What is "ugly".

[Bird]

Discuss please.

 

[ApostateAbe]

"Ugly" is the state of something being repulsive. When a person perceives something as being "ugly," then he or she either doesn't want to eat it, make friends with it, trust it, and/or have sex with it. That is the basic idea--an instinctual reaction--though of course there are many variations of the definition.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Discuss please.

What do you consider ugly? Don't hold out on us, please. I think it's a subjective matter, personally. Although general lack of care for one's self and composure is objectively ugly, I think.

 

[xbox]

Unpleasant. Doesn't have to be looks, or anything superficial, it can be other stuff as well.

 

[Words]

Broadest definition: a relative property unified by subject's repulsion from stated property.

Individual: "What person X dislikes."

Culturally[Emergent property via collection of subjects][social value]: "What culture X dislikes."

Evolutionary: a physical property that acts as a barrier to macrosurvival. or "What evolution dislikes."

[yes, individual, culture and evolution are subjects]

...what other contexts are available?

 

[Bird]

It is entirely subjective, which is why I asked.

I want the opinion of others of what they find ugly.


You tell me not to hold back and then do so yourself.
Irony.

 

[pjoa09]

Something far from the ideals that are held in its category or taxonomy.

 

[Jordan~]

If you want to know what ugly is to us, I would say that I have no hard and fast rules. I never find a dead thing beautiful, but that's about the only absolute. A face is beautiful or otherwise based on the whole, not on any specific feature - what might look wretched on one face might be handsome on another. The same applies to a landscape or a building or anything else that might be judged for its aesthetic qualities. It's a matter of the presentation of the whole, rather than its parts.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

It is entirely subjective, which is why I asked.

I want the opinion of others of what they find ugly.

Ok.

You tell me not to hold back and then do so yourself.
Irony.

:

I think it's a subjective matter, personally. Although general lack of care for one's self and composure is objectively ugly, I think.

Ugly is not taking care of oneself, physically, aesthetically, behaviorially etc. The rest is judged on a case-by-case basis, so I will need specific people/situations. Feel free to offer your own photos to be judged.

 

[Oblivious]

To guess blindly;

Ugliness is part of an instinctual and intuitive value judgement mechanism that animals have evolved to inform resource allocation decisions. Ugliness is your body telling you that something might be harmful.

 

[Chimera]

Sometimes I think mirrors are ugly.
Visible disease or deformity are.
My sunburn.
The color yellow.
Persian cats.

Ugly is the undesirable, the repulsive, the thing you see and somewhere in your mind or in the bottom of your gut something says "this is not right according to the standards of attractiveness that I'm accustomed to." Or, probably more like "ugh, gross."

Animate things that pose a threat to us are often commonly referred to as ugly; to many, snakes are repulsive, but not to the people who choose to marvel at the grace in their motion rather than the terror in their fangs. I find it curious that more people are willing to find beauty in the dangerous animals that they're more familiar with in principle--mammals like the lion and wolf, for example, since we're so fond of house cats and domesticated dogs. It makes me wonder why someone who has never seen a snake in their life, but only heard of the danger, can see a cobra and call the thing beautiful.

What intrigues me is that something "ugly" on the surface can have a beautiful meaning or significance...and then most people are willing to call the thing beautiful. Reminds me of birds...the naked bird is ugly, but the feathers it grows to give it flight make it beautiful.

In the end, someone will find us absolutely horrifying, but someone else will find us breathtakingly beautiful.

Naturally it's all subjective on a person-to-person, culture-to-culture basis anyway. Done rambling here.

​

 

[Minuend]

Of course you find me saying "gawd that's one ugly house", but in a philosophical sense I don't find anything ugly.

I could say war, disease is ugly, but oh how futile, how dismissing. If we are to truly to inspect something, then petty adjectives distorts truth. When retelling war, you don't talk about how ugly it is, you describe what took place. What you are analysing is not how ugly something is, but what consequences it bears.

In the end, ugly becomes irrelevant, or at the very least something far distant you barely remember seeing.

 

[H +]

Ugly are the eyes of the Beholder

 

[Lostwitheal]

I think so much that is beautiful is perceived in a kind of pre-intellectual way and thus falls outside of the realms of measurement and, therefore, definition, at least according to our current methods of looking at the universe. As ugliness is simply the antithesis of beauty, we have the same problem.

Of course there's the other kind of beauty/ugly which is strictly measureable and can therefore be described easily - one might describe the processes that make an internal combustion engine work as being beautiful due to the order, precision and knowledge it took to make, for example.

 

[SkyWalker]

its the opposite of beauty, but what is beauty?

 

[Words]

I think so much that is beautiful is perceived in a kind of pre-intellectual way and thus falls outside of the realms of measurement and, therefore, definition, at least according to our current methods of looking at the universe. As ugliness is simply the antithesis of beauty, we have the same problem.

What? The only way I can make sense of what you're saying is if you're pointing at the notion of "relativity"---and perhaps its linkage to free will and the failure of logic(a priori judgement) to wholly declare existence.

If it isn't about that, then it's just about the burden of proof. There is no reason to acknowledge the existence of your idea of beauty, especially if it is so undefined.

 

[SpaceYeti]

Discuss please.

Things which are aesthetically unappealing.

 

[Lostwitheal]

What? The only way I can make sense of what you're saying is if you're pointing at the notion of "relativity"---and perhaps its linkage to free will and the failure of logic(a priori judgement) to wholly declare existence.

If it isn't about that, then it's just about the burden of proof. There is no reason to acknowledge the existence of your idea of beauty, especially if it is so undefined.

Woohoo, thread derail

I'm merely pointing out that there's a lack of consistency on the subject. I mean, either beauty is purely a subjective thing and we may as well declare that no work of art is objectively any better than any other, or it's objective and therefore we should be able to measure it outside of subjective opinion, right?

 

[ElvenVeil]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ugly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ugly

Take your pick

 

[Bird]

You all seriously suck.

Assholes.

 

[ApostateAbe]

You all seriously suck.

Assholes.

We aren't so good at answering open-ended questions.

 

[Bird]

Then this is the perfect time for you all to become better.

 

[AlisaD]

You remind me of my mother when she got her first computer and kept getting mad at it for not doing what she wanted it to do. The thing is, it did exactly what it was told to do.

Same with you and us.

You question was inprecise, and I imagine what you really wanted to convey was more of a request. Such as:

"Please list a few things you find ugly. Explain why you feel this way about them"

We would have responded accordingly.

Yes, we are arseholes, but you still loooooooooooove us

 

[Auburn]

She did specify:

It is entirely subjective, which is why I asked.

I want the opinion of others of what they find ugly.

But I think a lot of members have a habit of just reading the thread title, OP, then skip to the quick reply to give their $0.02 from whatever first comes to mind, without reading posts inbetween.


Obviously it's entirely subjective.
I'm not even sure why that's being debated..

 

[Minuend]

D: It's Auburn

 

[Auburn]

D:

 

[Chimera]

Why is that a D: ? D:
​

 

[Lostwitheal]

D:

 

[mke2686]

The question is unanswerable.

 

[Melllvar]

Ugly are the eyes of the Beholder

Clever.



Less seriously, here are some qualities of ugly people:

Spoiler

Yo mama so ugly she put the Boogie Man outta business.

Yo mama so ugly she make Michael Jackson look like Brad Pitt

Yo mama so ugly when she wobbles down the street in September, folk say, "Damn it, can't believe it's Halloween already..."

Yo mama so ugly when she applied for the ugly contest they told her 'NO Professionals'

Yo mama so ugly she looked out her window and was arrested for indecent exposure!

Yo mama so ugly minutes after she was born her Mother shouted 'What a treasure!" and her Poppa said "Yes, now let's go and bury her..."

Yo mama so ugly they push her face into the dough mixture when making Monster cookies.

Yo mama so ugly your daddy takes her to work each day so he doesn't have to kiss her goodbye...

Yo mama so ugly they knew what time she was born cuz her face stopped the clock...

Yo mama so ugly we had to tie a steak round her neck so the dogs would play with her.

Yo mama so ugly, when born the doctors had to fit her incubator with tinted windows.

Yo mama so ugly when she was born the Doc smacked her face.

Yo mama so ugly she turned Medusa to stone.

Yo mama so ugly people go as her for halloween.

Yo mama so ugly that when she sits on a sand dune at the beach, the cats try to bury her.

Yo mama so ugly that when she threw a boomerang, it refused to come back.

Yo mama so ugly that I can screw her in any position and it's still doggy-style!

Yo mama so ugly they put her in the chimp enclosure to stop the chimpanzees from jerking off!

Yo mama so ugly her shrink makes her lie face down on the couch.

Yo mama so ugly that blind men refuse to have sex with her.

 

[Words]

You all seriously suck.

Assholes.

Your welcome.

Obviously it's entirely subjective.
I'm not even sure why that's being debated..

Obvious is not obvious. It's subjective.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

Ugly is frivolous waste. Ugly is stupid, superficial and plastic. Insincere and Plagiarized.

Ugly is mascara, glitter, posed photographs, and fake smiles.

Ugly tries too hard, needs too much, and gives nothing. Ugly is violence and cowardice.
Ugly is controlling and Ugly follows, doe-eyed.

Ugly is complacent. Ugly is normal. Ugly is the insistence that insanity, greed, and corruption are all normal and should be encouraged.

Ugly is whitebread. Ugly is fearful. Ugly doesn't venture past it's own doorstep, choosing instead to embrace it's beloved confines. Ugly hates anyone who acts otherwise.

Ugly wants to be rich, sit on it's ass and gorge it's ego. Ugly only pretends to care. Ugly is a sociopath with no imagination. Ugly is corporate.

Ugly is the absence of wonder and Ugly is obsessed with the mundane.

 

[Melllvar]

Ugly is frivolous waste. Ugly is stupid, superficial and plastic. Insincere and Plagiarized.

Ugly is mascara, glitter, posed photographs, and fake smiles.

Ugly tries too hard, needs too much, and gives nothing. Ugly is violence and cowardice.
Ugly is controlling and Ugly follows, doe-eyed.

Ugly is complacent. Ugly is normal. Ugly is the insistence that insanity, greed, and corruption are all normal and should be encouraged.

Ugly is whitebread. Ugly is fearful. Ugly doesn't venture past it's own doorstep, choosing instead to embrace it's beloved confines. Ugly hates anyone who acts otherwise.

Ugly wants to be rich, sit on it's ass and gorge it's ego. Ugly only pretends to care. Ugly is a sociopath with no imagination. Ugly is corporate.

Ugly is the absence of wonder and Ugly is obsessed with the mundane.

Yeah, that.

Also, simplicity without elegance. Complexity is always beautiful. Of course, simplicity is only elegant when it expresses the complex.

A good portion of that list seems to represent simplicity.

 

[Cavallier]

What do I think is ugly?

Right at this moment I would have to say that someone who is emotionally toxic is ugly.

Why?

A toxic person brings everyone out of union, out of grace, out of serenity for the simple sake that they are unhappy themselves.

Who knows what my answer might be tomorrow.

 

[Jordan~]

It is entirely subjective, which is why I asked.

I want the opinion of others of what they find ugly.

You all seriously suck.

Assholes.

So there's a collective acknowledgement that ugliness is subjective, after which you insist on us telling you our subjective views of what is and what is not ugly, after which the replies you get are generally still that it's subjective or situational, and that makes us all assholes? Did you want specific examples of people and things we find ugly? You might have asked for them, in that case.

Consider that some people may not feel able, for whatever reason, to provide a simple list of things that are ugly. Nor does the original question suggest that that is what you're asking for - you ask, "What is 'ugly'?", with quotation marks (instead of inverted commas?) around the word "ugly", indicating that you are referring to the word ugly, rather than asking a question like, "What is red?" or "Who is the queen?" There are specific examples there, albeit a few.

Consider also that when you ask INTPs what they think is ugly, it shouldn't surprise you - especially when you ask in a manner that appears to suggest that you specifically want to know about what people think ugliness is - they try to find some rule that can applied such that what is ugly can be determined in any given situation, including from their perspective - an objective rule - that answers your question but still accommodates subjectivity. For instance, deviation from the ideals of a taxonomic category is an objective rule - if it satisfies that criterion, it is ugly - that permits subjectivity, because it's based on the subjective ideals in the situation being examined. Knowing that definition of ugly, if you know pjoa09's ideals for any given category of things, you know what pjoa09 considers ugly. To an INTP, a far more useful answer than an incomplete list of disparate things. Equally, ugliness being that which causes repulsion is an objective rule - if it's repulsive, it's ugly - that allows subjectivity to exist because it's based on what the observer finds repulsive. If you know what ApostateAbe finds repulsive, you know what he considers ugly. Also offered are naturalistic explanations of the phenomenon of ugliness which equally do not absolutely state that any particular thing is ugly, but allow you to work out what things are ugly. You asked INTPs what they find ugly, and they gave you a rule for determining what they find ugly. What did you expect? Or an INFP - me - replies that it really depends on the specific thing because there aren't really any attributes that are always ugly, with one principle-based exception. Again, that isn't exactly shocking.

 

[MissBadHabits]

Ugliness depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes, it's an unattractive (physically or otherwise) person, sometimes it's the one cigarette butt sitting outside the ashtray, and sometimes it's my mentality towards myself.

 

[GYX_Kid]

"Ugly" is the state of something being repulsive. When a person perceives something as being "ugly," then he or she either doesn't want to eat it, make friends with it, trust it, and/or have sex with it. That is the basic idea--an instinctual reaction--though of course there are many variations of the definition.

most straightforward answer here

 

[Smooch]

surreal art is ugly, I think.

 

[Glordag]

There are only two things that I can immediately think of that are "ugly" with regards to people for me: disproportionate body parts and plastic surgery/enhancement (with some rare exceptions). Yes, I realize disproportionate can be subjective if I don't define parameters.

What's strange is that I don't find excessive makeup or flashy/eccentric clothing to be "ugly". In fact, it usually comes off as "interesting" to me, and thus attractive.