A young mother was left furious after an older man “dress shamed” her while she was shopping at Woolworths.
Emma Diedrichs, 29, was already nervous when the man in his 70s approached her at the Brisbane shopping centre.
The young mother, wearing shorts and a crop top, was placing her baby in the stroller when the man appeared.
She said the stranger then told her: “You’re a mother, you shouldn’t be wearing that.”
Shocked by her comment, the mother said she “didn’t even think it was that bad.”
“I can’t believe someone shamed me and commented on what I was wearing as a mother. It shouldn’t matter if I’m a mother or a normal person,” she said.
“Don’t comment on what I’m wearing.”
Speaking on camera after arriving home, Emma said she felt “humiliated” and “shocked”.
Emma Diedrichs, 29, was already feeling nervous when the man in his 70s approached her at the Brisbane shopping centre.
“I can’t believe he said this to me,” she said.
“There’s no way they would say that if I was there with my partner,” she said.
Speaking to FEMAIL, she explained that she normally avoids confrontation, but would have liked to be able to counterattack with something at the time “to educate him.”
“I would never turn around and say something nasty,” he said.
“But I wish I could have understood what she said and maybe used it to teach her that she doesn’t have the right to comment on what I’m wearing just because I’m a mother. Even if she wasn’t, what right does she have to comment?”
Temperatures hit 36 degrees in Brisbane over the weekend, marking the first “warm” day since mid-autumn.
“It was our first day back from winter, so I probably expected women to ‘cover up,’ but even then, there were other young girls walking around dressed in much less clothing than me, but just because I had my son with me, it meant I had to ‘cover up,'” she said.
“Crazy really.”
Emma said people often made passing comments about her, but never when she was with other people.
“When I’m with my partner, friends or family, no one bats an eyelid. When I’m alone in public, I feel like everyone has the right to talk to me,” she says.
Her post went viral with many commenting on the intrusive comment, while others offered their own witty responses.
Temperatures reached 36 degrees over the weekend, so she dressed appropriately for the weather.
“This happened to me and I said to myself, ‘Didn’t you take your medication this morning?’ And I kept walking,” said one mother.
“My usual response is to look them straight in the eye and say in a slightly loud voice, ‘Did you just say that out loud?'” another added.
Others said he was just “being creepy.”
“He stopped and had a good look,” one woman said.
“They always find the audacity somewhere. It’s like they think that by degrading yourself you will get their attention.”
Meanwhile, many came to his defense.
“I’m a mom, if I had a body like yours I would wear exactly that. You look amazing,” one woman said.
“Ignore it, you look fabulous,” added another.
While other fed-up mothers grumbled because they were tired of hearing about “all the things they do wrong” when they are alone with their children.
“Then we go out as a family and the same people praise my partner,” said one mother.
Another complained that she is fed up with “creepy old men” asking her how old she is and implying she looks too young to have small children: “I’m 26.”
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