Am i overreacting to my friend's heteronormativity? A rant
So I (20nb) have a classmate/friend I'll just refer to as B (21f). We're part of a voluntary one-year fulltime school programme. Most of my previous experiences at school have been of ostracization, and I don't have many friends outside of school either, so I was overjoyed to finally have someone who actually enjoys teaming up with me regularly.
But you see, I'm openly bi and closeted genderfluid. B is cishet. This isn't all there is to us ofc, and that wouldn't be any issue on its own, however B has started to display more and more of a "conservative" streak. She's not propagating tradwiveism, she's not being outright hateful of anyone or anything like that, but I'm convinced she hasn't fully deconstructed her own internalized misogyny and cisheteronormativity yet. Especially now that I learnt her dad is voting for our country's biggest conservative right-wing party (I don't think she's necessarily ideologically aligned with him, considering she's a passionate critic of the manosphere and trump... thought that might not mean much).
I'm trying to be chill and simply be someone who provides alternate perspectives to all the norms she's been accustomed to in her life, since perfect allies/feminists rarely fall from the sky, and I'm in no position to cut her off right now... but it still sucks ass whenever I get slapped right across the face with said norms.
Take for example today: We were discussing my awful sleeping habits while trying to finish a project, and then she suddenly suggests setting me up with a former work colleague of hers who also has sleep issues. Who is 29 btw. I shot this down, and later half-jokingly asked her if she's got any female friends to set me up with, since she's only ever talking to me about guys, even though I've told her before that I'm bi and not interested in dating guys currently.
She said no, she can't set me up with any girls, because all of her other significant female friends are straight. Fair. Then idk what exactly we were talking anymore, but then she said "just date guys, you'll have less drama with them than with girls". I asked her to elaborate. Her reasoning was something along the lines of "well, I always fight more with my female friends, there's always some shit going on, why would you want that 24/7?"
I gently told her that she can't just project issues from her straight friendships onto all sapphic relationships, also pointing out how weird it was for her to put women down like this, as if they're somehow uniquely "more" dramatic and emotional than men (and in hindsight, I should've also made the point that male partners are statistically far more likely to abuse, kill and rape me, sometimes even in that exact order, can't believe this didn't cross my mind right then and there, but whatever). And I stated that if I was desperate for any guys, I'd be looking for them on my own.
A few hours later, we're talking about her past Norway trip. She randomly interjects her narration AGAIN with another suggestion to set me up with a different guy friend. I tell her to cease her bullshit a little less gently this time around, and she only snickered in response (is this shit funny to her??)
While I'm already forced to remember, here's another example from 2 weeks ago (which was also after I've already revealed myself as bi):
It was my birthday, and I took her along with some other friends of mine to a ceramic painting workshop. Which was fun and all. After we finished and left the establishment, we stepped inside a bus and saw an empty stroller next to us. She commented that she (childless) wouldn't take her kids to public transport until they're strong enough to walk on their own. I chimed in that I wouldn't have kids in the first place. She said "you sure you don't want to have kids with a REAL man someday?" I said no. She then remarked "well, we'll see about that in 10 years"
Uhhh, what the fuck??? Why is a young woman studying design talking to me like she's my unhinged grandma?
The worst thing about these microagressions to me is probably not even the fact that they happen in the first place, it's that I'm always soft and docile in the moment. The anger and the words I should've really said only come to me afterwards!
I don't know what else to say, except that any advice would be appreciated. I'm just feeling a little messy inside right now.
Posted Sep 24, 2026, 7:08 PM UTC