Preview

Definition Essay-The Ugliness In Beauty

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
732 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Definition Essay-The Ugliness In Beauty
The Ugliness in Beauty
“You’re ugly” “She’s ugly” “I’m ugly” The word ugly perforates through the air upon reading those phrases. Hearing the word ugly feeds into insecurities since it is often connected to self worth. Whether it leaves one thinking “am I ugly?” “I have hair like hers, does that make me ugly?” Officially, Merriam Webster defines it as :unpleasant to look at/hear, not pretty or attractive, and offensive or disgusting, It is meaningful to define such a negative word because familiarity often destroys hostility. There is a certain confidence in knowing the exact definition of a word that can cause hurt feelings otherwise. What falls under this definition is very broad and subject to every individual. A scientist by the name of
…show more content…
Much to everyone's belief, beautiful is an accurate antonym for the world ugly. Beautiful is someone who has been molded by society's view on what is acceptable. A society consists of the surrounding people in the region. Although, in some areas, people can be so isolated that they are exceptions. An example that comes to mind is the extraordinary dress of indigenous peoples. In some tribes in africa it is considered beautiful to have a long neck. Therefore, young women go through a long process in achieving it through rings on their neck. They are not ugly, they are different to us but they are beautiful in their way. This is the same for people in first world countries like ours. People try to achieve a state of beauty through various methods. Since it is based on the standards of different regions, it is safe to say that it is an antonym. Ugly is not the same as repulsive. Repulsive is not a word that falls into the definition of ugly. For something to be repulsive it must incite a physical feeling of disgust. No human being or object will ever make a reasonable person feel something that powerful. Therefore, being called ugly is not synonymous with repulsive. Lastly, ugliness is not a permanent state. It is simply a word used to describe personal

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Uglies Essay

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Is it not good to make a society full of beautiful people?” (p.1), the first line of the text Uglies foreshadows exactly what the main theme of the book is; basing a whole society on a system similar to the caste system. The characters are born Littlies, grow into Uglies, operated on to become Pretties, operated on again to become Middle Pretties and then die as Crumblies. The operation came about to put everyone in place, to have no anger or hate towards anyone. They used the operations to make the prefect Utopia. Tally, a young, impressionable Ugly is led to believe she is exactly what her title is, ugly. Her whole life she has been brainwashed into thinking she is ugly by computer technology, lack of affection and taunting name calling such as ‘squint’, ‘skinny’ or ‘nose’. She has grown up with nothing but beautiful faces surrounding her. Her feelings towards herself and the way she looks, resembles how most adolescent teenagers perceive themselves. Trapped in a world full of unrealistic beauty portrayed by televisions and magazines, young girls and boys have no idea how to feel about the way they look, much like Tally. Alike any other Ugly she is waiting for the day she turns sixteen so she can become a Pretty. Unable to do anything but sit through life waiting for that one day she decides to play tricks and hoaxes to satisfy her in terms of entertainment which shows exactly…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    beauty may ultimately be subjective and unique for every human, there are clear cultural trends…

    • 3971 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In John Irving's “A Prayer For Owen Meany”, the raw heart behind one struggling with acceptance due to appearance is demonstrated . Owen Meany is a touching young man who is very intelligent yet extremely judged due to his appearance. Owen is unique because he breaks beauty standards and is completely comfortable in his own skin. Many people in modern society struggle with appearance and acceptance which is often the root of most eating disorders, depression, and body issues. The beauty industry has such a grip on society that most people find themselves wanting to be taller, skinnier, tanner, or blonder, all while claiming to be comfortable in their own skin. People have fallen into the trap that…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Uglies

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the novel Uglies, Tally Youngblood (ugly) feels she is ugly because society put that label on her. This book helped me in many ways one of them was not judging people just because they don’t compare to my standards. Before I had read this book whenever I saw what I thought was an unbalanced couple where the guy or girl was too pretty for the other. I would tell my brother that they don’t belong together because she’s too pretty for him, how did he end up with her, or why would she date someone so ugly compared to her. Now whenever I see a couple or I’m talking to one I ask them how they ended up together and whether they are in love. I don’t judge people anymore on how they look but their personality.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today, people want to look as young and glowing as they can. To refresh and restore their facial appearance, they opt for many new and advanced facial procedures. Due to various factors such as naturally with growing age, sun damage, smoking, improper diet, your skin becomes thinner. It develops lines, wrinkles and folds which get more prominent on your face over the time.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Uglie Research Paper

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page

    think that our society places too much emphasis on physical beauty? In what ways do…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Uglies Novel Essay Grade 9

    • 2062 Words
    • 9 Pages

    “A perfection of means, and confusion of aims seems to be our main problem” (Einstein). As humans, we try to achieve perfection, and fail often. We know how to achieve what we want, but when it comes to what we want to achieve, we get very confused. We have been told by sci-fi authors repeatedly that striving for perfection will be the downfall of the human race. In Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the government strives to achieve perfection by sculpting their own illustration of idealism. In any society, individuals judge others’ physical appearance relative to their personal thoughts. The diversity of peoples’ opinions come from individual thoughts untouched by others, but in Uglies, the government believes in perfection being total equality. They believe that uniformity leads to equality in beauty as well as true equality, because beauty biases decisions giving others unfair advantages. Therefore, they strip people’s identities in society for peace and equality within body and mind. The Uglies illustrates that perfection is unattainable in society, body and mind.(we could also use this thesis(The Uglies illustrates that perfection is unattainable when uniformity of society, body and mind is the goal).…

    • 2062 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Being beautiful nowadays in the eye’s of society is quite disgusting. Women are shown on tv's, magazines, and other…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Uglies Essey

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There are many pros and cons to being ugly. A pro is freedom (Westerfeld 89). An ugly can do whatever, whenever they want if they do not get caught. For example, Tally escaped from Uglyville to live a normal free life in a free town, called Smoke. On the other hand, there are cons to being ugly. If someone was ugly, Pretties would not accept them (26). If an ugly entered New Pretty Town everyone there would tell them to leave, and the ugly would possibly be arrested. For example, when Tally enters a party in New Pretty Town all of the Pretties were rude to Tally and wanted her to leave. Uglies have freedom, but on the other hand they are not accepted.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When you claim to be ugly society tells you that you’re beautiful and when you say that you’re beautiful society tells you that you are conceited. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Society tells us what we should be, who we should be, what we should look and act like and what is perfect. Too many woman try to fit this ideal of what we should be based on media and society in an imperfect world. Marge Piercy is criticizing this in her poem “Barbie doll” written in 1999. The poem shows how ridiculous it is the way we try to conform to what society’s ideals are for the perfect woman. Marge Piercy an American poet, novelist, and…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beauty Definition Essay

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When you look in the mirror, do you see “beautiful”? Did you know that there’s a kind of beauty that isn’t tangible? Beauty is more than one might think; it is more rare. Those who have seen it know it to be something that cannot be captured by a photograph, it must be told by a story. If it has not been clear yet, beauty is not by any means physical aesthetics, but rather it is the actions that make-up an appealing disposition. Through the centuries, so many have wrongly credited beauty to be a person’s looks. The inevitable problem with that kind of beauty is the ever changing idea of what it is, and how it fails to express true beauty.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Definition Of Beauty

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages

    See, I’ve always thought beauty was what you see when you look in the mirror, that there was nothing more to beauty than features, and that what is on the inside is completely irrelevant. So whether I am beautiful or not is…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    BEAUTY - a six-letter word yet has a wide variety of definition. The concept of beauty varies from one culture to another. What one finds beautiful someone else might find bizarre, outrageous, or sometimes, even ugly. Spray tans are the norm for the people in Jersey Shore, yet for people in Southeast Asia, they infatuate with the pale, white skin that they consider as beautiful. Right now, it is already hard to find cosmetic products that do not have whitening agents because of this trend. In some parts of Western Africa, being fat is considered fabulous ̶ women are considered beautiful when they are overweight and sporting stretch marks. How in the United States of America? Almost the whole population think it is unpleasant, that is why a lot of Americans are obsessed with slender and sexy bodies, whether in males or in females. Western beauty is now defined with the combination of Botox, implants, plastic surgery diet, hair extensions and make-ups, and a lot of these can be clearly seen in Hollywood. Because of this concept of beauty in the West, Brazil, known as the home of the most beautiful people in world, changed their concept of beauty. Originally, Brazilian women are admired for their “guitar-shaped” body. But because of the Western media, they began to reduce their hips and behinds to match the slender and almost unhealthy ideals of the Western people. This clearly shows the effect of a certain culture to another, and how a society can define the concept of beauty of the public. The same way goes in the Philippines, where almost all of the products and practices came from the Western countries. In this way, the society dictates the true definition of beauty, especially in the Philippines.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When hearing the word ugly, one typically perceives it as the outward appearance that a person or thing projects to the world. Nevertheless, the outward appearance of someone or something is not the only way that “ugly” can be defined. When a person comes off as rude or unpleasant, their actions can be considered to be ugly. Commonly defined, ugly relates to the outward appearance, however, it too can be defined as an inward emotion that affects one’s actions.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A person of high intelligence will get successes effortlessly no matter how he looks; therefore, I’d rather become an intelligent ugly girl than become a beautiful stupid one. A smart person with unattractive appearance; in my opinion, has much motivation to step forward as well as has been treated with much more respect from other people. In fact, an ugly person can also change to a beautiful one thanks to cosmetic products and medical advances.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays