The Samantha Brick Fallout

If you were on the Internet at all in the past two days, you probably came across an article or two (or 50) on the topic of Samantha Brick. And if you're like me, you were fascinated by the simultaneous absurdity and intrigue of what she wrote. If you haven't heard of her, Samantha Brick is a columnist for the UK's Daily Mail, and recently wrote a controversial piece on how women dislike her because of her looks. Along with her many anecdotes on the "downsides" of being beautiful, the column is accompanied by multiple posed photos of Brick herself.

I first came across the article not via the Daily Mail itself, but after clicking on a post from one of my favorite blogs, The Frisky. After reading their take, I, of course, had to read the column itself. I completely agreed that she comes off as vain and out of touch. And I was not alone. Within hours, the column had gone viral, and had been re-posted, tweeted, shared and talked about all over the world. And, not surprisingly, most of the comments were negative, mocking (a hashtag, #samanthabrickfacts was started on Twitter and is quite fun to read), and some were just disbelieving, thinking it was an April Fools joke a day late.

I bring up this event because, while I still do find the column pretty ridiculous, it brings up some good points about the power of social media, and how the masses often snap to judgement. On one hand, it's a lesson in learning the way social media works. Maybe the Daily Mail allowed the column to run because they were of the mind that all press is good press. And they wouldn't be completely out of line in that instance, since the article got more clicks, comments and retweets than probably most news that day. It proved to get people talking. However, since the column ran, Brick herself has been making the rounds, saying that while the negative comments have brought her to tears, she feels the reactions just prove her point. Which then had many people wondering why she would continue to put herself on the spot. One has to question whether she thought at all about how others, women especially, would react to the column. Didn't she realize that in this day and age nothing unique or controversial gets put online without it getting passed around? Perhaps she needs a lesson in PR.

My second point has to do with the way social media can often cause a mob mentality. Reading others' comments on a subject, or reading a blog post about an article before reading the actual article can produce a bias. By seeing what others are thinking of feeling about a topic, issue or product, it can sway you to think one way or another before forming your own opinion, hence the popularity of Pinterest and Facebook. But I think it can also cause people to form opinions prematurely. Take this article by Laura Davis at The Independent: In Defence of Samantha Brick: The woman who is “hated for being beautiful”. Davis brings up some good points, one I found interesting is that she said jealousy in women is somewhat of a faux pas subject, and that Brick does a good job of getting it out there. Whether you agree or not, it can be helpful to read up on both sides of an issue before forming a concrete opinion.

I'm sure in a few days the Samantha Brick fiasco will be long forgotten, and we'll be on to another controversy in the media. But it's helpful to see that there can be real topics of discussion from even something that seems so trivial. These are just my thoughts though...I'd love to hear what others think about this topic!