The original post: /r/amitheasshole by /u/Fine_Wasabi_588 on 2024-09-29 02:36:44.

Sorry in advance because this is kind of a weird one, and not very high stakes. Also English is my second language so sorry if there are any mistakes.

Me 22F and a few friends (all early 20s M/F) were chatting the other day and I forget why, but the conversation topic went to Tolkien and Lord of the Rings — which we are all fans of to various levels.

Necessary trivia: elves in Tolkien are generally “aesthetically perfect”, ethereally beautiful, you know the deal…

Now, if you haven’t seen the LOTR movies, there’s this elf who has a really noticeably receding hairline, like widows peak in reverse, and its very noticeable becsuse LOTR elves hairstyle is long swept back hair, and the camera zooms in wide on the guy’s face a lot so there’s no missing it. And I mentioned during the conversation that when I first watched the movies years ago I found it really funny that they let this elf keep his crazy hairline because you’d not expect an elf to suffer from male pattern baldness. I didn’t say he was ugly or anything, just that it was unexpected/amusing.

A guy in the group, Jake has the beginnings of male pattern baldness, very slight BTW. Not really noticeable at all unless you look for it, but I of course understand he may be feeling insecure about it. Anyway Jake lashed out at me for this comment, called me shallow and “vapid” and that judgemental people like me are the reason for male loneliness. I told him it wasn’t that I thought a receding hairline was a horrible nightmarish thing, but that it was an unexpected choice when it came to casting a species that’s meant to be the pinnacle of human perfection, not because I hate balding people but because that specific elf’s specific hairline isn’t what you’d call conventionally attractive. Didn’t say it’s good or bad, just that I found it funny at the time.

Jake blocked me off everything and is posting a ton of subtweets about not making fun of things people can’t change. I repeat I said this about the elf, and not a comment on baldness itself. I meant well but he’s so annoyed that I am not questioning whether I’m in the wrong and don’t realise because I am not a man or balding myself.

I did apologize, BTW and said I only intended to say it about the elf but he’s just not having it. AITA?

Thanks for reading all this, sorry I know it’s a bit weird.