Warning: Not much humor is in this blog, because Aggravated Annette decided to come out to play today. The other day, I came across a post that is unfortunately all too common these days. It goes something like this: A picture is posted of a man or woman (but usually it’s a woman) and people are invited to comment with one, two, three or four words. The picture has an obvious point of interest that is meant to generate negative words. Now, the ones I don’t mind are the pictures that are posted during Halloween time with a scary person carrying an ax, or something else that triggers our fear. However, the posts that absolutely torque me off, are the pictures intended to make fun of someone’s physical appearance. These types of posts get all kinds of likes and generate some really cut to the bone, mean comments. Why?

I wonder why we feel the need to make fun of someone else’s appearance. The most recent picture had a woman who probably had a Botox treatment to her lips. You should have seen the comments. Only one other person called people out the cyber bullying. Now, I would be happy to enter into an intelligent conversation about plastic surgery, or even differences in what is deemed attractive between different cultures, but to say things like: disgusting, just ew, ridiculous, hard no, etc, upsets me. That woman in the picture that everyone seems to believe is okay to make fun of is someone’s girlfriend/wife, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, etc. But most of all they are a person just like you or me with feelings.

I’m not perfect and once I posted something about one of the new characters on the revised L-Word who sported underarm hair. The post was intended to generate a discussion about women and body hair preferences. Unfortunately it devolved and went down the bad road. I am thankful for the gentle reminder from another Facebook friend who abhors body and face shaming as much as me.

I often write about characters who generate those same mean comments from others in a hope that this will give pause to those who feel compelled to add their unkind words. I hope this blog also serves as an avenue to encourage others to think twice about adding to the mean-spirited posts intended to make fun of someone else. Always remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just like with books, what I’m drawn to, another person might not be, but that does not make the person ugly or the book a waste of time. Perhaps some of you will take a chance on my books and find something worthwhile in them…you know the drill, just click on one of the links below. And don’t forget about the great books on sale in My Lesfic from two awesome Affinity authors, Ali Spooner and Alane Hotchkin: The Devil’s Tree and Fortunes.