World Association of Ugly People
Encyclopedia
The World Association of Ugly People (in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
Club dei Brutti) is an organization dedicated to fighting for the recognition of ugly people, in a society that places a high value on physical beauty. The group's motto is "A person is what he is and not what he looks like".
History
The club claims to have a history in PiobbicoPiobbico
Piobbico is a comune in the Province of Pesaro e Urbino in the Italian region Marche, located about 80 km west of Ancona and about 50 km southwest of Pesaro....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, from 1879. It was relaunched in 1963 as a marriage agency for the town's single women.
The World Association of Ugly People club campaigns against discrimination
Inclusion (disability rights)
Inclusion is a term used by people with disabilities and other disability rights advocates for the idea that all people should freely, openly and without pity accommodate any person with a disability without restrictions or limitations of any kind...
in the workplace based on looks. It attempts to make society more aware of ugly people's problems. It also helps people overcome their phobias and, in some cases, to find partners.
In 2007, the group unveiled a monument dedicated to ugly people in Piobbico's town square. The monument depicts an unknown person looking at his reflection in a mirror.
Traditions
The club's emblem is the head of a wild boar. The club's crest features a reclining man smoking a pipe with the slogan: "Ugliness is a virtue, beauty is slavery".The club's patron is Vulcan
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
from Roman mythology
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
. At birth Vulcan was so ugly that his mother threw him over a cliff. He survived and became a skilled blacksmith. For providing Achilles
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
with superior weapons, he was admitted to Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
where he married the beautiful Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
, goddess of love.
President
The members of the World Association of Ugly People elect their president annually during the Festival of the Ugly. This event is hosted by the small town of Piobbico in the MarcheMarche
The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona , and lowest in the province of Macerata...
region of Italy every year on the first Sunday of September.
Every year until 2007, Telesforo Iacobelli won the top prize and was president of the club, owing to his dedication to the organization. Also, he has a small nose in a culture where large noses are considered beautiful. On August 21, 2006, Iacobelli died.
Members
The following people have been members of the association.- Giulio AndreottiGiulio AndreottiGiulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
- Maurizio CostanzoMaurizio CostanzoMaurizio Costanzo is an Italian television host and journalist. He is married to Maria De Filippi, an Italian television host.-Biography:Costanzo was born in Rome....
- Mike BongiornoMike BongiornoMichael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno , known as Mike Bongiorno, was an American-born Italian television host. He started his career on Italian TV in the 1950s and was considered to be the most popular host in Italy...
- Paolo BonolisPaolo BonolisPaolo Bonolis in an Italian television host.He made his debut 1981 in Tre, due, uno, contatto..., a program for children that aired on Italian national broadcast RAI....
- Pippo FrancoPippo FrancoPippo Franco is an Italian comic, television presenter, and singer. He made his name first as a musician in the early 1960s, and in the late 1960s began a career in film, starring in a great number of commedia sexy all'italiana, the "sexy comedy" subgenre of Italian comedy...
- Piero Badaloni
- Alessandro Cecchi Paone
- Gerry ScottiGerry ScottiGerry Scotti is an Italian television presenter, actor and former member of the Italian Parliament.Scotti was born Virginio Scotti on August 7, 1956 in Miradolo Terme, Pavia. After giving up studying law Scotti began his career as a disc jockey at Radio Milano International...
- Maria Amelia Monti
- Cinzia De Ponti