Just the way you are?

I was in the supermarket and heard this song playing, with the lyric “you’re amazing, just the way you are,” and I suppose it’s meant to be a romantic love song but it just struck me as a condescending, backhanded sort of complement.

Is it not enough to say “you’re amazing” without adding the qualifier ‘just the way you are’? It’s as if he’s automatically implying that there’s  something that needs changing.  It’s like the speaker is patting himself on the back for giving the complement, while also patting the woman he’s complementing on the head. It’s all there in the tone he sings it in, too.

Anyway, those are the thoughts that go through my head in the supermarket.

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