Ever since Fight Club was rendered to the screen by David Fincher and the character of “Narrator” was immortalized by Edward Norton, “men” have seen fit to take a page from his third act excuse to Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) for treating her like shit for the duration of their time together. That excuse, illustriously, was: “You met me at a very strange time in my life.” And yet, isn’t it always a strange time? Isn’t mere existence a reason to tell someone that they’re simply “going through it” and not to take it personally?

The fact of the matter is, “men” rely on this variation of the defense for their behavior because it is a way to most politely exonerate themselves from culpability. Imaginary friend/split personality or not, a “man” has no reason to treat a woman like a ragdoll he can fuck with gusto one minute and toss out with verbal abuse the next. If he’s truly going to believe that the “it’s just a strange time” deflection is viable, he ought have thought about that before leaving the womb. Because life is one nonstop bag of strangeness and only getting stranger.