How psychological abuse actually works

Here's something more typically male: "If you talk to that guy again I'll have to end it with you."

I get incredibly tense seeing things like that called "typically male" because not only are you implying that women don't do the same thing (they do) but you're also implying that it's manipulative in all circumstances.

If your significant other starts hanging out with someone of the opposite sex, then good on them for making a friend. If that friend starts hitting on them, then maybe it's no big deal at that point. You trust your significant other. Then you start to hear of mutual flirting that has gone from innocent (platonic compliments), to teasing, to overtly sexual. Finally, the cliche thing that happens is you hear from someone else about a line being crossed.

At this point, your significant other clearly has an interest in that person, and you're not looking to be cheated on. You've already made the decision that you're not going to be with someone unfaithful and you're not going to "share". You have the right to choose that for yourself.

So, when you put them in the position to make a choice to either be with you or continue to pursue their newfound affair, it's abuse?

No, sorry. That is abuse. You're robbing people of agency; basically telling them that they have no place making decisions about the risks they're willing to take with their own body and heart. Worse, you're vilifying people for a ubiquitous behavior that, no, is not typically male. Though it may be typically female to socially shame your significant other while cheating on them because a common manipulative tactic among women is to leverage pressure from people outside the relationship by playing for sympathy.

I've seen this happen so many times to others, with a few experiences of it myself, that it's sickening, and seldom do people remain objective and get all the details before judging. You have the penis, she has the vagina, therefore you better shut up and just take whatever she does to you, is basically what that ends up boiling down to.

The extreme case where someone is using that to socially isolate their partner, I have seen twice. Once, a woman did it to me. Once, I saw a husband do it to his wife. That kind of obvious abuse seems much more rare than the very common, "If you want to be with me, make a choice and commit, because I'm not going to end up with AIDS so you can play."

Plus, that's listed in an entirely separate section of the post. So, it really does look like you're saying that men specifically have no right to self-determination, and no agency regarding the risks they're willing to take with their own health and emotional wellbeing.

You probably didn't mean it that way, but this idea that it's "typically male" is bull. It's only seen that way because when men say it to women, they're automatically the bad guys, and when women say it to men, the men involved are automatically the bad guys.

/r/PurplePillDebate Thread