Do you believe people can be physically UGLY?

Question

Now, if you spend any time on G@G or on the internet in general you will obviously meet the trolls or the ridiculously blunt who will flat out call a person ugly. However, tenfold you meet people who deny that anybody under such scrutiny or inquiry are in fact ugly, often following up with the claim that "everyone is beautiful" or that "attractiveness is totally subjective."

Now I don't feel compelled to call people ugly, I think taking physical shots at people is petty, though I'd be lying if I said I NEVER did it before in the past when I was immature or heated. But I do have to wonder how many of us are being 100% honest when we say no one is ugly or if we tell someone who is "traditionally not the standard of attractiveness" that they aren't ugly.

Honestly hour with RJ: I have told people who I didn't find attractive that they were because they were my friends and on the hole they were beautiful people who I felt needed support, though I do try to offer suggestions of spicing up their appearance if they ask for it. Of course part of me feels guilty but part of me always justifies it as beautiful can mean more than just physical appearance or that telling them that they're ugly doesn't fix anything.

I know it might sound bad but I think most people are guilty of this and those who claim they aren't are liars or unempathetic at best. But maybe I'm being biased/judgmental.

So, G@Gers, do you believe that there are in fact physically ugly people out there? If so, if they asked for your opinion, would you tell them the truth?

BlueCoyote · Accepted Answer

I generally don't care too much about this topic. I don't consider physical attractiveness an important value unless maybe I want to engage in a sexual/romantic relationship with someone. If the vendor at the kiosk is ugly, I couldn't care less. I think it's petty to even waste my time thinking about this.
Maybe it also has to do with the fact that I was born almost blind and I have very little vision. While I do see people more or less if they're close to me, it usually takes me quite a long time to remember what they look like. I would have to meet that person several times. In that sense, my disability can perhaps also be a blessing because my attention is automatically focused on what that person says and how they say it. For me, this because a more important ground to judge people on.

That being said, I think physical attractiveness is a mix of objective factors and subjective opinions. To some degree, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. To give you a concrete example: I have a rather untypical taste when it comes to girls. When guys are asked what celebrity they find hot or attractive, they usually name women such as Megan Fox or Mila Kunis. Both of them are attractive in a very mainstream and "standard" way. Myself on the contrary, I really like Ellen Page. I like girls who have an aura of cuteness and that cuteness usually makes me feel attracted to them (also sexually).
So, to some degree, it is indeed a matter of opinion.

However, it is also true that there are some objective factors involved. There are certain things that all human beings find visually pleasing, usually because they suggest either youth or health. One of these factors is body size. There is a certain range of weight that almost everyone considers "nice" because it correlates with a healthy lifestyle and looks fertile. If you're only skin and bones, people won't find you attractive. If you're morbidly obese, people won't find you attractive either. Now, within this range, some people are more tolerant than others. While I am okay with chubby girls, other guys want them to be skinny without exception. While my wife is into guys who only have a little bit of muscles, other girls are into more muscular men. Yet, everyone would agree that a normal weight a a bit of muscles look good. The same goes for how tall or short you are, how big or small your boobs are, what shape your nose has etc..

ThisDudeHere · Accepted Answer

Although it is mostly subjective, a common defining feature is symmetry. If there is asymmetry (or at least too much of it) then it is no longer beautiful. That and one thing should not stand out too much. A perfect face has all of it's components structured in harmony with each other. A decent face with an ugly nose will not be decent but ugly. Just because of the nose. Or eyebrows, like in my case.

splashofyellow · Accepted Answer

Yes, there are people who would be considered ugly by most if not all people if you're only looking at their physical appearance. These are usually people with some sort of disease or deformity and not someone who is, in lack of a better term, "normal" looking. They might be made beautiful by their personality (oh, what a cliche) but strictly looking at appearance they would probably be considered ugly or weird looking. Then there's the question of is weird looking the same as ugly. But I don't want to go into that.

However, I've not actually met anyone who I would consider ugly in person. I think there's a difference between not finding someone attractive and thinking that they're ugly. But I guess it all depends on what the definition of ugly is.

If someone asks me whether I find them attractive or not, I'll tell them the truth. I don't think saying "I don't find you attractive" should necessarily be taken as an insult. I think too many people consider that to mean the same thing as "you're ugly".

If I did meet a person made ugly by a disease or a deformation, would I tell them the truth if they asked me? It's tricky. I wouldn't want to lie because they would know that I'm lying. I wouldn't want to straight up say that they're ugly, either. So I don't know what I would answer. Knowing myself, I would probably make a joke and make the situation awkward for both of us.

After writing this I feel like none of it made any sense. :D

Cccgala · Accepted Answer

"Do you believe that there are in fact physically ugly people out there?"

– Yes. If we don't have "ugly" people, we would not have a clue on what "beauty" would constitute. The rating systems (like the 10/10 or the 5/10 scores) can attest how people gauge their attraction to a person even if beauty (or ugliness, in this case) is not quantifiable. However, it does not mean that the lower the scores, the uglier he/she is; it rather means the the lower the scores, the less likely people are going to be attracted to them. Attraction is the force people refer to when they say, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." People may find you beautiful, yes, but they do not necessarily mean that they are attracted to you.

"If so, if they asked for your opinion, would you tell them the truth?"

– No. My views would be inferior to theirs because their perception about themselves matters more than mine.

AKomprood · Accepted Answer

Yes, I do believe there are ugly people out there. If one were to ask me if I find them ugly or attractive, I will always call them attractive in the form of calling them beautiful or handsome. But along with that, I will also tell them something they could do to make them even more attractive. Beauty cannot just lie on the outside for it is also in the inside. Now if someone were to ask me online, I would still tell them the same thing as I tell others. I have been called ugly and it hurts. It drove me to depression. Others shouldn't feel that.

ADFSDF1996 · Answer

That's hard to answer. What is ugly to one person may be gorgeous to another. There is a difference in percentages. For a person that is "ugly" there might only be a few people that find that person attractive. For a person that is "good looking", there might be a lot of people who find that person attractive.

madhatters4 · Answer

i think a rather small minority of people would be qualified as ugly (with the meaning of being repulsive). like the number of people who literally make me feel repulsed is probably very very small and probably are people who unfortunately suffer from some sort of malady or significant deformation

obviously there are people i find subjectively unattractive but the vast majority of them (probably like 98 or 99%) i would not say are "ugly"

YourFutureEx · Answer

No, I'm not a liar because I have never said that "everyone is beautiful". But I must agree that attractiveness is subjective. There are a lot of people I consider ugly including myself, but it's doesn't mean that others would do too. I may find a candy very sweet but my friend probably won't. Everything in that sense is subjective. It just depends upon personal taste of the individual.

To me, yes. Ugly people exist. But there is no universally ugly person. There are family, enthusiasts (scientists) and fools who would (still) find people like her to be beautiful.
www.skincare.net/.../treeman-illness-pic.gif
(No offence intended. I feel sorry for her condition)

The phrase "everyone is beautiful" implies that there's more to life than just the outer appearance. You may not look beautiful, but you can do beautiful things and that's what really matter in the long term.

curiousnorway · Answer

I believes people can be subjectively ugly, average and beautiful. I may find a person very ugly, but another person has a different opinion on it and visa versa. But the majority would find severe deformed people ugly and when we lives in a society with beauty standards it influence us enough to make us have a similar taste on what's ugly and what's beautiful although we also have subjective opinions as well.

The least desired features in humans are deformity, asymmetry and bad proportioned features in a bad proportioned face due reproduction and we wants a healthy offspring. So something is from a biologically speaking and something almost all of us are agreeing in. But features like hair colors, body shape, weight and some facial features are more subjective. Some people finds Justin Bieber handsome, but for me he's average. Same way applies to ugliness. I finds certain celebs ugly, but other don't.

So YES, it's possible to be physically ugly. But it's subjective and a person may be ugly for some, but not for others.

kenworth · Answer

well I must say you have some great insight with this question. when you. clarify. the question with physical. then of course there are people who are certainly not ever going to make it onto any top ten lists. however I like to look at what is the part that make me find them unattractive. for me. I've found that no longer being a kid.. I've grown in maturity and thus have to look at who the person is. more often than not I've found that what makes a person truthfully ugly. Is their personality. as for limiting things to purely physical I need to think about what is the ugly. caused by. was it an accident, birth deflect, is it their Weight? if it's their weight. is it an eating disorder. a medication they have to take. for a condition they have. is it a failing of a body system that's causing the proublem. when I look at all the possibilities. I can without knowing the person personally and knowing their complete medical history. choose to. otherwise judge a person's appearance based on weight. I've dated girls who were large and those who were skinny. they all were beautiful because they. took care of themselves. I'll leave on a final note. Judge not lest you be judged

InfoBot · Answer

There is no definitive answer that is universal because it's a subjective thing. Or at least, it's impossible to establish if any one person is universally ugly. There are people who would likely be aesthetically unappealing to a large number of people but it depends on where your focus group is from. Some cultures will find bigger girls to be more desirable, for example. Western culture tends to idolise the slim and/or curvy girls.

As an individual there are people who I find ugly, no doubt. I define that as being actually beyond unappealing. There are people I find attractive, people I don't find attractive that don't repel me in any particular way and people who actually repulse me to one level or another. The latter category is what I define as ugly. Again, it's entirely subjective and I believe that it's hard coded too. I believe that such discernment is part of our nature, part of our selection process for breeding.

I too don't believe in straight up telling people that they're ugly because it's subjective, it's not universally true and it's both unkind and unhelpful.

Mahaim123 · Answer

I do believe that there are those who exist who really don't fit in with society's definition or even standard of idealised beauty but do I think them ugly? No. I seriously don't believe anyone in the world to be ugly because there must be something about them that is beautiful. Even if they have scars for example I think they're scars of a warrior whose been through some shit. Having said that, we all have different types/preferences. What's deemed as ugly to you will not be the same to me & so if someone who wasn't my type or what I necessarily consider attractive came up to me and asked me for my opinion I wouldn't say you're ugly I'd just say you're not my type.

peachblossomluck · Answer

Ugly is one of those things where you have to figure out if that person can help it and if they are actually ugly or if their appearance is simply different than what you are used to so it bothers you. Today I saw these women from other cultures who maybe had hard lives who didn't believe in smiling for the camera and to me they just looked mean and ugly. They were probably normal but my perception was that if you aren't smiling and looking that directly you're giving a dirty look and "being ugly. " So it's all relative.

slutsdontgetoral · Answer

Yes, there are physically ugly people. But, they can make themselves "cute" by certain modes of dress and behavior. Overweight women and men don't have the luxury of dressing however they want. An overweight woman wearing skinny girl clothes exhibits an air of cluelessness. Worse is when they dye their hair an unnatural color or are covered in tattoos. Stuff like that looks cute on a thin woman and bad on a big woman. The mac daddy is when a big woman has a nose ring on the center of their nose giving them an appearance of a Brahma bull. The majority of ugliness I see is on the inside.

DeeperMeaning · Answer

I think everyone is considered ugly and beautiful because those things are just opinions. But in my opinion, ugly doesn't exist, are there people I'm not attracted to? Yeah of course, but I don't think I've ever sat there and thought "wow that person is ugly." Even in those I don't find myself attracted to, there's still something to be admired. Whether it's there hair, their complexion, their eyes, their teeth. Something. Everyone has something that can be admired by all and something that not everyone will like.

Qwastp · Answer

I honestly think that it is impossible to be ugly. Not in a "everyone is beautiful in their own way" or "beauty is on the inside"kind of way. I just think that to make a statement like that there would have to be a standard. And if someone uses one of those statements on you, they are basically saying that you're not the most asthetically appealing person. Not a compliment. If you were to say that someone has an ugly personality or attitude that brings up a load of trait issues, such as rudeness. There is a standard for attitude. However, you can't just list a person's physical features and call out their "faults" because there is not standard. It's just them.

spidersspiders · Answer

Yeah of coarse there are ugly people. You know a trend I've noticed with every single person whose called me beautiful? None of them found me attractive. So lets drop the whole "well someone might find you beautiful" act. Its honestly kind of shitty and I hate how many people push that crap. All your doing is making an ugly person feel even more outcasted because despite ALL THESE PEOPLE who supposedly might find them attractive theyve never met one. And once you start feeling like an exception to some social rule you go down a dark slipperly slope.

IsabelGuimaraes · Answer

Of course there are people who are physically ugly. People who are severely deformed due to some rare syndrome, for example. Real ugly people exist, unfortunately (for them), it's life and it isn't fair, but they are uncommon. Too many people think they're ugly and think other people are ugly when they really aren't. Go to the "Am I Ugly" subreddit for example and you'll see most people there are just boring or nerdy-looking at most, not exactly ugly. In answer to your other question, when an "ugly" (they're generally just a little ugly or boring-looking or unkept) person ask me if I think they're ugly, I only point out what's good about their looks and tell them what they can do to look better.

backtoblackkkk · Answer

Yes, people can physically be ugly. That's just how the world works. Most of us generally agree on who's attractive and who's not because facial symmetry is a significant factor. But, there's something beautiful about everyone whether it be on the inside/outside and beauty is partially subjective because people have different tastes.

RedVulcan · Answer

See, beauty is largely objective, with very few subjective preferences. Search up "ugly person" on google and you'll probably find some poor untouchable's mug shot.
Would I tell them? I hope to God not... but sometimes I've been loose with my tongue, especially when they joke about themselves.

Cosytoasty · Answer

There *are* physically ugly people. But! most people who think they're ugly are in fact average because... well the word average lol. If you have normal human features and they are somewhat symmetrical you are good to go (eyes too far apart, nose crooked, jaw crooked etc. excessive fat would be things that constitute ugly)

That's before we get to grooming, something as simple as a good, styled hair-cut can bump a guy up a point.

Pomegranate139 · Answer

Yeah there are ugly people. I'm one of those blunt shitbags unfortunately. If I don't tell them flat out they are ugly, I dance around the question, but that's usually because they are a close friend or something. I do tell them after how to improve their appearance. Though most people aren't ugly, maybe just boring looking, there are in fact people who can only be described as ugly.

Heartcrusher · Answer

It depends, maybe the general public might find someone attractive but there are some people who have their own eyes and define attractiveness. Like personally I don't think pretty has a color but it's more based of how there facial features compliment each other. Yet the general public thinks that blondes are pretty 🙄. There have been people who called me pretty and people who say I'm ugly. But you know what they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

jul4a · Answer

Yes, I believe so, even though I would NEVER EVER say that to someone - it's not okay. But it's a fact of life that some people have more than others - including the 'looks', money, intelligence, talent, etc. Someone will ALWAYS have more than you, and someone else will always have less than you.

melanieeeB · Answer

I always say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that doesn't mean that I find everyone attractive or good looking
I have often meet people where my brain was in few seconds already called someone ugly or good looking, it just happens, the way how I handle this is different tho

Do you believe people can be physically UGLY?

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