There’s no question that at least half the thrill and appeal for a “man” to “get” a girlfriend is so that he can ultimately contort the “honeymoon period” into a waking nightmare. Getting “his” girl nice and accustomed to a certain persona that exudes “sweetness” and “consideration,” only for him to strip it all away rather abruptly. She, left reeling from remembering how he initially treated her and hoping it will go back to the way it used to be, will often continue to put up with the behavior in the hope that the “real” him will “come back.” Of course, what she was dealing with in the beginning was the fake him all along. She just didn’t want to believe it. Preferred to opt in, instead, to the rom-com ideal.

And yet, with women having less and less of a threshold for sticking around too much longer after a “man” reveals his true nature, perhaps “men,” too, have run out of patience for trying to “dig up” a new broad every time the old one gets wise to leaving him. Enter the AI “girlfriend”–no muss, no fuss. And best of all, one doesn’t have to go through the icky pretense of even trying to feign niceties at the outset. While some would say this is a “healthy” outlet for a “man” to take out his internal aggressions and intrinsic misogyny on a “woman” who isn’t real or even sentient, the truth is, it likely only reinforces his thirst for treating an actual woman like a pièce de merde. What’s more, you certainly don’t see any women feeling obliged to create an AI boyfriend so that she can unleash centuries of her inherited trauma from sexism upon him. No, this is decidedly a “male” phenomenon because it is presenting more and more of a challenge to “find” a woman who sees any reason to stick around and tolerate being abused. In the past, maybe the reasons were “for the kids” or because he was “the breadwinner.” In the present, while domestic abuse (both verbal and physical) persists, there are more resources available for a woman to free herself once she finds the courage to do so. Especially if there are no children involved.

And, speaking of, in addition to serving as one of many ways in which to help the birth rate fall (why fuck a real girl, when there’s AI?)–not that those of the anti-natalist persuasion have a problem with it–the entire phenomenon is proof positive that “men” never really wanted to play the Colin Firth role in a woman’s life. They want that knavish Hugh Grant shit. That Mark Wahlberg in Fear shit.

The possibility for abusing “chatbots” arose with the advent of the “intelligent personal assistant,” which Silicon Valley so often sees fit to “equip” with a female voice because misogyny dictates that people prefer their glorified secretaries to be women, even still. The rise of “creating” an “on-demand” sort of “partner” for “men” has been fortified by the app Replika, which has allowed a stand-in for something like emotional intimacy, especially in these largely emotionless times. And yet, real women must continue to bear the brunt of “men’s” mood swings (so often a result of repressed emotions), even if indirectly as a result of a rando “bloke” arbitrarily deciding to mow down a crowd of people in his car, or, better yet, simply shoot them all. But enduring this form of psychotic behavior is all in the name of proving oneself “a good girl.” Arguably the grossest term in any language (but especially in English). Incidentally, AI girlfriends fitting quite neatly into this classification for “men” will be rewarded with nothing but a barrage of abusive epithets in return. But here’s one for the “men” who need to abuse a chatbot to get their jollies: incel.