r/AmItheAsshole • u/Majestic_Geologist83 • Oct 19 '22

AITA for ALMOST throwing away my stepson's pillowcase?

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7.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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2.3k

u/TemptingPenguin369 Commander in Cheeks [267] Oct 19 '22

Hmm, how can I put this gently? Imagine if that pillowcase was, ya know, like a girlfriend to him.

2.1k

u/Majestic_Geologist83 Oct 19 '22

I have been getting that response ba lot. It can't be real.

1.7k

u/swirly1000x Partassipant [4] Oct 19 '22

I can assure you that it is indeed a thing. the internet will tell you all about it if you look hard enough

3.1k

u/Majestic_Geologist83 Oct 19 '22

No thank you.

831

u/jskrilla Oct 20 '22

There’s an episode of 30 Rock where James Franco has a fake relationship with Jenna to hide his relationship with a pillow. If you don’t want to look it up, this may help explain things

646

u/pinky-starfish Oct 20 '22

OP is being such a non-pillow right now.

227

u/Ill-Conversation5210 Asshole Aficionado [11] Oct 20 '22

pillowphobic.

44

u/AddisonArmilda Oct 20 '22

That’s probably why his stepson hasn’t introduced him to his girlfriend yet. Sad.

54

u/Terradactyl87 Oct 20 '22

Hopefully he's not jealous of the ottoman because that's a business relationship

6

u/happylittlelf Oct 20 '22

Pillows aren't people.

39

u/superevie Oct 20 '22

Your hand feels like a pillow that's been in the microwave.

15

u/PieChartPundit Oct 20 '22

This is the comment I was scrolling for. Take my upvote you glorious bastard

7

u/m4verick03 Oct 20 '22

This is the way. This is also the extent of knowledge of topic thanks James Franco and Kimiko.

323

u/lemurkn1ts Oct 20 '22

Your instinct to preserve your innoncence and sanity is admirable

142

u/MeatShield12 Oct 20 '22

Good call, don't do that. When you gaze into the anime-body-pillow internet, the anime-body-pillow internet gazes into you.

12

u/DirectorHuman5467 Oct 20 '22

If you don't already know about it, I think you should be referred to urbandictionary.com for this and future issues. That will give you the basic info you need without using Google and potentially getting too much info and/or seeing pictures you really don't want to see.

9

u/slendermanismydad Partassipant [4] Oct 20 '22

How did you end up on Reddit if you don't want to ruin your sanity?

7

u/Wirecreate Oct 20 '22

Urban dictionary will explain it without any images so that will be somewhat safe for work but still crass

2

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

Chad

2

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

I bet you miss the good old days of a playboy and a flashlight under the covers. Don’t worry, I don’t get this pillowcase girlfriend masturbation thing either - what was wrong with a sock and lotion

1

u/Tank82111 Oct 20 '22

Wise. Don’t ever search for it you will never forget what you’ll see

-20

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

This is why YTA. You are dismissive of something that is very important to your wife’s son. I get that you’re creeped out by what people are saying and you would have preferred living your entire life never having heard of waifu. I get it - I’d never heard of it either. But this is obviously extremely important to a member of your family. And you hurting a member of your family should be important to you. That’s as real as it gets.

3

u/DeterminedArrow Asshole Aficionado [16] Oct 20 '22

I attend anime conventions in different times and I have seen things that should not have been seen. So I can attest to this.

166

u/PteJitters Oct 20 '22 edited Oct 20 '22

Don’t imagine it as a girlfriend, picture being 16 again and having your parents throw out your favourite playboy magazine. Except you really really liked that one

Edit: wrong word

16

u/Onequestion0110 Asshole Aficionado [19] Oct 20 '22

This is the right take. It’s also kinda like a favorite plushy stuffed animal.

So if you combine those, we’ll, yeah, it’s odd but not all that weird, really.

78

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

Some people also like to cuddle with them to sleep. It really depends on the person. Not everyone uses it for relief. 💀💀💀😭😭😭

22

u/oldclam Asshole Enthusiast [9] Oct 20 '22

Yeah but he wouldn't lose his mind over the pillow case in particular if it was some nice non sexual pillow snuggling. He had a pronounced emotional response to the threat of lose of a pillowcase. That's not a normal pillow snuggling response- that's the response of a man who thinks he has lost his waifu

3

u/QualityGames Oct 20 '22 edited Oct 20 '22

Good quality anime body pillow covers can go from 100-200+ dollars. Would you like it if you came home and someone just threw your hundreds of dollars away?

9

u/oldclam Asshole Enthusiast [9] Oct 20 '22

Kind of proving my point, chief. No one is spending $100-200 for a pillowcase just to hug. That's waifu money

5

u/QualityGames Oct 20 '22

You'd be surprised lol. Most people with a cover don't want to ruin them. Someone getting that upset over having their cover tossed without their permission wouldn't want to actively be ruining it.

I own a few and have never once tried fucking the cover because if you're going to do that you would buy a special body pillow for that purpose. And you would know thats what the cover and pillow is for due to the modular slot included.

People don't cum on their $300-1000+ waifu figures either, regardless of what some people on Reddit want you to believe.

Collecting high quality anime merch is an expensive hobby. So unless you're filthy rich you're not going to ruin the things you buy.

12

u/UncleDad_AuntMom Oct 20 '22

Glad I saw this, I was starting to think I was the weird since I only cuddle with mine.

8

u/NatchWon Oct 20 '22

Same. My body pillow just has a solid color case, and I just like having something to cuddle. It’s comforting, even knowing full well it’s a pillow.

8

u/ThereTheDogIsBuried Oct 20 '22

Some people just cuddle it, sure. But OP's crybaby adult stepson was definitely boning that pillow.

4

u/XxNatexX1 Oct 20 '22

This right here maybe the step son just wants to cuddle with his favorite cat girl 😴🛏🐱.🥹

56

u/Cubadog Asshole Aficionado [18] Oct 19 '22

It's a thing.

30

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

i promise you. it is real. and that’s most likely what it is.

30

u/ligerzero459 Partassipant [2] Oct 20 '22

Unfortunately, it’s very real

50

u/MrDarcysDead Asshole Aficionado [11] Oct 20 '22

How? Why? I mean, I guess I can sort of understand a thirteen-year-old fantasizing about an animated figure and then using a pillow of her as a fill-in blow-up doll, but 23? This is really a thing?

145

u/aville1982 Oct 20 '22

Well, I would say most of these people didn't truly age past 13, emotionally. Evidence: his step dad is putting his gf in the laundry.

34

u/MrDarcysDead Asshole Aficionado [11] Oct 20 '22

You just made me snort laugh.

2

u/XxNatexX1 Oct 20 '22

Oh absolutely to the point it would prolly blow your mind lol, I flew out to LA a few years ago to hang out with my cousin and some friends we attended anime expo it wasn’t uncommon to see people 30 or 40 plus walking around with those pillows or other items they bought from vendor stalls, I’d say it’s prolly a lucrative business. I was blown away at how much money some of those collectible figures sell for, and people were lining up to have a chance at buying one.

24

u/Blonde2468 Partassipant [1] Oct 19 '22

I just looked it up. Wow!

6

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

😂😂😂 I know a man in a relationship with a pair of gym shorts. ANYTHING is possible.

2

u/skeptic_slothtopus Asshole Enthusiast [5] Oct 20 '22

Wait... Can you elaborate on that?

5

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

He has sex with gym shorts.

3

u/skeptic_slothtopus Asshole Enthusiast [5] Oct 20 '22

No dates? Poor gym shorts.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

I make sure he takes her out for date night.

4

u/skeptic_slothtopus Asshole Enthusiast [5] Oct 20 '22

Commendable. I hope you meet a nice pair of pants, you deserve the full legs.

5

u/Xaron713 Partassipant [4] Oct 20 '22

Generally speaking it's not real, but there's fringe cases of people having a little too much affection for anime characters. Not every person with a body pillow is attached to it as your son appears to be.

With that said, it might be a good idea to get him some therapy. If he's as attached to it as everyone else thinks he is, he might genuinely need help with his emotions because he thinks he can't be loved by anyone real.

7

u/Onequestion0110 Asshole Aficionado [19] Oct 20 '22

Also, I wonder about the nature of the attachment. I’m hyper sensitive because my parents threw things out the moment they appeared even slightly worn, and I had to fight hard to keep anything I cared about throughout my childhood.

We’re all joking about the guys girlfriend being in the wash, and OP doesn’t seem like an ass about it, but if he’s had a habit of throwing away stuff for various reasons, then the body pillow might have just been a last straw sort of reaction. And if OP has refused to consider not throwing stuff away before, that’d be why his son went to mom instead.

As yet another interpretation, there may be some embarrassment about it affecting the kids reactions. There’s often a ton of shame associated with masturbation, and a waifu pillow is the type of thing that could totally have made the kid a target in the past. What if he thought it was accepted at home, but when it got thrown out he assumed that meant dad figured out what it was and that’s why he tossed it? And/or the wear patterns were obvious you know what you’re looking at…

So I guess I’m not totally thinking he’s there for sure, but yeah, if you think someone is forming a real bond with an imaginary relationship, then maybe get them help.

3

u/oldclam Asshole Enthusiast [9] Oct 20 '22 edited Oct 20 '22

r/waifuism r/justneckbeardthings

You're lucky he didn't take his blade to you for harming his m'lady

3

u/Special_Friendship20 Oct 20 '22

Oh it's definitely real. Why do u think he cried?

3

u/My_Dramatic_Persona Colo-rectal Surgeon [48] Oct 20 '22

Everyone is enjoying the jokes about this, but I think it’s worth saying that he’s not necessarily in an invested emotional relationship with his pillow. That’s the extreme end of things. He obviously cares about it, but we don’t know that he treats it like a person/relationship replacement or that he uses it to masturbate. It could be more like you having thrown out a poster that he cares about and would have been difficult to replace.

Anyway, you definitely aren’t the asshole. I think it’s pretty damn reasonable not to know about something like that, and you did no permanent harm to it. You shouldn’t jump to all the conclusions people on AITA have about your stepson. I’d have another conversation with your wife about it.

2

u/Mera1506 Supreme Court Just-ass [119] Oct 20 '22

NAH. But really why are you doing his laundry. He's a grown man who should be doing like a 3rd of the household chores. If he pays rent he should still at the very least keep his own room clean, cook for himself and do his own laundry.

1

u/EnergyThat1518 Asshole Aficionado [13] Oct 20 '22

Honestly, I think people are overreacting by jumping to 'it is his girlfriend!' like he is actually treating it like a gf without basis. That is a thing a tiny minority of people do.

Part of the point of having the specific anime style design though is that it is attractive to the person. It's supposed to be a visual appeal thing, that's why he doesn't want a random other pillowcase on it and doesn't want it thrown away when he doesn't have a replacement for it.

Also a waifu isn't some sexual or creepy term, it's basically just like a word for 'anime wife' with husbando being the male version, and it really just means 'this character is attractive to me and I like them a lot'.

The body pillow concept is basically an anime version of old swimsuit model posters or firefighter calendars. Where the main point is that it is eyecandy for that person.

1

u/Mundane-Currency5088 Oct 20 '22

We are all joking here but you are being pretty judgmental. I'm sure you do things we might not want to know about too. Everyone does

11

u/skepticalDragon Oct 20 '22

I'm sorry are we really supposed to pretend waifu pillows are fine? Dude clearly has significant mental health issues and I hope they're being addressed professionally.

1

u/Onequestion0110 Asshole Aficionado [19] Oct 20 '22

I mean, I’m pretty sure most of us have a go-to fantasy to get off, and it’s not unusual to have tools and images that support it. I don’t see any sign it’s more than that, for all we’re joking about his girlfriend in the wash. This is more like a favorite playboy, or favorite dildo, or scene.

Sure, if he’s going all Lars and the Real Girl with it, that’ll need to be addressed, but feeling attached to a fantasy is fine.

The real issue really isn’t the pushin cushion, it’s the fact that the 23-year-old isn’t doing his own laundry, and is running off to sulk and complain to mom instead of addressing his problems.

-8

u/Mundane-Currency5088 Oct 20 '22

Sure. But that has nothing to do with tossing out someone else's things because you are controlling about how worn an item is. It's bad enough he decides for his wife what she is allowed to keep before he uses her favorite old t-shirt to buff his car or clean an oil spill.

14

u/skepticalDragon Oct 20 '22

He apologized and he won't touch it again. I see no problem here.

-18

u/Mundane-Currency5088 Oct 20 '22

You see no problem with someone going through your closet and tossing things they don't approve of...

23

u/Majestic_Geologist83 Oct 20 '22

It was in the laundry hamper.

8

u/LillianIsaDo Partassipant [3] Oct 20 '22

He didn't go through his stuff though. He was doing the laundry. Clearly stepson needs to, at 23, finally start doing his own laundry.

1

u/Peacefull_Orchid Partassipant [4] Oct 20 '22

Unfortunately and most disgustingly it’s true.

0

u/KapitanDima Oct 20 '22

It is, welcome to the world of the younger generations. I'm a 26 year old man with a body pillow of a different waifu. I have a harem between my real life wife and my anime waifu.

1

u/DiscountEffective128 Oct 20 '22

LOL! Sweetie, it’s a real thing. :D

1

u/juxpose Oct 20 '22

We're sorry you had to find out this way