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Thinking Allowed

Beauty - Ugliness

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.4997 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2018

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Beauty and ugliness - to what extent are our ideas about physical perfection culturally and socially constructed? Laurie Taylor talks to Gretchen Henderson, Lecturer in English at Georgetown University & author of a study of perceptions of ugliness throughout history and to Heather Widdows, Professor of Global Ethics at the University of Birmingham, whose latest book explores the radical transformation of the status of beauty and the increasing emergence of a global ideal.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of

0:07.0

Happiness Podcast.

0:08.0

For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want

0:14.4

to share that science with you.

0:16.1

And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.

0:19.4

I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that

0:25.5

calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. Does going to the gym twice a week actually make me a better human being?

0:37.0

Find out.

0:38.0

Hello, Frank Zapper has a rather personal question.

0:43.0

What's the ugliest part of your body?

0:51.0

What's the ugliest? your body.

0:59.0

What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose.

1:05.0

Some say your toes your toes I think it's your mind

1:09.0

The ugliest part of your body only Frank Zapper. Now you won't find that word ugly in many popular songs

1:16.4

unless it's referring to a duckling perhaps or a bug. It's a word that we apply to those people and those aspects of the world that we wish to avoid.

1:26.1

It's a synonym for everything deformed, gratis, monstrous degenerate, asymmetric,

1:31.9

crooked, bestial, freakish, unruly, disproportionate, hybrid,

1:35.4

kitchy, vulgar, decayed, abject, wasted, formless, a long list.

1:40.6

A long list, a long list, a listed fact, taken from a book which explores perceptions of ugliness throughout history and reveals the many ways in which the ugly poses a challenge to aesthetics and to taste.

1:52.0

It's a book that fully confirms Roberto Echo's view of the scope of the term.

1:57.6

Beauty Echo wrote is in some ways boring. Even if its concept changes through the ages,

2:06.0

nevertheless a beautiful object must always follow certain rules.

...

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