Samantha Brick deserves mockery, but not complete dismissal

The other day I received a frantic tweet, begging me to read what had been labelled the side-splitting delusions of a female David Brent. Samantha Brick was her name, the author of a controversially titled article ‘There are downsides to looking this pretty: Why women hate me for being beautiful’. Within the first few lines of the article, I was soon greeted with such bold statements as ‘I can’t wait for the wrinkles and the grey hair that will help me blend into the background’ and in reference to her frequent gifts of bouquets, train fares and even champagne at the hands of doting male admirers, ‘donors of these gifts have always said the same thing: my pleasing appearance and pretty smile made their day’. These somewhat bombastic comments were partnered with several images of a rather drab looking middle aged woman, grinning toothily at the camera, seemingly blissfully unaware that to the majority, her appearance didn’t perhaps merit her own self inflated description as well as the accusations she has never once been chosen as a bridesmaid by her friends for fear of upstaging them (not at all because of her palpable sense of arrogance? Heaven forbid!).

Then were the comments. They had easily reached the thousands by midday, with cries of ‘reality check’ and ‘ugly cow’ accompanying the rather irritating piece, making it all the more hilarious. Twitter exploded, the name ‘Samantha Brick’ trending worldwide for two days straight, and celebrities added their two pence, Duncan Bannantyne labelling the piece a ‘joke’ whilst Sally Bercow mocked her claims. A glutton for punishment, within 24 hours Mrs Brick had written yet another piece, this time claiming the backlash she had received cemented everything she had claimed the day before: we were all jealous. However, midway through a belly laugh at her expense, she said something that struck a chord with me. She claimed ‘If Angelina Jolie uttered something along those lines, she’d be subject to the same foaming-at-the-mouth onslaught hurled at me yesterday.’

Surprisingly, commentators disagreed with her, stipulating Angelina Jolie could express equally as conceited views without vilification because she was what they considered attractive enough to do so. As a twitter user put it, Samantha Brick’s piece had been ‘immediately undermined by the photos’. Reading this, I felt slightly uneasy. I reread her article and after wading through the ludicrous statements and onslaught of egomania found certain aspects of what she said that I in fact agreed with. She spoke of the difference between the UK and America in regards to self-confidence. ‘I doubt that such a reaction to my piece would have happened there’ she quipped, stating that ‘here we reward false modesty instead and gang up against anyone who isn’t suitably self-deprecating.’ This I agree with. There is a rather irritating culture of pigeon holing anyone who doesn’t think they look like the back end of a bus as ‘arrogant’ or ‘vain’. Self-confidence is something I think is undermined as conceit in this country and as someone with a reasonably high self esteem, I do find it a nuisance.

But even more pressingly, what of the fact that people have stated Mrs Brick is not entitled to such a high self-opinion because she is not (for argument’s sake) attractive? This is a notion that certainly made me think twice. Who are we to dictate to her her own sense of self-worth, simply because it’s higher than we think she deserves? In an interview with Elle magazine, _Lost_ star Evangeline Lilly was quoted as saying “I used to cry myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because of the way men leered at and disrespected me.” She received some backlash, the odd ‘get over yourself’ here and there, but nowhere near onslaught of abuse directed towards this so-called ‘Brickgate’. Is that really fair? After all, if Samantha really is receiving free drinks courtesy of an impressed pilot as stated in her article or, even after the abuse hurled at her, offered a coffee by a taken onlooker- surely she is just playing the hand she has been dealt? Whether we understand or believe it is a totally different story. But I do hope that the negativity directed towards her would be equal in its quantity and bile if Ms Jolie did ever make such statements. The sad but inevitable truth of it is, it probably wouldn’t.