It was a temptation to say what about those of us lacking some facial parts Jalima but I resisted in case someone termed it a hate comment
So it begins….. Streeting resigns
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Last week I was invited to an informal celebration by a friend. There were three couples and myself. The conversation turned to tv. I said I could recommend a tv station that showed old, usually b&w films, and that I'd recently watched a favourite: The Winslow Boy. A man piped up and said that there was a newer version of this film. " Yes," I said, " but it's not as good; it's got that actor in Basil Rathbone's part, can't remember his name, he's rather ugly." This man said, "What do you mean? Ugly like you?" No-one said anything and later my hostess denied that she'd heard him, but we were crammed around a small table, and one participant tried to comfort me when he saw how upset I was as we walked home. The man who insulted me is an ex- policeman with a bullying manner ( here I'll say a close friend is an ex- policeman, to preempt comments from those who think I'm stereotyping). I am terribly upset. How do I deal with this man when I see him again? I live in a very small town and I dread how I shall feel to encounter him.
It was a temptation to say what about those of us lacking some facial parts Jalima but I resisted in case someone termed it a hate comment
Years ago after I left my ex (he was having an affair) I was out with a group of ladies from work. One of the older very drunk ladies started shouting at me in the pub and making a scene -basically having a go at me for leaving him. I didn’t respond and just let her get on with it.
A few days later I was in a queue for an atm when here she comes along the street and she stopped to chat to me, telling me she’d been to the hairdressers and doing that hair down the back ofthe neck dance. I didn’t say anything and just stared at her til she got the message and slunked away.
It was very satisfying 
Revenge is best served cold
I think you'll find that I might say a lot of things about oliticians but I never call them ugly and as for sodaop's comment I would hope even Jaxie would be less judgemental if someone had lost facial parts through illness or birth defects...but who knows.Ugly is the heart that judges on looks not actions .
Politicians
Stop caring and always greet him with a smile, ask how he is feeling, listen politely and commiserate.
Being nice is free, easy and no guilt. It is very difficult to be nasty to someone who is smiling and being genuinely nice.
Lets face it he is probably unhappy so he needs pity not anger. Besides pity is free, easy and no guilt!
It is also amusing to see how he copes. He will probably avoid you like the plague so your problem is solved!
I never call them ugly and as for sodaop's comment I would hope even Jaxie would be less judgemental if someone had lost facial parts through illness or birth defects...but who knows.Ugly is the heart that judges on looks not actions
Isn’t this a bit of an over reaction?
To describe a long gone actor as “ugly” is hardly on a par with comments about birth defects or lost facial features!
Gerard Depardieu for instance - not a figure of great beauty, even if his face has “character”
Who was it once described an actor as “having a good face for radio” ?
Let’s keep a sense of proportion.
This man called jaxie “ugly” to her face - find an excuse for that if you can!
The man is a bully, confrontation is what they really hate, so get some reparte, when he makes his comments, turn them back on h8mself. They really hate that. Otherwise in a low c9ntrolled voice, tell him exactly what you think of him. He needs to get his needles in. Coppers enjoy needling, they want a rise, a reaction. How’s your stare? Can you give him a look that shrivels his bits? He’s a cocky person, so stand up to him. If it’s really nasty and you’re at a dinner party, upend a drink, food, whatever over his head! Me, I won’t stand for it.
Maybe he knew the actor. Imagine if you said as people have suggested, something like 'you called me ugly when we last met' and he said 'yes. after you called my cousin ugly'. You never know. The Winslow Boy wasn't really about looks and calling an actor in it ugly does seem to go against the ethos of the film a bit.
No one should could anyone else ugly. It is obviously much worse to say it to someone's face but just degrees of wrongness.
If you meet him again you need to be on guard, I would probably avoid his company if possible but if not just be a bit curt and non communicative. He is not someone who's opinion you value or who you want to develop a friendship with so don't give him too much importance in your life.
Jaxie - That guest's behaviour was inexcusable and I too would have been very upset and too shocked to replicate off the cuff.
However, as a teacher of English as a Second Language, while the textbooks present the adjectives: ugly/fat/stupid, the do take care to point out that these words are considered unacceptable and unkind when referring to people and that we prefer to use milder terms.
Oh dear. Maybe it’s just me but I wouldn’t have taken it. I would have said with a smile. Say that again and I’ll punch you on the nose... and I would then have carried on with the conversation.
Ignore this rude man when you next see him, he is not worthy of your time. Men like him are better ignored as otherwise they enjoy the attention. Everything is about themselves and their ego.
Rathbone died in 1967 and Donat in 1958
Unlikely to be the boor’s cousins, siblings or close friends!
Perhaps you should have responded to him in a similar manner? Some people have no idea that their outspoken off the cuff comments are hurtful to those on the receiving end. I would have responded with 'Have you looked in a mirror with your glasses on lately?' (but then, I am, in the words of an old friend, a 'sarky b*tch' ) and then ignored him for the remainder of the evening unless he made an apology.
A procedure I've found effective when a careless remark or words said in an arguement has hurt me is to write a letter to the person, or group, pouring out every way in which I was hurt. I then hold onto it for 24 hours or a week then I burn it. I Never send those letters but the feeling of release is cathartic and I find that what was said or done/not done no longer has the power to hurt me.
When meeting nasty folk with whom I want no contact, I cross the road and walk away. First I make sure they know i have seen them and if I can I give them my back, just to make sure they got the message.
I think Maggiemay is correct, using the word ugly about a person who is not there and that neither of you are ever likely to meet, is completely different to him using it to your face. He sounds like an objectionable man. If I were you, I’d have nothing to do with him at all, if you meet him ignore him. And if you are asked to your friend’s house again, I’d enquire if he was going to be present. If the answer was the affirmative, I’d tell her I wouldn’t be going.
Could this have been a clumsy attempt at sarcasm? In other words, he meant just the opposite and wanted to be funny, but it didn't come out that way. If he was under the influence, it wouldn't be the least bit surprising....it might explain why the others didn't react either.
...but at the end of the day, giving this man's words the weight they don't deserve is not worth your valuable time and energy.
He might have been trying to be funny and misfired badly - and some people seem to lose a veneer of social graces when they get older. My dear Dad was the kindest man who would not offend anyone, but in his later years he said things in front of people that made me wince - quite personal comments, but he clearly didn't realise that this was not acceptable. I would put it down to his lack of sense and just forget it - when unpleasant things happen to me I try to put them aside by thinking that if that is the worst thing likely to happen to me today then it's not so bad after all!
The only thing to do would be to laugh out loud. Then say 'NICE'. Then of course walk away.
I have learnt so much from my 21 yr old and observed enough in business to say...be brave and confront him. Not easy and needs to be relatively discreet to just advise him how it made you feel (jokey or not in delivery). No-one deserves that..but by ignoring, you are endorsing his totally unacceptable behaviour. My daughter recently cut down to size a longtime premiership football season ticket holder, 3x her age who had been upsetting all the men in surrounding seats for years.....and he hasnt been to a game since.......too embarrassed one hopes!!
What an ugly little man! And yes, I would have been deeply hurt, and yes, I would have let it fester, just like you are doing. It's happened to me a couple of times, and it's nasty, and yes, we always thinks of the right responses much later, because at the time, we are in shock. Look at yourself in the mirror, and remind yourself of all the times someone special said to you: You're beautiful. And if you can't think of any, then say it to yourself. Then ignore this oaf completely.
Thank you so much Gransnetters for your kind remarks & good advice. I think I took it so badly because it came as such a shock. I was brought up to show respect to older people. I'm going to ignore him next time we meet; been practising my bitch at rest face.
So far, on this thread, this man has been called
“nasty” in the thread title
“An ex policeman bully”
“horrible man”
“ugly on the inside”
“a horrible and very rude man”
“a horrible thing! (thing!!!!)
“Horrible, nasty 'man'.”
“boorish, male chauvinist pig”
“a horror”
“a nasty piece of work who deliberately targets those more vulnerable than himself”
“a despicable person”
“drunk or immature and full of his own importance”
“ill-mannered pig”
“unpleasant individual” and “excrement under your feet”
“that ghastly man”
“a bully”
“rude man”
“an objectionable man”
“an ugly little man”
I’m assuming none of US know him, or have ever met him, yet it is felt acceptable to collectively denounce him, based on one comment he made to someone who had herself called someone else ugly.
Yes, I am oversensitive to hearing people being called ugly, as I accepted many years ago that I could never be described as even pretty. But I’ve had the bullying in the past where collectively I was called ugly, whether that was to my face, or within earshot, or written, or told to me as hearsay. I used to – and still do – get so upset that THAT was what I was being judged on, and not my personality or behaviour. So I get VERY upset when the word is used against anyone (including the OP). The OP didn’t say “I find him to be ugly” but, according to the first post in the thread, stated as fact that “he’s rather ugly”.
The words and phrases used above to describe a total stranger, are, in my view, nothing less than cyber-bullying and very unworthy of a group of mature adults. We don’t know – he may even be on this site, and reading this thread. Would those of you who wrote the words against him be prepared to say the exact same words directly to him, in a face to face situation?
Well said HurdyGurdy
Who does he think he is that he is entitled to be aggressively rude to the OP at someone else’s party?
If anyone had said that to me or to anyone in my earshot, I’d have simply told him to ODFO. Bugger politeness.
I’m raging that no-one had the gumption to say anything to him!
They sound like a pathetic bunch of so-called friends and I’d drop them all like a stone and find some new friends. It really isn’t that difficult if you make a bit of effort.
I used to put up with crap in my twenties but I won’t waste time on pathetic wankers like that anymore.
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