I recently came across some controversy involving a woman, Samantha Brick, who wrote an article about how hard it is to be beautiful.  It ignited some pretty extreme Internet hate comments from people who were insanely put off by her commentary, so I did what any normal person would do.  I looked up her article to see if there was a picture of her.

Before even reading what she wrote I said to myself “huh, she isn’t that pretty.”

So now I wasn’t only judging her for writing a seemingly narcissistic article, but also for not being as beautiful as she thinks she is.  I started feeling really gross inside and un-feminist so I quickly made sure my armpits and legs were still unshaven and listened to the Indigo Girls.

Part of her claim of the burden of beauty is about how other women treat her.  That they are jealous, discriminate against her, and accuse her of trying to steal their men.  I am sure that this is her real life experience, even though the tone of her writing sort of makes you think she doesn’t have a lot of girl friends because she is an ego-maniac, but I also think that she is right that she might be being unfairly judged.

So in a way her complaint is reasonable and should be acknowledged, but it is hard to be empathetic to someone who complains about something that she also admit to benefitting from.  Yeah your good looks have worked against you, but they have also worked for you and you have exploited them.  My thinking is that if the universe provides you with an experience where you feel unfairly persecuted; think of all the others who suffer the same fate.  If you put your energy into activism rather than feeling victimized you would realize that that this life occurrence could make you a better person.

There are so many people who are unfairly treated because of their race or sexual preference right?  So for all the pretty people who feel like they are being marginalized, work with others who feel the same way rather than feeling sorry for yourself… because that is how you get wrinkles.

Cute but not amazing right?