Sunday, June 2, 2013

"Wow! You look good!"

There isn't anything wrong with compliments, really. One human being trying to genuinely and sincerely comment on the positive attributes of another person - what's not to like?

Sometimes people get compliments wrong and struggle to get the words out. It just ends up really awkwardly.

But there is one compliment that is cropping up a lot and I am not sure how I feel about it. There's nothing wrong with it, but sometimes the context makes me raise an eyebrow.

"Wow! You look good!"

A friend of mine recently lost a lot of weight. She looks very different - she's lost over 20 kilograms.

And do you know what: she DOES look good. I'm not going to say she doesn't or try to deny what is true.

But what does this mean? Does this mean that people who are overweight do NOT look good, end of story? Every time we previously paid her a compliment before and told her she looked good... were we lying?

I am not against paying people compliments when they deserve it. I am not against healthy weights. But I am confused and I am thinking about what message we are portraying -- can you only look good if you look thin? Is it impossible to have a beautiful face when you are overweight?

What do you think?