AITA for making a woman lose a costume contest?

A fraternity events chair (21M) ran a Halloween costume contest with a cash prize, aiming for fairness. A past winner, known for her revealing costumes, narrowly won this year but was bumped to second place after the chair and vice chair cast deciding votes.

When she found out, she accused him of bias, though he maintained it was about rewarding creativity over sex appeal. Despite a runner-up prize being created for her, some fraternity members are upset for upsetting the usual winner. Read the original story below.

‘ AITA for making a woman lose a costume contest?’

So I am the events chair of my fraternity for the semester and I planned out a Halloween party that happened yesterday. At the party we typically have a huge costume contest. You pay 5 dollars to enter and if you win, you win the pot. We usually pull about 30 to 50 entries. So the prize is pretty nice.

This year we had 40 people enter and about 160 people attending.  In years past, the winner has been this one specific chick That my brothers wanna f**k. Her costume is usually the typical sorority girl costume (an animal of some kind, boots, fishnet leggings, a short skirt, basically a bra or corset, and then animal ears and light face paint).

Now I’m not a Halloween nazi. This year my costume was literally just a angel wings, and white shorts, and a halo. I know fully that I’m dressing up so hot guys that think I’m hot will take notice and that it’s not a “good costume”. Her costume isn’t good. Sure, she looks good in it.

But the point of the party is who has the best breasts . So we have the contest, and she’s wearing her MO. She was a bee, but her ass was hanging out and her boobs were about to fall out of her shirt. So we held the contest, people voted anonymously, and guess what. She won. But by one vote.

I hadn’t voted yet, so I simply casted my vote then my vice chairman, who agreed with me casted his vote. That just happened to be enough to put her at second place. When I told my by brothers they bitched and moaned about it, but I told them she simply didn’t win and she should do better next year.

They eventually talked me into creating a runner up prize of 50 dollars to the girl. When we announced the winner, she was visibly upset. This was the first time she hasn’t won in the last 4 years.

Now apparently, last night one of my brothers was simping hard and told her that I intentionally voted against her because I didn’t like her (not true, I’m genuinely apathetic about her). She found me later that night and cursed me out and said I had a problem with her.

I told her simply that we weren’t having a sluttiest costume contest, but a best costume contest and that she’s lucky we bent the rules to give her 50 bucks. We argued and ended up getting separated. Now a lot of my brothers are pissed at me for pissing her off.

Here’s the input from the Reddit crowd:

IllustriousSweet −  YTA for bending the rules for her. You’re still giving her special treatment. Where did this come from, the pot? Because if I won and was told that I was getting the full amount ($200), and you gave me $150 instead, I’d be mad.  Also, I’d be mad if I were a runner up last year who lost to this girl to get nothing, only to find out this year she lost and got $50 anyway

SkyComplex2625 −  YTA for lying. You are not apathetic about her. You wrote a whole post on ther internet detailing how much you don’t like her. You don’t even describe the costume that you did vote for, which indicates your vote was all about her and nothing else.

Stefie25 −  ESH. Not great IMO voting on the best tits. If you enter the contest, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Changing the rules after the contest to create a secondary prize for this girl, isn’t fair to anyone else who entered.

PumpkinPowerful3292 −  NTA – You all voted, she didn’t win. Was it because some people voted because they were tired of her winning or because you were jealous of her yourself? Who knows and who cares. It doesn’t matter. The votes were made and she didn’t win this year.

Her being upset about it and other suggesting a consolation prize (thinking with their third leg) is wrong for trying to change the rules after the fact. So, no go. Just tell her and them, like you said, better luck next year.

Forsaken_Lifeguard85 −  What college are you at that she’s won 4 years in a row??

Darzin −  Fake AI b**lshit. Genders and times are all messed up. This reads like Van Wilder fanfic generated by chatgpt.

O4243G −  YTA. “Now Im not a Halloween nazi.” Proceeds to write a long ass post being in incredibly petty and judgmental towards some girl and how she dresses up for Halloween.

Away_Refuse8493 −  YTA – Why do you get to vote after all votes have been cast? You voted to make her lose, not b/c you thought the other costume was better. We don’t know who you objectively thought was the best costume, but it doesn’t say anywhere that it was the person you voted for.

TheGirlOnFireAndIce −  Unfortunately since you wrote so much about her body specifically, nobody here is getting past that, and your post does come off as “not like other girls/boys,” because of the language like “about to fall out” and “hanging out”

If you had stuck to the facts that seemed to be your original issue: her costumes are low effort and there have (presumably) been costumes with higher effort and final result, this vote would be more clear.

I also took it as you either not entering in the contest/not expecting to win because you knew yours was also low effort. NTA for not thinking a low effort costume should win. Definitely somewhat TA for writing this while defensive and therefore adding so much about her body into it.

Even though it is likely that you were fine with her goodies out just didn’t think it should win. If there’s regularly a clear divide, many contests have done things like the main prize and then sexiest or scariest or fan favorite get a honorable mention style prize.

Was the chair fair in focusing on the costume’s creativity, or should he have honored tradition? How should disputes like this be handled in the future? Share your perspective below!