“He wanted to go through every Marvel movie for me to tell him what they were about and prove to him that I have watched them and that I remember them,” his girlfriend explained.
(Picture: Getty Images)Sometimes couples fight over silly things, like who emptied the dishwasher last. Other times, they fight over things that prove they shouldn’t be a couple at all — as proven by a recent Reddit thread.
In a new “AITA” post, (an acronym for “Am I the A**hole?”), one man’s desperate girlfriend turned to Reddit to ask: “AITA for for calling my boyfriend a gatekeeper?” The general consensus was no — she was very much not.
In the post, which was shared to viral Twitter account @AITA_reddit, the woman explains why she and her boyfriend are fighting: In short, she didn’t love Black Widow, for which her boyfriend believed her to be in the wrong. By his logic, she simply hadn’t seen enough Marvel films to really “get it.” Except, she had, prior to their meeting — a fact which he refused to accept.
AITA for calling my bf a gatekeeper? https://t.co/MP5hLZ2wvt pic.twitter.com/TCkMHCmMc4
— Am I the Asshole? (@AITA_reddit) July 19, 2021
The boyfriend then began quizzing his girlfriend on Marvel films, forcing her to “prove” her knowledge of having “really” seen them — because simply viewing them wasn’t enough, apparently.
“He wanted to go through every Marvel movie for me to tell him what they were about and prove to him that I have watched them and that I remember them, because even if I watched them, if I don’t remember small details it means that I haven’t REALLY watched them,” she wrote. “I told him he sounds like a gatekeeper by telling me that I can’t comment on the movie or that I can’t dislike it because I don’t meet his standards of what it means to REALLY watch a Marvel movie. I explained that the timeline and the character relationships are not difficult to understand, I can connect the dots when watching the movies, it’s not rocket science.”
Offended that he’d been deemed a “gatekeeper,” the boyfriend decided to sleep on the couch. Desperate, she turned to read and penned the aforementioned thread. By the time the @AITA_reddit twitter caught wind of it, however, she had already posted an update: They had broken up.
You really, really, really don’t need to see all the Marvel movies to watch Loki. So glad she dumped this dude. pic.twitter.com/fT5Yr3yqQz
— Jen (@such_hockey_wow) July 19, 2021
“Well, I think my 2-year relationship is really over because of Black Widow. I sat him down to have a conversation but just kept getting defensive. Thank you for your responses and I’ll have to figure out how tf [sic] I’m going to move out.”
Twitter, understandably frustrated by said gatekeeping boyfriend, was grateful to hear he had become an ex, while others addressed how problematic gatekeeping is in general — in or out of relationships.
Her: I enjoyed the movie, but identified some plot issues.
— Jane Lebak (@JaneLebak) July 19, 2021
Him: That's because you didn't understand the Easter Eggs. You must now watch 50 hours of movies while I reprogram you to believe what I believe and punish you for disagreeing.
(Easter eggs don't solve plot problems.)
It’s the same thing as when you say you don’t like a TV show because you tried watching the first season and thought it was boring and then someone’s like “well, actually it’s great because in season 3-“. No. I don’t need to sit through all 100 seasons to have a basic opinion.
— Ulli 🖤 (@ullifo) July 19, 2021
And like, there's a billion comic series. No one can have been into them all equally. My spouse knows more about Iron Man and Captain America and I know more about the X-Men and Black Panther. We overlap on Thor and Dr. Strange.
— many bells down (@many_bells_down) July 19, 2021
Even self-proclaimed “geeky nerds” came to woman’s defence — no one should or can be expected to remember every minor detail of every major film or series.
Yeah.
— Cristy Blue (@alexandrinacleo) July 19, 2021
It's different if you're talking like Lord of the Rings or any specific Star Wars trilogy, you can expect people to watch in order. But if there are MANY YEARS between first and last movie, you have to admit that even a fan might forget details.
But he wasn't gatekeeping! He was <insert definition of gatekeeping>, okay!?
— The 387th Amo, but the best one (@Amo387) July 19, 2021
It seems this man has (gate)kept himself single. Hopefully his Marvel knowledge will serve as an adequate companion moving forward.
We (thankfully) aren’t asked to weigh in on the merits of this relationship. Still, who’s the A-hole?
— Donut Interns (@DonutInterns) July 19, 2021
And for what it’s worth: 97 percent of 12,185 votes determined that the boyfriend was, indeed, the A**hole.
