Ugly Laws - Aug 17 2026

 

Ugly Laws

Aug 17 2026

There once were Ugly Laws

that kept the mutilated and maimed

deformed and diseased

from public view,

people who could be seen

as disgusting or unsightly

off the streets.

Must have been a lot of them

back when life was hard and short,

and the only resort

was prayer or sorcery

to cure whatever ailed you.

Now, we’re more discreet.

So while the beautiful get a lifetime pass

the plain

afflicted

and differently made

get shunned, ignored, passed over.

We are still as shallow,

but don’t say it out loud

let alone

pronounce it illegal. 

Am I an unsightly object?

we all wonder to ourselves.

Even those who’ve been blessed

by the accident of birth

are not immune;

we’re all dogged by self-doubt,

feel mirrors looking back

and passing silent judgment. 

But beauty never lasts.

And if age 

makes us all recede from view

the plain have little to lose,

while pretty women

struggle to adjust

to becoming invisible,

and handsome men

simply deny

  — denial

something all men do well.

If only surgery didn’t scar,

make-up could disguise

the toll of years.

These days, the streets are full of us

on public view

and no one looks twice.

Instead of ugly

we have character.

And instead of the halo

bestowed by beauty just because,

we have little to lose

and less to fear.

I read this in the weekend paper:  Ugly Laws - regulations that, according to the Encyclopedia of Disability, made it illegal for “any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view.”

My immediate thought was that nothing much has changed, and looks still determine a lot; we’re just more discreet about out it now.

Of course, there isn’t even an objective standard of beauty; a lot of it is cultural. Although it can be argued that there are universal signals: attributes like symmetry, fitness, and pleasing proportions; good hair, good skin.

Beauty confers a halo. We don’t just want to get close to beautiful people and receive their approval, we also automatically attribute to them abilities they don’t possess, a higher level of competence than they merit, and virtues they fall short of.

Anyway, thoughts aside, how could I resist trying my hand at a poem when gifted a phrase like “ugly laws”?!!

I certainly wouldn’t call myself ugly, despite the inclusive “us” that begins the final stanza. But still, I’ve lived all my life with at least the usual self-consciousness, the niggling envy, and the usual good days and bad — depending on good or bad light, a candid photograph, or an incidental comment taken to heart.