Skip to main content

Boyfriend Shaming

I'm so guilty. 



I've always been a bit of a boyfriend shamer. I shame people for having cute relationships and loving their boyfriends a little too much. I shame myself for loving my boyfriend even a little bit. I shame my boyfriend for being amazing. 

All of these things are wrong and I am so disgusted with myself. It makes no sense. 

I do not trust men. I've had this problem all of my life and I'm not sure where it came from. I have an incredible, loving father and grandfather. I had spectacular male role models growing up and today. But somehow I've been taught to never, ever, under any circumstances trust a man. In an effort to always keep my distance I shame. 

I'm constantly team break-up. Did he cheat on you? Break up with him. Did he lie? Break up with him. Oh he got you carnations instead of roses? Break up with him. I honestly consider breaking up with my boyfriend for the tiniest infractions. Sometimes even for what I think he might do someday. That's not fair and I know it. But I can't stop these feelings. I can't keep myself from punishing us both because of my fears and distrust. 

Am I the only crazy lady that acts this way? We live in a world where women are belittled and mistreated on the regular, and there are men who deserve to be directed to the left. As women we fight for the right to be heard and fairly treated. We battle the bad guys and what they stand for constantly. But there are good men, too. There are men that respect us and hold us in high regard. There are men that love with everything they have. There are men who deserve to be loved right back, appreciated, and – if they falter – forgiven. 

For all of you who know me well, I'm sure you've already told me that I need to lighten up, and be OK with being in love. It's uber difficult for me. But I'm going to try it. For every sabotaging thought, I'm going to replace it with admiration. I'm going to remember why Jersey Mike turns me all the way on and why I'm so impressed with him as a human being. Perhaps slowly I can trade from team break up to team give love a chance. 

*


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mrs. without the "r."

Of course I'm a feminist. Not that that needs explaining, but I absolutely believe in equal treatment and opportunities for both sexes.  But being a feminist doesn't mean I burn bras every Tuesday night. I still adhere to a number of not-so-feminist-friendly traditions. For example, I hate taking the trash out. That's a "man's" job. I take the trash out when I must, but if I can ask Jersey Mike to do it , well that's just 10 times better. Typically, for me, a man's job is any job I don't want to do.  Maybe that's not quite a tradition (more me leaning on societal norms to feed my laziness). But there's one tradition that, growing up, I always thought I'd be fine:  Taking my husband's last name.  My mother kept her maiden name when she married my father. She was born a Shute and felt that shouldn't have to change just because she found a cool guy to spend her life with. Growing up it wasn't confusing for me u...

Cold War Kids iHeart Radio Album Release Party - My Quick Opinions

I've seen the Cold War Kids twice now, and my favorite thing about seeing them is they love to let people see them for free in Los Angeles. A free show is always the right idea. This time I got to see them at the iHeart Radio stage in Burbank, California. It's a very cool space, and the staff is super nice. Part of this iHeart Radio streaming party was a line of questioning from iHeart Radio personality. It was cool to hear lead singer Nathan Willett talk about his love for Los Angeles and desire to use their new album, LA Divine,  to set the record straight about the city's perception. He told Billboard the album is "the best version of what [they've] always done," and I agree. There's nothing particularly outstanding about the new album. There's no new, adventurous sound. The freshest thing about LA Divine is the effect the tumultuous year that was 2016 had on the lyrics. For example, Nathan told an amazing story about an art piece in New ...

The music died with Prince today

Today I had a breakdown at work. Like a damn fool.  I had a horrible night, woke up exhausted, and decided to remain unplugged until I got to work. I wanted to take the morning slowly.  I arrived at the office, sat down in my first meeting and heard "I'm just so sad about the news. We're going to write a few things about Prince today, Doriean are you able to do that?"  So I'm sitting there like a dumbass asking "What happened?" Then it hit me. Maybe that wasn't the flu that caused Prince's plane to land suddenly last week. Maybe something was really wrong.  Because he's gone.  So then I'm listening to my assignments, trying to wrap my brain around selecting the best Prince songs (impossible). I'm talking like nothing is happening but tears are streaming. My editor asks if I need a minute and I run to the bathroom and bawl like an infant.  I've been trying to listen to music all day. But nothing compa...