Sorry, but if you’re going to try to protect her from every potentially scary/uncomfortable/dangerous encounter with men, be prepared to be her 24/7 body guard. That’s life for women. If she’s not asking you to protect her, I doubt she’ll welcome you constantly stepping in and doing it of your own volition.

I feel like you’re scratching for justifications to tell her not to talk to certain people. Bottom line, if she hasn’t given you a reason to mistrust her and she isn’t asking you to run interference between her and other men, don’t do it. She will not appreciate it.

Fellow majority guy friend-having woman here. I think you’re likely overthinking here, and lying to yourself a bit. You say you trust your girlfriend not to cheat, but you don’t seem to trust her to be smart enough to see when a guy is trying to “seduce” her and not fall for it.

I liked what you said about having respect for your partner. When my husband and I started dating I was very much running with the boys, spending lots of time at sports bars chatting people up, etc. I felt free to be friendly with whoever, including exes that ended on good terms, but my personal boundary was about respect. If I caught any whiff of a guy trying to slide in through the friend door or if anyone tried to undermine/sow doubt/disrespect my boyfriend or our relationship, they were gone immediately. After seeing it happen a time or two by boyfriend got much more comfortable because he really did know he could trust me.

If you’re worried about exes being friends, maybe this will make you feel better: I was always able to be so friendly with them because I was never really that interested in them romantically. It was more of a buddy that I tried dating for a second only to find it was a bad fit and we were better as friends. Most went for the friend route initially. The ones that were real friends stayed in my life, the ones that were just hoping to get back with me eventually drifted away when their best efforts only got the friend version of me. I knew what they were up to the whole time but found that just waiting them out was the best way to live drama-free. Your girlfriend could very well be using a similar strategy.

I think it’s pretty drastic to say relationships in general are not for you, but there seems to be a compatibility issue with this one.

I would have an honest conversation with him about it and let him know that while you still like him and all his wonderful qualities, you are at a breaking point with this particular behavior. He may not be aware of how much he has changed in that regard. If he is not open to the conversation/willing to work to meet you in the middle, you have your answer and should probably end the relationship there.