Rejection of Beauty: An Unsightly Appearance as a Form of Nonverbal Communication

In: Beauty: Exploring Critical Perspectives
Author:
Marta Kargól
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Communication through dress is a conscious attempt to show one’s own beliefs, attitudes or affiliations. Yet, a dress style may also be worn unconsciously (bodily habitus). High aesthetic values of appearance provide an implicit message about a person. However, the suggestive influence of a sign may also be achieved through ugliness. The power of such a sign manifests itself in its opposition to an existing ideal, created – in a certain time and place – by fashion, art, politics and social media. This article attempts to reveal three categories of ugliness: 1) political ugliness, 2) ugliness from a gender perspective and 3) ugliness in a collective identity. The first refers to one’s decision to treat beauty as political tool (e.g. as did Russian nihilists and, later on, members of the Solidarność movement in Poland). The second category concerns women’s resignation about their own innate beauty in order to pursue a particular ideal of beauty (e.g. as did the first female university students in Poland). As well, it concerns the acceptance of an existing order (such as with the socialist image of women). Finally, the third category involves the rejection of beauty as an expression of collective identity will also be examined (as in artistic milieus). This study aims to examine examples about the dress history of Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries from this critical perspective. It seeks to address the following questions: What are the reasons behind the rejection of beauty in one’s appearance? Is distancing and separating oneself from beauty an element of habitus or a conscious and deliberated choice? How do gender critics define such a resignation in terms of a socially accepted ‘beautiful appearance’? How is this rejection received by a person’s entourage, and what are the results thereof? Written sources such as memoirs and press clippings will be analysed, along with iconographic sources such as paintings and illustrations, to define a notion of beauty and ugliness in particular socio-cultural contexts.

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