Ugly Beauty
A quiet observation on neglected beauty reveals a deeper reflection on aesthetics, modesty, and the layered meanings of visibility.
“Is it pretty because it is not pretty?”
– one young women in hijab to another, walking past an unkempt foot pond. (Mon 28 Jul 2025)
Summary
Two young women pass a neglected pond in Stockholm, and one poses a quietly profound question—suggesting that beauty might lie not in perfection, but in the very lack of it.
Explanation
The question—“Is it pretty because it is not pretty?”—gently flips our assumptions about what beauty is and where it belongs. The pond is untidy, forgotten with some construction to the side. But perhaps, the girl suggests, that very state gives it a certain truth—a kind of fragile, unintentional beauty.
There’s a quiet elegance in what goes unnoticed: the imperfect, the weathered, the restrained. The girl's question echoes the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in incompleteness, modesty, and time’s gentle decay. It’s a sensibility not unlike the one expressed through the hijab—where covering can reflect an inner depth, a rejection of display, a gesture of humility.
And yet, that same covering can feel, in other settings, like a burden—imposed, policed, politicised. The meaning shifts with context, with choice, with power. Still, in that moment by the unkept water, her question floats freely—asking us to see not only what is beautiful, but why we think it is.
The moment also gestures towards a larger aesthetic and philosophical tradition: the idea that the unpolished or the hidden may possess more depth than the overtly beautiful. In a world increasingly curated and filtered, her question becomes more than commentary—it becomes quiet resistance.
About the Speaker
The speaker is unnamed—a girl in hijab speaking casually to a friend—but her question is timeless. It echoes a kind of found wisdom, shaped not by theory but by attention. She represents the everyday philosopher: someone who, without trying, opens up space for us to look again at the things we too easily dismiss.
An After Afterthought
“I am beautiful no matter what they say / Words can't bring me down”
— Beautiful, Christina Aguilera (2002)
These lines echo the girl's quiet challenge to conventional beauty—suggesting that value doesn’t depend on approval, polish, or prettiness. Like the murky pond or the meaning behind a hijab, beauty can exist precisely where others fail—or refuse—to see it.
About the Song and Artist:
“Beautiful” is a pop ballad by American singer Christina Aguilera, released in 2002. Written by Linda Perry, it became an anthem for self-acceptance, especially for those judged by appearance or identity. Aguilera, known for her vocal range and emotionally charged performances, used the song to spotlight inner beauty and resilience in the face of societal pressure.
