MEAN GIRLS

Samantha Brick -- female writer for the Daily Mail and recent internet phenomenon.  Do you recognize the name?  If not, then perhaps if I associate the line "women hate me because I am too beautiful" you will suddenly have your 'aha' moment.  I first heard of her now infamous article through all of the commentary in the media and then decided to read it for myself as I was not prepared to agree with the hateful statements that constituted the public's backlash.  I am going to take the stand right now, despite much of the public scrutiny, that I actually found her article interesting and insightful and not all terribly vein. 

Samantha Brick certainly has uncommonly high self-esteem and notable self awareness -- but are we to punish a woman for voicing such honesty and being unabashedly confident?  The international response to her article, which noted multiple times throughout that she anticipates some backlash for writing in such a direct and honest manner, was to break down and insult this person who simply wrote about her personal experience with women who struggle to get past their own competitive nature and insecurities to support other women.

"If you’re a woman reading this, I’d hazard that you’ve already formed your own opinion about me — and it won’t be very flattering. For while many doors have been opened (literally) as a result of my looks, just as many have been metaphorically slammed in my face — and usually by my own sex."

After reading this article I admittedly took a moment to acknowledge that I too can fall into the trap of sizing up another woman simply based on her looks -- and it usually isn't a very flattering insta-profiling racing through my mind.  As a recent example, when I first started dating my Ex I learned that he had recently parted ways with a long term girlfriend who was quite pretty.  Facebook, aka 'stalkernet', allowed me to look her up and view pictures of the two of them from over the years.  What I found was a stunning and petite blonde.  I would consider myself to be an attractive young woman and was receiving a great deal of adoration and attention from my then boyfriend, but I could not get past the intimidating beauty of this other girl.  I circled my support system around me, my 'besties', and we immediately came to the conclusion on a few items:  she isn't that pretty, she probably isn't very nice or smart, and I am a much better catch for my then boyfriend.  I am not proud of this moment and now look back realizing how immature our reaction was to the sight of a beautiful woman.  Sadly, this type of behavior is an accepted social norm. 

The exact definition of 'Social Norm' is an expected form of behavior in a given situation.  Sounds pretty spot on, if you ask me.  The story of women breaking down other women is becoming entrenched in our general culture and simply accepted.  The social acceptance of this type of behavior amongst women went so far as to become immortalized and celebrated in a rare LiLo box office smash titled Mean Girls. 

As we band together in the name of supporting and empowering women we are quick to think that the glass ceiling imposed upon us is being built and enforced by the opposite sex, but what if we were to acknowledge that perhaps our very own female counterparts were the ones breaking each other down and busying themselves playing 'Mean Girls'?