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

[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.