A man has been criticised for publicly proposing to his girlfriend as she accepted her degree at her graduation ceremony.
At La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, the man is heard saying ‘stay here… I love you with all my heart’ before dropping down to one knee and proposing to his girlfriend.
A commentator named Clementine Ford criticised the man for ‘making it all about him’.
She called out the audience who were clapping during the proposal and added:
Why do men look at situations where women have achieved something for themselves, where they are about to receive praise and admiration… and they think, ‘you know what? I’m going to make this moment about me. I’m going to make it so that she remembers, always, that the day she graduated was the day I proposed to her. That was the most important thing that happened to her that day.’
This is not romantic. It’s entrapment for a start (how is she meant to say no when there’s an auditorium of people oohing and gasping?) but it’s also reminding her that nothing of what she achieves ON HER OWN and FOR HERSELF will ever compete with the greatest achievement of all – landing a man and a ring.
Now, the only thing people will congratulate her for at the post grad party will be her engagement. They won’t ask to see the degree, only the ring. This is the memory she gets to have of something hard she managed to do – that it was nowhere near as impressive or valuable as a guy asking her to marry him.
La Trobe University responded to the criticism and has since removed the video and apologised on Ford’s Facebook post:
We made an error of judgement today – our graduation ceremonies are all about celebrating student achievement, and this event detracted from that important acknowledgement of our students’ success – we have removed the post.
I mean, why and could he think that her graduation would be the BEST time to propose?? Kinda feel bad for him, kinda don’t :((
