Patrick Ritchie, the ‘mansplaining’ student from the ‘bored nightclub girl’ meme has opened up about his side of the story, seven years after the relatable clubbing snap first emerged
Back in 2018, a meme emerged that for many encapsulated a core part of the student clubbing experience – the now famous ‘bored nightclub girl’ snap. The photo in question, taken at Milk Tuesdays event at Edinburgh’s Bourbon nightclub, shows a young man talking enthusiatically into the ear of a young woman, who bore the all too relatable expression of someone who’d more than had her fill of the conversation.
Clutching her coat, the fed-up female student, later named as Lucia Gorman, looked as though she wanted to escape the one-sided discussion altogether. At the time the snap went viral, not too much context was given. However, a picture certainly paints a thousand words, and pretty soon the photo was shared far and wide by those who could resonated all too well to being spoken at in the early hours, when a takeaway and taxi home is long overdue. Now the male student in question has come forward with his side of the story, revealing what it was like to be part of “most relatable nightclub photo in history”.
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Patrick Ritchie, then 18, told the Mail Online: “I don’t know what I was saying to Lucia at the time. We were out in the bar. We were in a big group and I must have spoken to her five, ten, fifteen times that night. I can’t really remember what I said so it must been good night. I had a laugh about and it is what it is. It’s not really come up in the future. It’s just a bit mad that it kind of blew up.”
The now 24-year-old, who works as a graduate commercial surveyor, recalled how he became aware of the photo the day after it was shared, adding that he didn’t really think anybody recognised him. Although the photo is often referred to as an example of ‘mansplaining’, Patrick and Lucia are in fact old school pals, and they now look back and share a laugh at their moment of internet fame.
Patrick said: “My family laughed probably when they saw it. I was eighteen and it was the start of me going out and about. I’m 24 now. I have a laugh at it and I’m quite happy to leave it at that. I bump into Lucia from time of time. I was at school with her. We laugh about it.”
This comes as Lucia, now an assistant brand manager at Premier Foods, opened up about why the nightclub photo resonates with so many people, especially women. Lucia told Joe: “I feel like a lot of women in the world probably really understand, and whilst he wasn’t being horrible, I think girls in clubs get the brunt of men just explaining things that you don’t need to hear.”
Seven years on, Lucia reportedly finds it tricky to replicate her comically exasperated expression. She addded: “I really struggle to do the face that I was doing in it. While it looks really staged, it was completely not and I was so off guard that I don’t even know how to do that face like people do.
“I can try but I just prefer to smile. I find it quite hard to do the like moody, grumpy, uninterested expressions, but maybe I should just get Patrick back in my ear again and we can try to recreate it.”
Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com
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