Being in a relationship is great, but most loved-up people will tell you it's still so important to maintain friendships with those outside the relationship - after all, there's absolutely nothing better than having a good old catch up and a gossip with your mates.
One woman feels exactly the same, so although she's been in a relationship for a number of months now, she always makes a special effort to make time for her friends.
Most recently, she offered to host a girls' night in at her house, which sounds innocent enough. And yet, when she told her boyfriend what she was getting up to, she was unprepared for the onslaught of abuse she would receive.
"We don't live together but we do meet at my place every weekend. He called and asked what we will be doing on Friday and I said I wanted to host a GNI since it was my turn. He asked what the heck was a GNI, and I explained a girls night in," the woman explained on Reddit's AITA forum.
"He got quiet then asked if I was being series. I was confused as he started talking about how outdated and so 1950s those events are and said that I should stop promoting and advocating for those events as they are so toxic and flat out reek of misogyny."
The woman was left feeling completely baffled by her boyfriend's comments and said she still planned to host the event, despite him trying to talk her out of it. The man even suggested that he and some of his guy mates should come along, but the woman refused, reminding him that's not how girls' night works.
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"He called me a sexist and misogynistic for having a girls night in and making it so obvious instead of being ashamed of myself. He said that my mentality will cause me issues in the future especially if I behave like that in a professional work setting," she continued.
"I was blown away by how he got so worked up like that over me just missing my girls and wanting to spend time with them. We argued some more and he hung up on me after I said I will not stop hosting or being part of GNIs no matter what he says about it."
However, once everything calmed down, the woman decided to call her boyfriend to apologise for lashing out, and in response she received a series of texts from her boyfriend saying how 'hurt' he was about how she handled their 'disagreement.' He even said he "needs time to process what he just found out about [his girlfriend's] personality."
"This hurt me but my friendship and the bond I share with my girlfriends is huge and I don't want to risk years of friendships by no longer being part of our bonding activities," the woman explained, before turning to Reddit to question whether she was right to refuse to put an end to her girls' nights.
One Reddit user commented: "How is girls night sexist?? No offence but you've said that you've only been dating a couple of months and he throws a tantrum over you not picking him over spending time with your friends. That's a red flag."
"Couples in romantic relationships are allowed to have interests and friendships outside of the romantic relationship," another added: "He sounds very controlling. Don’t let him isolate you from your friends."
A third wrote: Coming from a man, run away from this boy. Flipping out about a girl's night or needing me time or any time separate from him is a huge red flag and shows how clingy and controlling he will be down the line."
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