AIBU to wish that movies would stop giving villains disfigurements or scars?

[SpotandDot]

For full disclosure I haven't yet seen the new Bond Movie but yet again we have a villain with facial disfigurement/scarring. Why do so many movies have to use this as a sign of evil? It just enhances the stereotypes of people with disfigurements as evil or people to be feared. It's becoming terribly tedious.

AIBU?

YANBU. I have a large facial scar due to having skin cancer removed. I’m very self-conscious about it. It’s lazy and unhelpful stereotyping. I’m about as far from a Bond villain as they come!

I thought that when I saw the Bond cast on Graham Norton recently. It seems dated and a bit Disney/ childish to have the villain have facial scarring.

YANBU.
Shakespeare used disfigurement to indicate that someone was a bad person. We should have moved on.

It's like the subtle sexism and racism, it seeps into our collective subconscious that how we look on the outside reflects what sort of person we are on the inside.

You sound like a lot of fun

Which of course is damaging in so many ways.

YANBU it’s very damaging.

YANBU.

Weirdly DD (7) said similar to DH and me the other day while we were watching a kids cartoon film. She said it's obvious who's going to be the baddy ...

I asked her why she thought they did this, and she said i don't know It's what's inside that counts!

''Out of the mouth of babies'' ...

You sound like a lot of fun

If being a lot of fun involves stereotyping people with disfigurements as evil/disgusting/repulsive/dangerous then I'm very glad that I'm not.

YANBU
Never really thought about it but now you’ve pointed it out you’re dead right. Not on at all.

I totally agree. I have a friend who was born with part of her hand and arm missing and she was very upset by the witches film with Anne Hathway which added limb deformities which didn't exist in the original book for no good reason. Not one person involved in the film apparently thought, hang on, could this be upsetting? My friend has been faced with people calling her a witch her whole life and lo and behold, a multi million pound film uses her disability to make the evil witches a little bit more scary. Can't these very highly regarded and highly paid actors just make us believe they're evil and or scary without giving them a disability or impairment?

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54838201

I hadn’t thought about this before but YANBU and it’s time they change. It’s very unimaginative and reinforces stereotypes

I agree. It's so lazy and it's been done to death. Conveying menace by giving main baddie a scar across the cheek/eye patch/ missing hand. Yawn.

Totally agree, OP. I won’t watch the new Bond film for that reason. Plus, the director’s response when questioned about it in an interview was really revealing about his attitude towards facial disfigurement.

I felt the same way about the new version of The Witches, especially when part of the marketing campaign was to encourage children to “look for witches” in real life, which essentially equated to spotting people with limb differences. Makes me angry to think about it.

Totally agree with you OP.

I find that film makers use all sorts of irritating shorthand baddies. In American films, English people nearly always being bad guys is another one.

I usually disagree on this kind of thing but actually completely agree. It’s lazy, unnecessary and must be upsetting to people with scars or other disfigurement.

Laiste Your DD is very smart but it's also depressing that the stereotype is so ubiquitous that even a child as young as your DD is already aware of it.

Agree, see also ginger children/children with glasses in kids programs, always the naughty kid/butt of jokes

YANBU
The Charity Changing Faces campaigns in this area usually around Halloween time.

Its unnecessary and reinforces horrible stereotypes. I have very extensive surgical scarring on one arm as well as it being fused and non functional, and you wouldn't believe the hurtful things people say about them. At least I have the option to cover up my arm/hand

Feelslikealot

I'm so sorry for your friend. It's unbelievable how cruel people can be and films like The Witches and The new Bond film just add fuel to the fire. Filmmakers really should know better now. It's so harmful and also incredibly lazy.

Yeah, Changing Faces do some fantastic campaigning about this at Halloween. There’s usually some good social media posts from them that you can repost to your own feed, re: not using facial disfigurements or scars as a “costume”

This is the trailer for The Witches that was particularly distasteful. How did any of these actors think that saying these words was acceptable? “They don’t have hands, they have claws.” 😔

Yes, you are so right.
I like this booktuber called Jen Campbell who talks about this quite a bit. She is disabled and has a disfigurement.

Also, it works in reverse. For example there is a character in ‘Mortal Engines’ by Philip Reeve (YA fiction), the main female character, who has a very scarred face in the books.
In the film she has a very small scar, kind of a pretty looking scar to make her look ‘better’ for the audience.

You're not being unreasonable

It's really unpleasant

I’m so glad somebody has already mentioned and linked Jen Campbell! Her videos on this subject are fantastic.