Quote:
Originally Posted by surreality 
It is interesting that you bring up the notion of fairness. However, this brings me to ask "what has fairness got to do with a perfume review?" Making value judgments based on subjective and highly personal criteria about anything seems unfair, for doing this is merely the projection of our personal biases (which often have no rational basis) onto a thing. For instance, it seems no less unfair to say that because a fragrance smells "dated" and giving it a thumbs down based on that criterion than it does to say that one does not find a certain fragrance to be good value for money and giving it a thumbs down for that criterion.
If fairness is to be taken into consideration when writing a review, and if value judgments based on highly personal judgements are unfair, then it follows that one should not include these criteria in a review either. But to say that seems absurd, for what would be left for a reviewer to say but a series of sterile, quasi-scientific statements about those aspects of a fragrance that have some level of objectivity (or at least highly confirmed intersubjectivity).
It is interesting that you bring up the notion of fairness. However, this brings me to ask "what has fairness got to do with a perfume review?" Making value judgments based on subjective and highly personal criteria about anything seems unfair, for doing this is merely the projection of our personal biases (which often have no rational basis) onto a thing. For instance, it seems no less unfair to say that because a fragrance smells "dated" and giving it a thumbs down based on that criterion than it does to say that one does not find a certain fragrance to be good value for money and giving it a thumbs down for that criterion.
If fairness is to be taken into consideration when writing a review, and if value judgments based on highly personal judgements are unfair, then it follows that one should not include these criteria in a review either. But to say that seems absurd, for what would be left for a reviewer to say but a series of sterile, quasi-scientific statements about those aspects of a fragrance that have some level of objectivity (or at least highly confirmed intersubjectivity).
Oh I agree! On anything that can truly be left up to personal bias, such as whether a frag is "dated" as you say, I think should be left out of the final "grade" that the scent gets. What seperated the very good reviewers from those that aren't as good, is the ability to review a scent based on the basics, just the scent. I know some of the really great reviewers on here have given 5 stars to something that they detest, accepting that a fragrance is good, shouldn't be contingent on personal biases. I'm all for mentioning things such as "I find that fragrance X smells rather dated, and I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing it as I'm only XX years old, but I think it's a well made scent etc......". It's fine to state personal biases in the review, just don't have it factor into the final assessment of the frag.
