From the eighties on, body awareness became a fashion, an academic theme, as well as a major source of anxiety for women. In a society, where in addition of being seen as merchandise, the body is more than ever, the privileged locus of identitary construction. Facing such unattainable goals and such impossible ideals, women are due to have a very anxious and persecutory relationship with their own bodies.The thesis deals with the prejudice which ugly women are faced with. Associated with fatness, ugliness became one of the worst socially tolerated forms of prejudice. Historically associated with beauty, women are the ones who suffer the most. The author points out how socially acceptable it became to discriminate ugly people. The study is based on a field research where three body practices are examined: gym academies, plastic surgery and bariatric surgery Taking obesity or mere fatness as the paradigm of ugliness, the author points out how intolerant society became of those who deviate from what the body culture has established as normal.