German club bans beautiful people – from theage.com.au
“THE ugly are seeking refuge from a hostile world in a German club specially founded to cater for their needs and allay their anxieties.
Hamburg’s Ugly Club requires of its members only that they identify the one thing about themselves that they are most unhappy about. Stomachs are at the top of the list, followed by noses and hips.
Harald Gasper, a creative director in an advertising agency with a jowly face and a big nose, established the club with his wife Regina, a tall journalist with big feet.
“We’re tired of the idea that you have to be beautiful to get on in life, that beauty equals social power, and beautiful people earn more and get promoted quicker,” Mr Gasper, 41, said.
“We’re not saying that ugly people are the best. But by coming together we hope to show that we too have something to offer and that the world doesn’t just belong to beautiful people.”
“Ugly People of the World Unite” is the unofficial motto of the club, which has 270 members. Among its role models are Angela Merkel, the new German Chancellor whose own lack of regard for her looks has attracted much criticism, the Duchess of Cornwall and singer Janis Joplin.
“All are proof that you don’t have to be beautiful to succeed,” said Mr Gasper.
According to the Ugly Club’s seven-point manifesto, “it is unfair that the world is dominated by beautiful people”.â€
Would you be more upset by the blatant discrimination of being turned away… or if you were let straight in?
I didn’t think of this when I posted. I just thought it was a funny cultural phenomenon and posed some reverse discrimination issues.
But you’re right: German Idealism… Wagnerian operas…. romantic Teutonic myths… and Hitler’s dream of a race of blond, blue-eyed Nordic Aryans – all shared the idealised glorification of nature and adoration of BEAUTY!
Now, there’s only Ugly Clubs and ‘tall women with big feet’
Well that’s the funny twist, that the Germans, who were responsible for the most destructive vision of human beauty in history (that I know of) i.e. the Nazi superrace, have invented this…
Thanks Adlerian. For the gutwrenching, seering, irritating pressure you like to heap on me.
I have a problem with the ugly club. It’d be hard to find patrons because most people won’t admit they’re ugly, especially those who hover between attractive and ugly like most of us. Only the hideous will be willing to step forward. So really, it’s a club for the hideously ugly, that’s what it should be called, and somehow I don’t think that plays well, even for the hideously ugly. We’ll see what happens. I for one think there should be a club for all fat people who have opposite gender names. A boy named Marian. A girl named Bobbie. That sort of thing. And they should have a big orgy and it should be videotaped and afterwards they all jump off a cliff.
I have heard everything. Seriously? I do think society is obsessed with women being thin and beautiful, but most men get a better shot at walking around pretty nasty as long as they have money - the all-powerful aphrodesiac of generation X. Short, bald men get the shaft and fat women are lepers. The problem with the club is that beauty is relative (relatively speaking) and what one person may find ugly another may find extremely attractive. With the obsession of plastic surgery there will be few ugly people left in th next century anyway. Just go buy it.
Right you are, km. Could you really have a good time if you were admitted without question? What a downer.
Only kidding. I see the issue less succinctly - to there is no uniform of beauty (unlike in Ancient Greek Society) because one can sell more (more makeup, more surgery, more clothes, more padding, more corsets…) if you convince the skinnier girls that they need curves like J-lo or Beyonce and convince the curvier girls that they need to be thin like Kate Moss. If everyone chases a vision of beauty which is simply ‘other than what they are now’ then you can sell them crap indefinitely. No matter what item they purchase (whether it be breast implants or slim-fast) they’ll still see a dozen contrary images of beauty which demand that they buy a different product.
By having an ambiguous canon of beauty where the rules are never defined (hence why a different woman appears at the top of FHM’s Top 100 every year) one can sell much more. That isn’t the only reason why we are in the position that we’re in, but the $$$$$ is a strong force.
Try being a chubby Jesus look a like.
I’m not so sure, for reasons which should be apparent because of my prior comments. I think that even if EVERYONE has plastic surgery then we’ll still have a culture of everyone feeling like they aren’t beautiful enough. I’m not sure of course, but that’s what I’d predict.
Where I stand on the fat. If it’s because of a disease then I think it’s fine. If not it reveals something about your personality. A trait that makes you obstenate, impulsive and unable to break out of patterns; emotional damaged on a deep level. It’s these qualities I find unappealing, not the actual fat itself. I find fat people rather pleasant to look at. But show me a fat girl who’s not a tightfisted baby in denial and I’ll show you someone with diabetes or an eating disorder.
We are all trying to grow beyond that, but you are so right. I am a secure woman, but then WHAM… little Sara can call out at any time of day- “Sara, you are a stupid, stupid, stupid girl”. I usually tell her to put a sock in it or have a nice xanax. She is in there tho’ and I don’t think she is ever going to leave. Hate that.
Gamer,
As much as I hate your take on fat, I tend to agree with you. It seems to be a matter of control, but not in all cases (and I am not talking medically) In my case, I got fat once because my husband is an amazing cook - and it crept up on me before I could shake a bignet. Ooops. Fat.
Does anyone think there is any salt to the notion of men wanting women to be little boys for control reasons? I have read this and don’t buy it - but what do you think? Why is it that men can be grey-haired and pudgy? Women at forty are lepers if they get that way. No fair.
I agree with Gamer about fat people. Of course, I’m talking about obese people, rather than those that have a couple of pounds extra on them. However, I have met some people that really didn’t eat much and were still fat. It boiled down to the fact that they were eating small amounts of very rich food, so nutrition was the issue.
So, fatness may be ugly due to a self-imposed condition and that’s different than someone that’s born ugly. For them, I feel sorry. It has always seemed to me that ugly people are always trying to be eliminated by the rest of the crowd. The vast majority of my clients over the years have been what I would call ugly to very ugly. The sad thing is that much of their problems come from tacitly being shunned by others, but never directly being told off. Is this evolution or just sinister societal manifestations?
I have no idea, but I understand the ugly club. Meanwhile, I hope that I don’t qualify as a member.
Same here, Gobbo. I was once pretty fucking fat, like 275 lbs at 5’10". But I got back down to 185 again. It does give you a feeling of accomplishment, and you never forget how bad it felt to be a lardass.
A recent study showed fatness to be a bigger turn off than ugliness, lost limb, insanity, filthiness. And it’s doubly truew for women, which is why I made my point. I don’t think it’s fair or justified. If I met a fat girl who I loved I’d see past the fat, no problem. But they must know how they’re perceived and yet they can’t break out of the pattern. I want to stress that I feel tremendous sympathy and I don’t for a second say it’s easy to change, I’m saying the reality is a fat girl is lacking some things in her character and that’s the real turnoff. A thin girl might also have the same character flaw and probably does, but it’s masked because it’s not an issue…until later. I have to say I’d prefer a fat girl who works out and eats right and is just fat due to some curse, than a thin girl with no willpower who never works out and eats disgusting. I’ve always been a mesomorph, in addition to being a genius and some say, an elf. (I’m actually a halfling.) There was a charming girl I knew in highschool who spoke with an israeli accent and loved the smiths. She was charming and I probably should have spent my life with her, but alas, she was a bit of a fatty and thems reality.
Your “Mommy Dearest” story reminds me of the addiction aphorism: You don’t cure (insert addiction here), you only manage it.
Now if that outlook doesn’t make you want to take up drugs, I don’t know what will.
Actually, for what I was dealt I have managed it all quite nicely. I don’t know why. My brother was addicted to coke and tried twice to commit suicide. I developed that numbing detachment which I have carried through life - allowing me to self-soothe. Wish I could bottle it because I could be a millionaire. It’s great.
But I got back down to 185 again. It does give you a feeling of accomplishment, and you never forget how bad it felt to be a lardass.