To wonder why girls put "taken" in their social media bios

[Verycold]

It sounds awful... So passive and just

I've

...never seen this? But it sounds pretty awful.

I was thinking you meant the film

Taken as in they've got a boyfriend you mean?

What would you prefer they put? Spoken for? Exclusively shagging?

Isn't it OK to be passive sometimes?

Does it really matter? I'm sure these people aren't slaves/ forced to type it. I've seen guys write it too. If a seat on a bus is 'taken' it just means that other people can't sit on it, not that the person occupying actually owns it.

It's an expression, not everything is literal.

Probably for the same reason that you call them girls.

Yanbu, it sounds immature something like young teens would say, not mature women. Do these women say 'full time mummy' as well

Sorry should have made clear I mean girls as in girls - teenagers

I think it's either boasting - yay I've got a boyfriend.

Or to ward of unwanted attention. I've often found that a certain type of chauvinist won't accept 'Sorry I'm not interested' but will accept 'Sorry, I've got a boyfriend'.

A woman couldn't possibly not fancy him. But he is wary of stepping on another man's toes. Simple lack of respect for female autonomy.

How about attached?

Could also be a spillover thing from Facebook that now becomes normal.

They ask you to define your relationship. And so some part of your brain sees it as normal bio information for other social media too, alongside name, age, location etc.

Attached sounds awful and cringy Taken isn't much better but it's 'the' thing and it's just what you put when you have a boyfriend. There's nothing underhand about it, I used to put it on my MySpace page when I was 15-16 and first met DH, it's not new!

Lots of biker girls have 'property of..' They sew patches with this too.

Clair I bet the boys don't bloody put it!

Taken means not available. It was also used when I was at highschool. I once burst a guys nose when I was 18 in a bar for not taking heed when I said I was 'taken' and continuing to feel my arse and try and stick his hands up my skirt. 'Spoken for' is a bit posh for where I am from so we use 'taken' instead and the men use it too.

Oh I used to put things like this. Didn't mean my partner owns me, just a saying. Thinking too deeply into it methinks.

I think the question is, as MrsW said, whether the boys use the same expression as often. If not then something is off.

The boys do use it too. If u ask my 31yo DH (as many of the older ladies do when he is in uniform) he will say he is taken, then flash his wedding ring (which is his second one!! I still have my first).

It's an old enough term, I recall friends saying things like "why are all the decent men taken?"

Lally....that suggests that the only reason for him NOT to feel you up was that you were "taken" when in fact just your not wanting him to would have been ample reason.

The boys on my teens social media pages do it too - it means you've got a boyfriend/girlfriend, which is something that has to be advertised as widely as possible at that age as proof of your attractiveness to the opposite sex. Or summat.

I am not cool enough on enough social media to have seen this, but it sounds awful and makes me depressed for my dd's teenage years. It's a hideous way to describe yourself. I have a partner of many years but I am certainly not 'taken'. May as well say you're owned!

Honestly Atthe - it's really not that bad! They all say it, boys as well as girls, and it's really just a turn of phrase - we used to say it as teens back in the 80s up here, and we all grew up to be perfectly able, independent women and men.

I prefer "in a relationship". Taken sounds as though it was against their will

Even more weird what does ' its complicated ' mean?

Oh the "it's complicated" thing sets my teeth on edge - does it mean you're in a relationship with someone who's already taken?