Unfiltered Story #299863

(When I was younger, I was very heavy-set. This later turned out to be part of a medical condition that I’m finally getting out from under, but at the time I had very low self-confidence. I actively avoided anything that could be seen as trying to be ‘sexy’ out of fear of being laughed at or ridiculed. My grandmother used to buy clothes for me that were always one or two sizes too small to ‘motivate’ me to lose weight, which only made my esteem even lower and instill an unhealthy amount of resentment for my grandmother.

When I was 19, I was opening Christmas presents and my grandmother had given me a G-String. I opened it in front of everyone and was immediately humiliated. I threw it back in the box and shoved the box at my grandmother.)

Me: Take it back. Now. I don’t want it.

Grandmother: I can’t believe you’d be this rude! I spent $XX on this! This is your Christmas present!

Me: I don’t want it. I will not wear it. You spent too much for something I will not touch.

Grandmother: I’m just trying to help you, [My Name]! Popular girls wear this all the time, don’t you want to be popular?

Me: I don’t want to know how you know this, and I don’t think you understand WHY they’re ‘popular’. Take it back. Now.

Grandmother: You’re keeping it. End of discussion.

(Red-faced in humiliation, I got up and went to the kitchen, coming back with the scissors. I immediately cut it into the tiniest pieces I could and threw them at her.)

Me: Whoops. Can’t wear it now. Looks like you spent $XX on confetti.

(Maybe not the best way to handle it, but it made me feel much better when she wouldn’t speak to me for several months after.)