The more that gets revealed about Brandon Vezmar, the Austin, Texas man who is suing a woman he met online for texting throughout their movie date, the less we believe that the courts will eventually be on his side. When the defendant in his case told her side of the story, she accused Vezmar of contacting her family members to try to get the $17.31 he was searching for, and was considering a restraining order.
Late yesterday, Vezmar, who appears to be ready to ride this 15 minutes all the way to some sort of possible horrific book deal, appeared in an interview with Texas Monthly, in which he theorizes that going on a date with this woman that she chose to leave somehow adds up to being “exploited” by her, with an extremely dangerous and ridiculous insinuation that she somehow “owed” him something:
Here’s what I think: I think the implicit contracts in dating need to stop, because I think that men are being exploited by people like the defendant. I purchased these movie tickets in advance because the movie was sold out, or selling out, everywhere. This was one of the last places I could get tickets. So out of convenience, I purchased two tickets in advance on Fandango. I think the implicit understanding on her part—in fact, I know—was that this was a date, the ticket was a gift, and she didn’t owe anything. That was an assumption she made, because she believes that those are the rules of the game. She has taken advantage of that. She’s taken advantage of someone else’s courtesy and generosity.
Not only that, but before he moved to Texas, Vezmar also lived in Chicago. Upon his departure, he wrote a scathing letter that was posted in the Chicago Tribune, in which he called The A.V. Club’s hometown “an insane, dangerous, soul-destroying place, and I’ve had enough. I’m leaving Chicago, and I’m never coming back.” A sharp-eyed reader pointed out this connection to The Chicagoist, which contacted Vezmar for some more ill-advised statements in which his MRA tendencies appear obvious:
When asked about critics who called his actions regarding Textgate an act of entitlement, Vezmar was quick to dismiss the very notion in a message to Chicagoist. “Entitled? ENTITLED TO WHAT? To buy other people things? To not be able to enjoy a movie? To be disrespected? The premise of the question is absurd, and only the most hopeless Progressive could even conjure it up. This is man hate WRIT LARGE,” he wrote to us.
Sure, “man hate.” That ire might be a bit more localized than Vezmar is suggesting, but it appears to be spreading rapidly.
UPDATE: We’re saved everyone: By Inside Edition, of all things. Apparently as sick of this story as the rest of us, IE set up a meeting between Vezmar and his date, so that she could give him the $17.31 back. In return, she asked for him to please god, “just leave this alone.” Vezmar carefully counted out all the money, and agreed to drop his lawsuit. We’d like to say that this will be the last we hear of this, but we would undoubtedly be wrong.