Uglyphobia.

  By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

“Politics is show business for ugly people.”
Paul Begala

• A moderate dose of identity politics is good for the health of society.
• Ok, let’s not call it identity politics.
• Let’s call it diversity.
• It prevents inbreeding, tunnel vision, provincialism.
• Its fosters empathy, open mindedness, cross-pollination.
• It boosts creativity.
• Granted, the risk of tokenism is always high.
• Phony diversity, staged virtue signaling and sloppy pandering are not uncommon in 2018.
• Identity politics, as we are witnessing more and more everyday, can and is used A LOT as a blunt instrument and ideological projectile.
• In some extreme cases, as brazen extortion.
• Then again, a reasonable amount of the thing is worth trying.
• It is to some extent a chicken & egg game but someone has to make the first move.
• It is necessary to level the playing field.
• The media, and advertising in particular, have a strong responsibility on this front.
• Throughout the recent couple years, the drive for diversity in the media has “visibilized” various groups that had been discriminated against for generation, centuries, even millennia.
• Women, blacks, browns, Asians, Jews, LGBTQ.
• There’s one demographic that is still oppressed though.
• That’d be unattractive people.
• I’ve always had this pervasive feeling that when we use the word “aspirational” what we truly mean is uglyphobia.
• The pun is obviously deliberate.
• If we were to wax anthropological well, yes, there are a number of evolutionary explanations as to why we are attracted to certain physical features.
• We are primates after all and what our brain regards as beauty is a set of perceived health and reproductive traits accumulated throughout millions of years of “natural selection”.
• Question is, do these traits still apply in the XXI century?
• We have antibiotics, teeth whitening, C-sections, prescription bifocals, Zumba, plastic surgery, hair plugs, heart & liver transplants, breast implants.
• The curious confusion of health and beauty as synonyms has created entire industries that are deeply entrenched in our worldview.
• Yet methinks that the battle against the beautiful has barely started.
• It is the next big awakening of our culture.
• Just turn on any device and you will see that pretty people have a monopoly of all the screens that surround us: social media influencers, Hollywood leading men and women, news anchors, “weather girls”.
• In movies it is absolutely normal to see beautiful individuals playing characters who are not particularly good-looking in real life.
• Exhibit A:  Michael Fassbender and Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs.
• Exhibit B: Felicity Jones starring as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the upcoming biopic On the basis of sex.
• Exhibit C: Claire Foy playing Queen Elizabeth II on the Netflix mini-series The Crown.
• Showbiz seems to regard these casting choices as acts of the utmost artistic courage and integrity.
• Really?
• To me, it is akin to modern-day blackface.
• Social media?
• With the sole exception of DJKhaled, most influencers are winners of the genetic lottery.
• Advertising?
• Well: when was the last time you saw an ad featuring an ugly person?
• In my decades old career as a creative and advertising executive I’ve tried insistently to cast unattractive people.
• Repeatedly.
• And I don’t mean beautiful people with a little scar or a mole, which seems to be what the fashion industry considers a fearless act of inclusion.
• I mean normal real people with imperfections.
• Impossible.
• Go ahead, try it yourself.
• Clients AND focus groups will gang up on you BIG TIME.
• The explanation?
• They want “aspirational”.
• Why?
• As I said above, there are multiple reasons.
• But for the sake of brevity let’s put it this way: regular ugly people like you and me just hate to be reminded their ugly.
• Self-image is a bitch.
• Anyhoo, times are changing.
• Don’t take my word for it: if you have 10 more minutes to kill click on the link below and watch this TED Talk by winner of the genetic lottery and former Victoria’s Secret model Cameron Russell: