Recently in the United Kingdom a slightly delusional article by journalist Samantha Brick lamenting that her “pretty face” has made women desperately envious, sent the Twitter world, the Internet and the print media into a debating frenzy. Reeking of narcissism, and titled There Are Downsides To Looking This Pretty: Why Women Hate Me for Being Beautiful the article claimed that Brick’s (so-called) good looks have enticed men and annoyed women and she cannot wait to be grey and wrinkled so that other women can appreciate her for who she is.
At first I had thought it was an April Fool joke — but, astonishingly, people have taken it seriously — and the discussion has moved from the tabloid onto the pages of more serious newspapers and even mainstream television.
Written for the Daily Mail the article is replete with anecdotes about how she has been offered complimentary bottles of champagne by airline pilots and how even her bill has been waived by bowled-over bartenders. But she insists that her women bosses have always hated her — and indeed done their best to pull her down. She even says she is regarded with huge suspicion by her girl friends who fear that their partners might abandon them for her. Despite the fact that Ms Brick’s last article was equally intellectually stimulating: I Use My Sex Appeal To Get Ahead at Work… and So Does Any Woman With Any Sense and her article could have read with a huge pinch of scepticism — the debate over Ms Brick’s suffering has reached epic heights, with her supporters and detractors flooding the Internet. The Daily Mail can feel thrilled that it has obviously touched a very raw nerve, however cosmetic the discussion.
Even the avalanche of abuse Ms Brick has earned over her article, which has had over 1.5 million hits, has become a barometer of her recently acquired celebrity status, and turned into a marketing success for the tabloid. Like the Ekta Kapoor serials, which are supposedly meant for women, but actually end up usually denigrating them, discerning critics have pointed out that the Daily Mail also specialises in goading women into saying nasty things about each other.
Yet coming close on the heels of another survey, which revealed that attractive women should not send their photographs along with their biodata while applying for a job (as the plain Janes are more likely to get it) could there be empathy for Ms Brick’s woes, after all?
Ms Brick (who is not exactly Kate Moss even in her airbrushed photographs) describes how she was “once blighted by a jealous female boss”. It seems that even though she wore a modest summer dress, she was told it was a distraction for the male employees — and so she ended up wearing baggy, sombre-coloured trouser suits… oh dear.
A sobering tale of endless suffering or an exercise in self-deceit and vanity. And while Ms Brick accepts the bouquets and the brickbats for an article that elicited a very heated response — shall we discuss the economy instead?

Meanwhile, not all women spend their time bitching about each other and worrying about who is the best-looking woman in the room. Some of them, such as the good Muslim women of Bradford West, decided to gang up and choose their own political candidate for the recent byelections, and actually made him win. While one might wonder at their choice — the leader of the Respect Party, George Galloway, who is now happily into his fourth marriage — the women have publicly stated that they were looking for someone who could actually give them “respect”. In fact, this largely Muslim-dominated area saw a minor rebellion with the female voters deciding not to vote in favour of the Labour Party (the party usually supported in this area) saying that the maverick politician had won their hearts by reportedly telling their men (lifting liberally from chairman Mao?) “You need to remember that women are half of your power. If you are not going to let your women get involved and stand by your side, you are taking away half of your own strength.”
Many of these hijab-wearing women actually went onto the streets, for the first time in their lives, to canvas for Mr Galloway as they now want to see real change and a better life for their children. Hopefully, Mr Galloway will rise to their expectations… to put it politely.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party is examining why they were unable to get together a force of Urdu- and Punjabi-speaking women who knew exactly how to interact with other women in their own language, as Mr Galloway managed to do. It has been a rather emphatic demonstration of the collective power of Muslim women, and politicians from all parties are watching the development carefully. Any lessons there for Indian politicians who have largely ignored the power of the women electorate thus far?

And while talking about members of Parliament — we have always known that apart from understanding political drama — they also need, occasionally, to display very essential acting skills. Which is why actors become politicians and politicians become actors so effortlessly… sometimes without even without meaning to… such as two of my personal favourites, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton!
Thus, the news that Keith Vaz, the Leicester East MP, is now planning to appear as a judge of a cooking competition in a film called Jadoo about two warring chefs, is not surprising. Firstly, it is being shot in his constituency and secondly, he is only following a time-honoured tradition of British Asian politicians… My husband, Meghnad Desai, was persuaded, a couple of years ago to act in Sangeeta Dutta’s debut feature, Life Goes On. He enjoyed it thoroughly! Now we have to look out for who the bug bites next!

The writer can be contacted at kishwardesai@yahoo.com