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Ah, yes, I completely forgot that the Huffington Post is completely infallible and that everything published on that website is complete and total fact and cert
by kunai 14y ago
Ah, yes, I completely forgot that the Huffington Post is completely infallible and that everything published on that website is complete and total fact and certainly not opinion.
I do not think "pretty" is objectifying in the slightest. "Sexy"? Yes. But telling someone they're pretty is a benign compliment. Is it superficial? Maybe. Of course, superficiality has many facets. I would call the endless stream of weight-loss programs that are so heavily advertised as having a negative influence. I would call the magazines promoting extremely thin models and calling them "ideal" as superficial.
But telling someone that they're pretty is benign. It doesn't flatter the ego over a certain age and it certainly isn't objectifying.
- neltnerb 14y agoI don't see how the source is relevant to my opinion. I agree with it because I'm capable of critical thought, not just because of the source. It's obviously opinion. I think you have a different definition of objectifying than I do. That's fine. I'm a Buddhist, so I have a very liberal definition of what it means to see something as an "object". Phrasing and context is critical, of course. If someone tells me I'm pretty and I don't know them, it's awkward and creepy. If someone I've known for a decade tells me the same, the comment is colored by my understanding of what they mean. If someone tells me that I'm a beautiful person, that's less objectifying than telling me I'm beautiful. If someone tells me that they enjoy being around me, that's unambiguously a compliment. They're commenting on their own state of being instead of commenting on mine. It's complicated. I probably shouldn't comment on this further since it is something I've been thinking about pretty hard for a long time and my conclusions are not necessarily intuitively obvious.