2NE1 - UGLY--My Take on It.

I think I'm ugly

And nobody wants to love me

Just like her I want to be pretty

I want to be pretty!

Don't lie to my face

'Cause I know I'm ugly~

This song is so misunderstood by people everyone on the interwebz. 

By saying "ugly", I don't think they're just talking about feeling your appearance is ugly. They're talking about not liking yourself in general for whatever reason, about thinking that there's something fundamentally wrong with you, etc. And not wanting people to lie to you and tell you that there's nothing wrong with you.

The video, though?

THAT'S definitely about the beauty standards within society that make so many beautiful people feel like they're ugly, and how they should be destroyed. 

2NE1 is a great band to promote this song and message because they do not resemble your typical kpop girl group and thus receive a lot of censure about how their faces/bodies/etc. don't resemble the beauty ideal.

It might sound cliche, but it's true: every girl in 2NE1 is actually beautiful in her individual way, if you look, but they are not all skinny sticks or have the "ideal" nose or whatever, which also makes them very relatable as they are all "real" people with no manufactured beauty--except Park Bom, who obtained plastic surgery BECAUSE her appearance was bombasted by critics, so this song is actually even more relatable to her, as she felt her looks didn't satisfy the public's demands of a female kpop singer.

So they are the perfect voices to express the insecurities that everyone feels about themselves sometimes; because even the most beautiful girls can find something they hate about their appearances.


UGLY Lyrics (My Transliteration)