None of Your Business

What’s the matter with your life?

A dear friend of mine teaches fitness classes out on the West Coast. She e-mailed me recently to say that someone stopped her at the gym to ask if she’d put on weight. And as I lay on the floor gasping in horror at such an invasive, rude, and insulting question, I realized something: THAT question is socially inappropriate, as we all know. But so is it’s mirror image, “Have you lost weight?” Your weight is nobody’s business but your own. Fluctuations in your weight are nobody’s business but your own. Ever. Why on earth do people feel so free to inquire about weight, or express concern and dismay over someone’s weight loss or gain, or pass judgment so openly about weight-related matters? Changes in weight can be caused by a vast array of circumstances, and a perceived change tells the observer virtually nothing about those circumstances.

Sometimes, the choices that others make directly affect you. If someone is smoking around your baby, that’s your business. If your significant other suddenly develops a meth addiction, that’s your business. If your neighbors let their dog poop on your lawn, that’s your business. But someone else’s weight is no more your business than their blood pressure, salary, or sexual orientation. The choices that they’ve made to bring them to their current weight or body shape do NOT affect you. You may not understand those choices, or agree with them, and you may make different choices for yourself. But none of that gives you the right to judge.

It’s natural to be curious. And, obviously, it’s more appropriate to ask questions of a personal nature if you’re close with someone or if they have been consistently vocal about an issue voluntarily. But even then, I generally ask myself, “Is this any of my business? How would I feel if someone asked ME this? Isn’t it better to let them open up than to try to wedge myself in?”

And the next time someone pries into my personal issues, asking about my weight or telling me to stop buying shoes, I plan to take a page from Salt-n-Pepa’s book and say, “Don’t sweat it.”

Image courtesy Unfurled.