I had already been on a few successful dates with a guy I was seeing. When it came to paying for the bill on the 4th date however, he gave me a half-joking but ultimately very patronising lecture informing me that I am an ‘independent women’ and that because its 2019 I need to pay for my own drinks. This came as such a shock to me as on all the previous dates we had split the bill and I had never once suggested that I wanted otherwise. I am not sure why he felt the need to say this as I am not someone that would be comfortable with a man paying for me. It seemed as though he was worried about being the victim of reverse sexism and therefore felt to need to mansplain it to me regardless of whether I had given him reason to or not. Whenever I think about his outburst I cringe.
