Gonzalo Otálora

Just a couple of months ago, I found myself in a Recoleta café interviewing Argentina’s number one male model-turned-actor, Iván de Pineda. It was that very week I stumbled across a story by BBC’s Daniel Schweimler, entitled ‘Argentina: Ugly people strike back’.

Schweimler reported on a book which had just been published, called ‘Feo’ (ugly), which he says is designed to ‘fight back on behalf of all those Argentines who don’t fancy themselves as film stars or models’. Schweimler had met with its author, Gonzalo Otálora, and described him as ‘downright ugly’.

So, following my chat with de Pineda, I figured I should explore the plight of ‘the other half’ (or less than half, as many Argentines would have you believe) and arranged to interview the author and self-professed ugly man, Gustavo Otálora.

“The book is the adventures of my life…” announced the 32-year-old “…what it is to be an ugly man in Argentina.” Argentina, of course, renowned as country obsessed by looks, where a plaster on the nose from a quick nip/tuck will not provoke even the bat of an eyelid. “They say Argentina has the most beautiful women in the world,” Gonzalo informs me.

He does not strike me as especially ugly.

He said that following the success of the book, people recognise him in the streets. Although I get the feeling that if I were conducting the interview in that same Recoleta café where I had coffee with Iván de Pineda several weeks before, Gonzalo would not have been swamped by teenage girls looking for a snap in the same way.

“The book chronicles how I was bullied by schoolmates, rejected by girls,” he tells me. He had spots, wore braces and thick glasses during his adolescence. He said that he could not even get a job at one stage as he was so insecure about his looks. He described himself as ‘introverted’, ‘sad’ and ‘conflicted’ as a child.

One day though, Gonzalo decided that enough was enough and soon realised that no amount of dieting, sweating in the gym, nipping or tucking would help him to overcome his complex. His looks were something he would simply have to embrace, and found within himself a great personality which allowed him to do this. This is what Gonzalo calls ‘Feosexual’.

Feosexual

 

 

“Feosexual is a new way of life,” Gonzalo enthusiastically tells me. “It’s facing life without depending on the mirror, without suffering because of your appearance.” In fact, the Feosexual manifest is outlined on Gonzalo’s website, and the concept is summed up pertinently in its first line: “Feosexual challenges aesthetic stereotypes with personality, sense of humour and high self-esteem.” It’s about growing to love your body, and having a personality that outweighs appearance – after all, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, right?

As clichéd as this may sound, Gonzalo’s attitudes towards beauty are actually quite refreshing, and struck me as somewhat unique: “Men and women try to accede to a parameter of beauty that supposedly allows us to reach our objectives.”

“And those who don’t make it to that parameter…?” I ask

“…they’re considered losers,” he declares. “They have fewer opportunities.”

So, he’s telling me that appearance can be an obstacle to success.

No, it’s not that straightforward. “For some it is, for others it isn’t. Beauty is a case of presentation. Those who are ugly have to try harder. That’s not to say they can’t be successful, they just have to force it.”

So, in order to be successful, we have to achieve a certain level of presentation that is deemed acceptable to society through what we are exposed to in the media, and indeed in the streets. This is quite a bold statement, and is something that I don’t think can be proved or disproved. But Gonzalo is adamant of its truth, and it is something he is trying to address. This is when I realise that the book is a lot more than a diary of a troubled youth. “Along with the book came a sense of great responsibility,” he asserts.

I realise that it’s just a small part of a wider campaign to address the problem of discrimination faced by ugly people, which Gonzalo evidently thinks is very real. “The book allowed me to have a voice in society,” he tells me – this is precisely what he needs to draw attention to his cause. News of the book reached foreign media, notably in the UK and the US, and can’t have done his cause any harm.

So what is the cause?

In December, Gonzalo went to the Casa Rosada to deliver a series of propositions to then-president, Néstor Kirchner, to address the problem of discrimination of the ugly. They included the regulation of the use of Photoshop in the media, mannequins of all sizes in shop windows, and preventing the requests of photos along with CVs.

Another proposal is the introduction of plans to eradicate verbal and physical violence in schools. In fact, Gonzalo is taking this one in to his own hands, informing me that he is meeting with the education minister next week.

He noted that all of this would not have been possible without the book. “It has allowed me to say ‘I can’”, he poignantly closes.

More information, and Gonzalo’s blog, can be found at www.feosexual.com. The book, ‘Feo’, can be purchased at all good book retailers in Argentina.

 

 

Gonzalo’s demands to Néstor Kirchner: ‘Taxes on the beautiful to subsidise the ugly’:

· Regulations at fashion shows and in adverts to ensure that the models are representative of all shapes and sizes

· A quota of ugly people in business

· An integral plan to eradicate both physical and verbal violence in schools

· Sexual Democracy: All good looking people that want to sleep with other good looking people, should have been with an ugly person first

· Regulation of the use of Photoshop and makeup in beauty magazines and publications

· Inclusion of ugly actors as protagonists in love stories

· Mannequins of all sizes in shop windows

· Human resources to explain what is meant by ‘good presentation’ and that photos are not requested with the submission of CVs