You hear the phrase whipped and different things may come to mind. I’d argue that it has major differences between genders. I would imagine guys would say, “Bro, how whipped is Jake?” Whereas girls might say, “Aww Jake is sooo sweet bringing Ashley to the park for a picnic!” Same situation, very different responses. So, I beg the question, “How whipped is too whipped?” This is a true story about my friend Alex (name has been changed). He’s a good guy who was in love, so naturally, he treated his girlfriend like a princess. He patiently held her purse at the mall, did the baby talk, stocked his car with an emergency stash of tampons, and even blew off guy’s nights to watch the Notebook with her. Needless to say, after a year, he cracked. Turns out he didn’t like the nickname “Hubbycakes” as much as he pretended to. You’ve seen “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”, so you know that men much prefer the nickname “Crawl the Warrior King” to “Princess Sophia”. Your boyfriend doesn’t want to feel emasculated, he wants to feel like he’s a big, strong protector, even if he’s a video game nerd who weighs 140lbs on a good day. Men, this goes for you too. Personally speaking, I’m over the “Go make me a sandwich” line. Last time I checked, you weren’t sitting in cement and you know where the turkey is. My ex was a film major, and he would drag me to these awful movies (Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassius, I’m looking at you), and I’d sit through them because I knew he enjoyed them. This worked in my favor when I wanted him to wear a matching cummerbund at his formal. (Because let’s face it, my teal dress and an red cummerbund would’ve totally clashed in pictures!)
The bottom line is, a relationship should have give and take. It takes a while to get this ying and yang down to a science without “whipping” your significant other. It’s a fine line, but just so long as he’s not holding your feminine products in his glove compartment, you’re safe.