Thank you, all of you kind souls who have taken the time to read and respond.

Each one of your replies have led me to introspect and arrive at the root of the problem.

Anita, Julia, Lakshmi, Cherryblossom – To clarify, I know I cannot control anyone’s opinions and I am completely ok with that.
Everyone’s opinion depends on their experience in life. Pink24, I overheard it in a big group gathering, so it wasn’t said directly to my face.
Julia – I completely agree with you, I am not expecting my boyfriend to be my knight-in-armour. Men are simple, like you said. 🙂 No matter what other inputs you receive, I want to tell you that I appreciate your wisdom on ‘ritualized’ relationships.

Having said that – in this situation, I am also not “allowed” to defend myself without causing a huge rift or perhaps, even a break-up. I just wish my boyfriend would say a simple – “It is rude to speak of my girlfriend that way”, instead of laughing along with him. If he cannot do that, I feel he shouldn’t restrict me from saying it to his friend. Would it change his friend’s *values* or belief? Very likely not, definitely not overnight.
I cannot comment on his friend’s life choices without my boyfriend springing to his defence, so I never do that.
Somehow, this incident has made me feel like my boyfriend are not so much a team.

pink24 – You’re right, I cannot tie my lack of self-confidence issue to this. I need to be able to follow my passion no matter what. Julia, thank you for the inspiring message on dancing ! I will treasure it forever.

Anita – I have read seen you kind response to every post on tinybuddha, I think you are a wonderful person for caring so much.
Your advice on requesting my boyfriend not to invite his friend on the next event is MOST helpful – at least until I am mentally tough enough to take whatever comes my way.

Thank you everyone, once again.

Blessings,
Wendy