FSTDT Forums
Community => Religion and Philosophy => Topic started by: Caitshidhe on April 06, 2012, 12:54:32 pm
-
Four days ago, France-based Mail reported Samantha Brick penned what many people were hoping was a late April Fool joke. The 41-year-old woman wrote an article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html) detailing how difficult her life is because she's so beautiful, that other women hate her and men are intimidated by her (or constantly give her free stuff, which totally isn't contradictory or anything) based solely on how she looks. That she's lost friends and been 'forced' to leave jobs because of female jealousy because, again, Mrs Brick is so gorgeous it inspires hatred in other people.
You can't really get a good feel for just how utterly, jaw-droppingly self-absorbed and appallingly arrogant this woman sounds unless you actually read the article itself--which is, not incidentally, accompanied by about half a dozen photos showing a tall bleach-blonde moderately okay-looking woman whose only outstanding feature is that she just looks so ordinary. But here's a sample:
While I’m no Elle Macpherson, I’m tall, slim, blonde and, so I’m often told, a good-looking woman. I know how lucky I am. But there are downsides to being pretty — the main one being that other women hate me for no other reason than my lovely looks.
If you’re a woman reading this, I’d hazard that you’ve already formed your own opinion about me — and it won’t be very flattering. For while many doors have been opened (literally) as a result of my looks, just as many have been metaphorically slammed in my face — and usually by my own sex.
The article received over 5000 comments online before the Mail closed commenting. Almost all of those comments that I can see (I admit, I haven't read all of them) seem to be pointing out that it probably isn't jealousy based on her supposed beauty that is driving people away from Samantha Brick--it's the outright ARROGANCE that comes across in the article. Which was prompted, it's worth pointing out, by a single incident: a woman she knew socially was driving past while she was walking her dogs, and when Brick waved at the woman the woman did not wave back. Speaking personally, I tend not to look too much at pedestrians when I'm driving unless they are actually IN THE ROAD at the time because I have other things to worry about while controlling my two-ton motorized metal death machine than whether or not a self-absorbed woman gets her feelings hurt or not.
But Mrs Brick doesn't get it. She saw the negative comments as merely proof-positive that she is right, that women in the UK (she clarifies later that she means in the UK) are jealous of more attractive women and penned a second article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124782/Samantha-Brick-says-backlash-bile-yesterdays-Daily-Mail-proves-shes-right.html) a few days later insisting that the negative backlash online and off proves her point and that women hate her because she's beautiful. She had here an opportunity the clarify or possibly even apologize for the way she came off in the first article but instead it seems to just confirm the conclusions most people drew to begin with: that Samantha Brick is just an arrogant woman who occasionally gets treats from men for being a mildly good-looking woman. She isn't ugly, but she isn't double-take-on-the-street attractive, though she's in good shape for her age, and I feel comfortable saying this because the second article is accompanied by yet another set of photos.
The final nail in her coffin came yesterday, when she appeared on 'This Morning' to be interviewed with a professional psychologist who points out that, actually, all the literature suggests that attractive people have it much, much easier than everyone else because people are naturally drawn to attractive people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_CG3rmRYs
Yet this woman still. Doesn't. Get it. She interrupts everyone trying to point out the same thing: it isn't her appearance, it's her personality.
...
Okay. Here's the thing. I have no doubt that at least once or twice in Mrs Brick's life, she has indeed come by some poor treatment from other women based on the fact that other women were jealous or saw her as a threat. This does happen, very occasionally, and you needn't be an Amazonian blonde bombshell for it to happen. It has happened to me, and I am short and have been overweight most of my adult life. My best friend's girlfriend sees me as a threat and one of my managers at work occasionally seems to want me vaporized. BUT. I accept that the problem in these cases is NOT that I am so gorgeous they hate me, but that the women in question are insecure and would feel this way about me even if I looked like Walter Matthau with breasts. And yes, sometimes people give me free stuff because I flirt with them--I do this at my regular haunts every now and then because sometimes I get free stuff for it like cookies. (I will hit on anybody for free cookies.) And again, I think they would probably do this if my behaviour didn't change at all (I'm friendly and flirtatious and as nice as I can be) but I looked like William Howard Taft wearing false lashes. It has fuck-all to do with how you look and everything to do with how you come across and if I came across as being a complete cow, I would get a very different reaction.
I am a reasonably good-looking woman. Other women do not hate me because of this. I do not hate other women because they're better-looking than I am and have less thigh fat. I dislike other people when they are self-centred, arrogant, and thick--the very traits that come across in the original article and the subsequent writings AND interviews in which Samantha Brick tries to defend herself and fails horribly.
The psychologist in the televised interview says what I thought to begin with: the common denominator in Mrs Brick's failed relationships is herself. When she consistently gets the same put-off reaction from people, she should consider that it might be something ABOUT HER (and not this 'I'M SO PRETTY!' rubbish) that puts people off. You can only say, "Well they must have issues..." so many times before it should occur to you that actually the answer may lie elsewhere. I know this, and I'm slightly more than half her age. The difference is, I don't have the gobsmacking level of narcissism going on.
Beauty is skin deep. Jean Kerr once said that that was deep enough, because what the hell else do you want--an adorable pancreas? Samantha might have been a real looker in her youth but she doesn't stand out now. I'm not going to attack her based on her appearance and say she's ugly or fat or has shitty dress sense because she isn't ugly, or fat, even though I don't like her clothes very much. She's okay, at least as far as appearances go, and it seems like the 'good' things that have happened to her--men giving her drinks or freebies from afar--are based on nothing but the visual, whereas the negatives--people cutting her out of their lives and co-workers or bosses not liking her--come from the people who are in a position to know her a bit better than skin-deep.
They know your dirty secret, Mrs Brick, and now the world does too. You can't hide that kind of ugly with a powder-puff.
-
As soon as I saw Daily Mail I stopped reading. They are the trolls of the newspaper industry, and that's against some stellar competition.
-
Yes, it's the Mail. And therefore totally unbelievable. Except that this woman clearly exists and seems just as bad as she came across. It's not trying to pass actual news or journalism here, it's just one arrogant woman's opinion piece that sounded like a joke at first and turned out not to be. Normally I do, in fact, take the Mail with quite a few grains of salt but in this case I thought it might be okay to write about it. Clearly not.
-
Oh Cait can't you see? You're just green with envy because this woman is so beautiful and gets men to do whatever she wants.
Ironbite-obviously the problem is with *dies laughing*
-
When even Daily Mail readers think your Polly Filler skit is ridiculous, you are going waaaay too far.
As for complaining about women hating her for her looks well plenty of men on the comments told her she was an idiot and arrogant as well, hmmm...
EDIT: I do consider this particular breed of venom to be especially poisonous when coming from the British.
Is thid the best thing to write in an incredibly nationalistic British paper?
-
A lot of people thought it was a joke at first. Turns out it wasn't. Mail or not, this woman is real and she thinks precisely what she said--either that or she's an extremely dedicated and very impressively deadpan troll.
-
firstworldproblems.jpg
-
Yeah, I can see how being very attractive might occasionally result in people prejudging you, but the fact of the matter is that good looking people tend to have it much, much easier overall.
-
While I'm not going to claim beautiful people have it hard. They do have to actually prove they're capable as many people assume they were handed things because of their looks. And while I don't know much about the species called women they are a jealous bunch. I've watched married women get jealous that their single friend got hit on by a cute guy, and seen women who stand around in the gym and talk hate on the women who's always working out because somehow she's magically losing weight.
Personally, I'd rather be given free things and then have to prove I'm worth them, rather then the way I have to do it now, by earning everything.
-
...She's not even pretty. She's like, average at best.
I imagine other women giving her a hard time isn't based so much on looks, and much more on the fact that she's the type of person who will write two articles about women giving her a hard time.
-
While I'm not going to claim beautiful people have it hard. They do have to actually prove they're capable as many people assume they were handed things because of their looks. And while I don't know much about the species called women they are a jealous bunch. I've watched married women get jealous that their single friend got hit on by a cute guy, and seen women who stand around in the gym and talk hate on the women who's always working out because somehow she's magically losing weight.
Personally, I'd rather be given free things and then have to prove I'm worth them, rather then the way I have to do it now, by earning everything.
Petty women like you describe do, indeed, exist. And they do genuinely have a completely unwarranted hatred of anyone they view as a 'threat', though most of the time it's limited to talking shit at the gym about that skinny bitch over there who's losing weight rather than actually being venomous to the object of their hate. But women like that feel this way about EVERYONE, no matter what they look like. It has to do with THEM being insecure and jealous, not with other women being too pretty.
YAE: Most people are saying she isn't a particularly attractive women as well. And I don't think she is, either. But she could be an Audrey Hepburn lookalike and that ugly personality would still make people hate her. At the end of the first article she said she was looking forward to losing her looks to age, so people will 'see who she really is', and to be honest I can't WAIT until that starts for her--because eventually she will be old and unattractive and people will STILL be put off because she's such a jerk. And then she'll have nowhere to hide. Get me some popcorn!!
-
inb4...
(http://bwilliams101.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/kenji-feminists.jpg?w=300&h=300)
-
YAE: Most people are saying she isn't a particularly attractive women as well. And I don't think she is, either. But she could be an Audrey Hepburn lookalike and that ugly personality would still make people hate her. At the end of the first article she said she was looking forward to losing her looks to age, so people will 'see who she really is', and to be honest I can't WAIT until that starts for her--because eventually she will be old and unattractive and people will STILL be put off because she's such a jerk. And then she'll have nowhere to hide. Get me some popcorn!!
I think I might wait a decade or so to get that popcorn. It doesn't keep terribly long once it's popped. But I really agree with you. This lady gets treated the way she does because she's a bitch. When she's a wrinkled old hag, she'll still be a bitch, and people will still treat her like one. Watch her come back with "everyone's just jealous because no one else looks so good at my age!"
-
You're probably right. She just seems completely impervious to 'getting it'. My hope that she will one day in the next decade or so come to realize that, actually, her looks have nothing to do with why people don't like her because they STILL don't like her and now she looks like a wrinkly baked apple... is just a pipe dream. If she honest-to-fuck looks at the 11,000+ comments and thousands of emails, blogs, phone calls, and responses she's gotten to her article all overwhelmingly saying exactly the same thing (you're ugly on the inside and that's why people don't like you!) and STILL sees it all as proof that people hate her because she's so painfully pretty, then this isn't going to change. She is thick, or delusional, or just flat out narcissistic, or some combination of all three and getting old and losing her perceived 'looks' (which aren't up to much right now anyway, if all those pictures and videos are accurate) isn't going to give her an epiphany.
-
For you, Cait.
(http://www.pittsburghfudge.com/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/Cookies.jpg)
-
And some from me as well.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UQjTW2Z4tVQ/TpkK458qw9I/AAAAAAAAAHg/KlKJ7_ZBQv4/s1600/cookies-and-milk.jpg)
-
I have a sudden desire to psychologically break her down slowly and methodically in revenge.
Must be because she's pretty. /sarcasm
-
HEYYYY COOKIES.
Wait, why am I getting cookies? o.0
-
Wait, why am I getting cookies? o.0
I will hit on anybody for free cookies.
-
Wait, why am I getting cookies? o.0
I will hit on anybody for free cookies.
-
That's a whole lot of megalomania and/or narcissism right thar.
ETA : Why is this in the religious forum anyway?
-
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2294982622_664c39844c.jpg)
#beatthedeadhorse
-
I figure it fell under the category of mildly philosophical but I'm really rubbish at deciding the most appropriate place for my posts, which is why I don't start many. If the mods feel it should be moved, I'm sure they will.
Also, FUCK YES COOKIES. Omnom.
-
Cookies are a religion! And so is Cait, so it all works out! :D
-
Cait, in honor of your hotness:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yC9nEZMMvqc/TKX7SY7XLNI/AAAAAAAABN4/JIRXRj_7-D4/s1600/cookies+1.jpg)
-
ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY COOKIE!
-
...She's not even pretty. She's like, average at best.
This, so much
And I have to point out the irony. Cait posted this thread about Ms Brick, and TBH, Cait's better looking
-
lol bitch no, just no
You're not pretty inside or out, and even if you were physically attractive, that personality would make you ugly as sin.
-
Agreed. While I do notice looks immediately (I mean, who doesn't?), when it comes to actual attraction, it's personality that draws me in. An average-looking person with a nice personality is a helluva lot prettier to me than a bitchy model.
-
...She's not even pretty. She's like, average at best.
This, so much
And I have to point out the irony. Cait posted this thread about Ms Brick, and TBH, Cait's better looking
Saying Cait is prettier than this woman is like saying the Atlantic ocean is slightly damper than the Sahara desert.
-
...She's not even pretty. She's like, average at best.
This, so much
And I have to point out the irony. Cait posted this thread about Ms Brick, and TBH, Cait's better looking
Saying Cait is prettier than this woman is like saying the Atlantic ocean is slightly damper than the Sahara desert.
Slightly is kind of relative term :P
-
Watch out guys...we're gonna make her blush.
Ironbite-course she really is hotter then this dumb bitch so.....
-
I don't care how attractive she is. I have a problem with someone telling me I hate her purely because of appearance. It's pretty damn arrogant of her to assume she can't possibly have any flaws in her character that people could dislike.
-
People hate you because you're a total bitch. It has nothing to do with you being pretty. And by the way, you're not nearly as pretty as you think you are. Get over yourself.
-
Yep. That's what people are telling her. Regardless of what she might look like, her personality makes her ugly and unlikeable. Half the reason people liked Audrey Hepburn so much was because she actually was a genuinely nice person. (Or so say contemporary accounts from people who actually knew her.)
One subject of a makeover show (yes I watch them, shush!!) said something that basically sums up this way of thinking: "If a guy says he doesn't like my look then it's because he knows he can't get me, and if a girl says she doesn't like my look it's because she wants to BE me." Completely closing off every explanation but jealousy. There's no way in hell someone might genuinely not like what you look like? Everyone is jealous or wants to bang you? With an attitude like that it's no wonder you complain you don't meet nice people. You reap what you sow and if you're that much of a jerk then it's no wonder people are jerks right back.
-
I wager ten bucks this woman has hidden issues with jealousy herself
-
I hadn't thought of that but you might be right. She could just have trouble accepting that other people aren't jealous of her because SHE gets jealous so easily. "Well if I'm this way then that means everyone ELSE must ALSO be!!"
-
To Miss "People hate me because I'm beautiful":
(http://chzmemebase.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/memes-admit-it-we-all-feel-this-way.jpg)
Maybe you're just a frigid bitch? Maybe? Possibly? I'd sooner kiss a wookiee.
-
I hadn't thought of that but you might be right. She could just have trouble accepting that other people aren't jealous of her because SHE gets jealous so easily. "Well if I'm this way then that means everyone ELSE must ALSO be!!"
I think she has had difficulty in her personal life due to her own failings while everyone else around her has succeeded. Therefore, out of her own jealousy, she blames her shortcomings on the idea (a projection) that other people are jealous of her. /armchair psychologist
-
I like her hair, and that's about it.
-
Yep. That's what people are telling her. Regardless of what she might look like, her personality makes her ugly and unlikeable. Half the reason people liked Audrey Hepburn so much was because she actually was a genuinely nice person. (Or so say contemporary accounts from people who actually knew her.)
This. If this woman had a killer personality, I'd probably find her very attractive, but as it is... just no.
-
I don't care if she's the goddamn Aphrodite. If she's a bitch I wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole.
-
I don't care if she's the goddamn Aphrodite. If she's a bitch I wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole.
I agree.
Although if I compliment a person who is beautiful and they return my compliment with an insult, you know showing their inner beauty. Well then it leaves me no choice but to compliment them several more times. Like to compliment the ladies beautiful mustache, or the way her left eye isn't really that much noticeably higher than her right, the way the extra set of fingers she has on feet distracts from the fact that her feet would be big in clown shoes, etc.
Even Aphrodite has insecurities.
-
...I love you Tyger.
Also, I think it's worth pointing out that none of the Greek gods are terribly secure individuals anyway but Aphrodite appears to be the worst offender. Hera had a reason to be insecure--her husband was constantly off fucking and impregnating other women. Aphrodite had nothing to worry about, what with being perfect and not having a husband and all, but she was still one of the most jealous and insecure female characters in the whole of Greek myth canon.
-
...I love you Tyger.
Also, I think it's worth pointing out that none of the Greek gods are terribly secure individuals anyway but Aphrodite appears to be the worst offender. Hera had a reason to be insecure--her husband was constantly off fucking and impregnating other women. Aphrodite had nothing to worry about, what with being perfect and not having a husband and all, but she was still one of the most jealous and insecure female characters in the whole of Greek myth canon.
Aww, thanks <3 you too. You're still my favorite goddess Caitshidhe. Even though I'm pretty sure you're the reason Aphrodite is so insecure.
-
Aphrodite had nothing to worry about, what with being perfect and not having a husband and all, but she was still one of the most jealous and insecure female characters in the whole of Greek myth canon.
She's married to Hephaestos. There is a hilarious story where he puts a fine golden net (god of smithing and craftsmanship, after all) on their marital bed. When Aphrodite goes and fucks Ares in it, he snatches them both up and summons the other gods for a bit of public humiliation. Prompted, Hermes (I think) comments that he would trade places with Ares even if there would be twice as many gods looking on.