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When Mark Richards '13 arrived at a party and spotted romantic interest Lisa Lunk '13 talking to another young man, he wasn't worried. "It was hard to hear over the blaring beat of Ke$ha, but I swear he said something to Lisa about wearing his 'gay poncho'," Richards said. "And he definitely had glitter on his face."
Then the glitter-faced man faced Lisa and uttered the stunning words that Richards will remember forever.
"The guy turned and said - I'm pretty sure I heard this right - 'Well, at least he's mildly attractive,'" said a still visibly shaken Richards. "What does that even mean? At least? Mildly? Why did he have to torture me with his qualifiers?"
Then and there, Richards lost it. The backhanded compliment shook him to his very core, and left him feeling cold, confused, and many other adjectives that begin with the hard C sound.
"How was I even supposed to respond?!?!" Richards howled, tears now streaming down his face. "Should I have said 'Thank you'? Should I have said, 'No, I'm actually supremely attractive'? I just didn't know what to do."
Richards noted that he hadn't been that upset and confused since he got accepted into Brown and his father had told him "I'm pretty proud of you, son."
