Equal rights here in the good ol’ USA have come a long way since the days when our grandmothers, great or otherwise had to fight for and eventually win the most basic freedom that most of us now take for granted—the right to vote. There may even be people reading this who have had to drink from a separate and far from equal water fountain or ride in the back of the bus, or possibly been denied employment just because they happened to be a minority.

Things may not be perfect and may never be but at least when it comes to discrimination based on sex or race, we the people have made great strides. However, there is still one group of victims that have not only failed to achieve anything even closely resembling equal rights, they have lost ground in the war against inequity. That group of victims would be the appearance challenged lot sometimes referred to as ugly people. People who had the misfortune of being born with mismatched eyes, way too many teeth for their mouth or perhaps a badly misshapen skull.

This particular group of people face an uphill battle to achieve success simply because they are not attractive and even worse, they have few if any allies in their struggle to overcome the bigotry that is endorsed everyday on television, in magazines and on the silver screen. In fact it is the media that are the worst offenders when it comes to giving fair treatment to the ugly, no matter how qualified, smart or just plain good they are.

Are we to believe that there are no ugly people who can read a teleprompter without stumbling over the words? Or no girls with crossed eyes and buckteeth that can strut their stuff down the walkway wearing the latest Valentino evening gown? I used to think that ugly guys didn’t have to shave because all the guys in the shaving cream commercials either looked like Tom Selleck, or were Tom Selleck—I found out soon enough that this wasn’t the case.

Another challenge facing those who are denied their rightful place in society because of their unfortunate looks is the fact that very few people are willing to admit that they are ugly. I say it’s time to stand up and be heard. Boycott the magazines, movies and ads that refuse to hire or otherwise use ugly people in their medium. Stop watching Ugly Betty, whose producers didn’t even have the courage to hire a real ugly girl to play the lead role. They went out and found a pretty girl and tried to make her look ugly.

It’s time to stand up people. Say it loud and say it proud; “I might be ugly but I’m just as good as you!”