Is it just culture differences, or is my boyfriend misogynistic? :(

My LDR boyfriend and I have been dating one year. He is from China and moved to America a few years ago for school. Almost all of his social circle are people from China too. I have absolutely nothing wrong with this, but just wanted to give context. Here are some things that have happened that make me pretty confused:

  1. When we met IRL for our first real date, he flew half-way across America to see me as a surprise. He booked a hotel for himself, planned fun surprises, and got me a birthday cake which almost made me cry. It was great.... until we were in the bedroom. After making out, he told me he was happy to find out that I wasn't flat chested (because he previously thought I was), because it's a big turn off for him. Secondly, I told him prior to us meeting that I was into subtle dominance in the bedroom, and he asked me "so, do you just like getting r*ped?" (????? this is even worse bc I told him about how I've been SA'd in the past, it hurt a lot).
  2. One time, he texted me complaining about this guy in the airport, who was sloppy and looked kind of disheveled/ugly compared to his put together, beautiful wife. I got excited because he doesn't often criticize men directly like that, so I replied back saying "yeah.... men are pretty lazy and ugly compared to their girlfriends..." etc. etc. I'll admit I was definitely ranting and didn't need to go that far, but he got very frustrated with me. He told me that I am very aggressive. He was extremely offended not only for himself but for all of his amazing friends, who he said would never assault a woman, and who are great people.
  3. He complained about gold diggers. Not sure how it came up, but he said that so many women just want to use men. He also said that lots of women take what men do for granted (???). He said that men have a lot of pressure to pay, etc., and lot's of women take advantage of that or just expect it. He said nothing should be expected. I got angry because women do sooooo much in the home, in emotional labor, in pregnancy... etc. It felt very insensitive and inconsiderate to say to me, especially since it's something we struggle between us (he has a 150k+ job, and I'm unemployed, yet he asks me to pay him back for stuff he said he'd pay, etc).
  4. Told me that he feels like he is 'gross' or asking for something 'bad' whenever I say "No"/or brushes it off, when he asks for sex. Because of my past experiences, I was alarmed when he said this, so I replied "That's on you, because I have a right to say 'no'" — he shut down immediately and got frustrated/passive aggressive. I told him the night before that I need to communicate if he is sad/has issues with me, but I wasn't expecting this to be something he'd say.

These are the biggest things that have happened. There is a fair number of things going on in our relationship rn (not related to this topic) that I'm pretty sad about as well.... but I thought these are really worth discussing if I ever want to possibly marry this guy (and have kids, etc.). That all said though, there is probably an equal number of positive things I like about this guy too.

Please let me know what y'all think and any thoughts are appreciated.

Posted Jan 11, 2026, 8:13 PM UTC

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