This weekend, a friend of mine (I'll call him Bob) and I were at a party. We met a nice woman, and chatted with her for a while. She learned that I was single and said "oh, I have a great guy for you! Are you interested in a fix-up?" I said I was. She told me a bit about him and then said, "the only thing is, he might be too old for you. He's 32. You look about my age -- I'm 24 -- I don't know if the age difference bothers you." I said, "Thank you very much. I'm actually quite a bit older than you are. Your friend is certainly within my dating range." My friend Bob cut in and said "Hold on, Susan. You have an obligation to be honest with this woman." He turned to her and said, "Susan looks young, but she's actually 36. In fact, she's two months older than I am." The woman complimented me on my youthful looks, and Bob added, "yes, and I think that's her real hair color, too. Susan, you don't dye your hair, do you?"

I didn't say anything in front of the woman, but later I told Bob I didn't think that it was his place to butt in and tell a total stranger my age or to talk about whether I dye my hair. He said that he felt the guy had a right to know how old I was. I agree that a guy I was in a relationship with would have a right to know my age (and I would certainly tell him very early on, probably on the first date), but I think it's my place to tell him, and frankly, I'd rather wait until after he meets me and sees my young-looking, attractive face and figure! I've found that a lot of guys don't have any problem with dating a woman my age if she's young and pretty-looking, but unfortunately, if it's a blind date, they don't know that, and have an age bias. And sadly, since my age is going to sound much older to the 24-year-old woman than to the 32-year-old guy, she might decide all on her own that I'm too old and never even try to fix me up! In other words, I think Bob might have messed things up for me -- and it's not the first time.

Moreover, I'm mystified as to why Bob felt like he had to "protect" this random guy he doesn't know. I've never lied about my age, and never would. I just don't feel it's Bob's place to go around announcing it to strangers -- much less introducing speculation about whether I dye my hair to cover gray or not! That's my place to tell. I don't understand Bob's motivation for doing this -- why doesn't he just stay out of it?

Bob has done stuff like this a couple times before, and it upsets me. (By the way -- we've never dated, and in fact he's in a relationship with one of my friends.) He thinks I'm being silly and oversensitive. I think he was extremely rude. What do you think? And how would you handle it?