A woman fears she may have insulted a family member when she tried to deflect invasive questions about her personal life.
She asked Reddit’s “Am I the A******? (AITA)” forum to weigh in. Her aunt has an internalized misogyny and insists on every woman marrying and having kids. The issue is the Redditor identifies as a lesbian and is sick of her aunt pressuring her to get married.
“Backstory first: My (f21) aunt (f48) is very traditional, and thinks all women should have kids and get married and be housewives,” she explained. “I cannot conform to her standard, because I am a lesbian and am already in a relationship (Aunt doesn’t know this.) My aunt keeps pestering me about it now that I’m 20, and I keep brushing it off.”
“Anyways, on with the story. So my aunt and I recently went to a family gathering. It went on for a couple hours, and then we all sat down on a table to have lunch. My aunt was sitting almost directly opposite me, and there were 15 other people there. In the middle of the meal, everybody got quieter (to eat.)”
When the issue came up again, the Redditor was certain she had the perfect response.
“My aunt saw this as the perfect opportunity to ask me: ‘Hey (OP), Do you want to get married nowadays?’” the Redditor wrote. “At this moment, my brain thought of something, and I quickly responded to her, in the most loudest, disgusted way possible: ‘Ew, no.’ At this point, everybody was silent. My aunt got slightly offended with me and asked: ‘Why?’”
“I quickly responded to her with: ‘Because you’re my aunt!’ It didn’t really get the reaction I expected (only two people really laughed), but my cousins piped in to say how my aunt was always pestering us about getting married, which I guess is a small win. Later, after the gathering, my aunt sent many angry WhatsApp texts to me, saying how she was just asking a plain question, and that I had no right to humiliate her like I did.”
Redditors thought the aunt had it coming for a long time.
“That’s your aunt’s threshold for humiliation? Wow. If she’s that sensitive, maybe she should stop asking intrusive questions,” a user said.
“That was such a silly joke that no one shouldve been offended. You didnt insult her or even challenge her internal misogyny beliefs,” another commented.