Submission 2,791

About

Gender-reversed 'Polite' Compliments Comic refers to an edit of a webcomic by Kasla Babis of The Nib that depicts multiple men giving a man patronizing compliments that make him uncomfortable, demonstrating the sort of patronizing flirtation women experience in their daily lives. In the edit, the men are replaced by women, who give the man the same compliments, which makes him happy. The edit has spread among men online who say they would welcome such compliments from women, causing controversy and debate about gender norms online.

Origin

On August 7th, 2017, the Facebook^[1] page for The Nib posted a webcomic by Kasla Babis in which several men give patronizing compliments to a man, making him uncomfortable. The post gained over 26,000 likes and reactions in over seven years.

HEY, MAN, YOU LOOK CUTE! YOU SHOULD SMILE MORE. HELLO, LOVELY GENTLEMEN! YOU FIXED YOUR OWN COMPUTER? YOU'RE SO SMART. THAT'S IMPRESSIVE. YOU LOOK way Too 600D TO BE a caSHIER. DUDE, IT'S MY JOB. Kasia BaBIS

Spread

An edit of the comic that gender-swapped the men making uncomfortable compliments into women began spreading online in May of 2022. One of the earliest known posts of this edit was made by Twitter user @AdamLaneSmith^[2] on May 2nd, 2022, gaining over 12,000 retweets and 92,000 likes in two and a half years. Smith commented on the edited comic, "This would shatter the male suicide epidemic."

Posts of the gender-reversed edit of the comic have garnered significant attention online multiple times in the years since it was first posted. A December 27th, 2022 post of the edit in /r/shitposting^[3] by 420fmx gained over 24,000 points in nearly two years. In many of the reposts, men have expressed that they would feel great if women offered them the compliments that make the man uncomfortable in the original comic^[3] (example by @vh_wes^[4] shown below).

Cool Bro Variety Show @vh_wes This was to be like "what if the condescending things men say were said by women" and we're just like 12:35 AM Nov 10, 2024 "yes please we need this"

Such reposts are often met with pushback from people who post the original, unedited version of the comic and chide men for not understanding the intent of it, which has led to debate online.^[5] On November 10th, 2024, Twitter user @TobyKwon^[6] wrote of the debate, "its not that difficult, women are over complimented for sexual intent and men are severely under complimented in general. flipping the script doesnt particularly prove any point because the lived experience of both is so different." The post gained over 10 retweets and 80 likes in three days.