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Quentin Massys' painting - The Ugly Duchess, 1525-30

Ugliness is 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.

Some argue that ugliness is a matter of subjective aesthetics, claiming that 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). However the predominant view in the scientific fields is that human ugliness is part of sexual selection and an indicator of poor genetic or physical health.

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 behavior, and so on.

References in popular culture

• One of the most well known examples of "ugly" in popular culture is the story of "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), 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, the 1927 essay "Libido for the Ugly" by H. L. Menchken, and the novel Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire.
• In music, there are bands such as Ugly Kid Joe, Ugly Rumours, The Ugly Bev Jones Group, and Dumb And The Ugly. Ugly Man Records is a record label, and "ugly" albums include Ugly, six Ugly and God Loves Ugly. Norwegian metal act Aura Noir claims to be the "ugliest band in the world".
• 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.
• 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 a television series on ABC that started in 2006.
• In the popular film, Mean Girls, the girls often refer to each other as 'fugly'. This means that the girls see each other as grotesque. Rachel McAdams' character writes down 'fugly slut' as an adjective to describe herself when framing her friends
• The lead singer of OCNY punk rock band Mental Spanking is called Bobby Ugly because of his frightening physical features.

See also

• Disgust
• Sexual attractiveness
• Sexual selection
• Ugly stick
• World Association of Ugly People