As belas que me perdoem

: marcas do feio na contemporaneidade

Abstract

This dissertation deals with contemporary construction of the ugliness and the consequences of its marks in the lives of women who consider themselves to be ugly. It explores the emerging phenomenon of images of ugliness in diverse cultural segments and, in return, the rise of the body as protagonist in the process of edification of subjectivity and the idolized celebration of beauty witnessed nowadays. This dissertation aims to investigate the implications of the self assessment of physical appearance as ugly in the lives of women through an analysis of literature on the studies of ugliness and their manifestations in contemporary culture, of arguments of authors who work on the status of the body and of the female body in particular, and of interviews to Portuguese women who perceive themselves as ugly. The correlation between the theoretical framework and the accounts of the interviewees allowed for the presentation of a corollary on judging oneself as ugly in the professional, social and love lives of the participants. It also demonstrated how and why situations of contempt, invisibility and mockery occur in these women’s everyday lives, as well as the existence of a culture that rigorously opposes marks of ugliness identified within the field of the body.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Isabel Capeloa Gil (Supervisor)