A Belligerent Rhino in ‘Free People’

Maude here.

I was walking through a mall with one of my gal pals and we stopped to browse in the store ‘Free People.’ We’re somewhat stylish 20-and-30-somethings and were like, “AW YEAH! This store is our JAM!”

As we were taking our time in our zen-shopping state of mind, I was carefully pushing back racks of clothing to find my size. Horror of horrors, I accidentally let two cashmere sweaters loose off of their hangers. (I’m sure this has NEVER HAPPENED IN A CLOTHING STORE BEFORE. Infinite amounts of sarcasm.) As I was gathering the sweaters up, a very large and belligerent woman, a fellow shopper, rounded the corner of the store and started yelling, “SHE’S THROWING THE MERCHANDISE! Oh my God, she’s making such a mess!!”

Shocked and red-faced, I stood there trying to delicately put the sweaters back on their hangers.

“That’s right. Clean it up! You’re such a mess!” The woman was completely in my face. A moment ago nobody knew I existed. The next moment, this rhinoceros woman had appeared and had completely crashed through my zen-shopping and parked her massive caboose all up in my business. The whole store watched me as I sheepishly sunk back through the racks to find my friend.

I found my friend trying on some GORGEOUS lace tops that looked lovely and feminine on her. I praised her great choices and waited for her outside of the changing rooms. In her last change of attire, my friend came out, beaming. She looked so content and pleased!

And then, the bulbous bitch rounded the corner again. (It was like she was eavesdropping in the store. Totally CREEPY.)

“OH MY GOD,” said the rhino, “That looks disgusting on you! Don’t listen to that girl, she threw clothes on the floor outside!”

My friend was so overwhelmed, she burst into tears right there. The rhino didn’t know that my friend had been dealing with her own issues around clothing and the comment made my friend feel like she was two inches tall.

So that’s my story. In retrospect, I should’ve had the balls to find the store manager to have that piece of shit thrown out. Instead, my friend and I got out of there as fast as possible. We were both so alarmed that we didn’t know what to say or do in that moment.

Not to fat-shame, but the belligerent rhino was far too large and too fucking old to wear anything in that store, so naturally, she should parade around the shop dissuading people from purchasing their own fitted garments. (NOT.) All of the pretty clothes in the world will never cure adult bullies… or obese sociopaths.

I’ve thought over and over again what we could’ve done to provoke such a response from a complete stranger, but I guess some people just hate young, pretty thangs. That’s the best I can come up with. Some rhinos are just cray-cray for no reason and like to prey on women they perceive as weaker. Something like that.