A viral TikTok video has sparked amusement and debate online after a woman discovered fabric softener inexplicably chilling in her refrigerator.
In the clipshe reveals that she had asked her boyfriend to put the groceries away, leading to the misplaced laundry liquid. With nearly 100,000 likes, the video has become a place for others to share their experiences of male chore oversights, and their disappointment at what many refer to as “weaponized incompetence,” or the willful act of doing something wrong so that another will do the labor.
“POV (point of view): You ask your boyfriend to put the shopping away,” the creator captioned the video, which showed her pulling the fabric softener out of the refrigerator.
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The unexpected placement left viewers both laughing and sharing their own experiences with partners’ unfortunate unpacking habits.
“Came home with my mom and saw four bags loads of shopping still left on the side,” one person wrote. “My dad came home an hour before and didn’t unpack anything but his own stuff into fridge or freezer on a hot day.”
A frustration with this thoughtless unpacking appeared in another comment: “(What) … is even wrong with men? The most credit I can give them for something like this is weaponized incompetence … and that’s not great!”
However, some confusion around temperature zones proved to be a common theme.
“My boyfriend will take frozen food from the freezer section in the shop and still come home and put it all in the fridge,” one person wrote. Another offered an equally baffling example: “My boyfriend once put frozen peas in the cupboard … they’re honestly a different breed.”
The issue extended beyond placement of food items, too.
“My ex packed things correctly, but once some soup leaked and he just left it there, because he claims he didn’t know that he had to clean up things that spill in the fridge,” another commenter shared.
While the TikTok video showcased a lighthearted moment, the broader conversation around men’s perceived inabilities in household tasks touches upon the phenomenon of “weaponized incompetence.” The term describes a pattern of behavior where an individual, often a man in the context of household duties, deliberately performs tasks poorly or unsuccessfully. The goal is to discourage the other person, often a woman, from asking them to do that task again.
Although the TikTok poster did not explicitly accuse her boyfriend of weaponized incompetence, the discussion ignited by her video resonated with many who are familiar with the dynamic in their own relationships.
Newsweek reached out to @hollieowers for comment via TikTok.
