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Taylor Dunklin

Source: Lifetime / Kinetic Content

If I could give any advice as someone married a few years about the keys to making it work, one big piece of the puzzle I would share is, don’t embarrass one another. Whatever issues you may be having as a couple, you can have your temper tantrum about it, and you ask for some advice from friends and/or family, but you need to handle your sh-t ASAP and most importantly, in-house.

For Brandon Reid and Taylor Dunklin on Married at First Sight, they’ve only been married a few weeks and yet, they’ve already humiliated each other. And while Brandon’s expletive-laden rant towards her in Panama and cold shoulder treatment was dead wrong, Taylor’s Instagram Story rant in Wednesday’s episode about how hard it is to find a good man with basic level qualifications, and then acting like he had no reason to be upset about it, was just as bad.

This behavior was bubbling up behind the surface, though. Taylor tried to be somewhat patient and understanding with Brandon’s mood swings and sometimes flat demeanor when they would engage in serious conversation, but it was clear during this week’s episode that she was getting fed up. When she asked him, via the experts’ love language exercise, if he would be more interested in spending time with her to talk, cook together and grow close, she became annoyed that his responses were always dry, as in “sure,” but nothing emphatic. There was no moment where Brandon took the lead in sharing ideas as to how they could enrich their marriage and speak each other’s love languages.

The problem is, Taylor wouldn’t just communicate that. Instead, she would mock. Her attitude would change and instead of just saying, “I want to feel like you want to spend time with me,” she would say things like “Keep doing what you’re doing ’cause it’s working, right?” or vent about him treating her as though she has some ulterior motive for wanting to make their TV marriage work. When he told her, which was the truth, that her energy and attitude was making it hard to effectively communicate, she would basically tell him he needed to deal with it and just get through the hardships, leaving her frustrated. But instead of just working through that with him, and Brandon not exiting stage left every time they disagreed, she went to her friends, and to her social media. That’s how that very hurtful InstaStory came to be.

In it, Taylor tells her followers, “I have a question for everyone. Why is it so hard to find a man that’s over 6’3”, has a job, never been to jail or you know, isn’t gay? I feel like I have the most minimal f–king requirements to finding a man and not a soul meets them. So, I guess I’ll just be single forever, and ever, and ever! That’s fine with me, though.”

She also listed out her qualifications for a man, mentioning twice that the guy’s sanity needs to be in check (that was certainly aimed at Brandon) and that he “Can be any race as long as the [eggplant emoji] right.”

Whatever she thought she was doing, all of that was a clear dig at Brandon. She made the video while married to him but claimed that no one she’s encountered, which would include him, fit her good man criteria and that she’s meant to be single. Brandon took it as most of us would, as an insult. However, Taylor handled it as many of us wouldn’t, as a joke.

She thought the video was funny. When Dr. Viviana Coles disagreed, saying the video didn’t honor that they were supposed to be starting fresh after the drama in Panama, Taylor looked at her social media during the conversation. She talked in a condescending tone about how she didn’t really care if it hurt his feelings. She said “out of respect for you and the experts” only, she would refrain from posting such videos again. And hell, it took even co-star Meka to tell her that she needed to apologize to that man, because there isn’t a soul that would be okay with their partner sh-tting on them on social media.

Again, I get that Taylor has been put through a lot with Brandon and she was likely just finding herself over it. That can happen. However, it would have been best for her to just communicate that to him, patiently at that, as opposed to communicating such feelings in a passive aggressive way to her thousands of followers on social media. Though Brandon’s demeanor was dry in their conversations, he never came off like he wasn’t open to suggestions. Instead, she just grew frustrated with his lack of bubbliness, which he’s been lacking since she met him at the altar.

While Brandon has certainly been a ticking time bomb, which could point to something deeper that he struggles with, Taylor was just being mean, and she couldn’t own it. Those two things, being purposely impolite and denying responsibility when you are? They obviously didn’t work in her marriage to Brandon, and they won’t work in a relationship with anyone else…

Hit the flip to see the shocked reactions to Taylor’s behavior:

 

https://twitter.com/KeeAuntie/status/1232851551519215617

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