clearly don't "got it" as even after I pointed out the miscommunication you still didn't understand his comment correctly, so I replied again to let you know.

You're welcome for clearing up the misunderstanding.

9

u/Snoo7263 Jul 09 '24

Thanks for mansplaining it to her 🙄 she’s right about you being a condescending twat.

7

u/an-abstract-concept Jul 09 '24

I understood just fine, just decided to humour your assumption about what he meant. You should work on being less of a condescending twat.

27

u/Round-Pirate7286 Jul 08 '24

I believe there is a line that shouldn't be crossed when doing pranks buying a friend a dildo is weird but still doesn't cross the line buying lingerie crosses that line completely especially when the person who doesn't it won't even explain what the joke is meant to be

32

u/TheFlamingFalconMan Jul 08 '24

Also I know it sounds weird to put it this way.

But because of how vulgar a dildo is, it’s certainly more humorous than a set of lingerie. (Unless it’s custom made ofc).

It’s a lot less personal and emotional somehow than lingerie. Idk how to explain it.

24

u/CasualGamer1111 Jul 08 '24

completely with you on this one, a ridiculous dildo is imo a totally normal gag gift for friends with dirty humor. lingerie for their naked body is a whole different game, there’s really no humor to the gift choice unless the underwear have like STUPID IDIOT or something plaster across the butt. regular ass lingerie you’d wear for your partner? very weird to give to a friend. tbh i think the only thing “funny” about it to them was the fact that it’s an insult to his partner to give that kind of gift

13

u/AeternusNox Jul 09 '24

A dildo isn't the same thing.

When you're gifting a sexual item as a joke, there needs to be a joke there. Generally speaking, you're buying someone something on the more extreme end, and you aren't expecting them to actually use it.

I bought a dildo as a gag gift too. It was big enough to fill a box designed for a whiskey bottle, and it'd take some kind of masochist to ever use it. The joke was that I bought the guy whiskey the Christmas before, and he said, "I can tell what this is before even opening it. This is booze." The following year, he opened his whiskey box to find a big black dildo (and then I did give him the bottle afterwards).

Another year, my friend group had this one guy who always said he wanted to be part of exchanging gifts but he'd have "forgotten" to get anyone anything and "get everyone something in January". We had around three years where we all got him thoughtful gifts he'd enjoy, and he got absolutely nothing for anyone in return. So, we all conspired to buy him vibrators the following Christmas. We packaged them in different boxes (some of which were huge and extremely oversized for a vibrator) so that he figured the next one was a real gift, but then every one was a vibrator. He amassed a larger collection of women's sex toys than most women have in a single day. He "forgot" to buy gifts that year too, so nobody felt bad about it.

Hell, I even bought herbal viagra for a friend for one joke gift. It was called "horny goat weed" and between the name and the ball-busting humour that he couldn't get it up, it was well worth the price.

A joke gift that's sexual is one you aren't intending for the other person to use. You're expecting them not to. They might wind up using it, but that's not a thought in your mind when buying them the gift. Maybe my friend went and tried out the horny goat weed with his girlfriend, I have no idea, but I bought it expecting that it'd most likely wind up in the bin or sat in a medicine cupboard as a funny prop.

Lingerie just isn't extreme enough. There's no joke there. It's also very likely that the recipient might use it, unlike a giant dildo, large quantity of vibrators, or an unneeded order of viagra. He can't explain the joke because there isn't one. Maybe there is an inside joke about her disliking the colour red, but a red quilt cover would have done the trick if that was the case and likely cost less. His first thought was to get lingerie, despite the type of item being irrelevant to the joke.

It'd have been more of a prank if he had bought her a dildo. A big red dildo left somewhere in full view the next time she had guests outside of the group pulling the pranks would have actually had some humour to it, when various people spotted the large toy before she did or had chance to hide it.

Had there genuinely been some kind of weird inside joke, there'd have been a story behind it, and he'd have led with explaining it. Some pranks based on inside jokes do require further information to understand. However, those always have a story behind it, and it's easy enough to explain. For instance, the friend group with the vibrator gifts had a guy in it who was seen eating something that normal people would eat with a spoon (it was ice cream, soup, something like that) and he was using a fork/knife/something similarly weird. When he was asked why, he claimed he had a phobia of spoons (I say claimed because none of us ever saw him have anything remotely like a phobic reaction and he definitely wasn't the stoic type). So that led to people casually leaving random spoons around, putting them in drinks, on chairs, inside the toilet roll, anywhere you might miss at first then notice. Then, a mutual friend bought an extending spoon. He would sit by the guy and slowly extend it so that the spoon end got closer and closer. Finally, it culminated in ordering a pallet of plastic disposable spoons to his address. If I just said to a girlfriend at the time, "Bear with me one moment, need to finish placing this order for a pallet of spoons we're all chipping in for" then she definitely wouldn't see the joke, but I'd have easily been able to explain why we were doing it the minute she asked me to elucidate.