Attending the Barbie movie has become a right of passage for women around the world this summer.
Millions of Barbie fans have been celebrating the movie by showing up to their local movie theaters dressed in elaborate pink outfits and sharing photos to social media.
Well, one 22-year-old woman took to the popular Am I the Asshole subreddit to share her story in a now-deleted post and asked if she's an asshole for canceling a Barbie movie date with her boyfriend because he refused to wear pink?
Here's the story in the woman's own words:
"The Barbie movie means a lot to me, l've been looking forward to this movie for so long. I've asked my boyfriend [who is 27 years old] to go to the cinema with me, both dressed in pink. It would show that he supports me, and it'd just be fun."
"He agreed to watch the movie with me, but not in pink. I told him wearing pink is minimum effort, [but] he says minimum effort is him coming along to the movie."
"I wanted to make a whole event out of it, take pics by the booth, etc. The pics would be for our eyes only, not social media... All of my friend's boyfriends did it, and even my dad and brother would... I'm not asking for a lot here, just a pink shirt or something. If my boyfriend asked me to wear those hats worn in Oppenheimer to the cinema, I would do it in a heartbeat."
"We've decided to cancel the date since the mood is already ruined. Despite what the title says, we've made this decision together... Am I the asshole for finding this unreasonable?"
Now, a lot of the commenters (most likely men) had a majority consensus that the woman was indeed the asshole.
"This is a post that could only be written by someone under 25. I would really encourage you to ask yourself why the demonstration of his love and care for you is wearing the color pink to a movie he’s already going to solely for you."
"Does he not show you he cares in any other way so you’re grasping at straws to prove his love in some way? Are you being unnecessarily dramatic and immature and attaching some meaning to this action that there doesn’t need to be?"
"She just sounds potentially spoiled. Either that or dressing up in themes is something she likes that her boyfriend doesn't. At least in LARP, he could dress how he wants to that fits the theme, but she's asking him to dress her way to fit the theme. And I don't remember a lot of Kens wearing pink so why is it so important that everything be pink just because it is in the movie?"
"Also, wearing a fedora that you would take off during the movie is a lot different than wearing a pink shirt or a pink outfit that you have to wear through the entire movie. Some guys don't like wearing pink. Some girls don't like wearing red or black or blue. So what? I think the original poster is the asshole."
On the other hand, user u/MeatBunBunny completely disagreed and believes the boyfriend needs to just suck it up!
Another user defended the woman canceling the date.
"The woman's boyfriend clearly wasn’t interested in going. He wasn’t interested in feigning enthusiasm for something she was clearly into, so canceling the date made sense."
Finally, user u/gcot802 made a fantastic analogy: "If he said, 'I would really like you to come to this sporting game that’s important to me and wear my team colors,' would that be shitty? Of course not."
This story and responses have been edited for clarity.