Ugly people miss out in life.

In an age where everything is analysed, assessed, compartmentalised and rated, a lecturer in philosophy and humanities at Princeton University took a look at ugliness.

Jonny Thakker said: “From the toddler gazing up at the adult to the adult gazing down at the toddler, we ruthlessly privilege the beautiful. The ugly get screwed.”

This has been going on since the Ancient Greeks who equated beauty with nobility and ugliness with the opposite, he said.

And the same prejudice is alive and well today in a society where attractive young women and handsome young men becoming celebrities on nothing stronger than the way they look and have that extra edge in everything from advertising to politics (which, when you think about it, are pretty much the same thing).

The beautiful, says Thakker, simply have more options.

“Ugliness has never even been taken seriously as a category for injustice. It’s true that whatever ills come to the ugly don’t even remotely compare to those that have been caused by racism. But that doesn’t make them fictional.”

This isn’t a new viewpoint. Two years ago, research at Michigan State University found that those considered unattractive are bullied and belittled in the work place.

A study in 2011 found that those in the bottom seventh in looks (as assessed by randomly chosen observers) earn 10% to 15% less a year than those at the top. This amounted to $230,000 (or £138,000) in a working lifetime.

So that’s why I’ve always been skint.

Thakker makes the point that the ugly are in a difficult position because they can’t fight for equal rights like victims of racism, sexism or homophobia.

“Ugly people do not band together. There is no group formed around the idea of being ugly.”

Which you can understand.

“Hey guys, I’m forming an Ugly Society. US against the world. Want to join?”

Somehow I don’t think there would be many takers.

It is totally unfair that people are judged on looks but it is a fact of life.

The rich attempt to improve what they have with cosmetic surgery and hang on to it with face lifts, botox and liposuction. Men have hair transplants and, at a simpler level, we ensure our children have a nice smile by making them wear braces on their teeth.

There is an obsession to strive to be beautiful. Even Olympic swimming heroine Rebecca Adlington has had a nose job. Was that wrong?

Not if it makes her feel better.

But it is an indication that we are all aware of how others might perceive us in an age where young girls want to look like Cheryl Cole and men want the pulling power of Daniel Craig, but without giving up the lager and kebabs.

Still, modern technology has given the less attractive of us the opportunity of love, life and relationships in the anonymous chat rooms and virtual reality worlds of the internet, where a chubby chap of five foot two with spots can pretend to be a six foot hero called Garth.

Geeks with computer flair can also put those hours of sitting alone and friendless in darkened rooms, with only a keyboard and monitor for company, to good use by developing new IT ideas that could make them millionaires.

It has happened.

That’s the day when being as ugly as a frog has a fairy tale ending as princesses line up round the block hoping for a kiss and a slice of wealth.

Who said money can’t buy you love?