Let’s set the scene for this internet-inspired story: a woman’s best friend is going through a rough time after a break up and the woman’s boyfriend thought to cheer the best friend up by buying them some flowers.
Sweet gesture right? Not according to the internet.
This exact scenario unfolded in real life and got a lot of attention when it was shared on Twitter and subsequently went viral. However, jokes about the woman’s boyfriend cheating on her with her heartbroken best friend started coming up and became more viral than the original tweet.
Buying your girlfriend’s best friend flowers when they’re going through something is a pretty nice thing to do, particularly when said girlfriend knows about it and is cool with everything, but apparently it’s taboo according to incredibly insecure folk on the internet.
The only time this is weird is when the flower giver and receiver aren’t exactly close, which clearly isn’t the case in this story.
The response is genuinely baffling because it’s literally one person giving a friend something in an attempt to cheer them up. And yet because the “something” is flowers then it’s suddenly become something more than just a “kind gesture.”
Imagine the response had this exact same scenario unfolded but it was with chocolate instead of flowers. All those dumb “cheating” jokes would be replaced with sounds of silence.
This story has spawned a big question among the GOAT team: why are there rules about flower giving in the first place?
People give each other random trinkets and sweets all the time and yet people get so judgy when someone gives someone who isn’t their partner flowers. It would honestly be nice to give and receive a batch of roses in a non-platonic manner without folks whipping out the shaming hammer.
Flowers has been a symbol for romance (and hayfever) for ages but it’s perhaps time to shed that image because sometimes it’s just nice to receive some flowers as a nice gesture from time to time.