By Grainger Heavensbee | Miscellaneous | April 3, 2018 |
By Grainger Heavensbee | Miscellaneous | April 3, 2018 |
You have to look warily at any article with a sentence that begins, “One of the worst things about being beautiful …” but over on The Cut today, an older woman details the myriad problems she faced as an incredibly attractive person. Here’s the tl:dr, in case you don’t want to read the entire thing: “I used to be incredibly attractive, and it opened some doors for me and got me laid a lot, but now I’m just average attractive and all I have to show for it is this amazingly great husband (who used to have a drinking problem). Woe is me?”
Here’s a sampling of complaints:
— “One of the worst things about being beautiful is that other women absolutely despise you.”
— “Throughout my life, competitive, attractive, wealthy, entitled women really hated me … I talked to some of my superiors about it and they put it to me straight: Look, it’s pure unmitigated jealousy. They really do hate you because of the way you look.”
— “I never had any trouble getting guys, but I got bored easily and moved on.”
— “These days, since I have aged, when I don’t wear makeup and I gain a bit of weight (which happens often) I pass as normal.”
— “My husband was the last decent man standing. He had a bit of a drinking issue, which he’s overcome. There was a time when things were bad and I considered leaving him but I had no idea how to even go about finding someone new because I never, ever, had to pursue a man. I knew I couldn’t cope with that kind of rejection.”
Her husband must feel so loved. “I wanted to leave him, but I was afraid I couldn’t find someone else.”
OK. Look. We all have our different experiences and our different problems, and we shouldn’t minimize anyone’s problems because they are not greater than ours.
But also: Come on!
This is part of a growing trend of articles about white-women “problems.” Earlier this week, you have seen the piece about how breaking up with two Jewish men had turned a blonde martini-making house-cleaning WASP away from Jewish men forever. The same woman ALSO wrote a column wondering if men were only dating her for Hamilton tickets. In both pieces, she compared herself to Carrie Bradshaw.
Here is a stellar response piece to the first post: How Dare Jewish Men Keep Breaking Up With Me, by Waspy Chick.
And who can forget this woman?
I mean, there’s an intelligent article to be written around the subject of beauty and its attendant difficulties, but it takes thoughtful consideration and nuance. That article isn’t it. It’s staggeringly lacking in self-awareness while also being staggeringly selfish.
And the thing is, we’ve all known our share of incredibly attractive women. People typically don’t hate them. Why? Because they don’t identify as “beautiful women” and nothing else. I mean, people who are stunning rarely tell people that they are stunning. And if they do, they’re an asshole and that is why they may be experiencing difficulties in their lives. Maybe people didn’t befriend her not because she was beautiful, but because she was not a pleasant person to be around — she admits, after all, that she got bored easily with men, and treats passing as “normal” as some kind of hardship.
All due respect to the author of this article, but it kind of reminds us of that scene in The Social Network, only replace “tech geek” with “beautiful woman.”
Isn’t it odd how no one ever wants to write the companion piece “I’m Horrible To Look At And That’s The Only Reason People Are Nice To Me”?
via The Cut