…ideally one that was both genuine and that you had the confidence and self awareness to interpret as kind. And for bonus points, what’s one you’ve given?

I’m thinking back to the guy in group therapy years ago who told me he always thought of people who swore as not knowing any better words, but that I obviously knew better words and just also swore and even used them artistically and that’s just really stuck with me. Sometimes I wonder how much of my self esteem has suffered not just because I’ve been told not to brag, but also because I’m extremely weird so the compliments I do receive often reflect that.

My bonus one (and I’m not sure how well he was able to take it) was that one of my fellow psych nurses was frequently and obviously terrified any time shit hit the fan, but that somehow still he’d never once failed to have my back. He’d be stuttering the whole way through an incident but I’d walk out of the med room with both halves of a B52 and he’d take one of the syringes without a second thought. He was literally the epitome of “courage isn’t not being scared, it’s being willing to face it.” I should find a nice presentation of that quote somewhere to send him because I’m not sure I phrased it well at the time.

  • geekwithsoul
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    641 month ago

    I was in my early 20s and was visiting a friend’s house. His wife had a friend visiting that I’d never met. We were introduced and the first words she said to me were “Do you know your features are wasted on a guy?” and then went on to provide specific details.

    We were married a year later. And that was 30 years ago.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      Especially eyelashes. It’s bizarre to me that eyelashes are considered feminine when increased eyelash thickness / length is practically a male secondary sex characteristic (turns out testosterone doesn’t magically skip your eyelashes). I’ve always wanted write a historical fiction femdom porn where the men dress like birds of paradise just for the principle of the thing; in nature males are more often the “fairer” sex, lol.

      • @[email protected]
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        171 month ago

        Man what happened to men’s fashion? We went from heels and frills to grey on black and it’s awful.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING.

          I’m a switch and the maledom porn is on FIRE with hot Scottish werewolves and vampires flying helicopters. Then femdom has weird goblin men crawling on the floor eating shit. I’m sure that’s the lid for somebody’s extremely bizarre pot but it’s a bizarre disparity.

          WHERE ARE THE PERIOD PIECES WITH HEELS AND ELABORATE WIGS???

        • @[email protected]
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          31 month ago

          That’s so insanely true. Women have IMO much more fashion options than men. WR have jeans, sweater and T-Shirt(maybe a tank top).

      • @[email protected]
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        141 month ago

        Guy here: I have had multiple female friends and girlfriends tell me I have beautiful eyelashes that they are jealous of.

        I still find it weird… like I understand it is a compliment and that they genuinely wish that they had such natural lashes…

        Probably I just have too many core memories about being bullied for it by guys in high school and middle school.

  • Vanth
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    561 month ago

    A neighbor saw me walking barefoot to my mailbox and complimented me on my healthy feet.

    Hackles went up thinking he was some foot fetishist who was going to get weird on me. Nope, just a medical person of some sort that works with feet a lot and I genuinely have healthy arches and mobile toes. At least I choose to believe that explanation he gave. Otherwise, I have to assume my neighbor is jerking it every time I walk outside.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      I have to check people’s feet on admission, 50-50 to make sure there’s no contraband in their socks, but also genuinely to make sure there’s no gangrene or anything considering how many homeless diabetics come through. I’ve seen some feet alright. Nurses also frequently make “olive garden parmesan” jokes about the amount of skin flakes that come off (particularly older) people’s feet when you go to take their socks off. It’s so bad sometimes that you have to be careful not to breathe in or leave your mouth open when you do it because of how they disperse up into the air, except it can still get in your eyes, and you’re rarely expecting it.

      • Vanth
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        111 month ago

        Well, I don’t know that my feet are that great but they aren’t shedding any sort of cheese.

    • @Ironfacebuster
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      41 month ago

      Outside… Watching my neighbor get the mail… Straight up archin it… And by it… I mean my feets

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    I got my leg fucked up in a hot sandy land far away. While I was doing rehab I used a cane and walked with a limp. One day I was walking out of an HEB in Houston when a dude dressed like Huggy Bear told me he liked my strut and then told me to “keep on pimpen playa.”

    In retrospect, it sort of makes sense as my limp with the cane looked like I was doing that stereotypical pimp walk but at the time I was very confused lol

    • @[email protected]OP
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      Honestly all of my patients walking when they previously weren’t is a pimp walk to me so. Usually the ones I see are catatonia though, not ortho. I still vibe deeply with this video.

  • Noble Shift
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    471 month ago

    From a French colleague:

    “You are the kind of Italian we like in France.”

    “Wonderful, but I’m American.”

    “I doubt that”

    • @[email protected]
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      251 month ago

      I’ve had something similar quite a few times.

      Meet someone, talk for a bit, “where are you from?” u.s. “really? You don’t seem American”

      They meant it as a compliment

  • @dhcmrlchtdj__
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    461 month ago

    I was dancing at a club a couple years ago and someone came up to me and yelled without pause “Are you a boy or a girl you’re gorgeous”

  • @FireTower
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    361 month ago

    “You look like a spy” Which is sadly why my career as a spy never got off the ground.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet
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      91 month ago

      I was told I looked like a cop several times back when I associated with less desirable parts of society. I think the reason they felt that way is because I showered daily, combed my hair, and had an acceptable level of personal hygiene.

  • @[email protected]
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    A decade ago, I was walking a few blocks to get a burger, passed by a bar with an outdoor section.

    A fairly sloshed guy stared me up and down, looked at his female friend, back at me and asked “Hey, are you trisexual?”

    Being extremely awkward, significantly autistic, and apparently sufficiently twink, I responded “…sure?”

    Guy got up and kissed me on the cheek.

    I told him to have a nice night and went to get my burger.

    So… yeah. That was the night I discovered what a ‘twink’ is, that I am apparently a twink, and explains all the times I’ve been catcalled by other dudes.

    A shame that I am (basically) straight and only seem to date women who cheat on me or have immense mental health problems.

  • @RozhkiNozhki
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    331 month ago

    I had to have an abdominal ultrasound done once and the tech told me I have a great pancreas, “the most beautiful she’s ever seen”. I didn’t know what to say but it made me happy.

  • @SpaceNoodle
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    331 month ago

    A PTA mom once told me that she’d commit murder for my hair.

  • @Godthrilla
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    301 month ago

    The Miss “my state” came to sing the national anthem for a big sports event at my job. I took care of the sound for her and we chatted a little bit. She was constantly barraged by guys coming up and wanting a picture with her, so we didn’t get to have too much of a conversation. She sang the anthem, and was moving on to her next engagement and I said glad to meet you and was about to go back to the rest of my job. She stopped me and said " but we didn’t get a picture together!" I told her it was ok, I understand that it’s part of her job. She insisted and handed HER phone to someone walking by and insisted they take a picture of us. After they returned her phone she looked me in the eye and asked for my phone number so she could send it to me. I have a wonderful girlfriend and I would never cheat on her, but miss “my state” asked ME for my number, and I have been walking on air ever since.

      • @Godthrilla
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        71 month ago

        Super weird! I am NOT the kind of person to get hit on, average on a good day. But thank you!

      • @[email protected]
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        31 month ago

        It is pretty weird to assume that everyone needs a picture of her. I look fuckable, take my picture, NOW.

        • @GoosLife
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          71 month ago

          She didn’t think he wanted a picture with her. She wanted a picture to remember him. And possibly as a way to get his phone number. She was crushing a little bit on the cool sound guy.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 month ago

          Sounds to me like she wanted a picture with him. But even if it was that way, the compliment isn’t weird, she’s just weird.

  • gilgameth
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    281 month ago

    You guys are getting compliments?

      • gilgameth
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        21 month ago

        It took me two days to realize that I got a compliment! Yay :)

    • Resol van Lemmy
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      11 month ago

      I get them all the time, even though I basically despise how I present myself to everyone.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      191 month ago

      One time I was at Chipotle and realized I was staring at the guy putting pico on my soft tacos and I didn’t want him to think he’d done something wrong so I just blurted out that his facial hair suited his face very well and then I felt awkward so I just bolted to the end of the line, got the order to go, and ate in my car, so you give me a little hope that maybe he didn’t think I was completely weird.

  • QProphecy
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    261 month ago

    This guy once told me “Your hair looks small” as a compliment… I still dont’t know what to make of it.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        After some research, this redditor sums the moment up thus: “Dennis is incapable of complimenting him he doesnt have anything nice to say he doesnt respect Mac he doesnt even like Mac Mac just likes him and this is the foundation of their friendship no one likes Dennis everyone knows hes a scumbag psychopath but Mac admires and worships Dennis and values his opinions over anyone else which is how Dennis thinks everyone should see him he tolerates Mac because he keeps him anchored and from going to far or drowning while still validating Dennis’s chaos and faults so he simply states the first thing he notices about Mac in the moment which is that his hair looks small which it does because he greased it different (obviously making an effort to be noticed by Dennis) When Mac realizes hes just saying what he wants to hear and not being genuine he goes to walk away which is why Dennis does the speach to let him know that he is important not because hes badass or how he looks but because hes always has Dennis’s back”

        I still don’t understand how this could apply to this person’s situation.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      I feel like I would have to see your hair at the time if you happen to be able to find a picture (or a similar one).

  • @[email protected]
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    251 month ago

    An ex from a meaningful, but fraught relationship tried to seduce me a few months after we had broken up. In the interim, I had started dating someone new, and I rejected the advances.

    My ex was angry and lashing out. She said a few random insults about my new partner (implying she had manipulated me with sex), before finally saying “well, I hope she enjoys your magical penis!” (It’s not magical. The tiny wizard hat is purely for decoration.)

  • @saltesc
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    241 month ago

    I hooked up with someone at a party and they told my sister I have a big dick, loudly, in a room full of people that know me.

    • @[email protected]
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      It can go the other way. Long before we got married, my wife hooked up with a guy to an unsatisfactory conclusion. Whatever. But years later she had a medical emergency and needed a ride to the hospital. One of the EMTs I think, or maybe a nurse idk, happened to be the guy. She was all kinds of fucked up on whatever they gave her and she’s like, “I remember you. You have a small penis. So small and cute!”

      His coworkers tried not to laugh but…

      • @saltesc
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        Oh, well I should clarify that it’s not actually big, but it is skinny.

    • @MutilationWave
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      21 month ago

      I will never forget being at a party in my twenties and overhearing a girl I had hooked up with telling two other girls about my dick. It’s a shame I didn’t have the confidence then that I have now.