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UGLINESS
Ugliness is a property possessed by physical things that are unappealing to the senses, especially visually. It often indicates that something provokes revulsion or horror. The term is commonly used in reference to human appearance. The opposite of ugliness is beauty. Being a matter of subjective aesthetics, one person may perceive to be beautiful something that another may find ugly (as referenced in the popular phrase, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder").
Although usually thought of in terms of a lack of physical beauty, the property of ugliness, like beauty, may also be ascribed to other phenomena, such as music, literature, human behaviour, and so on.
References in Popular Culture
- One of the most well known examples of "ugly" in popular culture is the story The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, which presents the moral that ugliness is subjective. This title has been adopted as the name of a hip hop group and a play.
- Ugly American is a term used to refer to perceptions worldwide of arrogant, demeaning, unthoughtful behavior of Americans abroad, based on the novel The Ugly American.
- The Barbican Centre was "London's ugliest building" according to a BBC poll. [1]
- Films in which the word ugly features prominently include Coyote Ugly (based on New York's Coyote Ugly Saloon), Earthlings:Ugly bags of mostly water, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, "the ugly" in this last film referring to Eli Wallach's character.
- Books and stories with "ugly" in their titles include Scott Westerfield's Uglies, Howard Waldrop's story about dodos, "The Ugly Chickens", science fiction story The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov, 1927 essay Libido for the Ugly, and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, a novel by Gregory Maguire.
- In music, we have bands such as Ugly Kid Joe, Ugly Rumours, and Dumb And The Ugly. Ugly Man Records is a record label, and "ugly" albums include Ugly, Six Ugly and God Loves Ugly.
- People who have adopted the name "Ugly" include comic Ugly Hill, tv personality Ugly Dave Gray, South Park character Ugly Bob, radio DJ Ugly Phil, and electronical artist the Ugliness Man. In addition, Dave Attell appeared as "The Ugly American" in segments in early episodes of The Daily Show.
- Ugly dolls and Troll dolls are marketed for their ugliness.
- There is a town in Britain named Ugley, complete with an Ugley Women's Institute.
- The Star Trek: The Original Series episode Is There in Truth No Beauty? featured an alien race, the Medusans, who appearance was so hideous that any humanoid viewing one without protection would be driven insane.
- Ugly Betty is the name of an upcoming televison series on ABC.
- Norwegian metal act Aura Noir claims to be the "ugliest band in the world".
See also
References
- Oxford English Dictionary
External links
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