Clean to the Bone: On Being Ugly in a World Full of So-Called Beauty

Clean to the Bone: Overcoming Our Fear of Ugliness

Rick Rader, MD, Editor-in-chief, HELEN

“You are so ugly when you looked in the mirror your reflection walked away.” (Famous anonymous one liner from Vaudeville comedy skits).

We recently had a look at ridiculous legacy laws that painted our society as shallow, clueless and shameful. We focused on the so-called Ugly Laws, that from 1867 to 1974 had various cities targeted poor people and disabled people. It was on the books for anyone that was “maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view.” Yeah, it was against the law to be ugly.

“There’s an old adage with roots going back to the 1600s that goes, “Beauty is only skin deep.” The quote has inspired a wide variety of sarcastic embellishments including “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.” It’s not surprising that it’s believed to have been coined by the American writer and most celebrated wisecrackers, Dorothy Parker in the 1960’s, who didn’t fit into the tiny box of conventional beauty.”

Pictured: Helen Keller. Photo credit: Blind LoVision Foundation of New Zealand

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."—Helen Keller

There was a group of men that truly understood that being ugly was not only skin-deep but soul deep. These were young British combat pilots who were shot down during the famous Battle of Britain fighting the air invasion by the Germans as part of the Nazi planned invasion of England. Prior to new life saving efforts these men would have died, but the Brits applied new treatments and many survived. They may have recovered from their wounds but were left with life altering facial disfigurements. They were hideous, hard to look at, and many wished they had not survived. Thanks to new pioneering plastic surgery techniques developed by Dr. Archibald McIndoe, these men were literally pieced back together. They became known as belonging to an exclusive club that nobody wanted to be eligible to become a member, the Guinea Pig Club (named for McIndoe’s experimental reconstruction methods). 

Part of their recovery included reintroducing them back into society. The town where the hospital was located was called East Grinstead and McIndoe went to the town to give advance notice that his airmen would be coming to the town. He let them know that his men were “ugly, hideous and deformed.” He also let them know that they were responsible for saving England. The town became known as the “town that did not stare.” The shops, pubs and restaurants removed mirrors and the men were welcomed as the heroes they were. The last members of the Guinea Pig Club died in 2007. They spent the majority of their lives being “ugly,” but served society in reminding us not how deep “ugly” can be, but just how deep prejudice, stigma, and superficiality can be.

With the repeated societal message that beauty wins and anything less than what is considered attractive is a loser, it’s no wonder we have officially recognized “cacophobia” as the “fear of ugliness.” This phobia works in two ways; it provides a fear for people who are fearful that they would be considered ugly and alternatively that they are fearful that they will be in the presence of someone who is considered ugly. One wonders whether being diagnosed with cacophobia is grounds for having a disability and if so, would they be eligible for protections under the American with Disabilities Act. 

It’s an ugly proposition.

Shafi Hassan, an Australian anthropologist writing in Walla!Health shared, “Our faces are becoming more and more inferior.” He insists we are becoming less attractive than our ancestors. He goes on to claim that among the culprits for this are the modern diet, sleep patterns, and light exposure habits. “Humans are becoming uglier – and it has nothing to do with aging. “

“With all the procedures, medications and “enhancement technologies” available from the medical professions to change the way we look (from short stature, flat chests, crooked noses and bulging butts) one could argue that we have made “ugliness” a disease if not a disability.”

Carl Elliott, a professor of bioethics at the University of Minnesota opines, “These technologies have become a way for us to build or reinforce our sense of dignity while standing in front of the social mirror. The mirror is critically important for identity. Most of us can keenly identify with the shame that a person feels when society reflects back to them an image that is degrading or humiliating. But the flip side to shame is vanity. It is also possible to become obsessed with that social mirror, to spend hours in front of it, preening and posing, flexing your biceps, admiring your hair. It is possible to spend so much time in front of the mirror that you lose any sense of who you are, apart from the reflection that you see.”

It appears that we are constantly adding new members to the framework of prejudice or discrimination—for instance, “lookism,” aimed toward people who are considered to be physically unattractive.

Pictured: Eleanor Roosevelt

At the end of her life, Mrs. Roosevelt was asked to name her greatest regret. She said, “I wish I was prettier.”

According to Nancy Etcoff, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, “we face a world where lookism is one of the most pervasive but denied prejudices.”  Research demonstrates that not only is there a premium for prettiness in Western culture, but there is also a penalty for plainness.” (Ref: Angela Stalcup).

In my mind perhaps the quote that has the most impact on our preoccupation with being attractive is from former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  

Mrs. Roosevelt was considered in her time one of the most widely admired and respected women. She helped organize the United Nations and took a leading role in designing the text of the Universal Declaration of Human rights. She is the only First Lady to have a statute dedicated to her in Washington, DC. She became known as the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements.

She was ranked among the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. Quite the legacy.

In 1979, Bo Derrick, the American model and actress was given the starring role in the movie “10,” the reference to being the perfect beauty.  While I am not disputing her score, I am confident that we can add the namesake to this journal to the ranks of also being a “10,” …our own Ms. Keller.

HELEN is certainly a beauty, and certainly more than skin deep.