tl;dr A woman mocked me in front of full group of women in my course and I reverted back to my old self by awkwardly laughing, looking down and saying nothing in defence, like a total b*tch partly due to not wanting to hurt her feelings or come across as a male bullying a woman, mostly it was not knowing how to react and a lack of confidence and not wanting everyone to dislike me. What would you have done and what would have been the best option?

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I'm the only male in this course that is once a week. I started it mainly to build up my confidence/self-esteem and improve my social anxiety as I was an obese recluse for years until last year when I hit the gym and lost weight. I think all the women there are liberals with some feminists.

Anyway, this woman received an early birthday gift (a small painting in a frame) from another woman there. She held it up for me to see, expecting a reply. I smiled and said "It looks nice" even though I really couldn't give a sh*t but was just being polite.

Then she said "that's such a man thing to say" and repeated what I said in a low voice, mocking me. She started saying her husband says that too and complained about how all men say it. I was taken aback by it and never expected her to mock me as I was only being polite and never did anything to provoke her. My reaction was to awkwardly laugh while looking down and never said anything back in defence. If I said something it would've made me look like I was bullying a woman and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Mostly though I froze up like I always did growing up when bullied by family/friends, not knowing what to say or what was the appropriate thing to do.

After 2 years of self-improvement going from an obese recluse who used to drip with sweat when talking to people due to anxiety, to a lean-ish man who can confidently look people in the eyes, it made me realise how I'm still the same beta p*ssy as I always was. Not knowing what to do when belittled and closing down is the main reason I went into a recluse tbh and I feel such a weakling now.

What would you have done in this situation and what would've been the best option?