Is expecting a friendship from a man you rejected a marriage proposal an insult?

[Bostonbutterfly]

An older cousin declined her then boyfriend's marriage proposal in 2017. They were already dating for 4 years at the time. In private she admitted to me that she just wanted to keep him as a boyfriend.

The man obviously broke up and cut contact. She was upset that he didn't want to be in the relationship anymore nor even be her friend. She tried contacting him recently and is upset to discover he blocked her as of yesterday. She expected a friendship from him.

If a woman rejected a marriage proposal, would you find it insulting if she then expects you to keep her as a friend?

Updates

+1 y

She keeps saying that since she never cheated and was never a horrible girlfriend, he could've at least accepted her as a friend. She thinks he's overreacting by blocking and erasing her from his life totally.

[OneManOnly01]

Not exactly an insult, it's okay to offer him to stay friends but don't expect him to accept friendship.

Many men would agree to stay friends but many would not. And I think they are right to reject the option of 'staying friends' so leave it upto them after you've made the offer.

[Jessica405]

Quite simply, if most guys get rejected, they know they are wasting time to maintain any contact. It could seriously jeapodise any future relationship with a different girl.

[Bostonbutterfly]

I imagine the new girl wouldn't like it at all if he were maintaining contact with that ex girlfriend. That would be disrespectful. She doesn't understand and really thinks the way he's overdoing by blocking her.

[Jessica405]

The last thing he wants is to try to explain to a new girl why he suddenly gets a message from an ex. Like me, a lot of girls would find that a red flag. Is the ex trying to get him back? That would be my first thought. I would then want to find out every dotted I and crossed T about this ex.

Summing up, she had her chance and blew it. End of story. Move on.

[Anonymous]

It's not an insult to a healthy person. But he did the right thing. Good for him. Fuck your cousin though

[FilmGuy93]

I would take that as an insult, personally.

[Bostonbutterfly]

Indeed it was an insult and she doesn't seem to understand. She really thinks he's overreacting. The irony is any women would react that way too if their man didn't want to marry them after so long and then expected a friendship. So it's no difference the way he feels.

[FilmGuy93]

I don't understand why so many women are like this… Do women just not think men have emotions, or is it something more malicious? For being the more intutive gender, y'all don't seem to have a ton of emotional self awareness.

[Bostonbutterfly]

This is one thing I don't like about my gender; hypocrisy. A man can't hurt her feelings nor string her along for years but if a woman does that, she expects him to suck it up and forget about it. I agree my gender can be mean sometimes. I'm really shocked at their lack of understanding that a man is also a human with feelings.

[FilmGuy93]

Agreed… I'm really not trying to turn this into a whole anti-woman thing, but it strikes me as strange too. The lack of sensitivity and basic human decency that both men and women seem to show each other is jaw-dropping. The blatant double standards, the hypocrisy, the rudeness, the lack of empathy, the constant disrespect; it's all getting so old.

[In_Trance]

irrational