What to Do When Your Boyfriend Likes Another Woman's Photos
The second you see it, it's likely you wish you could scrub her image—and his "like"—from your mind. But it's smack in the middle of your Facebook newsfeed, the inescapable evidence that your boyfriend has liked another woman's photo. You don't know her, or know how he knows her. All you do know is that she's hot. You can't help yourself—you click through to her profile page and see that this is not the first scantily clad photo your man has "liked" in her recent timeline. A quick Google search shows they've interacted on Twitter and follow each other on Instagram. Do you shrug it off or get upset? Submit a Facebook request so you can do more in-depth stalking? Or confront your S.O., accusing him of everything short of physically cheating?
Social media has certainly skewed many of our opinions on what constitutes something worthy of our concern and investigation. Even a decade ago, we might not have known every one of our boyfriend's friends, let alone the outermost rings of his social circles. Now, we can see exactly what his high school sweetheart looked like, what his cute coworker wears to work, and who was at the bar with him last night by simply clicking through his social media. While years ago we might not have caught him slyly scoping out the cute blond in the corner, the evidence of him appreciating another woman's looks can now live on the Internet (and our smartphones) forever.
The fact of the matter is, while we all know our men appreciate the looks and various talents of other women, we don't necessarily want to be hit over the head with it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more now mean that without intentionally snooping, we can see—or assume—what our S.O. finds attractive. Yet whether he's "liking" a photo or retweeting a catchy quote, we can't know for a fact that he's up to anything other than being friendly.
It also presents an interesting catch-22 for many women. After all, we can regularly "like" a male friend's photos, knowing quite well we're appreciating his fashion sense and not his bulging pectoral muscles. But when our boyfriend likes another woman's Instagram photos, it's like, "Why exactly are you all over this [NSFW word]'s profile? Huh?!"
