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Samantha Brick & The Beauty Myth



This week’s post is a little short because I broke my darn wrist and the combo of typing with one hand and potentially nodding out from Percoset is making blog writing a highly undesirable activity.

But I just had to weigh in on the Samantha Brick story from a bit of a different perspective.

samantha brick

Samantha Brick (courtesy of the Daily Mail)

If you haven’t heard of Samantha Brick yet, you are a lucky, lucky person and I feel really bad about potentially ruining your day. Ms. Brick recently wrote a bizarre article for the Daily Mail in which she shared why being attractive is really so terribly awful. To summarize, you get a lot of free stuff from dudes but women hate your guts for it. As you can imagine, much Internet ire was raised by this supposition, so she issued another article about what she termed a “witch hunt.”

Even though I can’t quite figure out why Ms. Brick chose to write these pieces, I feel like she’s articulating a worldview that we’re all sold everyday. If we’re to believe the media, the most important thing for a woman is to retain the male gaze for as long as possible so that we can acquire wealth, baubles, status, and more male interest. And because there’s only so much male gaze to go around, we’re going to have to fight other women for it, hence, not so pretty women are supposed to hate the pretty ones for taking up more precious male interest.

beauty is abundant
Of course, this belief is deeply patriarchal, but it’s also deeply antithetical to divine feminine principles, particularly the principle of abundance. When you connect with the principle of abundance, you begin to see the beauty in everyone. That feeling of scarcity lessens, and you connect with the feelings of hope and possibility. And you understand that the struggle is not for something seen as scarce, like male interest or whatever. The struggle is bringing more of the divine feminine back into our lives so that we see the true nature of our abundant selves.

In other, potentially less fluffy words, feeling beautiful and attractive is totally wonderful, but assuming that you’re one of the few lucky ones and everyone hates you for it is just b.s.

Okay, the percoset is seriously setting in. Luckily, we can talk about divine feminine principles a lot more in my upcoming free teleclass, where I will explain this all more clearly.

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Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get her NEW free gift — Golda’s Top 5 Tips For Loving The Body You Have Right Now!

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  1. [M] QoB
    [M] QoB04-17-2012

    The Guardian had a few good responses to this (here and here)

    The Daily Mail uses its female writers in precisely the same way it uses its female readers and celebrities: frequently, centrally and, always, cruelly. Like an abusive husband, the Daily Mail courts women and needs women, but will always turn around and punch them in the face. Because the Daily Mail hates women.

    but the main point I took away from it was that the Daily Mail are just trolling people now for kicks. They are the people who pay Liz Jones, after all.

    • [E] Slay Belle
      [E] Slay Belle04-17-2012

      Thanks for the links!

    • Matzukado
      Matzukado04-24-2012

      Liz goddam Jones! To haphazardly continue the metaphor, The Daily Mail must just pick up chicks from the same bar or something, because she and Jan Moir just…gah. I’ve never come across such negative, embittered, condescending and hypocritcal women in my life.

       

      Rant over.

       

      Thanks for the links to the Guardian!

  2. Dormouse
    Dormouse04-17-2012

    Goodness–I was hoping someone would address Brick’s article! I couldn’t believe her claims. I watched a brief interview of her after the article was posted in which she claimed that the thousands of comments and emails she received that disagreed with her actually supported her originally thesis. *facepalm*

    Thank you, Golda, for presenting a healthier view on beauty! :)

    • [E]SaraB
      [E]SaraB04-17-2012

      It takes a special kind of self-centeredness to hear “I don’t hate you because you’re beautiful, I don’t like you because you’re an asshole,” and think “Oh, she’s just jealous.”

  3. nonsensikel
    nonsensikel04-17-2012

    Yes yes yes!  You have put my feelings into words so wonderfully.

    My least favorite part of this whole Samantha Brick mess is all of the body snarking I’ve been hearing.  She has no right to say that, look at her!  If I hear another comment of this nature I might scream.  The problem is not that she thinks she’s beautiful, the problem is what she’s saying about everyone else.  I’ve been appalled at the number of people that don’t seem bothered by what she said, but rather over the fact that she is not “pretty enough” to be saying it.

    • WillowWeen
      WillowWeen04-19-2012

      The sad truth is that even if she were pretty enough to say it, people would still say she isn’t good enough.

  4. fun back in sin
    fun back in sin04-17-2012

    She’s so irritating, but I feel bad for her. A few years ago she wrote this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1342630/My-husband-says-hell-divorce-I-fat.html. She is getting terrible messages from not just the world/media, but her own husband.

    • nonsensikel
      nonsensikel04-17-2012

      That article just made me spit out my coffee all over my lap.  Ugh, I feel sick now.

      • Opifex
        Opifex04-17-2012

        Fortunately I already finished my coffee, or I’d be wiping it off my pants too. Dear lord, that is some abusive crap right there. Yuck Yuck Yuck.

    • Dormouse
      Dormouse04-17-2012

      I can’t believe this! She is in a terribly abusive relationship, and yet she is grateful for him?? :(

    • GwenBear
      GwenBear04-17-2012

      That is really, really sick.  I suddenly have a lot more sympathy for this woman.  It seems like she feels that her looks are the only thing of value about her, her husband TELLS HER as much, so it’s no wonder she would assume people who don’t like her don’t like her because of her looks.

      Doesn’t make her “women hate me because I’m beautiful” article less annoying or problematic or damaging to other women, but it sure takes the angry wind out of my sales.  I just feel AWFUL after reading this.

    • Hattie McDoogal
      Hattie McDoogal04-17-2012

      Oh dear. That really puts a new (sad) perspective on things. I feel bad for her.

    • Bryn Donovan
      Bryn Donovan04-18-2012

      Good LORD. If I were her I would eat every delicious food I could think of, in large quantities, until he went away.

  5. KellsBells
    KellsBells04-17-2012

    *high five on your good hand*

    i just read this through three times and want to put the whole thing on a t-shirt