Do you have the skill needed to give or receive compliments?

Mollie Hemingway writes:

We don’t want a world where feminism or any other ideology has destroyed the practice of knowing how to give or receive compliments about style or appearance.

A world in which men have the freedom and discipline to offer compliments to women about their beauty is a civilized world where women hold a lot of power. Because men have natural desire for women, this gives women some power. Power is difficult and at times scary to hold, certainly, and it causes all sorts of imbalances, but women hold it so long as men desire us.

If we instead take the feminist line that compliments are basically the equivalent of sexual harassment, that removes our power and turns us into victims.

No, it’s not always nice or easy to hear compliments from people. Givers of the compliments need to work on how they phrase things. They need to be gentle, polite, not too effusive and not too flattering. And recipients of compliments need to develop a talent for accepting compliments and responding politely as well.

Read more here.