{"id":1229,"date":"2013-01-19T19:16:02","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T03:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2014-08-01T00:29:43","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T07:29:43","slug":"pretties-vs-uglies-vs-ophelia-benson-vs-acid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/2013\/01\/19\/pretties-vs-uglies-vs-ophelia-benson-vs-acid\/","title":{"rendered":"Pretties vs. Uglies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not going to rehash the <a href=\"http:\/\/freethoughtblogs.com\/butterfliesandwheels\/2013\/01\/thats-something-to-look-forward-to\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freethoughtblogs%2Fbutterfliesandwheels+%28FTB%3A+Butterflies+and+Wheels%29\">most recent episode<\/a> in the <a href=\"http:\/\/freethoughtblogs.com\/butterfliesandwheels\/2013\/01\/uglies-v-pretties\/\">atheist blogosphere<\/a> drama involving the <a href=\"http:\/\/freethoughtblogs.com\/butterfliesandwheels\/2013\/01\/from-hacking-to-acid-throwing\/\">Bolshoi Ballet, acid, harassment, and Ophelia Benson<\/a>. But I&#8217;d like to make a few comments:<\/p>\n<p>First, I disapprove of Benson&#8217;s conduct and treatment of others. But these are her decisions to make, and I&#8217;m sure my disapproval means nothing to her. If this is how she wishes to carry on, it&#8217;s her right to do so, just as it is the right of her opponents to criticize and even mock her actions.<\/p>\n<p>Second, we still live in a world where women are valued largely by their looks. Sure, intelligence and a great personality are wonderful assets, but almost all studies show that being good-looking is a foot in many a door.<\/p>\n<p>Third, I do not find Ophelia Benson to be ugly or unattractive. However, the fact that she regularly refers to herself as such makes me wonder if it&#8217;s something that bothers her. In any case, if I were criticizing Benson, I would never refer to her looks. Her looks have little to do with the conduct that upsets me.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, it is an oft unspoken truth that attractive and\/or affluent women (and even men) have it much easier in life than the rest of us. So it wouldn&#8217;t surprise me if attractive women were less likely to be &#8220;gnu feminists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, it is absolutely unacceptable to tweet the following to any woman: \u00a0\u201c@OpheliaBenson: Maybe a vial of acid would do you some good. You already look like you were set on fire and put out with a wet rake.\u201d After reading that, I no longer care about what Benson has said online; I can only think about how hurtful it must be to receive such messages on a regular basis. While I&#8217;m in no way defending her actions over the last several years, nothing she&#8217;s done merits this sort of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>And that is all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not going to rehash the most recent episode in the atheist blogosphere drama involving the Bolshoi Ballet, acid, harassment, and Ophelia Benson. But I&#8217;d like to make a few comments: First, I disapprove of Benson&#8217;s conduct and treatment of others. But these are her decisions to make, and I&#8217;m sure my disapproval means nothing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8,9],"tags":[321],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-drama","category-feminism","category-freethought-blogs","tag-ophelia-benson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/skepticallyleft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}