“Start Screaming” — Strange Man Shames Mother Wearing Leggings, Calls Them Prostitute Clothes

While recording a portion of her day with her children, a mom captured a conversation she had with a strange man who criticized her for wearing leggings. According to him, wearing the pants indicates that one is a prostitute, or at least would have been 20 or 30 years ago.

McKaila (@mckailazedwick) shared footage of the conversation on her TikTok account, where it accrued over 718,000 views on the social media platform.

At the onset of the video, McKaila records herself putting her child inside of his stroller. It's while doing so, she says that the random stranger decided to give his unwarranted opinion on what she was wearing.

The TikToker writes in a text overlay of the clip: "This man parked next to me and waited for me to get out of my car to shame me for my outfit."

When first approaching her, the man hands her a small slip of paper. McKaila indicates in another onscreen caption that this was actually a "salvation card."

She appears to find this gesture amusing, as she writes that she attended a religious university. "I went to Bible college," the TikToker writes.

McKaila can be seen pushing the stroller after greeting the man while her phone records.

"What is it?" she asks the man before the clip cuts to her welcoming her child into her arms. The toddler runs toward her, laughing, as McKaila lifts him and begins sitting him down in his stroller.

Next, the man can be heard speaking to her from off-camera.

"I just wanted to say something, I don't want to be offensive." Afterward, her clip then cuts to the man referencing that women used to almost always wear dresses. "Nowadays they ... Basically the devil wants us to dress more and more unrighteously."

The man continues, "And I just wanted to share with you that the way people dress really affects other people." Afterward, he suggested that she "pray with [her] husband" regarding the clothing that she's wearing.

As he opines about the powerful influence that clothing has on people, McKaila stands with her child, whom she holds in her arm and gently bounces.

After he says his piece, she goes on to tell him that she believes "it's definitely different for everybody." To which the man replies, "I understand," and then says around 20 or 30 years ago, if a woman was seen walking down the street in tights, then they would be viewed as prostitutes.

"Because that's how they used to dress. Now, the Devil wants everybody wearing shorts and tights and showing all the parts of their body. I really ... It's a distraction causing people to sin. So ... Hope you'd share that with your husband and pray about it." As he begins to end his impromptu parking lot sermon, McKaila straps her baby into the stroller.

She explains why she decided not to tell the stranger off as she was in front of her children and didn't want to cause a ruckus around him.

"I really wanted to say something but I was trying to get me and my babies away from this man."

And as it turns out, the guy who approached her was a father with a bunch of kids.

The video's description indicates that temperatures were above 70 degrees, and McKaila further shared her astonishment that this self-righteous holy man thought it would be cool to tell another man's wife what she should and shouldn't be wearing.

"I wasn't on alert when he parked next to me and approached me because his wife and 6–8 children got out and went inside the store. I was trying to be kind because evangelism can be intimidating and people can be rude," she wrote.

Moreover, McKaila stated that the man's criticism of her clothing wasn't an example of evangelism, but rather, cherry-picking religious citations in order to support his own biases.

The TikToker also penned: "He was suggesting that women should only be wearing dresses that cover their wrists and ankles. So anything that I would have been wearing on this 70°+ day would have been a problem for him. What an odd thing to say to another man’s wife."

Throngs of people who responded to McKaila's video stated that they, too, were miffed by the man's behavior.

"Since becoming a mom, I have zero patience for men who think they’re entitled to my time," one penned. Whereas another took issue with the fact that the man put the onus of sin on people being "triggered" by the actions of others, rather than the perpetrators of said sin themselves.

"'Causing people to sin.' That is a scary thing for him to say because what is he thinking?" they said.

Someone else said that it should be viewed as acceptable human behavior to immediately stop listening to people who believe they're entitled to comment on someone's physical appearance to their face.

"We need to normalize shutting down a conversation that starts with criticizing a person's appearance," one wrote.

Another user thought that she could've been very vocal about the man scaring her while she was with her children. "'Please do not approach me. I have children. It does not make me feel safe. I will scream if you approach me.'"