Does it really pay to be beautiful? Unless you’re a model, perhaps not.

Last week, Col. Lynette Arnhart expressed her distaste for a photo of Cpl. Kristine Tejada of the First Cavalry Division that ran in the November issue of Association of the United States Army magazine, according to a leaked email exchange picked up by the website Politico. The picture, which accompanied an article about a program to encourage greater gender parity in combat roles, depicted Corporal Tejada on security detail in Iraq while wearing carefully applied eyeliner and lip gloss.

Colonel Arnhart, who was leading a team of analysts studying the integration of women in combat, wrote that “such photos undermine the rest of the message (and may even make people ask if breaking a nail is considered hazardous duty).”

She added, “In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead.”

By Friday, Colonel Arnhart had been reassigned, but her opinion had already ignited the Internet. On Jezebel, one commenter compared it to a surgeon showing up “in a micromini, stilettos and halter top,” adding, “you can’t tell me that wouldn’t raise your eyebrows and make you question your choice of surgeon at least a little.”