🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
A sister-in-law has been criticized and dubbed a "misogynist" over a popular online post in which she expressed angry concern over the clothes her brother's fiancée wears.
The post was added to popular Subreddit "Am I the A**hole" in which users rush to request advice on tricky situations, and specifically who is at fault. The post gained over 12,000 interactions in total.
Explaining that her younger brother is engaged to a woman, both 26, who she first met eight years ago when they began dating. Initially, they had a "good relationship," but now her brother's girlfriend's outfits have been leading to a rift.
"At first I wouldn't comment on it but as my brother's relationship with her got serious, my parents and I believed we should tell my brother to tell her to dress more appropriately," wrote the anonymous woman.
"Whenever we'd bring it up to my brother he'd get mad and tell us to mind our business. Once they got engaged we believed that finally she'd be more serious and look out for her image as she's supposed to be a wife soon enough and later a mother."
"We were wrong," she added. "She didn't only not start dressing more appropriately but she got worse. Whenever we'd bring it up to my brother he'd tell us we can't police what she wears but he wouldn't understand how it's just disrespectful of her."
The woman detailed the latest episode of the saga—her brother's birthday party. According to her, she agreed with her parents to "call out" the girlfriend if she "dressed inappropriately." After wearing, "skin-tight pants and a crop top that looked like a bra," the sister took it into her own hands.
"I took her aside and told her that she should start behaving like a serious engaged woman because that's not a look a woman in a committed relationship should have, since it's disrespectful towards my brother but also us. She cursed me out and then told my brother who also cursed me out and kicked me and our parents out of the party," wrote the woman.
She added that friends and relatives agreed with the sentiment but felt "should keep [her opinions to [herself]" while the brother's friends felt it was none of her business.
Clothes are often a cause of unfair judgment among people, with a 2019 Princeton University study finding that it takes just one second to make judgments of someone's intelligence based on their clothing.
The study found that respondents used subtle economic cures from an individual's clothing to judge their competence. In the case of this research however, strangers were used, rather than a sister-in-law, a key feature of this Reddit post that induced both shock and anger online.
Overwhelmingly, Reddit users flooded the post with responses criticising the original poster. Although the post gained just 8,000 votes, it received more than 4,000 comments.
"Mind your own business and stop being so judgemental about something that has absolutely nothing to do with you, and impacts you zero percent," wrote one user.
One user asked: "This is a joke, right? 'Dressing inappropriately for a woman that's supposed to get married?' People say this in 2022, as if women morph into nuns in turtlenecks at the altar?"
For most however, the woman and her problem with "inappropriate" clothing was representative of a far larger issue: misogyny. "OP is a woman, which just blows my mind. The internalized misogyny makes me feel bad for her," wrote one user.
"Keep your misogyny to yourself, maybe," summarized another.
One user simply predicted what would come next. "Future Reddit thread: 'Why did my brother cut off contact? We did nothing wrong'."
The woman however was unphased by the reactions, insisting that the clothing is "disrespectful" and "showing lack of self respect and respect towards the relationship she has with my brother."
"I used to dress like her too but when I got serious with my husband I started dressing appropriately out of respect for him and our relationship," she claimed.
