Don’t ask a woman if she’s tired or sick based on how she looks.
Asking someone if they’re sick or tired might seem empathetic, but doing so actually has judgmental undertones. Often, when women are asked this it’s simply because they’re not wearing makeup.
“I hear people say, ‘Well, women don’t have to wear makeup, it’s a choice’ all the time,” Engeln said. “Well, it doesn’t feel like such a choice if the first time you don’t wear it everyone says, ‘Are you tired? Are you sick? Is there something wrong with you?'”
Engeln said there’s no reason to talk about whether or not a woman is wearing makeup. “There are other ways to relate to women besides talking about how they look,” she said.
