Sam Armytage wrote an article on natural beauty and the reactions are absurd.

In an article for Stellar titled, ‘Don’t hate me for being beautiful’ published on Sunday, Sunrise presenter Sam Armytage writes about the time, energy and anguish women would save if we all accepted ourselves as we are.

She compares women to the imperfect lemons at the supermarket, sharing that these lemons are the normal, natural ones and if we all embraced our natural beauty then none of us would have a problem.

In the article she details the constant struggle of women to keep up with beauty standards, as we try new fad diets and face creams, revealing that she struggled for a whole term at school when she had to have braces.

As a disclaimer for her article, she writes, “And don’t attack me for being beautiful; I have a team of hair and make-up PROFESSIONALS getting up at the crack of sparrows each day to make me look good”.

“And if you don’t think I’m beautiful, then you’re entitled to your opinion (but you’d be wrong).”

Of course, within an article that mentions her own insecurities, and makes the overarching point that the beauty industry is making money off the way we feel about our ‘flaws’, it’s the line about being ‘beautiful’ – this tiny portion of her overall argument – that’s been taken by some readers and criticised.

As it turns out, women are allowed to be self-assured, but not too self-assured, or else the internet will swarm them.

Wow. Hating on someone because they say they think they are beautiful. Do we need to wait for someone to tell us we are beautiful??? We should be taught to love ourselves. Not publicly shamed for doing so. What a sad sad world we currently live in. Disgraceful. ❤️ @sam_armytage

— Michelle (@Micheljoy3) July 1, 2018

The backlash to Armytage’s article has been swift and unfair.

Twitter users have responded to the article writing, “Can we attack her for being full of herself?” and “You are criticised for being up yourself and arrogant”.

As women, it appears, again, we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Had Sam Armytage written the article without the disclaimer about the energy that goes into her own appearance, she would have received backlash of the “we can’t all wake up looking like you” variety.

Armytage finished her article with the following sentiment: “But televisual careers aside, what would happen if we all truly embraced our inner bumpy lemon skin? And looked the way nature intended us to?”

This idea captures the tone of the article far more cohesively than the decontextualised “Don’t attack me for being beautiful”, but for many, that doesn’t matter.

Because for a woman to believe she’s beautiful, and say it without hesitation, is one of the most controversial things we can do.