Woman Breaks Up With Boyfriend After He Refuses To Buy Her Tampons — 'I'm Not Going To Embarrass Myself, I'm Watching The Game'
His proposed solution was to accompany her to the store to buy them herself instead.
Canva Photo Team, Keira Burton via Canva It's no secret that we seem to moving backwards as a society in so many unsettling ways, but it seems we're also moving backwards in the dumbest ways possible too — like men once again refusing to buy their wives and girlfriends' period products.
It may seem hard to believe that all the way in 2023, some men are still afraid of a box of cotton and cardboard, but that seems to be the case — and for one woman online it's led her to just call it quits on her relationship entirely.
She ended her long-term relationship when her boyfriend refused to buy her tampons.
Of course, there aren't really any reasons at all for a man to be unwilling to buy tampons besides perhaps being trapped under something heavy and being unable to move, but you get the picture.
Lots of men are not particularly comfortable buying them, and that's understandable — most men don't even understand how periods work, let alone how to buy tampons. But being full-on unwilling to even go buy them while your girlfriend is doubled over in physical pain? That's a whole other story.
But that's what one woman on Reddit received from her boyfriend when she asked him to help her out — after he offered to help when she told him she wasn't feeling well, no less.
Her boyfriend suggested they go to the store together to buy tampons instead... which of course makes no sense.
The woman wrote that she was hesitant to even ask because he's so frequently unwilling to help her out anyway. But, she "decided to just give it a shot and ask if he could run to the store since it's about a two-minute drive from his place to grab the items for me."
That way, it would save her time as she prepared to stay the night at his house while also dealing with the sickness that comes with periods for many women. She even tried to make it easy on him, offering to send him both money and photos of exactly what she needed and exactly where to get them.
But even that wasn't good enough for him. "He chuckles and said 'yeah no we can just go together to grab those things.'" It would make no sense for her to go with him, so she said no thanks — and when she confronted him about it later things got even more ridiculous.
Her boyfriend refused to buy her tampons because he was in the middle of watching sports.
"I asked him...why didn't he wanna grab the items for me after he asked if he could help me," she wrote. "He answers, 'I'm not going to embarrass myself. We could have grabbed it together. Besides, I didn't wanna get up I was in the middle of a game.'"
There are, of course, two major problems here. One, being embarrassed by buying tampons is more along the lines of a 12-year-old boy than a grown man of 28 years old. Sure, it's a personal product for a personal issue but it's also an issue shared by nearly every woman on the planet. It's not really any different than going to get her, say, cold medicine, and if you can't handle it, you probably shouldn't be dating women in the first place.
More important, of course, is the lack of willingness. You're "in the middle of a game"? That's not really a valid reason to not show up for your partner in their moment of need — especially when you asked how you could help them!
Unsurprisingly, his girlfriend seemed to feel similarly. She writes, "After hearing this I ended things and left."
But if there's a silver lining to this story, it's that it brought forward several men in the comments who were quick to back the woman up on her decision.
One confessed that while the whole periods-and-tampons thing definitely confuses him, he has never let it embarrass him — and would certainly never let it come between him and someone he loved.
"I have never been embarrassed buying feminine products," the man wrote. "Confused as hell. But never embarrassed." Others confessed similarly hilarious anecdotes. "'Confused as hell, but not embarrassed' is exactly what I’m like buying tampons. First time I did it I called my partner asking if she wanted sports mode or what exactly I was look for. Lady standing right next to me was laughing her a-s off lol."
The difference, of course, is these guys still showed up for their partners. As the first man eloquently put it, "anyone who won't get out of their comfort zone to help someone they love, isn't worth being loved." Here's hoping this woman's next boyfriend understands this — and isn't afraid of a few measly ol' tampons.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.