r/AITA_Relationships • u/versatilelightskin • 22m ago
AITA for refusing to send my girlfriend a video of me begging/barking, causing her not to come over? (Contemplating breaking up)
My girlfriend and I got into a pretty big argument last night over something that started ridiculously small, and I genuinely want outside opinions because I can’t tell if I’m being stubborn or if this was as unreasonable as it felt.
My girlfriend was supposed to come over to my apartment. Before coming, she told me she wanted a video proving how badly I wanted to see her. Specifically, she wanted me to either get on my knees pretending to cry/beg for her to come over, or bark for her.
It was supposed to be a funny/humiliating little performance, and she said she’d come over once I sent it.
I refused to send the video. However, I offered to do the exact same thing in person when she got here. I wasn’t offended by the joke or completely unwilling to play along; I just didn’t want to record myself doing it and send her the video.
She replied, “No, that’s not part of the deal,” and eventually said something like, “See you another day I guess.”
At first I genuinely thought she was still joking. I replied “Lmao okay” because I couldn’t believe she would actually refuse to come over because I wouldn’t send a video of myself crying/begging or barking.
Then I realized she seriously wasn’t coming.
That’s when I got irritated. To me, there’s a huge difference between jokingly saying, “Beg for me or I’m not coming” and ACTUALLY refusing to see your boyfriend because he wouldn’t do it—especially when I offered to play along in person.
Her position was basically that it was a simple, playful thing she asked me to do, and if I cared that badly about seeing her, I could’ve just done it. She said she’d literally been waiting for the video before coming over and that I should’ve sent it if seeing her mattered that much to me.
My position was: if we both want to see each other, why should seeing each other depend on me recording myself doing something embarrassing first?
I wasn’t upset that she asked. Had she jokingly asked me to bark, I said no, and she came over anyway, I wouldn’t have cared. Hell, I offered to do it in person. What bothered me was that seeing me was genuinely conditional on me specifically recording and sending it.
That’s where the argument stopped being about the video.
She started saying things like, “You just don’t fuck with me,” and implying my refusal meant I wasn’t really into her. She also said relationships aren’t all about me.
I kept explaining that my issue wasn’t the request; it was that apparently my “no” had consequences attached to it. To me, there’s a difference between playful teasing and “do this embarrassing thing or I’m actually not coming.”
During the argument, she started calling me “sassy.” She said she missed when I felt like her “knight in shining armor,” that now she felt like she had a “gay best friend,” and at another point essentially told me to “go get a man.”
That pissed me off because instead of discussing the disagreement, I felt like she was insulting my masculinity/personality because I wouldn’t do what she wanted.
She also said she feels like she can’t truly be herself or say whatever she wants around me without me having an issue with it. From her perspective, she was originally being playful and I turned something silly into a serious argument.
But later she explained that she was initially joking about making the video a requirement, but when I refused, she actually got mad and decided not to come.
That honestly made it worse to me.
If she’d been joking the entire time and it was just a misunderstanding, fine. But hearing, “I was joking at first, but then you wouldn’t do it, so I actually decided not to come” seemed to confirm the exact thing I was upset about.
The argument dragged on for hours.
There’s also some broader context. I feel like we have a recurring dynamic where she can criticize my personality or things I do pretty regularly, but when I disagree with something she does, it becomes a massive argument.
I’m not pretending I’m perfect. I can get irritated, defensive, sarcastic and stubborn. And yes, technically I could’ve just made the stupid video and probably avoided all of this.
But that’s exactly what I’m struggling with. I don’t think I should have to do something embarrassing on camera because refusing means my girlfriend cancels our plans or questions whether I care about her—especially when I offered a compromise.
By the end of the night, I was genuinely questioning the relationship because such a stupid disagreement somehow became hours of arguing and personal insults.
Her perspective: She asked her boyfriend to do one silly, playful thing to show he wanted to see her, and instead of playing along, he refused and turned it into a huge argument.
My perspective: My girlfriend jokingly asked me to cry/beg on my knees or bark on video. I wouldn’t record it but offered to do it in person. She said that wasn’t part of the deal and actually refused to come over. When I objected, it escalated into questioning whether I cared about her and insulting my masculinity.
So, AITA for refusing to send the video and getting upset when she actually decided not to come over because of it? Or did I take a harmless joke way too seriously?