Being told you look tired

I remember back in college I once looked at this girl, an acquaintance of mine, and then told her quite sincerely, "You looked tired." I meant it nicely, not necessarily out of concern, but really an effort to make conversation. Apparently I have the social graces a la Chloe from 24, because she immediately assumed a wry grimace and replied, "Thanks" in an over the top sarcastic way. I was honestly puzzled. I think I must have shrugged it off at the time but I realize belatedly that she must have took it as an insult. Apparently being told that you look tired is code for "you look like a putrid wart today."

On another somewhat related branch, I think girls in general are more sensitive to both insults and compliments. The slightest thing can leave a girl fuming for days and a word of praise can also leave her feeling light and happy for quite a while too. This may be due to the fact that girls are in general more empathetic creatures and thus are more sensitive to other people's thoughts. Boys are no less sensitive to insults/praises but only after they are able to discern that it was indeed an insult or a praise, as sometimes they may miss the subtlety of a remark. I know this is not true of every guy out there, but most guys I've met required communication to be spelled out in big bold letters for them to get it.

So back to the topic at hand, after realizing the social connotations of that phrase, I rarely ever remark to any girl, certainly not to people I'm not close to that they look tired. I would only say it to my family and close friends and then, only because well, because it's the truth. So this incident, though minute in itself gave me pause ever since, whenever that type of exchange occurs in my life. I remember last year this guy mentioned to me, "Hey, you look better these days. More rested and energetic. As opposed to before." Dude! Excuse me? When exactly are we talking about when we say "before"? So he proceeded to explain and dug himself deeper and deeper into a hole, "Well ah, you just looked really tired back in September and just didn't look like you reached your full potential, you just looked like you could look better than you did." blah blah blah. Huh...and here I thought, I was Miss Gorgeous every day of my pretty little life. SO much for that illusion.