Why do we see beauty as virtuous and ugliness as a problem to be fixed? Two philosophers explain

Think of a storybook villain.

The Phantom of the Opera, Ursula the Sea Witch, the Evil Stepmother. They all have something in common: Ugliness.

As researchers and advocates have long pointed out, baddies are almost always depicted as unattractive — consider Scar from The Lion King or Batman's The Joker — while goodies are not only virtuous but beautiful.

Philosopher Heather Widdows believes we should take a closer look at why.

Historically, she says, fairytales were not telling stories about physical ugliness but "moral ugliness" instead.

Somewhere along the line, however, "we've translated them to be about how attractive the person looks, not how good they are".

And this has real-world consequences.

Studies reflect a beauty bias, where we subconsciously associate those we perceive as beautiful to be not only morally superior, but also smarter, warmer, more altruistic and more competent.

Plus, data shows that beautiful people are better liked, make more money and have more successful careers than those who aren't.

So why do we associate beauty with goodness? And what happens when we try to "fix" what we perceive to be ugly?

Where did this all start?

Human preoccupation with beauty and ugliness has a long history.

Since ancient times, beauty has been considered among the most important values of Western philosophy.

Plato believed that physical beauty was linked to the divine and reflected a person's goodness, while ugliness was a sign of moral corruption.

Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant is also well known for his claims that beauty is a symbol of morality and that we have a moral duty to judge others on this basis.

But Professor Widdows says a shift came about with the birth of visual culture around the 19th century when photography was invented and popularised.

"It's really easy to track the overall trend, which is that [beauty] is mattering more and more," she says.

"Visual culture is crucial to this, so moving to a culture where we saw ourselves routinely in images."

As technology has delivered us better, faster and more detailed depictions of ourselves, we have started to conflate morality with looks more than ever before, Professor Widdows explains.

"It's sort of shifted, it's become more invisible," she says.

"We say things like, 'I let myself go' … [or] 'I was good, I resisted that naughty piece of cake' — that's the terminology we used to use around morality."

And as time went on, we've faced increasing scrutiny and judgement from mainstream culture for failing to meet beauty standards, she says.

"And it's not a minor aesthetic failure; it's become a moral failure."

Running from ugliness

Physician and philosopher Yves Saint James Aquino says it's not enough to pursue being beautiful — there's also mounting social pressure to avoid being seen as ugly.

The very concept of ugliness, he says, is taboo.

"That's why we use a lot of synonyms to refer to it [like] unattractive or unsightly," he tells ABC RN's The Philosopher's Zone.

"We're so afraid of discussing it, seeing it or even describing it."

Dr Aquino says ugliness is increasingly being pathologised, especially by the cosmetic surgery industry.

"The practice of pathologising ugliness says, 'What you have is pathological, it's a deformity and we have to treat it'," he says.

"It's an explicit framing of unattractive features as pathological or diseased and requiring of treatment."

To further this aim, when consulting with clients, cosmetic practitioners often replace words like "ugly" or "unattractive" with words like "aesthetic", "defective" or "deformed", Dr Aquino says.

Professor Widdows agrees that pathologising ugliness is becoming more prevalent, especially as we're increasingly able to "reshape our bodies in dramatic ways".

"[For example] we're now seeing the global madness around Ozempic [for weight loss] … and the routineness of Botox — that's gone from something that a few people did to something that very many demographics do," she says.

Research bears this out, with over a third of Australians considering cosmetic surgery, according to recent data.

"There's the sense in which we're changing the physical in order to fix something else," Professor Widdows says.

"[If] our values were different and we [weren't] trying to fix this, is it likely that we would be more healthy, happier and more flourishing?"

Health obsessed

There's another concept tied up with our ideas of beauty and ugliness: Health.

"We often consider them as twin concepts; what is healthy is beautiful," Dr Aquino says.

"A lot of the signs of illnesses are considered to be unattractive, so that's why they get conflated.

This too has deep and problematic roots. For much of history, people with physical disabilities — even those that don't affect their health — have been treated with intolerance and fear, as their appearance was associated with evil spirits or moral decay.

Professor Widdows points to fatphobia as an example of projecting morality onto a person's physical appearance.

"Fat shaming is [considered] almost an acceptable form of abuse and discrimination," she says.

"From as young as three, we attach negative characteristics [to fatness]: laziness, lack of control, not sociable, doesn't have friends.

"We make those judgments all the time and they're quite hard-wired."

An important conversation

Professor Widdows wants to make clear that avoiding ugliness isn't a personal weakness; it's an entirely human choice.

Given society's assumption that being beautiful means being good, "it's rational to want to change your body", she says.

But both Professor Widdows and Dr Aquino agree that the status quo has to change.

"Pathologising ugliness is really reductive," Dr Aquino says.

"It reduces the way we interact with the world and the way we find relationships — whether it's friendships or romantic or sexual relationships — [to] one physical feature.

Professor Widdows believes a healthier approach would start with acknowledging our obsession with beauty and ugliness.

"[Beauty] is still treated often as quite a trivial and flippant thing, and it's really not — it's become so central to who we are," she says.

Only after reckoning with this reality can we start to grapple with where our values are and what that means, she says.

"It's not an individual thing, it's a social [conversation] about where we're collectively putting our resources and our emotions."