Sometime around 2015, a hilarious meme caught the attention of Twitter. In the doctored-up image, Joe Biden looks knowingly at a surprised Hillary Clinton in the middle of a blurred-out crowed. The image is captioned, “When she gave you that fake number at the club...and thought she'd never see you again.”
Many of us have either given, received, or at least heard tales of a fake-number rejection gone awry. At this point we know: It’s not always the best solve.
However, as noted by BuzzFeed, 21-year-old Latrell Phillips grew tired of his timeline filled with tweets “about women giving numbers to guys that they're not interested in.” Phillips couldn’t seem to wrap his head around why women just couldn’t give out a phony number instead.
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Give a fake number.
— Latrell Phillips (@TrizzeTrell) April 17, 2017
Stop giving people your line if you're not interested in them.
Doesn't make sense.
“Give a fake number. Stop giving people your line if you're not interested in them. Doesn't make sense.”
“I always never understand that concept," Phillips explained to BuzzFeed. "Because if you truly aren't interested in someone, don't waste your and anyone else's time."
He wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
Women across Twitter chimed in to challenge his flawed advice offering personal anecdotes as to why this decision actually does make sense.
“Ppl will call standing in front of you. I'm not trying to get punched in the face cuz they find out I have them a wrong number,” said one user, marking her message with a crying-laughing emoji.
@TrizzeTrell Ppl will call standing in front of you. I'm not trying to get punched in the face cuz they find out I have them a wrong number ?
— Lady_Catch (@prettiNpurple) April 17, 2017
Lightheartedness aside, she has a point. You don’t need to dig deep to find devastating stories about women being attacked or threatened after rejecting advances from men. In fact, there’s an entire Tumblr account dedicated to this massive problem.
“There's been like multiple mass murders from men feeling mildly slighted in the last week and these dudes are like 'take a chance I won't!'” said another user.
@Chuck_Normis @fambro_tiera @_RichHomieShawn @TrizzeTrell @LoveYoko_Ono There's been like multiple mass murders from men feeling mildly slighted in the last week and these dudes are like "take a chance I won't!"
— dubs (@DamianneTweets) April 18, 2017
A few men also chimed in, pointing out why Phillip’s shoddy, unsolicited opinion came from a place of privilege.
Ain't it funny how all oppressors kinda sound the same. Tell you how to deal with them oppressing you. https://t.co/TD2foiI4Bs
— Aiah Samba (@Dualityman81) April 18, 2017
When she gave you that fake number at the party that night and thought she was never gonna see you again pic.twitter.com/Zb92oGvEEv
— BA$ED COURAGE (@YahBoyCourage) October 8, 2015
Ultimately Phillips learned his lesson: "I learned to be careful with how you say things because it can be perceived the wrong way," he said to BuzzFeed.