Samantha Brick started a controversy last week when she had the audacity to say she was beautiful.
Well, most critics are quick to point out that's not what bothered them so much as her attitude of that's why it's been so hard for her to have female friends. Her beauty gets in the way.
Brick follows up her beauty anthem this week in the Daily Mail with, What makes me so certain I'm beautiful? Daddy's love... Samantha Brick reveals the secret of her self-belief.
The thing that gets me so fired up by reading her article is that all the stress is on how having one's father call one beautiful is the answer to women's self-confidence problems and the key to a woman's ability to succeed in the world.
What I would most like to see now is a woman come forward, traditionally "beautiful" or not, who would say her father never mentioned her looks, but instilled in her a sense of being smart and remaining true to herself, which resulted in her success in life.
It seems rather backwards to propagate the notion that fathers need to make their daughters feel physically beautiful to give them some sort of inner self-confidence to tackle the world with.
Wouldn't it be much more beneficial for all women to grow up believing the reason why they are successful is because of something much deeper than their looks?
Brick faced the criticism she received in the media last week by turning to her father's wisdom.
Brick points out "But Dad immediately knew -- as he always has -- what to say to make me feel better.
I called him from my home in France to ask what he thought. As ever, his support was instant and unwavering. First, he reassured me that those lambasting me were 'very sad people with very shallow lives'.
Then, unable to understand why I'd become the focus of so much bitterness, he asked: 'Why aren't people directing such anger towards the real problems going on in this country? You've done nothing wrong, you've struck a nerve and you've proved that your point is valid. Treat them with the contempt they deserve.'"
Okay, I'm not the only one here shaking my head in disbelief am I?
Brick's father, instead of attempting to simply infuse love and reassurance into his daughter seems all about having Brick be petty and look down on her "attackers."
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Brick bases all her good on her being better than other women. Her father has certainly instilled in his daughter that it's a you-against-them-world out there.
I admire Brick for being honest and expressing herself and her experience, but I do not agree that fathers should be so concerned with instilling a beauty myth into their daughters as a way of creating a faux self-confidence. Rather, I want fathers to bestow upon their daughters faith and confidence in their minds and their souls.
And perhaps then we will find ourselves living in a world where women do not have the need to be so concerned about their looks and would never find themselves in a position of having to declare their beauty as an explanation for anything.