Oh FFS 🤦🏼♀️ did you see AL’s tweet? A 1:1 copy of Georgia’s haha OMG such couple goals post/story, again.
And why the heck would they of all people no want to see their own partners celebrated and encouraged? You know, those partners who ensure the nice cozy life they lead and who by their profession are dependent on the public and industry’s continued positive acknowledgment… Not that mutual support shouldn’t be present in any relationship, mind.
I'm in the middle of answering a few other Asks/writing a detailed post about some of Georgia's recent posts this week, so I will save a lot of my thoughts for there, but...yes. Yes, I did see AL's newest tweet, and I am amazed at her blatantly copying Georgia. Again...
I think the thing for me--other than the exact copying, which is just painful at this point--is that I would have zero issue with either one of these posts if it felt like there was even a smidge of affection behind them. If there is a joke here and that's how these posts are meant, they're somehow not reading that way at all. It also seems like both AL and Georgia think a joke and an insult are the same thing (and I realize that in British culture/sensibility that is often the case), but again, what makes it distinguishable is that underlying feeling of affection that is seemingly absent from these posts.
At what point does "Don't encourage him" actually start to mean, "I don't encourage him" or "I don't support him"? A person in a relationship can start to feel over time that their partner doesn't support or encourage them through their actions, even if the partner doesn't ever say those exact words out loud. And this would be no less egregious or worth calling out if it was Michael and David doing it to AL and Georgia, but it noticeably seems to keep being directed from one side to the other.
That is the other piece of this as well, that both of these posts are not one-off occurrences, but part of a larger pattern of comments that have been going on for years (which I've written about previously on my blog) and seem to particularly occur in response to David or Michael receiving any kind of praise or accolades in the press. The difference now versus in the past is that I've started to see some pushback in response to both. There are many comments on AL's tweet from folks saying that Michael deserves encouragement, and shouldn't it give one pause to consider that such a sentiment is so opposite to what his own partner is saying? That the one person who should be his number one supporter consistently reacts in the least supportive way possible?
And I agree with you as well about mutual support being important, which again is what makes all of this seem so unbalanced. David has frequently been supportive of Georgia, but with Michael and AL, neither one honestly seems that supportive of the other. For me it's also that Michael is so consistently and effusively supportive of David that it becomes even more noticeable when he doesn't do that with someone else. All Anna's tweet today did is draw even more attention to that and to the (less than positive) similarities between her and Georgia, and I imagine that is not at all what she was hoping for.
Those are my thoughts, at least. I know plenty of people will continue to see Michael/AL and David/Georgia as #couplegoals--and if that is how people feel, they are welcome to it--but for me, a relationship where the frequent centerpiece is putting down your partner on social media doesn't seem like one I'd want to be in. Glad to hear from others with your perspectives as well...
