A young man posting a selfie holding a bouquet rlast week resulted in a wave of cruelty and discourse surrounding first date etiquette. Hundreds of manosphere types flooded the user’s comments to either insult him or give unsolicited advice on the proper way to manipulate women.
As the post went viral, other X users reacted with horror at the flood of hate and controversy around what was once a common and unremarkable act.
Flower date-gate
On Dec. 12, X user @Thehullboy1, real name Marcus Skeet, posted a mirror selfie in a public restroom holding a bouquet of roses. His hair was styled and he was looking fresh in his sweater and North Face jacket, talking about how he was about to go on his very first date.
“First ever date tonight, absolutely bricking it,” he wrote. “Wish us luck ladies and gentlemen.”
The selfie racked up nearly 127M views, 435K likes, and over 9.4K comments in the span of eight days.
“Bricking it” is British slang for a feeling of intense anxiety, for those outside of the U.K.
This innocuous post quickly drew the attention of haters, who flocked to his post on X to berate him for gifting a woman flowers on the first date. According to these guys, it’s outdated, or it shows weakness and she’ll walk all over you, or she’ll “friend-zone” you, or any host of other detrimental side effects.
“That is how female brains work,” wrote one user. Other comments called @thehullboy “beta” and alleged the bouquet is “weird” and “stinks of desperation.”
Ladies weigh in
After a few days, the post went viral enough to spread outside of manosphere X, and women began to comment on the discourse.
“This tweet convinced me men have not a SINGLE CLUE what women find physically attractive bc half the women I know have dated sturdy lovely kind men like this,” wrote user @rebmasel. “Andrew Tate really convinced a generation of incels that our physical type is … Andrew Tate???”
Other women worked to push out the nasty comments and quote tweets with encouraging messages to Skeet explaining that plenty of us do, in fact, appreciate flowers on a first or any other date.
Never mind Hawk Tuah etc, this is the social media person I want to succeed in 2025 pic.twitter.com/15Gc2tXzcn
— Damien Cross (@DC_F1) December 19, 2024
Date update
Shockingly, all that manosphere advice turned out to be wrong. The first date went well, and the only reason there won’t be a second one is because the logistics are off.
“Gutted but with the distance of where we live and one or two logistic things a relationship just wouldn’t work,” Skeet explained. “Think she’s a blooming brilliant person, who deserves the world and I hope our paths cross again in the future.”
“Can safely say I will never post about a date on social media again haha. But I do not regret giving flowers, don’t want to change who I am as a person.”
Leave the mental health charity guy alone
Part of the reason any of this started is likely due to Skeet’s respectable follower count, helped along by a viral story from earlier this year. In September, Skeet revealed that someone had donated £5,000 to his marathon fundraiser for the mental health charity Mind.
@thehullboy Mental health tried to take me now its time to prove you CAN get better! #mentalhealth #running #runningchallenge #runtok #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #football #youcandothis ♬ som original – ace.. lyricss
Skeet posted about the generous donation personally thanking “Justin,” whoever he was, for a gesture that made the X user cry. A day later, former NFL star J. J. Watt replied and revealed that he was the Justin who donated.
“Wishing you all the best on Saturday Marcus. Working hard to not only improve yourself, but also make the world a better place around you. That is truly commendable,” said Watt. “Keep inspiring people, you never know how far your efforts may reach.”
Skeet’s gobsmacked response went viral, and pretty soon he was in the news for something much more positive than getting harassed by weirdos online.
On Dec. 19, thehullboy posted another selfie, this time thanking people for their support and positive messages. “On a more positive note I do wanna say how grateful I am for the lovely messages and support,” he wrote. “Truly does mean the absolute world. Don’t want people to think I only pay attention to the hate because i truly do appreciate the love so much and honestly the lovely messages have kept me going the last 24 hours. You are legends, thank you ❤️”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @Thehullboy1 for comment via X.
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