When Loyalty Gets Tested: Woman Sides With a Stranger Over Her Beau

Recently a woman in an online forum, OP, asked whether she was wrong for siding with a stranger over her boyfriend. They were at the local climbing gym when a girl they didn’t know scaled a new route easily, making OP’s boyfriend’s ego explode. OP thought the girl did awesomely and wanted to show some support. This infuriated OP’s boyfriend.

The Competitive Boyfriend

OP shared that she and her boyfriend like climbing together at a local gym. Her boyfriend is very experienced and, according to her, often jokes about and makes fun of beginners.

She shared that this makes her uncomfortable as she’s a beginner climber and less skilled than her boyfriend.

In her story, OP says there is a new route the climbing gym constructed that was throwing a lot of experienced climbers off their game.

“There were about six people taking turns on the problem, probably because it’s a newly installed route, and they were all failing. Then a girl came and flashed it.”

OP goes on to describe how this girl didn’t hold the last five seconds at the end of the route. “Holding the last hold for five seconds is supposed to be the “right way” of finishing a route, but she was doing it so easily she definitely could have.”

OP’s boyfriend wanted to throw shade at the girl for not doing the route right.

The Girl Climber Is a Star

OP elaborates that the female climber responded to her boyfriend by laughing off his ego. “She laughed, told him he didn’t even start the problem correctly, and walked away.”

OP was so impressed that she offered the female climber a high-five. “She was walking toward me and did amazing at the problem (and knocked my BF off his high horse).”

This show of solidarity admittedly “surprised” the girl climber, but she gave OP a high-five in return.

The Boyfriend Is Shocked

OP went on to describe her boyfriend’s reaction. “My BF turned to me, gave me a dirty look, and wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the night. When we were heading home, he ranted that I couldn’t be trusted to watch his back if I chose to take a stranger’s side over him.”

What People Online Think

Plenty of commenters had opinions about whether OP was the problem.

User @irate-anatid had this to say about OP’s boyfriend.

“He must not have been climbing very long if he’s upset that a woman is better than him. It’s one of those sports where the playing field is remarkably even—to the point where it shouldn’t come as a surprise if an 8-year-old girl shows up and flashes the v6 you’ve been puzzling over.”

Another commenter wondered, “I wonder if the insecure boyfriend has ever heard of Lynn Hill.”

User Johnnylongpants1 thought OP was not in the wrong. “Your BF should have been more willing to congratulate the climber on the successful climb (which is 99% of it) instead of pointing out the tiny 1% detail that kept it from being perfect.

Fragile ego. Not necessarily (though quite possibly) magnified by the fact that it was a female who did it.

“If I weighed 110 lbs, I could easily do that too,” says someone with a bruised ego from the sidelines, not someone with sportsmanship.”

@DilbertedOttawa wasn’t the only one who thinks the BF has a fragile ego. He agreed, “Yeah, dude sounds like an incredibly basic bro. That’s some seriously fragile ego on display. I’m sure when he isn’t insulting people who he views as inferior, he’s a real sweetheart…”

Redditor @softstones thinks the female climber deserved the high-five. “With the way the girl handled OP’s BF, I’d high-five her too. People get too intense over things that are meant to be fun.”

OP Needs a New BF

It was clear from Reddit viewers that OP was certainly not being a jerk, although plenty thought her BF was very much the problem.

It sounds like OP needs to ditch her boyfriend with the over-inflated ego. He comes across as creepy and controlling.

Would you have given the female climber a high-five? Women supporting other women is cool to see.

This article is produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.