Comments and Attacks

I'm not a very prolific blogger, and the people who read my blog tend to be friends and acquaintances, not strangers who stumble across me on the Internet.  But I have my blog set to approve comments, mostly as a way to try and weed out spam.

So, as I was closing down my old blog, Arch and Crafts, I checked my dashboard there and saw that I had a comment that was waiting for me to do something with it.  It was from a total stranger, and they disagreed with my post.  It was from a while back, an analysis of a birth control ad that was on the air at the time.  The woman who commented thought that this was a frivolous thing to complain about, and felt that the issues her generation had to deal with were more important, and that I was giving feminists a bad name.  And she closed her comment by calling me a b*tch.

I read the comment, a little surprised, and then I had to decide: do I approve or delete it?

I believe very strongly in the rights afforded to us by the First Amendment -- everyone had the right to her own opinion, and the right to express it publically.  So would I be censoring my blog if I deleted the comment?  Shouldn't I hit "approve" in the interest of full disclosure, if nothing else?  If I deleted the comment, would it be because I didn't want anyone to criticize me?

On the other hand, I also believe in civil discourse and respect for others.  And that final word was neither civil, nor respectful.  She had called me a name -- a childish, and, dare I say, stereotyped name for a woman that many feminists would hesitate in using -- which was unnecessary and hurtful.  The comment didn't strike me as the thoughtful analysis of a fellow feminist, posted in order to begin a dialogue.  It looked as though it was posted by someone who delights in spewing vitriol and bile all over the Internet, taking out her aggression on strangers.  Heck, this could be a teenaged boy commenting, for all I knew.

And, to be honest, the name calling hurt.  So, on the basis of that last word, I deleted the comment.  I justified my action by telling myself that I was done with that blog, and therefore no further communication with its readers was necessary.

But now I am feeling a little bit guilty.  I wouldn't delete posts that friends who disagree with me might make on my Facebook page.  Why should I treat a stranger who is visiting my blog any differently?

So now I'm torn.  Did I do the right thing?  What do you do when people flame your blog posts?