There's something really, truly impressive about the sheer audacity some men have when it comes to making unwelcome and unfiltered comments about women and — lest we forget — to women about their appearance.
So, recently, redditor u/peanutstail asked the women of Reddit, "Ladies, what are some of your favorite, completely unsolicited comments about your appearance that you've gotten from men?" She began with her own story (the first one below), and many women shared their own in response:
1. "'Wow, your hair is so wild/frizzy/unkempt.' I've had at least four or five men tell me this, completely unprompted. Note that two of them told me this after sex — so yeah, of course it's going to be messy."
2. "A grown-ass, middle-aged man told me my legs 'went on forever' at my grandfather's funeral. Mind you, I was 14."
3. "One day, I was walking from work to my gym. While I was at a crosswalk, a man in a beat-up, old pickup truck took the time to honk, roll down his window, and, completely unprompted, yell at me, 'Hey! You look like a bitch!' As someone who does have strong RBF and has gotten 'You should smile more' many times, I was seriously taken aback. I usually have a witty response for the 'smile more' comments, but I think my jaw just dropped. I didn't even know what to do. He just drove away like nothing had happened."
"I still think about that pretty frequently."
4. "I've had a few guys tell me that my septum piercing is ugly and men don't like that."
"As if I do it for you." —u/Mxlancholyy
5. "I had the random guy who sat next to me in class tell me that my scarf 'removed [my] neck.' He said that since I'm short, the look wasn't doing me any favors. It was in the middle of the winter. Unfortunately, my biological need to not freeze my butt off was getting in the way of his right to be physically attracted to me."
6. "I was told that it's so refreshing to see a woman on a night out with no makeup on, and how I am a natural beauty...while I was wearing a lot of makeup!"
7. "I once had a dude tell me, 'You really don't need all that blush,' when I had no makeup on and a bad sunburn across my face."
"Tons of dudes can't tell what makeup looks like at all. I'm embarrassed for them when they say stuff about it."
8. "My guy friend told me I looked amazing and as if I had lost weight a week after I had a miscarriage…that he was visiting to offer support for."
"I mean, he wasn't exactly wrong."
9. "This old guy, at the bar my grandma would go to, told me my pants were too tight. They were regular jeans, not even skinny jeans or anything like that. I said, 'Why, can you see my dick?' It embarrassed the shit out of him."
"Everyone else thought it was funny."
10. "I almost never wear makeup, but I got the whole works done for my best friend's wedding when I was her maid of honor. Throughout the day, I kept getting gross comments like, 'Oh, see how pretty you can be if you actually made the effort?' I was just generally feeling miserable."
"Due to the scheduling, I only met up with my plus-one after the main ceremony, on the way to the afterparty. We got into our car, and he looked me dead in the eye and just said, 'You look like a clown.' I could not stop laughing. I felt like a clown!
"It was just really nice knowing that he didn't care that I suddenly looked gorgeous to everyone else in the room. The makeup wasn't me, it made me look like someone I wasn't, and he hated it for that reason alone."
11. "'Your underarms are dark; isn't there a cream you could use for it?' And that is how I got flowers for the first time in my life."
"With a written note of apology."
12. "I was walking with my 2-year-old nephew to get the mail when we crossed paths with a man I'd never met before. My nephew is very outgoing and started happily blabbering to this dude. The guy crouched down toward my nephew, locked eyes with me, and told my nephew, 'Mommy needs to start dressing her age. You need to tell her she's not a teenager anymore, and she looks pathetic!' He then burst into obnoxiously loud laughter and walked off."
"It was really fucking weird. I was also dressed completely benignly, but I was in my late 20s with blue hair, so that must have been his issue."
13. "An old man told me I ruined my perfectly beautiful body with all of my tattoos. At my place of work."
"Lol."
14. "Before I climbed on the operating table for a spinal procedure, the anesthesiologist — a white man in his 50s — stopped me and, for the THIRD TIME, asked if I was sure I wasn't pregnant. I told him again there was no possible way I was pregnant, but I'd take a pregnancy test if he wanted. Then he said he didn’t believe me and that I was 'too cute not to be pregnant,' that I’ve 'got to have tons of guys climbing all over [me] because [I'm] so cute,' so 'how am [I] not pregnant?'"
"The surgical tech also sexually harassed me after watching what the anesthesiologist had said. I reported them both for sexual harassment at my surgical follow-up appointment. The surgical tech was fired, and the anesthesiologist 'retired early.'"
15. "This one has always stuck with me: 'Those socks are very provocative on you.' I was 17, wearing tall socks with shorts, a flannel, and a tank top (a typical 2010s outfit, lol). I was at a small house party with other teens in a basement, and I knew one person there. The reason I remember it? It was the host's dad who said it after giving me a body check up and down. I was like, 'Okay, thanks?'"
"I never wore tall socks like that again."
16. "I have PCOS, so I can grow a beard most 16-year-old boys are jealous of. I've lost count of the number of times I've been 'advised' to shave or wax my face."
"Most often in high school, I was told that I have more hair than my brother. I even had an ex who commented that he now understood what all his exes were saying. People also question my gender.
"It used to upset me, but now I can't find any fucks to give them. I still remove my facial hair, but I do it for me, no one else (it gets itchy after a couple of days)."
17. "On Christmas, my siblings and I talked through almost the whole night — we were quite drunk at some point. My brother told us that he thinks my sister is more beautiful than I am. He tried to soften his statement by saying I'm also beautiful, but my sister more adheres to what people would think of as beautiful."
"I was not too offended by him saying that, because my sister and I really love each other, and something like this couldn't come between us. Also, I've developed enough self-esteem by now to think of myself as beautiful without comparison.
"It was just like a 'Why the hell are you telling us this?' moment, especially because my sister was immediately telling me that she always thought I was more beautiful, etc. I just told her that I think we're both hot."
18. "'You look like you party.' I asked what he meant. He implied that since I had adult acne, I must do hard drugs and be down to party with him."
19. "An ex-coworker's boyfriend would always tell me, 'Pretty girls have long hair,' because I usually kept my hair in a pixie cut or a chin-length bob."
"That guy was a douche."
20. "I'm 6 foot 1, but I like to wear heels when I go to clubs — so I'll range in height from 6 foot 5 to 6 foot 7. Just about every man I see says some version of, 'Wow, you're so tall.' I usually reply, 'Oh my god, are you serious?! Thank you so much for letting me know! I had no idea.'"
"I've also gotten super-shit, backhanded compliments like, 'You're pretty…for a tall girl,' etc."
21. "I'm a whore or something because I got groceries while wearing my pajamas. This dude kept yelling at me while I was disinfecting my shopping cart. I didn't really understand him, thanks to my ✨headphones✨, though."
22. "I had a friend tell me that he wished he could put my personality into his girlfriend's body because then he'd have the perfect woman."
"He managed a two-for-one insult, pretty impressive."
23. "I was a cashier and scanning a guy's groceries when he felt it necessary to tell me that I'd be sexier without my septum ring. I was only 18 and fresh out of high school. That was my first job. The dude had to be at least 40. It was a totally unnecessary comment from a stranger, and it still makes me feel gross just thinking about it."
24. "My new male coworker tried to build rapport by asking me, 'Why did you become a graphic designer if you're not pretty and don't have a dad who owns a company? Women don't make it in this industry otherwise.'"
"He's no Marvel Chris either, but he wants to catch hands."
25. "I worked in the same building as this man, and we'd said 'Good morning' to each other for years. However, we had never really had a conversation. Immediately upon seeing my new pixie haircut (my hair was long before), he said, 'Oh, [my name], NO! That's just not you…no…'"
So are your eyes stuck rolled back like mine? Do you have your own "comments" to share? Let us know below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.