It was not my intention to head into the three-day holiday weekend with a story that made me question whether or not men were okay, and yet … here’s a story where I question whether or not men are okay, answer my own question with an “I can’t believe what I just read” kind of no, and hope that this AITA post is fake but know in my heart that it’s not. Because yeah, I can guarantee that somewhere out there, some college-age dude thought keeping tabs on women, calling it a Pokédex, and sharing it with his fraternity was a good idea.
The idea behind the, ugh, Pokédex
We know we’re off to a bad start when the AITA Twitter account immediately puts up a stalker content warning. The title of the post is also cause for concern, but sure, let’s go in and assume this won’t be a lot worse than it sounds (note: it is a lot worse than it sounds). “So freshman year of college, I began working on this project casually. I like to keep notes on women I talk to about their favorite things, activities they enjoy, gifts/candy they like, sappy shit like that. I suck at remembering things like that so I decided to keep a spreadsheet.”
Okay. I’m with you so far. My wife doesn’t have the best memory so she writes everything down, too. Important dates in our relationship. Things I’m into. Stuff like that, you know? It comes in handy for special occasions, as I have a birthday coming up and have already been told to NOT open any packages that come in the mail. If you need to do something to keep track of the people you’re spending time with, sure. As long as you don’t share their information without permission to random people they don’t know, who turn around and use it as an RPG strategy guide so they can catch ’em all. “Eventually after getting a handful of entries. I offhandedly mentioned it to my friend group. One had the idea that I share it with them so we could all keep new entries as they ‘caught’ different entries.”
Oh, Christ in a Pokéball.
YTA. Making note of the things the people you date like is fine. Keeping the notes after you stop dating and sharing the notes with other people is creepy. Letting them add to the list is even worse. But the topping on this whole creepy cake is calling it a pokedex.
— Je suis Fatty-Gay (@TimeIsNotGiven) June 30, 2022
So, a few things, the big one being if this is for YOU to keep track of the people you talk to, WHY are you sharing it with others? WHY are you letting them refer to it as keeping new entries on who has been caught??? Gee, I wonder, what could they want something like this for in regard to catching women they meet? What are they updating your Pokédex with??? Don’t worry, there’s an answer to that last question with its three question marks, and he promises that it’s not for any “nefarious or scumbaggy reasons.”
FORTY GUYS HAVE ACCESS TO IT???
I’m just gonna let the quote speak for itself.
Right now about 40 guys have access to it and it’s mainly the guys in my frat, and the women featured are girls from different sororities. We also added more information such as like where you should take them if you really wanna impress them. We don’t keep this information for any nefarious or scumbaggy reasons.
Just to help us know what to do if we want to impress certain girls. Like the original idea of this was just to keep information like favorite color so I didn’t every forget their favorite colors. Now it’s helping a lot of guys.
Riiiiight. Just to spoil you all for the end of this, he claims that he is not a stalker. Of course, he doesn’t comment on the other guys who now have access to these women. “There was no information in it that could’ve been used to hurt someone. Only to have a better date. And it isn’t about sex. I never used it for just sex.” Emphasis on I never used it for just sex, because as soon as this was shared this stopped being a solitary I situation. We went from this being a thing for HIM to keep track of something as basic as favorite colors, to it helping guys have better dates with women and impress them. Though, honestly, if it really wasn’t made for, quote, “nefarious” purposes, why use a Pokémon analogy in a way that says this database is meant to track the women as they are CAUGHT.
The whole thing ends with one of the girls finding out and, rightfully, being pissed about it. “She was eventually able to trace it back to me so I assume someone who was simping for her snitched when the Pokédex wasn’t making the girl like him.” Huh. It’s almost as if you shouldn’t have shared this around without permission from the women you talked to. It’s almost as if someone could use it to try and catch a woman. It’s almost as if you knew that someone would use your Pokédex this way because you were immediately able to figure out that one of your boys was trying to get with a girl.
Also wow, you mean you have to know more than my favorite color and candy to get me to like you? You mean we need genuine interactions and not fact sheets you can pass around like a note you wrote in the middle of homeroom?
I don’t know why women are so mad. You mean it’s not cute when guys try to take short cuts around getting to know you as a person because they think actually connecting with someone is a waste of their time?
— Snarcasm Queen (@MoreOrLessAMess) June 30, 2022
Mr. Pokéwrong continues with the following. “So she’s pissed off and she made it out to be a guide to hooking up with women, when it’s most definitely not that.” That’s exactly what it is, but go on. “It’s just to make impressing them on dates easier. That’s it.” You JUST said it’s not a guide for hooking up with women, and yet… okay never mind, go on. “She’s made a big deal of this telling so many girls around campus and now they’re all saying that by the start of the fall semester, none of them will be visiting our fraternity or going to our parties.” GOOD.
Also? All the frat bros are mad because the girls are mad. Boo-fucking-hoo. “Now all the guys are mad at me, when I’m not even the one who told girls about the list and they were all also using the list. I also think it’s unfair to say the list was all about sex when it wasn’t at all.” You keep using that word, but I don’t think you know what it means.
Oh, but it’s absolutely “not about sex.”🙄
— Stone-Cold Local Milk Hen (@g0t_86d) June 30, 2022
What did he learn at the end of all this? That scaring women so his frat brothers can’t get at them is wrong. Wait, what?
No comments from OP yet and, based on his Judgement_Bot answer, he definitely doesn’t seem to get why he’s TA. pic.twitter.com/Zr5eE22mAi
— Jen (@such_hockey_wow) June 30, 2022
I hope a Snorlax lands on this dude’s frat house.
(Featured image: Pokémon)
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