Woman Dragged For Calling Boyfriend's Lack of Handiwork Skills Embarrassing

The internet criticized a woman who called her boyfriend's lack of "handyman" skills "embarrassing."

Posting in Reddit's "Am I The A**hole" (AITA) forum on Wednesday under the username u/housework1998, the woman's boyfriend shared that he does "practically all the chores around the house." However, much to the disappointment of his girlfriend, being a "handyman" is the one thing he "can't do."

The post has garnered more than 10,000 upvotes and over 800 comments from Redditors who slammed the girlfriend's "outdated" concept of gender roles.

On its website, Planned Parenthood defined gender roles as "how we're expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex."

"For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold," the organization continued.

On the topic of "domestic behaviors," Planned Parenthood said women are often expected to "take care of the children, cook, and clean the home," while men are expected to "take care of finances, work on the car, and do the home repairs."

Of course, these expectations can be harmful, "because they don't allow people to fully express themselves and their emotions" and can cause "unequal and unfair treatment."

In u/housework1998's home, he handles the more traditionally "feminine" domestic tasks. However, it seems his girlfriend would like him to take on the more "masculine" tasks as well.

At the beginning of his post, the man explained that he works from home and that his job is "relaxed and doesn't require [him] to be glued to the screen." His girlfriend, on the other hand, works a "stressful customer service job."

"In the 2 years we've been living together, I do practically all the chores around the house and I try to treat her like a queen when she comes back home," the man wrote. "However, the one thing I can't do is be a handyman no matter how easy the task is."

So, when he noticed the hinge on their bathroom door needed replacing a few months back, he called a friend for help. Unfortunately, this decision became a topic of conversation at a recent outing with his girlfriend and her parents.

"Last week during lunch with her parents, I asked her dad about the project he was working on (he does woodworking as a hobby). He showed me the progress on his phone and suggested I should help him with the last touches," he wrote. "My girlfriend told him that I can't even replace door hinges let alone help with that. Her mom said that every man should know how to fix things around the house and her husband agreed with her."

The boyfriend said he spent the rest of the meal feeling like a "failure," and when he brought it up to his girlfriend afterward, she sided with her parents.

"She said that they were right because it was embarrassing that I need to call a friend to help with something trivial," the man recalled.

The two went back and forth but finally, the man told his girlfriend that he'd work on being her family's "version of a man," and said he'd stop doing household chores.

"The only thing that I would keep doing is taking the trash out and grocery shopping. So I could focus my time and effort on becoming a man," the boyfriend concluded.

Redditors praised u/housework1998's response and dragged his girlfriend for trying to impose these "outdated gender roles" onto him.

"NTA [not the a**hole]—and I'm about to pull up with some petty s**t as a woman, but you should hit her with the 'since I do all the housework, I've decided you make a s**t woman and you need to step up to the man or woman plate. Your choice of which, but right now you're neither,'" wrote u/PICKLESnBILLITH. "That gendered thinking is a deal-breaker. Do you identify as a man?? Then you are man enough."

"NTA. Your response was perfect & if she complains about that, I would remind her that according to her family, a woman's job is cooking & cleaning & laundry & that she is a huge disappointment. Finish that off by telling her that she is quite embarrassing for you," said u/peoplearejerks69.

"It's s**tty your gf would belittle you like that. Gendered roles are dumb and outdated," commented u/urbanworldbuilder.

"Being a man doesn't mean you have to be good at this stuff. Being a woman doesn't imply you are only good for housework and childbearing. How antiquated and useless is that?" asked u/Sad_Swordfish9291.

Newsweek has reached out to u/housework1998 for comment.

Other AITA posters to go viral recently include a teen who confronted her half-sister for making "jokes" about her dead mom, a woman who filed a noise complaint against a single mom and a woman who delayed her husband's plans to go back to work.