You’ve read Mills post in which he questions our moral complacency in vaunting beauty.

Funny thing. Today, I was reading Sartre’s play No Exit, and in my edition’s footnotes, came across this snippet culled from his other play, the Condemned of Altona.

Johanna, a former film star, has just been praised for her beauty by her father-in-law.

Johanna. — I’m not beautiful. Is that clear?

Father. — If you’re not, who is?

Johanna. — No one. Everyone’s ugly but disguised. I won’t disguise myself any longer…Do you understand my meaning? People made me a beauty…film by film.

[Jean-Paul Sartre. Huis Clos: Pièce en un acte. Routledge, 1990, p. 102, my translation.]

“Ugly but disguised” is a fine way to put it.

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• ugliness