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Beauty is in the I of the Brickholder

Nobody could accuse the Daily Mail of being one-sided. After all, preceding those outrageous articles penned by now infamous Samantha Brick, in which she claims that women hate her because she is so beautiful, another article appeared in which it was claimed that girls have a lack of confidence about their looks (the Mail, always the first with the news, eh?).

According to the article, half of the girls who were surveyed by Dove described themselves as “average” and “ordinary”, with a further 10% feeling “plain”, “unattractive” and “ugly”. They spend 23 minutes a day applying make up and beauty treatments and 19 minutes choosing what to wear.

And here’s the real clincher.

It’s the negative comments about their appearance from other girls that is one of the biggest factors (so, it would seem, us girls can’t win either way, right Samantha?).

Normally, this might make me feel sad, with the feeling of a responsibility to argue why this is so worrying. You see, I fit into this statistic myself, so can honestly judge without scruple that yes, the survey is true, and yes, it’s pathetic.

But following Samantha Brick’s dominance of the week, which presents a somewhat opposing picture, it leaves us in a bit of a quandary. Because given the choice, between, an ugly exterior and an ugly interior, I’d take the former any day. And I’m willing to bet that any girls who are naturally paranoid about their looks are feeling quite secure in their insecurity right now.

Of course, Samantha Brick would see it as two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same story - once again justifying why women hate her (because she is so beautiful, of course, and we are not).

Just to clarify, before going any further, I’m not saying for an instant that feeling insecure is ideal, either. Of course, someone in the middle who doesn’t think about their looks is the healthy optimum in which we should all strive.

But whereas once upon time feeling insecure about my looks would have upset me, in light of Samantha Brick, I’m actually quite happy to not think much of how I look. After all, writing an article about it or not, do I really want to think like her on the inside? Have that sense of self-superiority? Arrogance? Hell no.

“I’m beautiful”, “You’re beautiful so I hate you”, I’m ugly”, Yeah you are!” – Is that really the extent of our makeup?

One positive thing, therefore, has arisen out of the Samantha Brick situation. She has, by default, emphasised the importance of inner beauty. After all, who would want to be beautiful with a rotten core?

Perhaps its time we focus on our inner beauty, or (in some cases) lack of it.
 

• 5 April 2012
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