I wish you many years of happiness. There is nothing wrong with eating fried chicken with your fingers. Good manners are designed to make us get along pleasantly in society. The person who criticized you was not showing good manners.

Please consider walking away (either physically or emotionally) from jerks who would try to steal your joy or bait you into getting upset. There are some very sad, sorry jerks in the world. They come in the guise of step-parents, bosses, frenemies, random people on the internet. The nasty stuff they do only prolongs their misery and gives the rest of us grief. But only if we let them. I hope you have a good week.