The 41-year-old writer said she has received over 1,000 “bile-filled” messages from strangers and criticism from her own Facebook friends since she wrote a piece about how women hated her and employers didn’t take her seriously because she was too pretty.
She said: “Their level of anger only underlines that no one in this world is more reviled than a pretty woman.
“In my article, I recalled how men I’d never met before had sent bottles of bubbly to my restaurant table, presented me with impromptu bouquets and even bought train tickets for me — all on account of my pretty face.
“And yet women had reacted to my good looks in a very different way. Their hostility had stood in my way at work and even friends had dropped me, fearing their husbands fancied me.
“Without doubt, this is a gender issue. For not only is it mostly women who are attacking me, it is also because I am female that I am being attacked for acknowledging my attractiveness.”
By this morning, the story had racked up over 1.5 million hits and was shared nearly 50,000 times on Facebook, and mostly negative comments on the website and Twitter called Brick “delusional”.
In her response, she compared herself with Angelina Jolie, saying if she’d spoken out about how beautiful she was, she’d receive the same criticism.
She added: “Yes, I have cried on and off all day. But do I regret my article? Not at all. I’m know I’m risking the wrath of the online community once more, but there is an irony to yesterday. While I was tearfully dealing with the emails and calls outside the supermarket, a young man approached me, offered to park my car and even get me a coffee.
“He could see I was having a tough time — and yes, my looks had helped me out again.
“I know women reading this will think I deserve to be attacked again. But why should I be? Yes, I’m a good-looking woman — albeit one that has feelings, too.”
The term “Samantha Brick” appears to have even been used as a new cockney rhyming slang term, with one Daily Mail reader saying: “Erm, am I missing something?? Is this some new cockney rhyming slang? As in ‘she sounds like a complete Samantha Brick if you ask me’?”
