2 Interesting articles

[sasha_feather]

Ariel Henly at the Washington Post:

Hollywood should know better: You can't tell evil just by looking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hollywood-should-know-better-you-cant-tell-evil-just-by-looking/2019/02/19/bf066ee6-2020-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html

Moviegoers are supposed to know that characters such as Scar in “The Lion King,” Freddy Krueger and Doctor Poison are evil simply by looking at them. And it’s an impression that lasts long after moviegoers leave the theater, conditioning the general public to fear individuals who, like me, have asymmetrical faces, burns or scars, and to believe that we are not worthy of equality, empathy and inclusion.

Andrew Todd at /Film:

Off the Deep End: ‘A Star is Born’ and Why the MPAA Needs to Include Depictions of Suicide in Its Ratings

https://www.slashfilm.com/a-star-is-born-suicide/

Content warning: this article contains forthright descriptions of suicide and suicidal thoughts. It also contains spoilers for A Star is Born.

Comments

[gorgeousnerd]

Thank you so much for linking the second article - I was vaguely aware there was a death in A Star is Born, but I had no idea it was death by suicide.

[sasha_feather]

You're welcome <3

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

There are actually four quadrants in literature and most cultures use all of them to some extent:
Good Is Beautiful
Ugliness Turns Out To Be Good
Evil Is Ugly
A Pretty Face Hides A Wicked Heart

They're all valid. The problem comes when entertainment portrays too much of an imbalance. It's not that showing banged-up villains is bad. Dr. Poison made shit happen. She's a great villain. The problem is when we don't also see that banged-up people can be good or that evil people can be gorgeous.

Because what happens if you nag people into doing away with scarred villains is that now the differently faced have no representation at all. What we need is for them to have the same range of characters as the typically faced. We need to fill in the quadrants so they balance. Then we'll have more diverse characters and that will be awesome.

So let's see, checking my own work I have several good characters with assorted self-harm scars in "Essential for Human Survival." Boss Batir in "Beatdown" is frankly a thug, with a notable scar on his head. Dominique Kedzierski in "Critical Analysis" has a bunch of different scars gotten in the line of duty, and is an excellent police chief. A lot of the Iron Horses have Sun Dance scars, which they are very proud of, in "The Place Where the Journey Begins." Render in "I Wish I Might" is a supervillain, but serving a positive role in this scene; he's covered in burn scars. Adam in Frankenstein's Family is a darling, with patchwork scars all over. "Grit and Grace" actually shows the origin of some scars, and those two characters take very different paths afterwards.

I wasn't particularly writing with that balance in mind, but it looks like my general tendency to diversify has covered both good and bad characters who have scars. Cool.

That's the kind of representation I like to see in entertainment. If I think through stuff, I can remember some examples of good and bad characters with scars, so that's promising. I'm inclined to agree that we need more good ones in movies, though.

[fayanora]

I too hate this trope. In a series of books I'm writing, many of the main characters have deformities or scars; according to Hollywood, they would be the bad guys, but they're not. The protagonist - a sweet, shy, and anxious girl - has a missing foot. One of her moms has scars all over her body and face. One of her grandmothers is blind in one eye, another is totally blind. A friend of the family has a huge scar on one side of his face. So far, all of the bad guys are good looking. (Though not all of the good looking are bad guys.) And there's one villain who switches sides to be good and loses an arm in the process.

[staranise]

GOD, the second link is so right. The suicide in that movie hit me like a truck and totally ruined the entire thing for me.