I saw this article written by British journalist, Samantha Brick on my news page this morning and almost choked on my Kombucha.  The premise of her essay was that women have been petty and cruel to her over the years because she is so attractive.  I don’t know who this woman is, nor do I need to, to know how delusional she is.   I have known plenty of beautiful women in my day, many who are quite aware that they are physically beautiful and still have wonderful relationships with women.  On my pettiest level, I think this particular journalist has spent too much time with the likes of Housewives of Orange County types, who shallowly define worth with a scale of physical perfection based on Barbie….and let me tell you right off, she ain’t’ no Barbie.  But I digress…sincerely, I don’t think the issue is one of beauty.  I’ve known women like her…and it isn’t beauty that turns other women against her.  I suspect one of the reasons that men cater to her, is that she caters to them as well because in her world male attention is far more important than that of other women…and in getting that attention she doesn’t care how many women she has to step on to get it.  I’ll also bet that in a room full of men and women, she is secretly sizing up any woman who she may have to compete with.  She could be the evil queen in Snow White who flies into a rage because someone else is prettier than she is.  I have plenty of beautiful women friends whose beauty isn’t limited to culturally defined physical beauty.  That doesn’t mean that we aren’t affected by those cultural norms.  All of us have felt hurt at one time or another because we haven’t fit the bill of conventional beauty.  Personally, I couldn’t help it that I finished high school looking like a twelve-year old boy…but I was lucky enough to come from a family that valued intelligence, integrity and it there was never a question that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to.  Beauty just wasn’t that big of a deal at my house.  Perhaps Samantha wasn’t so lucky.  Maybe the world she grew up in taught her that beauty is only skin deep, that her worth was deeply tied into how appealing she was to men.  She makes one central statement in her essay that the premise that men she’s never met shower her with gifts and that’s why women hate her?  I wonder how do men regard her once they get to know her?  Good pheromones can only get you so far…personality is what sustains love and relationships.  Hopefully some day she will figure it out, if not…but according to her follow-up article she hasn’t so far (the explosion of negativity is proof positive that all the vitriol directed toward her is from ugly, jealous women) so I hope she’s happy with champagne and coffee….it sounds a bit lonely and tragic to me.