Women can’t seem to win when it comes to making choices about their physical appearance. Too much makeup? You’re “falsely advertising.” No makeup at all? Yuck. It’s incredibly stupid. But what happens when a coworker complains about how your makeup looks?
One Redditor recently had a coworker voice his concerns about her style of makeup, and she blasted him about his beard.
Tit for tat, but she’s worried that now she’s started an office-wide campaign against this misogynist coworker and feels bad. Should she?
“I (25f) work at a law firm. Just for context, recently graduated so right now I don’t practice law, but I am basically the receptionist of the office, so I see every single client that comes into the building. I also like wearing makeup, not to the point of being completely unrecognizable, but I do like to wear a full face,” the OP said.
She explains that the office recently had a meeting to discuss the dress code at work. At the end, her boss asked if anyone had any other concerns. “My coworker (45m), let’s call him Mario, said something along the lines of, ‘I think makeup should be banned, people like TAMakeupLover look like a whole different person without it and that misleads the client.'”
“Of course, I was shocked when he said that, and I could see that a lot of my coworkers were too, since the comment was so unwarranted. I told him, ‘Well, If I am not allowed to wear makeup, then you shouldn’t be allowed to keep your beard, given that you go from a grown man to a 12-year-old when you shave.’ He turned really red, and tried to say something, but my boss did not let him.”
“I thought that was the end of the situation, but I found out that some of the other employees are making fun of him using the comment I made. I now feel really bad for what I said. I told my family and most of them agreed that what I say was more hurtful that what he said, but, he shouldn’t have named me and tried to make an example out of me.”
What do Redditors think?
“NTA. And he just realised in front of everyone in the office that he’s now the office misogynist. He should be shamed, and his comment should reported to HR (if you have one), and his ass kicked to the curb,” said claypolejr.
“Next time don’t do the personal attack, instead say exactly what they say back to them. ‘Then you need to shave your beard since you would look like a different person without it and that would be misleading the clients.’ That gets your point across and there is no way it can come back on you,” suggested CJSinTX.
“NTA and I’m cackling like a madwoman rn the comment was totally warranted and hilarious. Misogynists should be shown up like that 100% of the time,” said swammer123456789.
“Mislead the client? Oh no, her lashes are longer today, we can’t trust this law firm? Screw Mario, he’s an idiot,” said cassowary32.
“NTA. First he’ll complain about you wearing makeup and looking unrecognizable, then he’ll complain because your lack of makeup looks unprofessional. As long as your makeup look is for the office and not the club, it’s none of his concern,” noted RebeccaMCullen.
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