Spent NYE with some extended family of my best friend. We were talking about a recent theatre trip (The Crucible) when a really interesting exchange came up

Me: After the play ended we both had so much to say about it, we talked for the whole hour journey home

Friend’s Grandmother: It’s funny, that play made me break up with a boyfriend back in the 50s. We came out afterwards and I wanted to talk to him about all the themes and emotions, but he was apathetic and unresponsive. I asked what he had made of it and he said “I don’t know, it was a good play”. I knew I couldn’t be with a man who had nothing to say about that and wasn’t interested in what I had to say

Friend’s Mother: I broke up with an old boyfriend for the opposite reason. He said he liked movie dates because if you go to a movie you have something to talk about afterwards. Every date we went on was to see a movie and I realised that meant he wasn’t interested in talking to me or getting to know me, he just wanted company.

Friend’s female, college age cousin: (amused) My Boyfriend loves talking about movies after but he says I’m difficult because I’ve started looking things like whether the female characters are given time or whether they’re kind of token sex/ comfort for the dudes. He says I make everything into a feminist thing so he hates talking about movies with me hahaha

F’s Grandmother: Why are you with him if he hates talking to you?

It was such a fucking powerful statement and she did not blink about it. Cousin tried to laugh it off but you could see that internal cog-turning moment of huh he’s a dick