Help! Why are ugly things favored by young people so popular?

It has to be said that the preferences of netizens this time are somewhat abstract. First, Taobao held the Ugly Things Contest for three consecutive years, and everyone enjoyed it very much.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

Recently, the term "fetish for ugly guys" has become a hot topic, which refers to the fact that some girls particularly like those idols who are not very good-looking when chasing stars. Some bloggers also listed the various benefits of "fetish for ugly guys", such as you want to laugh when you see him, you won't be sad if he is in love, etc.

Why do netizens of this generation have a bit of a fetish for ugliness?

"Love Ugliness" is a Positive Quality

Strictly speaking, the concept of ugly fetish is not an academic concept, but more of an emotional description of the above phenomenon. It is not really a fetish, but a preference of some people for appearances that do not conform to mainstream aesthetics and some of the characteristics that come with it.

From the perspective of self-cognition, it makes sense to love ugliness, because most people are more or less dissatisfied with their appearance. Therefore, idols who are ugly in appearance but have good professional abilities can easily arouse our emotional resonance, thereby generating identification and appreciation.

In addition, from the descriptions of netizens about the "fetish" of falling in love with ugliness, it also shows that these people seem to have more diversified evaluation standards and can appreciate the advantages of each other in more aspects. The Big Five personality trait theory defines such personality traits as "openness". People with high openness tend to have wider interests, stronger curiosity, and like to try and accept new things . Studies have found that people with high openness tend to have more divergent thinking, which is manifested in a broader thinking field, and they always look at and think about things from different perspectives.

Another study also found that people with high openness tend to have the character advantage of appreciating beauty and excellence , which is one of the 24 character strengths proposed by positive psychologist Martin Seligman. It refers to an individual's perception of beauty and appreciation of excellent qualities. Such people also pay more attention to details and pay more attention to the positive qualities of others.

Therefore, people who are somewhat "ugly-loving" can look at others or things from multiple dimensions, rather than simply judging the other person's merits and demerits based solely on appearance. They actively explore the treasures of their idols, which also makes them more convinced that appearance is secondary and inner qualities are more valuable.

“Love for ugliness” is actually a desire for truth

From the benefits of the ugly love "fetish" listed by netizens, it is not difficult to see that this is actually the same as crazy literature. We are using a humorous way to express our true thoughts , but crazy literature is "he is so crazy, I love him so much", while ugly love literature is "he is so ugly, I love him so much".

The inner thought expressed by "loving ugliness" may be the desire for authenticity , because those who, although they are not born with good conditions, have come from behind to succeed through their own efforts appear more real and more like something that ordinary people in our reality can also do.

Erving Goffman proposed a "dramatization theory" in his book "The Presentation of Everyday Self". He explored people's interactions in daily life from the perspective of theatrical performance. Each of us manages our own impression (personality). On stage, we play the role of our media self, and behind the stage we are our real self.

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Whether it is the idols themselves, or the TV dramas and variety shows they star in, we need to create a sense of personality and a certain sense of reality, otherwise it will be too fake and we won't want to watch it. We can accept a certain degree of performance, because art always has to be higher than life.

However, with the advancement of social media and technology today, the reality we believe in has been greatly impacted. For example, there have been frequent incidents of idol scandals in recent years, live streaming of goods has begun to act out scripts, and internet celebrities have pretended to fall out with each other in order to gain traffic.

No one likes fake things, but in this era, we may crave authenticity more than ever before.

The fetish for ugliness is like a mirror, reflecting our lack of and pursuit of reality, because in reality there are not so many 360-degree beauties without dead ends, and it is impossible to maintain perfect makeup all the time. Most people always have some imperfections in their appearance, and this is the real us.
If liking good-looking idols is a natural instinct, then liking idols who are not so good-looking is a return to rationality and reality. It is to retain a trace of one's own sense of reality in this Internet age where reality is lacking.

How do we view ugliness?

There is a very interesting group on Douban called "Ugly Things Protection Association", where people share some ugly but interesting things. In the group introduction, there is a sentence: "Discover the beauty beyond the inherent form". This sentence is really wonderful, because it tells us not to only focus on the beauty of form, but also to explore the inner beauty beneath the form.

Image source: Douban screenshot

If we look carefully at the comments on blog posts sharing ugly things, we will see that most of the comments are: "Hahaha this is so funny" and "Although it's ugly, I think it's so cute."

So, is ugliness really a shortcoming in an "absolute sense"? In fact, it all depends on how we view it.

The book “The Courage to Be Disliked” says: “There is nothing wrong with imperfection, because that is what makes someone human and what makes them lovable.” Maybe they are ugly in appearance, but beautiful in spirit, or very gentle and kind; maybe they look ugly, but they provide us with a lot of emotional value and even make us feel that they are powerful.

Maybe we will still complain about his/her ugliness, but such complaints are full of love and appreciation, because it goes beyond the beauty of form.

References

[1] Luo Jie, Dai Xiaoyang. (2015). Preliminary development of the Chinese adjective Big Five personality inventory: theoretical framework and test reliability. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology (03), 381-385.

[2] Peterson, C., & Seligman, ME (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.

[3] Deci, EL, & Ryan, RM (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of self-determination research. University Rochester Press.

[4] Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (translated by Feng Gang, 2008). Beijing: Peking University Press.

Planning and production

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: ACC Psychology Popular Science Creation Team

Reviewer: Fan Chunlei, Associate Researcher, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Planning丨Fu Sijia

Editor: Fu Sijia