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?

Nuffaluff

I love Jen's channel. She talk about the issues far more eloquently and in depth than I could so thank you for linking to the video.

It's stupid and offensive. If I ever write my film script I will try to hold it up for ridicule in some way.

YANBU!!!!!!!

Even Dr evil had one but that's just a parody of the bond movies anyway.

YANBU. My son has a birthmark on his forehead which could be mistaken for a scar and I already worry what people might say to him, despite it being fairly small. I’ve already had a few “what’s that on his face” comments.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it were more evenly done, with a fair share of heroes with differences and scars, but they tend to tone those things down and make them pretty on heroes.

I hate it when evil people are shown with a cleft lip - because DS was born with one. He is as far from evil as you can get.

To me it's far worse that someone unintentionally using the 'non PC' term (such as hare lip), as the writers are deliberately associating a disfigurement at birth with a bad person.

I don't think DS (in his 20's) gives it a thought though!

@ajandjjmum

I hate it when evil people are shown with a cleft lip - because DS was born with one. He is as far from evil as you can get.

To me it's far worse that someone unintentionally using the 'non PC' term (such as hare lip), as the writers are deliberately associating a disfigurement at birth with a bad person.

I don't think DS (in his 20's) gives it a thought though!

Agree. Fellow cleft here. Hare lip really annoys me too Such an old fashioned offensive term although many people prob dont realise.

@Shelddd

You sound like a lot of fun

And you sound quite thoughtless or a bit dim.

My dd was born missing her hand.
Her comment when she was primary school age was that if there was a character missing a hand in a book they were either.

1. The baddy, often using the missing limb to make them more evil
2. The sidekick who is there to show how kind MC is being friends with them, in the same way you might have a pet (occasionally sidekick fir baddie which can be a mixture of both)
3. There to show the author Is Inclusive. So they only appear to go to a hospital appointment, moan about what they can't do (normally unrealistically) or be helped.

She wanted a story where the MC was fun, brave, and happened to be missing a limb.
We searched for one, and in the end I wrote her a set of stories.

TV has recently got better and you see a number about now.

She also was upset and wrote in about the Witch's movie.

YANBU

'm Disabled, that makes my half the Dr Who villans.

Yup hate it. The baddy is always

Thin
Male
White
Heterosexual

Btw I remember reading that Morgan freeman wanted to play the villain in a film he had been given a script for. He specifically asked but producers declined as they were scared of making a black man the baddie. I think he then declined their film.

I thought it was for their backstory, they have something they were bullied about, or a mark from previous abuse, that might have had them to hate the world and reach against it in a bad way.
Or even as a non-physical metaphor (not sure exact word pls correct if I'm wrong), a theatrical symbol for past trauma.

YANBU

Bond movies are terrible for it.

Re the Witches - I thought in the books the witches do have physical differences (bald heads, no toes that mean shoes don’t fit well, something with their hands that mean they need to wear gloves). I haven’t seen the recent film and I’m not defending the trope of using those differences associated with evil, but at least some of that is in the book.

YANBU. Hadn't thought about this. You are totally right. Lazy and outdated.

I don’t mean ‘at least’ meaning it’s ok. I mean ‘at least’ some of those differences (but maybe not all of them) are in the book.

@PeterPomegranate I was thinking the same, that the physical differences are in the book. I remember the witches in the book had no toes and were bald god forbid a woman should lose her hair!

Or even as a non-physical metaphor (not sure exact word pls correct if I'm wrong), a theatrical symbol for past trauma. that doesn't make it ok. It's not a prop or symbol.

I’d quite like the non threatening geeky loser character to stop being red haired! It’s even in that children’s show presented by those doctor twins - the unluckiest kid sections - yep he’s a ginge.

I really notice it - luckily my children don’t

@CardiganAddict

I thought it was for their backstory, they have something they were bullied about, or a mark from previous abuse, that might have had them to hate the world and reach against it in a bad way. Or even as a non-physical metaphor (not sure exact word pls correct if I'm wrong), a theatrical symbol for past trauma.

Why make the victims of bullying and abuse the villains of the story though, why are the bullies or abusers themselves not the villains?

Plenty of people in real life are actually bullied due to facial disfigurement or scarring, they are not villains, but throughout history have been ostracised/bullied and depicted as evil.

YANBU.

YANBU. One of the many lovely things about the film Moonlight is that the romantic lead (played by Nicholas Cage) is missing a hand. But too often any form of disfigurement is put there to symbolise something negative.

English people always being the baddy is massively xenophobic when you think about it. The scars thing is unnecessary and archaic.

This is also why Edward Scissorhands is such a clever film.

Absolutely agree with this. To a lesser degree, just putting someone in glasses to make them geeky/less attractive is annoying to me. Start of movie: girl in glasses, no-one looks twice. End of movie: glasses are off and suddenly everyone realised how beautiful she is.