AITA for making a comment about a woman’s body after she tried to shame me and my gf?

A man confronted his former acquaintance, Erin, at a party after she repeatedly made rude and body-shaming comments about him and his girlfriend. The situation escalated when he responded with a pointed remark about her waistline, leading to Erin leaving the event in tears. Read the full story below…

‘ AITA for making a comment about a woman’s body after she tried to shame me and my gf?’

My gf and I got invited to this engagement party that my friend from undergrad has. I found out later that a girl, I’ll call her Erin, and I went on a few dates with in undergrad was going. Normally, this wouldn’t matter at all, but after I told her I wasn’t feeling a romantic spark but we could be friends, Erin flipped out on me.

She would send me tons of voicemails telling me I was leading her on, I was shallow (not sure what prompted this, never told her I didn’t like her because of her appearance), and I wouldn’t find anyone else but her, etc. etc. It’s been several years since undergrad so I assumed that she would have hopefully chilled out or have forgotten about me.

Fast forward to the party, me and my gf are mingling and my gf is very nice and friendly so she’s getting along with everyone. I run into Erin and she immediately makes a comment in a snide tone: “Oh, hey! I didn’t know you’d be here. Almost didn’t recognize you with the dad bod.” I just say hello and try to ignore her but she’s kind of following me for a bit.

She makes another snide comment when she saw my gf from afar by saying: “She’s so thin! I always knew that was your type!” and I ask Erin to please leave me alone for the night and she just stomps away. I find my gf and we are hanging out and having fun until Erin comes up to us and makes a comment: “Oh, Thin\_Fold\_46, who is this?”

My gf introduces herself politely before I could say something and compliments Erin’s nails. Erin doesn’t even introduce herself and says in a condescending tone: “I wish I could pull off the dress you’re wearing but I think it only works for people with small boobs.”

I try to keep my cool because we are all way too old for this but I became really agitated with Erin making comments about people’s bodies. I snapped back and said “I think it’d be difficult to pull off for you in the waist area. If you want to know where we got this dress, I’d be happy to send you the link in a bigger size.”

Erin immediately recoils. She doesn’t say anything and leaves. Later that night, a few mutual friends came up to me saying they saw Erin sobbing and told them I called her fat and ruined her night. My gf tells me Erin was projecting her insecurities onto us and she wasn’t even mad, just sad for her. I admit it was not the most mature move I’ve done, but how unwarranted was my comment? AITAH?

Here’s what the community had to contribute:

per54 −  NTA. Hopefully you let others know she made poor comments first. But the fact that your gf said she feels sorry for Erin and she’s not upset.. you got yourself a winner

Haunting-rip-3262 −  NTA. You stood up for your gf kudos to you 👏Erin attacked you first and in a very n**ty way. She got the taste of her own medicine.

IndividualRow830 −  Next time keep it short and sweet “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”

Old-Revolution-9650 −  She can obviously dish it out, but can’t take it. Perhaps you taught her a valuable lesson. It takes no more effort to be nice than it does to be a d**che.

Ornery-Rope-4261 −  Good for you. Who cares if you were an a**hole to an a**hole.

BlueGreen_1956 −  NTA. Don’t start none; you won’t get none. Erin has probably never been called out on her b**lshit even once in her entire life. Karens keep being Karens because nobody calls them out. Erin was sobbing? Who gives a s**t?

BefuddledPolydactyls −  NTAH – but your gf is a keeper. She recognized right off the bat what was happening, and was understanding. Erin sounds immature, and is now (fairly late!) finding out that words/actions have consequences.

PrimaryBridge6716 −  Soooo, she said you had a “dad bod” which I’m pretty sure is code for “you’ve put on weight, and told your innocent GF that she had small boobs, but you’re the rude one? Hell nah, NTA. Don’t start none, won’t be none.

greenbud420 −  NTA, you gave back what you got from her. If she doesn’t want people making snide remarks about her appearance she shouldn’t be giving them out in the first place.

just1nurse −  The thing about abusive, m**ipulative, toxic people is that they get really REALLY good at it. Most of us don’t even see it coming (case in point). Look up DARVO. So, NTA. However responding in kind is what they want you to do. They invite you to their turf and wipe the pavement with you.

Like mentioned above, you can call out their BS by saying “What a weird thing to say” (brilliant btw!) or “What an odd comment. Are you ok?” Or ask them to explain further. Or, right after the rude comment give your girlfriend a heartfelt (real) compliment like “I just love this dress on you. You’re the sexiest woman here tonight.”

Was the man justified in defending himself and his girlfriend, or did he go too far with his comment? Share your thoughts below!