Quoran Answer Transplant: Hotness - Good or Bad?

I'm still alive, everyone.

I'm sorry I haven't been very loyal to Blogger as a platform. All of my recent writing has been spent on answering questions on Quora instead. If it makes you feel better, I'm not all that prolific there either so you haven't missed out on too much. Nevertheless, in the interest of synchronization, from now on I'll endeavour to post any answers I write there to my personal blog here as well. To catch up this will begin a series of transplanted posts from Quora to Blogger.

Is it good for women that certain women fighters are considered "hot"?

Is it good for women that certain singers are considered "hot"? Is it good for women that certain actresses are considered "hot"?

Unless their actual job is to be good-looking it's a backhanded compliment at best. At worst it perpetuates sexual objectification. It directs the focus of discourse away from their skills and to their bodies.

Case study:

Remember Danica Patrick? Good race-car driver? Bad race-car driver? Who knows? Who cared? She's fuckin' hot. Hell, I mis-spelled her name Googling her just now.  

Yeah, I'm sure she has fans though. B-b-because she's a skilled driver, of course. 

I'm sure this is what she really wanted the whole time, posing half-naked standing next to a car instead of driving one.

But back to MMA fighters. You think people are interested in Carano because she's good at what she does? Let's look at some Google autocomplete suggestions, shall we? 

I want to hear about her style, her technique. But real fans of the actual fighting are already watching. Playing up the sex appeal boosts ratings and draws in the casual viewer. Lowest common denominator and all that. It's a Dirty Truth but it's the truth. Denial won't change things.