How do you define ugliness?

The insult is at the heart of the definition. It is built and used as a tool of discrimination. Classifying a person as ugly makes it easier for us to do it wrong. Ugliness is a politically used building. Her analysis from a gender perspective is clear.

With witch hunting, for example.

Behind this qualifier lies the independence of women. They lived alone, they were quite independent. They had knowledge of medicinal herbs. As wisdom rhymes with power, to limit that connection of power of knowledge, they were discriminated and sent to fire. Medicine was organized by stealing wisdom. There was the usurpation of power to represent women without intellectual dimensions. It is one of the biggest femicides that has occurred, as they assaulted women, who did not play the role of dominates.

They haven't been the only ones defined as ugly.

Mutxurg did the same. Why? That status was not accepted. In the 19th century, with the expression Bas-bleu, also with women with letters. Because they wrote. And also with those who had a “deviant” sexuality, they were not women in their entirety.

The qualifier is also linked to feminists.

Ugliness usually joins the reflective woman. All those who rise up are considered ugly. The motto “Be beautiful and calm” is that the one who speaks is ugly. The beautiful doesn't blend in with the smart. Today, it doesn't feel so fast, but the idea is there. It's significant with Femen. They're not taken seriously, and it's partly because of their appearance.

Has this trend been taking place for some time?

In ancient Greece, the inferiority of women was already associated with a physiological weakness. According to Hippocrates, the woman is cold and moist, whether during pregnancy or the month, she is seen as if she is always sick. In fact, it cannot make use of its intellectual and, above all, moral faculties. Kalos Kagathos is true beauty, physically, intellectually and morally beautiful. The woman has a superficial beauty. Pandora is very nice but follows the text of Hesiodo, Hermes puts the heart of a dog. Woman joins matter, man joins spirit. Aristotle's texts say that matter is report and that man shapes it. Alone, the woman is poor. This has a lot to do with the history of mentalities.

What was this connection like in the Middle Ages?

“Women’s beautiful body hides nothing but corruption,” says Cluny’s cure. The belief of antiquity came to the conclusion that “Eve” is a person who is at the base of sin, who has moral ugliness.

And today?

We have achieved rights in the 20th century. Women write history and reflect on our own. We are no longer in the shadow of the father or the husband. However, it is not simple and we cannot generalise. From the beginning of the twentieth century, an important element spread: the mirror. Until then, only the rich and the barbers had it.

This is a very important issue.

Paradoxically, women, despite having rights, are today under the appearance. He is held responsible for his appearance. It's a big change. Fatima Mernissi says that we are in a dictatorship without a dictator. After centuries of ugliness, the pressure to be more and more beautiful is there. Ugliness is declared war. On the other hand, female beauty is often associated with white women. David Le Breton says that the woman is “in continuous direction.” Much more than men, even though they too are increasingly under pressure.

Old age ripples with ugliness.

Beauty is usually attached to the young woman. In the old days, after menopause, women did not serve at all. In many papers, it is observed that the elderly woman should not have sexuality. In a few films today, there is a sexually happy old woman. Again, for men, the same is not true.

The pressure feels small.

Jean-François Mathieu says that a girl at the age of 7 is already in crisis with her appearance. I'm talking about ninfoplasty, and I know some kids who disagree with their body, their sex, that is, their appearance. Breaking the taboo, Claude Olievenstein asks for statistics on suicides related to ugliness, on those who have committed suicide because they have been told they are ugly or because they do not meet the criteria of beauty.

How can we get us to love ourselves in this environment?

It's not an easy question. We women must continue to speak, we must reject pressure. Beauty invades us a lot of time and we have less time to devote to other paths to being happy. It exhausts us and can have terrible consequences. In the end, it's an endless struggle, because being alive is aging.