Is Ugliness a Sin?
Is ugliness the unspoken eighth deadly sin? Will a new ring of Hell open up for those less fortunate, looks-wise? Prettiness has always been the standard of society, something expected of us. This ideology dates back long before Instagram Face and TikTok filters—beauty has always been something to praise, and ugliness something to pray away.
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The timeless classic that is The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) delves into the morality of beauty and ugliness. The London-based story follows the titular character and his upper-class peers, as Gray wishes to stay young forever. Ugliness and aging in Oscar Wilde’s novel are both implied to be wretched, as stated in this quote: “He had told her once that he was wicked, and she had laughed at him and answered that wicked people were always very old and very ugly.” Aging in London’s Victorian era was not something to hope for, but something to fear. This novel holds such an importance because this ideology still exists in our current society. Anti-aging brands and trends go viral all over the internet, so much so that young girls aged 8-10 have begun a morning skincare routine consisting of hyaluronic acid, collagen treatments, and retinol serums. Women have admitted to going to bed with face masks and chin straps. Red-light masks and preventative Botox are the new hot commodity. It is a rabbit-hole that preys on insecurities to make money.
Harry is the most influential person in the downfall of Dorian Gray, influencing him to value the finer things in life, like beauty, above all morality. This quote from philosophical Harry and the Duchess delves into the beauty hierarchy in The Picture of Dorian Gray: “‘I never tilt against beauty,’ he said, with a wave of his hand. / ‘That is your error, Harry, believe me. You value beauty far too much.’ / ‘How can you say that? I admit that I think that it is better to be beautiful than to be good. But on the other hand, no one is more ready than I am to acknowledge that it is better to be good than to be ugly.’” Harry says that character is less important if you are beautiful, but that character is above ugliness; decency and kindness only matter when you are ugly. As readers, are we truly supposed to deduce that if you are ugly, you must be pious, or else you are entirely sinful? What kind of message does that send to our society versus the aristocratic one from the novel?
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Detouring from the classics, in the show pen15, Maya cries to her friend and says: “I’m the ugliest girl in school … like to love me is the biggest insult.” This show replicates the brutal landscape that is middle school, but I have to ask: do these bullies and insults not live within us like parasites? The insults we hear in middle school certainly carry with us into adulthood, which is why beauty trends on the internet are the multi-million dollar operations they are.
Beauty, throughout history, has been the predominant goal of society. We reach and yearn for betterment. Through ancestral images and societal knowledge, we know to be good and attractive is something to strive for and attain, in ourselves, and others we surround ourselves with. True freedom is allowed when we let these conceptions go and allow ourselves to be good, weird, messy, and human. To always chase youth and beauty is an unattainable standard. One which often allows us to forget what a great privilege it is to grow old. When we all eventually die, the last thing we will remember is the hours we took getting ready, but the fun we had when we forgot what we looked like and allowed ourselves to be free.
Strike out,
Jaden Rudd
Saint Augustine
Editors: Kaya O’Rourke and Maya Kayyal
Jaden Rudd is a Staff Writer for Strike Magazine, Saint Augustine. She loves British literature and the aesthetic of hedonism. You can find her at @jadenrud on Instagram, at jadenrudd95@gmail.com, or check out her poem “The Fae” at Midsommar Magazine.
