Yesterday, a friend and I were shopping at a nice, upscale boutique, being helped by a SA. He was quite genial and chatty, which normally, I enjoy in a SA, and was helping me find a leather jacket with the proper dimensions.
He then proceeded to gush over how tiny we were, repeating that over and over while I was trying on some jackets. As I pulled out a jacket for my friend to try, he looks at her and goes, "Girl, you are just so tiny, you really should eat a cookie or something."
Immediately, I was put off by his comment, and really, to being a patron at the store in general, because both of us found his comment to be extremely rude and uncalled for.
What if my friend was so small because of a health problem, an eating disorder, etc? How can he be so certain that she was that size because she wanted to be? Would he have made the same type of comment, but in reverse, to someone who was overweight? Most likely not, because it is not socially acceptable. Why is ok then, to comment on the size of someone is who is clearly underweight? My friend has suffered from colitis her whole life, and has struggled to put on weight and is in fact, quite sensitive and uncomfortable about how thin she is (she's about 5'5 and a size 00, to give you an idea).
It made us so mad to hear that comment that I thanked him for his help and promptly left the store. I was left wondering if I should have said something to him about his comment, perhaps because he didn't know that it was not acceptable say things like that about someone's weight, even if they are thin.
Has anyone else experienced that? Seemingly innocuous remarks from people who don't think twice about saying things, because clearly, you must be happy to be extremely thin and therefore would appreciate comments drawing attention to that fact?
He then proceeded to gush over how tiny we were, repeating that over and over while I was trying on some jackets. As I pulled out a jacket for my friend to try, he looks at her and goes, "Girl, you are just so tiny, you really should eat a cookie or something."
Immediately, I was put off by his comment, and really, to being a patron at the store in general, because both of us found his comment to be extremely rude and uncalled for.
What if my friend was so small because of a health problem, an eating disorder, etc? How can he be so certain that she was that size because she wanted to be? Would he have made the same type of comment, but in reverse, to someone who was overweight? Most likely not, because it is not socially acceptable. Why is ok then, to comment on the size of someone is who is clearly underweight? My friend has suffered from colitis her whole life, and has struggled to put on weight and is in fact, quite sensitive and uncomfortable about how thin she is (she's about 5'5 and a size 00, to give you an idea).
It made us so mad to hear that comment that I thanked him for his help and promptly left the store. I was left wondering if I should have said something to him about his comment, perhaps because he didn't know that it was not acceptable say things like that about someone's weight, even if they are thin.
Has anyone else experienced that? Seemingly innocuous remarks from people who don't think twice about saying things, because clearly, you must be happy to be extremely thin and therefore would appreciate comments drawing attention to that fact?
