I'm an 18 year old 5'4" dude. Unironically built like a ball (I weigh 90kg and I'm quite muscular). Some context: I had attended a Birthday dinner a few days ago, and it was mostly a wonderful experience to be honest. Things were going great until this middle-aged lady who was apparently friends with my mom came up to me and started feeling my arms? weird. She then said "You're 18 and you're still this height? Do some pullups", to which I jokingly replied "I do nothing but pullups, looks like I'm stuck at this height haha". She then said "All you kids do is sit around, no wonder you're physically underdeveloped. Look at my 13 year old, he's already so big and strong, learn from him", to which I replied "Hey, we all have things we would like to change. I would benefit from a few inches gained, and you perhaps, would benefit from a few kilos lost. Just be nice to others, there's a lot of things that are out of our control.".

All hell broke loose. Her face curled up like sour cream and she started ironically yelling "How dare you make fun of me for my appearance? Have some respect for your elders!". She then brigaded everyone she knew to make fun of me, calling me insecure and "Napoleon" and "angry short man". Mind you this was on my birthday.

I was obviously hurt but that's not really the point of this post. The point is, why does me standing up for myself, pointing out that I wasn't comfortable being shamed for something that's completely out of my control, make me inherit a "Napoleon Complex"? Even the more ironic is that I pointed out a flaw in her that is in her control, namely her weight. That's awful, terrible apparently, but it's ok to shame me for something that's out of my control entirely? Weird.