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Comment by weisser | Hacker News Reader

> What about the girl seeking $600 for her “personal development journey”? (Not much to ask, but she was so beautiful, I didn’t understand why she didn’t develop herself into a model and make a whole lot more than that.)

What a bizarre comment.

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I think it sets off the misogyny alarms, but I think the point remains: someone with a quality that could conceivably be used to meet a financial need opens up a valid criticism. We'd say the same if it were a developer asking for money, or a homeless person panhandling when they appear physically fit. I think there's a resistance when it's based on appearance, not skill, but I think there's plenty of models who would take exception to the idea that there isn't work and skill involved.

Misogyny? I do not think it means what you think it means.

Really? The article's suggestion that a good-looking woman should consider her looks her most employable asset sure set off alarm bells for me.

The article doesn't make the claim that it's her most employable asset, it's highlighting a trait that's visible from her page requesting donations, and would potentially remove the need to seek donations.

Not everyone is comfortable with selling their looks, so it’s not ironic for a good-looking person to ask for money.

How is this "dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women." You don't know what misogny is.

There are true misogynists out there doing real damage to women. But conflating real misogyny to what the author said, which is nowhere even close to misogyny, is actually undermining all the work people are doing to make people aware of real misogyny.

I think it's an example of the "backlash" mentioned later in the article, "the sneaking suspicion that someone of considerable (or at least ample) means and/or connections is asking for help." Given that context, I can't tell if it was a serious remark.

FWIW, the article's author is named "Judith", presumably a woman, and unlikely to actually be a misogynist. That doesn't mean she doesn't have some annoying assumptions about gender and such, I dunno… Maybe she felt something like, "you'll probably be getting funded because your good looks help your campaign, and I wish you would just be transparent about it and just go be a model…" who knows?

Totally amateur models can easily make $50 or $100/hr for gigs. If you have a natural gift that gets paid like that and want some spare cash, why would you not use it?

I don't make that much doing Engineering. Maybe I should go model.

You can't really compare the two because modelling isn't a consistent gig. You can easily make $50-100/hr doing it (assuming, of course, you are blessed with model looks), but you can't easily do it 40 hours a week.

The goal is $600.

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