What is the most insulting thing someone has said to you?

[Anonymous]

"Of course they let you in to <insert name of highly competitive engineering-focused college>. You're a girl. You could be a total idiot, and as long as you wore a skirt to the interview, you're in."
Spoken by a fellow (male) student, among others.
Riiiight. Having near-perfect math SAT, ACT and GPA, not to mention a national engineering award, had nothing to do with it. They accepted me - and gave me a merit scholarship - cause I wore a skirt (which I didn't, btw). Good to know I'm so highly valued as an engineer and as a person.

I laughed it off the first time, but it got pretty tiresome after hearing it about 20 times from different guys (including students, TAs, administrators, alumni, parents of high school friends, and anyone else you can think of).

[Anonymous]

A little kid in a nail salon (on of the workers' kids) once asked me, "Are you a man or a woman?" I thought I was looking decent that day, too...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a twin sister and she's always been thinner than I am, though I'm still on the thin side of average. We were meeting up with our cousin/aunt/uncle and he said to his mom, "Which one's the fat one?"

That's just awful. Clearly the older generation of women in your family have self-image problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH and I were sitting in a restaurant one night and these two drunk losers were sitting at the table next to us. Midway through the meal one guy leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder and said, "you're about, what, 135?" And then they both laughed hysterically. I was a size 8-10 at the time, which I thought was just fine, but this really gutted me. So humiliating.

and DH did what??????????????????????????

He couldn't hear the comment over all the noise (we were at Orleans House in Rosslyn) and had no idea what was going on. I rushed out and had tears in my eyes by the time we got to the car. I told him what happened and he ranted the whole way home about what d-bags they were. He had me laughing eventually but it didn't take the sting out of it much, to be honest.

Wow, I haven't thought about it in such detail in quite some time. Still makes me feel terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You look like Michelle Obama. (I don't think she's pretty. Stylish and accomplished, yes. Pretty, no).

But I'd wager that the person who said this thinks she is attractive (and that you are as well).

I agree. The person who said it prob. Thought Michelle Obama is attractive. But this why I never say that someone looks like a celebrity, because people have different opinions about who is or is not attractive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"You're pretty to be dark" (I'm a dark-skinned black woman)
"You speak/write so well."

+1.

Also you must be from the Caribbean! Person assumed parents not African because I am "too pretty" to be African.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Of course they let you in to <insert name of highly competitive engineering-focused college>. You're a girl. You could be a total idiot, and as long as you wore a skirt to the interview, you're in."
Spoken by a fellow (male) student, among others.
Riiiight. Having near-perfect math SAT, ACT and GPA, not to mention a national engineering award, had nothing to do with it. They accepted me - and gave me a merit scholarship - cause I wore a skirt (which I didn't, btw). Good to know I'm so highly valued as an engineer and as a person.

I laughed it off the first time, but it got pretty tiresome after hearing it about 20 times from different guys (including students, TAs, administrators, alumni, parents of high school friends, and anyone else you can think of).

This makes my blood boil for you!!

[Anonymous]

My boss once said to me, "The only person I would recommend getting a humanities degree is someone like [Colleague X] who can go to Harvard for undergrad and Yale for grad school."

Yeah, I didn't, but I've done pretty well for myself with my lowly SEC humanities degrees.

I'm certain he didn't mean to be insulting, but it was a weird WTF moment.

[Anonymous]

While at a football game, a guy said to his friend "tell that <n-word> beer man to get up here". Then, they turn to me and said "hey buddy, want a beer?"

I am a black man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here: and my H used to say lots of insulting things when our son was still a baby, but the one that truly hurt was "you're a poor excuse of a mother" or something to that effect.

And he is not your XH yet? What an dickish thing to say

Not yet (I need something from him still) but I remember everything. He told me once in the heat of an argument any nanny could do my "job" for $10 an hour. He told me to go back where I came from if I didn't like what he was doing (I am not a mail order bride or someone from a remote village).
It is all very weird because he was never physically abusive or even restrictive, and he never ever said rude things before we had a baby. Sometimes you DON'T know who you are marrying.

[Anonymous]

From a first great student...."Are you pregnant today?" I wasn't and had never been at that point.

[Anonymous]

Father after a bad swim at a big meet in high school: "That was awful. It's because you let yourself get too fat." There were other comments about my weight and what I was eating but this one stood out the most. I was a nationally ranked swimmer going through puberty an not fat by any stretch. The comments led to an eating disorder all through colege. My father meant well but really screwed me up for a while.

[Anonymous]

Knew a tomboy who dressed and looked like a guy, short hair and all. Someone who had just met her and her mom said, "Oh it's so nice to meet you. This must be your son." Silence... Fast forward to the college years and the former tomboy was now a girly girl, wearing tons of makeup, dresses and tight clothing to reveal her figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Knew a tomboy who dressed and looked like a guy, short hair and all. Someone who had just met her and her mom said, "Oh it's so nice to meet you. This must be your son." Silence... Fast forward to the college years and the former tomboy was now a girly girl, wearing tons of makeup, dresses and tight clothing to reveal her figure.

It happened when she was in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Of course they let you in to <insert name of highly competitive engineering-focused college>. You're a girl. You could be a total idiot, and as long as you wore a skirt to the interview, you're in."
Spoken by a fellow (male) student, among others.
Riiiight. Having near-perfect math SAT, ACT and GPA, not to mention a national engineering award, had nothing to do with it. They accepted me - and gave me a merit scholarship - cause I wore a skirt (which I didn't, btw). Good to know I'm so highly valued as an engineer and as a person.

I laughed it off the first time, but it got pretty tiresome after hearing it about 20 times from different guys (including students, TAs, administrators, alumni, parents of high school friends, and anyone else you can think of).

20 times? there must be some truth to it then. No?