Random Stranger At A Restaraunt Pulls A Teen’s Skirt Down & Says She Will Call CPS Because Her Clothes Are Too Revealing
She claimed that the teen's outfit was inappropriate for someone so young.
antoniodiaz / Shutterstock A teenage girl was ridiculed and shamed for an outfit she wore to a restaurant after a random woman admonished her for not wearing modest enough clothing.
In a TikTok video, a content creator named CC Snow revealed that while out with some of her friends, one of them was approached by a stranger and berated for the outfit she'd chosen to wear, which included an argument that her skirt was too short.
A stranger pulled the teen's skirt down and threatened to call CPS because her clothes were too revealing.
In Snow's first video about the incident, she explained in overlay text that a random woman dubbed a "Karen" had approached their friend group in a public restaurant and claimed that Snow's friend's skirt wasn't appropriate for someone her age to be wearing. The random woman proceeded to grab the teen's skirt and yank it down in an attempt to show that she disapproved.
"I happen to work for the state," the woman told Snow and her friends. "If I have to watch your [expletive] cheeks hanging out again, I will call CPS." At one point, the woman attempted to reach for the teenage girl again before Snow and her friends intercepted her, arguing that she was only 19 and this woman had no right to put her hands on her or make a big scene out of nothing.
In a storytime going into more detail about what happened, Snow explained that she and her friends had gone out to dinner to celebrate one of their birthdays at a nice restaurant in their city. The well-known restaurant was quite crowded. While waiting for their table, Snow witnessed the random woman come over to her friend and reach under her skirt to yank it down.
"[She] squeezes her sides because she's wearing a crop top and is like, 'You're probably underage; you probably shouldn't be wearing that.' My friend comes in, she's in shock, and she's telling us all what happened. We're obviously talking about it in the waiting room, and the lady is sitting down on a bench, and we're kinda just standing next to her [since] there was nowhere to sit," Snow recalled.
From how she and her friends were talking, Snow knew the woman was aware that they were talking about her and what she'd done to their friend a few minutes prior. That's when the woman approached, and Snow captured everything she had said to their friend group in her previous video, including the threat to call CPS because her clothes were too revealing. Not only was this woman completely out of line, but she had no right to touch or suggest that this young girl was being "too provocative" because of a simple skirt.
Women and young girls are already heavily policed and shamed for their clothing choices, and this incident only shows how the toxic culture of control over what girls should and shouldn't be wearing extends even in public spaces.
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It's disheartening that young girls are being taught and conditioned that anything they wear should adhere to some outdated standard of morality and modesty. It's an argument that's been heard time and time again — women and young girls should be careful about what they wear because of what could possibly happen to them if they're wearing revealing clothes or skirts that are too short.
How about we start teaching young girls that their clothes do not correlate with their worth, instead of shaming or victim-blaming for the consequences of how others perceive and oversexualize them?
Eventually, the restaurant's manager broke up the altercation between the woman and Snow's friend.
The manager sided with Snow and her friends, reprimanding the woman for making a scene and saying that she should just sit back down and leave the group of teen girls alone. Everyone else in the waiting room who'd witnessed the incident was also refusing to side with the woman, and Snow noticed that a lot of them were embarrassed on behalf of the older woman, too.
"No one's coming to stick up for her. She's very clearly in the wrong," Snow continued. The next day, she uploaded the video of the woman confronting her friend to Facebook, and actually ended up stumbling across the woman's personal page, including the name of her employer.
While the woman blocked Snow, the teen admitted that she and her friend were going to file a complaint with the woman's employer. While she wanted to get the police involved, that decision lies with her friend since she's the one who was pretty much assaulted and groped by a stranger.
At the end of the day, no person should be publicly shamed or harassed for an outfit that someone else has deemed "too revealing" or "not modest enough." It's a violation of someone's dignity and continues this harmful cycle of women's bodies constantly being controlled and judged.
Regardless of their clothing choices, everyone should be allowed to express themselves without fear of condemnation.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.