Can I pick your brains re: word usage in a line from my paper?

[LaraMN]

This is the line:

"...despite the incredible capacity that human beings have for kindness and empathy toward one another, profound ugliness is also a reality of our interactions."

My (former English professor) best friend takes issue with the use of the word "ugliness," but I can't really find a better term. Do you think "ugliness" connotes something that doesn't quite fit, here?
I'm so fried. Any insights/opinions are appreciated!

[miss_american_pie]

1. cruelty, maybe?

selfishness?

[AllegroRondo]

2. perhaps "selfishness"

thats my first thought, anyway.

[LaraMN]

4. I'm trying to convey a broad sense of cruelty, ignorance, insensitivity, etc.

That's why I used "ugliness". I need a broad term, but ugliness was the only one I could come up with. I tried "malignancy," but that just didn't work, either.

[Lex]

3. maliciousness

?
or viciousness

[LaraMN]

5. I don't want it to sound necessarily intentional, though. That's the problem with

most of the words I've tried. It need to encompass both malicious and inadvertantly negative behavior/sentiment.

[Lex]

12. unappealing

?

Edited to add--nevermind, that wouldn't work in your sentence.

[trof]

6. Agree with 1 & 2. "Ugly" in this context is more of a 'southernism'.

Generally used to chastise rudeness or some other unacceptable behavior.
"Don't be ugly, now."

[Lex]

16. Hmmm

I wondered about that too.

My mother used to tell us that and she meant that we better behave and be nice.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

7. brutality, brutishness, ruthlessness, sadism, atrocity, barbarity, savagery

just a few...

[Hugin]

14. I second... 'brutishness'.

Brings much imagry forth in my mind's eye.

[Bullwinkle925]

8. I think I would go with 'cruelty' - that was my first inclination.

[justfred]

15. I'm with Bullwinkle....

...cruelty is the best word to compare to 'kindness and empathy'

Might want to pair it with apathy.

[InternalDialogue]

9. If you really like "ugliness"

you need to tie it to a specific characteristic. By itself, as you have it, it's sort of vague, though I know what you mean.

It's better when ugly gets paired up with something else: Ugly behavior, ugly intentions, ugly attitude. Otherwise, it too easily evokes physical ugliness, rather than emotional or behavioral ugliness.

How about something like: "...despite the incredible capacity that human beings have for kindness and empathy toward one another, the profound ugliness of raw human character sometimes rears its head in our interactions."

Does that depart too far from what you intended?

[meegbear]

10. ...

Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus
anamorphosis, crookedness, deformation, deformity, dislocation, grimace, malformation, misproportion, mutilation, twist, ugliness, unsightliness, wryness, aberration, abnormality, asymmetry, buckle, contortion, corruption, crookedness, damage, defacement, defect, depravity, disfigurement, evil, grossness, hideousness, impairment, injury, irregularity, knot, malconformation, malformation, misproportion, misshape, misshapenness, repulsiveness, ugliness, unattractiveness, unsightliness, warp, atrocity, blemish, blight, blot, deformity, disfigurement, disgrace, distortion, dump, horror, monstrosity, sight, ugly thing, bother, eyesore, frump, mess, monstrosity, nuisance, scarecrow, sight

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/ugliness

[reyd reid reed]

11. Try either 'selfishness' or 'cruelty'...either would work, I think

though 'cruelty' would be my first choice. It's a stronger word.

:hi:

[TheBaldyMan]

13. brutality or brutishness,

perhaps even animalism but I think that these usages would be rather unfair to animals.

Try 'profoundly ugly' instead of 'profound ugliness' and rewrite it slightly, e.g. the last clause could read - the reality of our interactions is profoundly ugly.

As Francis Bacon wrote: "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man."

[LaraMN]

17. Okay- I should add some context to clarify:

My paper is on media's influence on children's perceptions of people with disabilities.

We were instructed to start out with a personal statement and expression of why we chose our topic. I relayed a brief synopsis of the experience of having a child with Down Syndrome.

The line is intended to refer to the polar ends of my (and other people's likely) spectrum of experiences, pertaining to people's behavior toward the disabled/disability. I chose a broad term (ugliness), because it encompassed both deliberate cruelty and inadvertant, but nonetheless hurtful or malignant, behaviors/expressions/etc.

I need a broad, but not assaultive term. Therein lies my conundrum.

I do see how the physical connotation of "ugliness" undermines its use in this context, though, so I DO think I need to replace it.

Ugh.

[reyd reid reed]

18. In that case, yeah...

I think 'cruelty' would fit.

[LaraMN]

19. I think you're right.

I think that's the best fit. Cruelty can be inadvertent, I suppose.

:thumbsup:

[Shakespeare]

25. I'd use callousness or insensitivity. n /t

[billyskank]

20. Indifference

[billyskank]

21. Alienation

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. I would agree to take out ugliness.

though poetically it's a wonderful choice, in the context of a formal paper it's too ambiguous as to what you mean.

[REDKING]

23. profound disregard....

best I can do....Rk:+

[Maraya1969]

24. I like "ugliness" I wouldn't change it. It makes the sentence worthy

of remembering.