I've revealed in a certain social media community that I have a girlfriend from the Philippines who's about 7-8 years younger (we are very in love, it's all very sweet and genuine) and apparently a total shitstorm ensued in my absence. For context: I'm 31, and she found me online and wants to meet me after she's done with college. We'll probably be 32 and 24 when we meet in person. She's very sweet, innocent, and funny, and there's no signs of any funny business. There's apparently a lot of abject poverty in the Philippines, so I was initially worried that she may just have glamorous dreams of marrying a rich guy from another country to escape, but over time it became quite obvious that this isn't the case.

A while ago I had also talked, in an adjacent space to that one, about how I've always tended to find east-Asian women somewhat more attractive on average for whatever reason. It's something about their eyes... Had that feeling literally since my childhood, so it must be a deeply ingrained preference. As a nerd, I've always found this an interesting observation about my own mind, since there's no obvious explanation for it. So, I may talk about it every once in a while if there's a discussion going on about attraction, sexuality, and so on. It's interesting because there has never been any conscious thought behind it, unlike for instance the creepy men who say they prefer Asian women for being more "traditional and submissive" or any of that nonsense.

Anyway, of course the combination of the above two facts made someone in this bubble conclude that I'm a "western guy fetishizing Asian women" or something (I haven't read their full rant, CBA) and had a whole angry fit about it and left, because everything in life must always conform to one or another stereotype, I guess. They seemed genuinely upset but like... it's really just a problem in their mind and there's nothing I can do about it. Not like they know anything about my girlfriend and what kind of relationship we have. Sad situation.

People are fighting each other now taking sides, but I'm not even getting involved.