I’m sure that by now you’ve heard of the infamous Vogue Article written by Chanté Joseph, airing out the idea that having a boyfriend may just be more humiliating than not. We can all agree that this article has some strong talking points, but we’re going to take a look at the perspectives of a few DHS students to see what they think. 

I first asked Uma Subramanya’s opinion on the whole article. She went on to say “I feel like the reason why people think having a boyfriend is embarrassing is because some tend to make it their whole personality. I’m sure we’ve all experienced when a friend gets in a relationship and suddenly that’s all they can talk about. It’s embarrassing when your whole identity revolves around your boyfriend. Not just embarrassing, but almost demeaning. Just because you got in a relationship doesn’t mean you should no longer be seen as an individual. And I do want to point out that this never happens with guys, like, you’ll never see a boy making his girlfriend his whole personality.“ She’s basically saying that having a boyfriend becomes embarrassing once you start to lose yourself. After this, I asked “Do you think the article is uplifting a community , or dragging one down?” Subramanya responds saying “The original ideas presented in the article definitely are uplifting. But the way social media has twisted it drags our community down.” Basically, Subramanya explains that this article is indeed uplifting, but it’s the effect of social media that twists the overall message, making it seem like the article is saying that anyone with a boyfriend is embarrassing themselves. It’s clear that this student believes that the article is simply sharing a relatable observation derived from social media’s perception. 

After this, I also asked Arya Sankaran her opinion. She said “I would say I agree with what the article is saying. If the boyfriend doesn’t post you then you shouldn’t feel obligated to post them. I think the embarrassment comes from the realization that having a boyfriend shouldn’t be your whole personality or something to show off, especially when the boyfriends themselves appear not to care as much. I think it isn’t dragging down a community, rather, it’s critiquing the people who believe being single instead is embarrassing.” Sankaran has a deep take, explaining how the embarrassment also comes from a place of judgement from people online who believe it’s actually more embarrassing to be single. It’s a really interesting take, and also shows us how the article isn’t necessarily wrong about any of its speaking points.

To end my inquiries, I asked my last question to Vicky Alvarez, asking whether she believes the article is dragging a community down, and if she agrees with the overall idea. Alvarez says, “Honestly, I don’t think having a boyfriend is embarrassing. Especially when the article mentioned that many content creators lost many followers after they post about their relationship. People online shouldn’t be this bothered by someone being in a relationship because at the end of the day it’s not your life, it’s theirs and you follow that person for their content not whether they are single or not. You don’t know these people and they don’t know you. So it’s never really that serious. Maybe people should just try being more positive instead of being angry about someone finding love because they “lost their freedom” which they didn’t.” She basically states that she doesn’t really believe that having a boyfriend is embarrassing, but that people online make it seem that way instead. She goes on to add, “The people online that I see get “shamed” for having a boyfriend are usually the ones that have a new one pretty much every week so I guess that’s kind of a point in the article that makes you seem “boy crazy.” Overall, it seems that Alvarez believes that people are posting their boyfriend less on social media because of the public perception, and not actually because it’s embarrassing to have a boyfriend.