Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter
SKU: 61353685124

Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter

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Ugly: A Letter to My DaughterA tender, moving, and insightful account of queer motherhood and an interrogation of life on the margins of American culture as a self described "ugly" woman "A rigorous ladyballs out polemic that also tells the most raw, tender, against all odds story of parenthood that I've ever read." Mary Gaitskill, author of Veronica Ugly is a word with fangs that can kill a woman's self esteem in one bite. Edicts about how women should look, behave, and think

A tender, moving, and insightful account of queer motherhood and an interrogation of life on the margins of American culture as a self-described "ugly" woman

"A rigorous ladyballs-out polemic that also tells the most raw, tender, against-all-odds story of parenthood that I've ever read." --Mary Gaitskill, author of Veronica

Ugly is a word with fangs that can kill a woman's self-esteem in one bite. Edicts about how women should look, behave, and think are the brutal forge through which they are made -- not born -- as Simone de Beauvoir famously argued in The Second Sex. And to defy the pretty imperative is to experience a kind of invisibility. It can be a hard thing to admit to yourself, let alone to your child, to say the words "I am ugly" or "I am seen as ugly." But early on in her motherhood journey, watching her young daughter begin to wrestle with beauty standards, Stephanie Fairyington felt compelled to face her own demons and to unpack her own ugly self-perception, one that she could trace to her own childhood, in order to conquer this seemingly immoveable frontier, far too taboo even among women to broach: the ways in which women's lives are unfairly contoured by the nature of their looks.

The multiple iterations of ugliness that Fairyington saw in her young self--her physical appearance, her formative gender dissonance, and obvious lesbianism--are not present in her beautiful and traditionally feminine daughter. But Fairyington's old feelings of inadequacy take on new meaning as she confronts fresh insecurities around her role as the nonbiological mother in her relationship, exacerbating wounds from a lifetime of being treated differently, from the poverty of her genetic inheritance to questions about her parentage to doubts about the legitimacy of her family.

Interlacing cultural history and analysis with memoir, Ugly is a probing investigation into cultural norms and the formation of our aesthetic sense of self. Fairyington contrasts her so-called ugliness with her daughter's attractiveness and adherence to beauty ideals, a tender and tenuous condition that her daughter was already walking a tightrope to maintain at age six. By sharing the history of her troubled self-image, Fairyington invites us to go rogue, to invent a new language and logic to overthrow all the ways that women have been cultivated to hate themselves.

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SKU: 61353685124

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Jessica Rousseau Bradburn
Boise, US
★★★★★ 4
Beautiful, but not as durable as expected
Color: Black
We’ve been using this soap holder for about a year and while it is functional and fits our space nicely, it’s starting to rust. I’m a little disappointed that a product designed to hold wet sponges and soap doesn’t have proper coating to prevent rusting. Other than that, I love it. The tray catches runoff and easily rinses off. It home all my bottle brushes, two glass soap jars and my sponge. The design is pretty and matches my other kitchen products.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2026
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Ruth Wallace
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
Tidy and Rust Resistant
Color: Silver
Nice and tidy! Love tgat it is rust resistant
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Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2026
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Elizabeth White
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Would recommend
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I love this new addition to my counter. Much more modern looking and keeps everything in one place looking organized.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2026
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Cindy
Birmingham, US
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Perfect
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I can’t use the holders that drain in the sink. This works perfectly for my needs.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2026
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Beth99
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 5
Great item!
Color: Black
The only thing that would make this item better would be for it to come with the soap dispensers. My current ones didn't fit it in, so I had to swap. I really like the drip tray to make cleaning it easier!
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Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2026

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