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Woman’s Account Of Going Through Life As ‘Really Beautiful’ Has Left Twitter Divided

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Women are habitually conditioned to be their own harshest critics, and to hold themselves to impossible standards — which is why when a woman openly and unabashedly says that she is “really beautiful,” it can stir up a whole range of responses.

Recently, The Cut published an article about one woman’s “struggle” with living life as a conventionally beautiful person. The anonymous woman, who is now in her late 50s, described the pitfalls of being attractive to writer Alexa Tsoulis-Reay.

Naturally, the headline alone was somewhat divisive.

However, the contents of the article also stirred up controversy on Twitter.

Many people on Twitter couldn’t help but mock the anonymous woman for her apparent self-involvement and patronizing tone.

However, there were also people who found the piece to be an illuminating and sympathetic exploration of what it’s really like to go through life with a “beautiful” exterior.

Writer Jessica Wakeman acknowledged that the piece itself had flaws, but that the discussion itself is still very important, and deserves to be explored — regardless of the Twitter eye-rolls.

After perusing the article, it’s highly possible that this woman’s struggles had little to do with her appearance and much more to do with her personality (brazen, confident people have been known to make more than a few enemies). And while the piece may not exactly inspire sympathy, it does encourage a discussion about the privilege surrounding beauty.

Because if being interviewed for an article that has nothing to do with your great accomplishments, remarkable intelligence or striking personality isn’t a privilege, then I don’t know what is.