Human relationships are extremely complicated and we are all looking for different things in a partner. We all also think that other people are looking for a specific thing in us, which we may or may not have to offer. A man named Stephen Vickers, who works in the agricultural industry in Texas, tweeted very confidently about what he has to offer the ladies and ended up attracting a lot of attention he didn’t want.
“My housing is paid for. I make a good salary,” he wrote. “I get health insurance, 401k, 700 lbs of beef a year, and I live on a couple hundred acres. I’m a puncher by trade with a bachelors degree. And I swear you women would rather have a loser than a provider. It’s sad.”
Wow! I don’t know much about the beef industry, but 700 pounds sure sounds like a lot. Definitely more than I could comfortably eat over the course of the year. If he’d just listed his qualifications and said, “Anyone want a date?” I might have been one of his Reply Gals.
But the weird addition about how women only want losers is a whine as old as time. Guys always say it is women who are messed up about relationships and it’s not anything that they’re doing. These kinds of statements often attract a lot of pushback, which Vickers definitely got. Some people were genuinely annoyed. Most people, though, were really caught up on the amount of beef he advertised and what that could mean for a relationship:
My house is paid for. I make a good salary. I pay for healthcare, pay my taxes, got my savings and my own company. I’m a psychologist by trade with a PhD. And I swear you men would rather have a submissive handmaiden than the confident self-made women you all claim you want.
😏— Dr. Jessica Taylor (@DrJessTaylor) November 4, 2019
If the dude has similar taste in books, can still laugh after twelve hours stuck in an airport, cooks, cuddles, and is willing to have a serious discussion about the respective merits of the Sith and Jedi codes, I would be willing to accept a lesser amount of beef.
— Kingfisher & Wombat (@UrsulaV) November 3, 2019
I have 800 lbs of beef a year and I get laid all the time. Maybe you should work harder
— todd helton propaganda department (@rockiesVSconnor) November 3, 2019
Wrong. I Always ask someone how many pounds of beef they have before dating them. That’s how I ended up married to someone who gets 80,000 pounds of beef a year. Compatibility means nothing if you can just build a smelly wall of meat between you and him
— the cringe queen of the south (@cringiestqueen) November 3, 2019
Great. It's not even Monday yet and I've already got to think about how many hundreds of pounds of beef I can offer a woman
— ♥ mark magark♥ (@markedly) November 3, 2019
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of 700 lbs of beef, must be in want of a wife.
— Ceylan Akturk (@ceylanamo) November 4, 2019
You realize if a woman marries you, she's going to live with you, right?
So what do you have to offer as a person? It's weird how these tweets never get into why someone would enjoy your company. Or is that 700 pounds of beef meant to be compensation for your personality?
— Alexandra Erin the Meadow We Can Build a Snowman (@AlexandraErin) November 3, 2019
Women are human beings, not porcelain dolls. We want partners, not providers. If you have all those things and women still don’t want you it sounds like a personality issue.
Also I have questions about the beef. Like a lot of questions about this beef.
— Allison Floyd (@AllisonRFloyd) November 4, 2019
i hear you bro my wife left me for a chimney sweep. this loser had zero beef rations. it’s like wtf
— POETRY MAN (@maltyhops) November 4, 2019
In Vicker’s defense, he did later tweet that he believes “teamwork makes the dream work. I’m not looking to hold anyone down, only build them up,” he wrote.
He also seems to have a sense of humor, joking that the power of beef is keeping people’s nasty comments from affecting his morale:
Though he did eventually mute and go private on Twitter:
Guess he found the beef girl of his dreams. That’s all any of us can hope for, even if we have to make do with far less beef per year to display to prospective mates.