Would you join an Ugly Club?
Back in the 18th century they were all the rage. If you could get in, that is....
In the history of members clubs there exists a unique and overlooked category, collectively known as ugly clubs.
I first discovered them researching my book Ugly, and found them fascinating. They seem like such a bizarre concept, particularly with our modern sensibilities where fitting the beauty standard is upheld right from infancy (like shaving baby's monobrow for example, which seems to be a big deal on Reddit.)
Ugly clubs trace back to the late 18th century, a time when societal norms were rigid, and appearances were highly valued (when are they not?) Back then, the clubs were very popular with aristocratic men, but soon members clubs popped up for men who worked in different industries too. One such club was the ‘Most Honorable and Facetious Society of Ugly Faces in Liverpool’ (1743-54), aka an ugly club. Members came from Liverpool’s ‘merchant class, including doctors, ship captains, tradesmen, and the architect of the city’s Town Hall and they would meet in coffee houses, drink ale and sing, all whilst bonding over their facial ‘deformities.’ That’s their word, not mine, so I'll keep using it for continuity. Though Liverpool wasn’t the only ugly club location in the UK, it is one of the few we have records for; at the end of each year ugly clubs often burned their members records - I’m not entirely sure why TBH.
So who could get into an ugly club? Well, you had to be male, a bachelor, and then prove your ugliness to the rest of the members before the president made the deciding vote. On joining extensive notes were written about your appearance; one member was described as having a ‘mouth from ear to ear resembling the mouth of a shark,’ others had ‘blubber lips, little goggyling or squinting Eyes’ or ‘a large Carbuncle Potatoe Nose.’ There were definite satirical elements to the descriptions, which suggests they didn’t have an ‘activist’ agenda as such; it’s unlikely that this group was here to change perceptions of deformities. And many of the descriptions are also pretty racist too, some members are described as having ‘negro teeth’ or a ‘Japanese-y grin.’
However, not everyone could join the ugly club. You should have a deformity, but the rules stated that this couldn’t be disabling in any way. At the time the newly-formed dictionary used ‘deformity’ and ‘ugliness’ as interchangeable words, and there was still the lingering mediaeval belief that deformity and ugliness were punishment from God for committing a sin. Appearance had long been conflated with ‘goodness’; the Ancient Greeks believed that a beautiful body signalled a good moral compass, but even now, studies have shown that we attribute traits like intelligence, good intentions and competence to conventionally attractive people without them always being earned. (Oh hai pretty priviledge.)
This was a transitional period for disabled people, who were often described as deformed, crippled, handicapped and other terms that are still used (like dumb, idiot, lunatic etc…) and as a marginalised group they were massively discriminated against. Politician William Hay (above) was opposed to ugly clubs, claiming that they mocked people with ‘deformities’ and made their lives much worse by perpetuating the stigma around difference of appearance. Hay was passionate about the cause; he’d contracted smallpox when taking his bar exams, which left disfigurements on his face and damaged his sight. He was also reportedly under five foot tall, with a curved spine, or ‘hunchback’, but this didn’t stop him holding judicial positions, and he was elected to the House Of Commons in 1734, where he introduced bills to aid the poor.
In 1754 he published Deformity: An Essay which part memoir, part polemic against the appalling way those with deformities were treated - he also challenged the narrative that linked ugliness (and deformity) with having poor morals. He begged the ugly clubs not to meet anymore because of this, and vowed never to join. He was pretty ahead of his time as an activist; if you’re interested in knowing more about his impact on the history of disability then this podcast is great.)
So what happened to the ugly clubs I hear you ask? Their popularity remained into the 19th century, and there’s evidence that they even reached the US, becoming clubs at universities before social fraternities existed. The Ugly Club (below) at Davidson college were almost like a drama/comedy club, but in time, they created the foundations for ‘hazing’ at universities.
During the Civil War (1861-65), Ugly Clubs seemed to lose their appeal; when people were faced with the very real injuries of war, joking about deformities over ale seemed more than a little uncool. But since, there have been groups that have sought to reclaim the banding together under the term ‘ugly club’; Royal Holloway University in the UK had an Ugly Girls Club for a while, which came about when the members of the feminist society were dubbed the ‘ugly girls club.’ And there are Facebook groups you can only join if you’re ugly; apparently ‘they check.’
It’s no surprise that the original Ugly Clubs started at a time when British society was becoming more and more divided by class, and was in the prime of it’s colonising escapades. At the start, perhaps joining an ugly club was a liberating experience for some, and testament to the enduring human desire for connection. But they also created further stigma around difference of appearance and even within a group that sought to bring ‘othered’ people together, was deeply elitist.
Much (ugly) love….
PS: Check out my book, UGLY: Why the world became beauty-obsessed and how to break free
I just ordered the Audiobook version of your book on Audible. Can’t wait to listen. 🥳 I always love your interesting pieces. Thanks for sharing. 🫶🏻