That's one of many reasons I loved the movie Nimona: The guy who everyone thinks is the villain and turns out to be the hero has a facial scar and limb difference and showed the audience not to make false assumptions.
Zuko is far better than his sister in avatar the last airbender. Generally the true villains have no disabled/scarred people in the show, while the heroes end with two.
Physically and mentally abused and raised in a monstrous culture - Zuko turned out to be a surprisingly good kid. In the context of the world, Sokka also saw himself as disabled because he did not have bending powers.
I thought of Zuko too! Lol. And Todoroki from my hero academia, who's kind of just... A Zuko clone ngl. Atla is such a good show and has remarkably solid disability rep for a cartoon for the early 2000s
I remember I was so shocked when we finally saw Ozai's face. With his effect on the world, just being an actual monster of a man with his actions, seeing... a 'normal' guy, someone who was conventionally 'beautiful' was so extremely unsettling. Before he'd always been a silhouette, so seeing someone who looked like anyone else was terrifying. Pinning it down as an adult, it's because it shows that anyone can choose to be a villain through their actions. I love that show so much. Also though I know it's not quite the same, I loved Toph as a character. I have congenital hearing loss, and lost more of my hearing as I grew. It's only in one ear but it still makes a significant impact in my ability to function and my awareness of my surroundings and ability to focus. So seeing Toph, who her friends veiwed as normal and being blind was a PART of that and not despite it, who was shown as capable, who had unique skills tied into her disability that were seen as valuable (oh no, it's dark? Guess who doesn't care), but also had people who helped her without question whenever she needed it and didn't treat her as a burden (like when she got her feet burned, or in the desert with all the sand, and in the painted lady episode with the wooden docks someone was almost always just guiding her without making a big deal out of it), but also times when she had limits or was frustrated (like the desert when she couldn't 'see' even with her earthbending and couldn't save Appa, or how terrifying it was to have her feet be burned, or her hating shoes) felt so incredibly validating. Also seeing her not get the accommodations she needed and have to create her own ways to cope is sadly so familiar, both as someone who had autism and ADHD undiagnosed to adulthood, and sadly also as a hard of hearing kid. I was SUPPOSED to have an FM system as a kid in school, but I was almost never given it (it was often taken away to give to another kid, or paired to another class and the teachers refused to help me pair it to them, or it was out for repairs, or they simply forgot to give it to me). I was supposed to sit at the front of class so I could hear more easily, but once we no longer had assigned desks, the teachers would never help me if the front row filled up before I could get a seat. Often teachers would react with annoyance if I didn't hear them for 'ignoring them even though they were told that they had to tap my shoulder gently (not rap on it hard enough to hurt and spin me around aggressively to yell in my face) or wave if they were in my line of sight and call my name until I looked up. I was even a fairly confident self advocate as a kid, but I didn't understand that there wasn't a different expectation to how my family actually accommodated me (given my dad is deaf, we were pretty good at that) and how school was supposed to but didn't. So I went through my educational career with next to no support. Seeing Toph have to literally carve out her own supports and do the impossible (like learn to metalbend) is a very near and dear theme to my heart, especially after seeing that people responsible for her (in her case, her family and teacher) gave her only the supports convenient to them and not the ones that actually allowed her to thrive and viewed her as inherently less capable rather than able to be capable through different means but still with difficulties that are unavoidable and deserve compassion and respect.
Ableism in my family went like this: My mother would avoid visibly different or disabled people when they were near us in public. If we had to interact with them, she'd always privately vent her feelings to me that "they're always so ugly, so grumpy, so demanding." Now I identify as a disabled person and my internalized ableism and I are trying to unlearn all that. Even in modern times people villainize us because our presence and our needs represent the horror of society's mistreatment.
@@bn9611 It is not always so clear-cut. Is autism considered as being disabled, for example? Legally it differs from country to country, and different autists think of it differently, both because their autism varies (for some it comes with slower or impaired mental or linguistic development, for some not, and how it affects daily life also varies). And not everyone is even recognised as such as kids, though always having been on the spectrum. And a what point does bad eyesight become disability? The legal limit does not necessarily coincide with how one identifies. I know a couple of people with hearing aid, I suspect none of them identify themselves as disabled.
Hunter from the Owl House is actually a good inversion. He starts as a masked villain “The Golden Guard” and rather than the reveal of his face with a scar being a source of horror, it is the start of him being portrayed in a positive light as he begins growing as a person and ends the show as part of the protagonist squad and with a girlfriend in the form of Willow, so hero and love interest. Additionally when he gets more scars later on the reaction the rest of the cast is focused on the cause of him being injured and his well-being not the physical changes that are a result.
And Eda! She starts out being like a magic version of being chronically ill. She’s the grumpy mother (tm) character, she gets to be the cool rebellious one. She gets to overthrow a tyrant with her kids. And she becomes an amputee along the way. Specifically loved the episode with her mom when she kept giving Eda bad advice, going down an anti vaxxer type pipeline. And Eda has a whole episode to deal with her illness and the way her family sees her. Eda gets quite a bit of screen time to make peace with her body and the owl beast. We get to learn the owl beast was never Eda’s enemy, she just needed to get to know and understand it and her situation. They could have easily made the owl beast her enemy but instead it reminded me of the way I’d fight my body because I couldn’t accept the fact it just doesn’t work like a non disabled body. Eda the owl lady was always a hero and while the way we were introduced to her disability in season one feels a bit icky, I fucking loved seeing a chronically ill, disabled rebel with a bunch of found family overthrow a dictator while also being queer as fuck. The owl house has my entire heart.
I love TOH, the representation is so fantastic and Dana is a huge inspiration to me. I wish it wasn’t owned by such a terrible corporation but it’s how Dana makes her money.
I have a scar on my forehead from a fall that required stitches, when I was around 6. For the longest time, I was sure that scar was the first thing anyone noticed when they looked at my face. I wore bangs to hide my "disfigurement". It wasn't until I was an adult in my 40's, that I realized that not only did people not notice that I have a scar on my forehead, my own son didn't even realize that I had one. What I saw as a huge scar, was actually a small, less than an inch long, mark that is almost invisible.
I found a similar thing growing up in that people didn't always notice my facial scars, but because I found it hard to predict people's reactions, they sometimes felt like the elephant in the room to me.
The obsession with looking pretty as presentable, I found from personal experience goes way beyond actually having scars. I have a really high forehead and there was a lot of pressure in the family to have bangs and hide it, like it was a deformity. When if you look at 90% of the women in my family we all have the same forehead. Also most people are not very noticing, I find a lot of comfort in that.
I have a mercedes-like scar on my eyebrow, and always thought people notice it, but turns out they rarely do. I had few situations when I was like "you know, this funny scar I have…" and my friends' reaction would be "what scar?" xD
I can kind of relate too. I have a scar on the side of my nose that has always seemed very large to me, but no one ever notices it unless I point it out.
Even though he starts as an antagonist, I would still say Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender is great rep for people with facial scars. While he's hunting down Aang at the beginning, he's always positioned as someone to root for and empathize with, and his redemption arc is one of the best ones in TV. And he gets a romance!
Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road is the first positive character that comes to mind. She’s an amputee whose limb difference isn’t a plot-point or directly mentioned, she just exists as an amputee. She is also the hero and main character of the movie (despite what the title implies). She is depicted throughout as strong, capable, and extremely tough; it’s refreshing!
I thought she was the Fury of the title and the way to her childhood home was the Road she was on. I do tend to headcanon everything Hollywood to make it healthier.
I will add that Max is LITERALLY mad, and he’s pretty cool, too I didn’t dig the way that a lot of disabled folks with less “pretty” disabilities were bad, but you can’t win them all
"Oh boy I sure love learning about history 1st thing in the morning" "Did you know that there used to be laws to stop disabled people from being in public?" Why do I do this every morning, it just makes me sad
My partner and I have a rule in our place: "No disaster before breakfast." "Disaster" includes: politics, current events/news, religion, natural or man-made disasters, violent happenings, and history or other information that may upset us before we eat--in either content or conversation. It helps. Really. ❤
I was thinking about that! I love the fact that his difference was just there and not really relevant to the plot. As an able-bodied person, I obviously can’t really say if it’s good or not, but it seems like good representation to me.
I also love his limb difference wasn't duo a tragedy, like in the most classic monster movies. Luca is all about subverting the narrative on outsiders. The sea monster are two kids who just want to enjoy being kids, and the buff one-armed man is wonderful father (to both his daughter and surratage son Alberto) who happens to born that way.
Something I noticed about Lego minifigures at least a decade ago is that they would often have "bad guys" that featured prosthetic limbs. It was only in the past few years that they introduced a figure with a "blade" type prosthetic leg that was just a representation of a normal, everyday person. Not some hideous creature.
Once again Jessica is spot on in calling out the media for bad representation. Sloth in The Goonies comes to minds as a character that appears to be a bad guy because of the way he looks, but is really a good guy.
As a child I was prevented from seeing the movie (or learning the lesson) because my mother felt Sloth's appearance was "too scary" with no other context. :(
Stuff like this is why I worried about my son, now 13, when he started daycare, preschool, and kindergarten-he has a hand difference (think Finding Nemo, not far off). He is super smart, super friendly and cheerful-and when he was three, he came home and told me “guess what mommy, my hand’s broken.” I talked to the preschool, and then I talked to his class of three year olds. But the fact that I had to start teaching him at age THREE how to respond to other kids or adults saying horrible things about him…😡😭
This made me think of Todd Browning’s 1930s film “Freaks”….the moral of the whole film is that the “evil people” are the able bodied people who mistreated them. Happy Halloween to all of you! 🎃
As horrifying as the film was, you could at least say it was a 1930s production. But just a few years ago American Horror Story revamped the tale, giving us an entire season of circus "freaks" who were sometimes put upon by those who were able-bodied, but who were more often than not genuinely monstrous themselves. So clearly nobody learned anything. What made this even more horrifying is that it was produced by the same people who were criticized from putting an able-bodied actor in a wheelchair to play a wheelchair-bound character when they were doing Glee!
The original "Freaks" movie is fascinating. Groundbreaking, complex, and genuinely focusing on the lives of the people. It's a rather sweet slice of life story about found family and the lives of a community of performers. It isn't even a horror movie until the last act, when the people of the show enact a justified revenge on two able-bodied villains who were swindling and poisoning one of their own. The revenge was not murder, but to turn them into freaks, who the villains had hated and mistreated. Poetic justice indeed. I'm not surprised that AHS did a terrible revamp. Everything about that show is basically awful but people keep coming back because it's "edgy." As a trauma survivor, I stay very far away from its insensitive nonsense parading as cool.
One really striking thing about Freaks is that there’s a scene where one of the only able-bodied “good guy” characters talks to one of the children in the side show. This kid clearly has some sort of developmental disability that’s resulted in her head being an unusual shape. And this guy treats her like she’s a completely normal kid and a friend, telling her that her outfit looks nice and that he’s glad to see her, that kind of thing. (Her mother/guardian gives a little speech about how the disabled kids are still kids even though everyone is cruel to them.) This was a movie that said to its audience, “hey, food for thought, maybe people you consider ‘freakish’ are every bit as human as you are and deserve to be treated that way.” Almost a hundred years on, it’s still an incredible piece of film.
I cried watching an episode of Star Trek Discovery and seeing Tig Notaro's character use a sci-fi wheelchair because of chronic pain. Probably the first time I saw someone in TV/movies like me. And watching Good Omens and seeing Liz Carr as an angel who has miraculous accessibility wherever she goes was awesome, and I saw a background angel actor with Down's Syndrome as well.
I know that both TNG and DS9 had one-shot characters in wheelchairs, and in DS9 there is commiserative complaining that the Cardassians built such an ableist station.
I’ve been really pleased over the last couple months to see Liz Carr in both Good Omens and Loki! Both are great examples of casual representation where the character has a disability because the actress they choose to play them just happened to have a disability.
I always would find it very upsetting as a small child that none of my favourite characters looked anything like me. Then at school people told me that I looked like a villain from some kids' film -- not in a mean way, but it was heartbreaking to hear as a 6 year old. I find it truly soul-crushing that my story was only ever assigned to villains or outcasts, and that very little has changed over the years.
Finding Nemo has representstion of good characters with physical and mental differences, as an able -bodied person I'll leave it up to others to decide if its good representation or not though haha. I liked it! And at least for us growing up it was used as an example of "some people are different but it doesn't make them beneath others"
My son has symbrachydactyly, which is a lot like Nemo’s lucky fin. Finding Nemo at least gave me an immediate context when we found out after his birth: I would be the anti-Marlin.
Finding Nemo was huge for me as one of my arms is smaller and doesn't work as well(birth injury). I actually felt represented and it was so cool. I still love that movie so much because of how well it addresses growing up with a disability.
This is why I always loved Wicked: in the wizard of Oz the wicked witch of the west is that typical villain with visible differences, and Wicked does a really good job at showing how the world twisted Elphaba’s story because of her visible difference
I had never heard of the ugly laws before. But it doesn't surprise me. Here in Florida (of course) they still have these types of laws, just under different names. They target poor, homeless and people begging. Some laws (looking at you Sarasota) allow the police to literally take homeless people and move them (without their consent) outside of the city limits. Can't have the tourists thinking we have homeless there, now can we.
I wonder if any of those laws still being subtly around have to do with Florida being a spot for circus performers to spend the winter? Maybe that's an outdated reason, but it came to mind as potential background.
Honolulu, where I live, has similar laws, that they use to keep all the homeless people out of tourist-frequented areas like Waikiki. The ACLU is actually suing the city of Honolulu for their laws criminalizing homelessness. The extent and severity of homelessness here is truly appalling, worse than I've seen anywhere else in the country. It's not just the sheer number of homeless people but also the horrifying extent of their suffering. There are literally people dying of starvation on the streets, people covered in sores getting eaten alive by flies, the kind of poverty you'd normally only expect to see in low-income countries suffering from famine. If tourists were actually exposed to this side of Hawaii, I doubt many of them would come back.
This Halloween I learned some more about cultural appropriation, fetishization and villainisation in costumes. Of course, I was already aware of the slogan "My culture isn't your costume" and that things like dressing up in a caricature of a Native American person or other cultures isn't okay, but there is always more to learn. I learned that "boho" as a style originates from the fetishisation of Romani people in France and has over time been muddled to include Native American and sometimes Black culture or versions of them. I learned that witches' hats and noses may have evolved from antisemtic stereotypes and hats Jewish people were forced to wear in Medieval Europe to identify them. Also about how the man who was the inspiration for Dracula tortured his Romani slaves. Obviously, I don't think that no one should enjoy Halloween or dressing up or parties or pieces of media or anything else that gives them joy. I just find it important to know where a lot of this stuff is coming from.
Witches hats are based on Puritan hats of the 17th century, and the hooked noses are to signify elderly women, particularly those who have lost their teeth. Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, tortured his political enemies, not his slaves.
I find it really interesting how this idea of the “good disabled” plays through in film as well. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a disability portrayed as anything other than the villain (facial disfigurement, bodily differences) or the sympathy character (frail, wheelchair user, female, conventionally attractive) who usually dies. Or in terms of neurological disabilities like autism, we’re either portrayed as the problem or conflict within the film or as a sympathy character used to highlight the hero’s kindness. Having an invisible disability, I think I never quite realized just how poignant the portrayal of disabilities are in film and media. Definitely something to think about this Halloween (and beyond)
The thing that gets me about the Bond stories is that when you consider how many fights he's been in, how many times he'd been shot, jumped off of buildings, and all the other dangerous things he finds himself tangled up in, it would make **perfect** sense for Bond himself to have visible facial (and other) scars. It's so easy for them to do it right, it literally writes itself. But no, instead we get the same tired excuses and continuing portrayal of the villian only... xx
I saw a post on Facebook recently that said that the reason that witches are portrayed like the stereotypical Halloween decoration (green skin, lumpy features etc) is likely due to the fact that despite the trope of women being accused publicly and taken directly to the stake, they were kidnapped first, tortured into confessing and then paraded as a confessed witch. Being beaten and generally tortured would leave them with bruised and discolored skin, broken features/limbs/hands and a tendency to hunch from exhaustion/pain.
I find myself disgusted and afraid by certain physical deformities, and I am disabled and would certainly be hit by those ugly laws. It is subconscious because of being told since childhood how bad it is. Media didn't help. I have had to work to undo my internalized ableism and fears that I got without even knowing I was being programmed to fear people who are different. As a result I even find myself disgusted with my own disabilities without understanding why I was scared of these things. You hit the nail on the head. Thank you for this because I didn't quite think that maybe being bombarded with these tropes is part of why I have these problems now. We need to do better.
Something I think about every now and then is how you rarely see people with deformities or physical differences, as if they’re always hiding away. It makes me sad to think about. When I was a stupid kid in middle school my English teacher had a deformed left hand.. it basically looked like a paw; a fist with tiny little fingers that looked more like toes. One of my biggest regrets in grade school is when I was trying to be “cool” and “funny” to impress the popular kids. When I mentioned Mrs. Teacher’s “paw” even the mean kids were like “Wow that’s messed up”… I’ll never forget how ashamed I felt. I’m sorry Mrs. Teacher.
I don't watch films much, but most of the things I do watch are vampire-related. Which often doesn't fit this stereotype. The bad guys are deceptively beautiful, they lure you in and then kill you. I've always found the "ugly bad guys" thing kind of tacky, boring, and predictable. Like just because they look different why are they always evil? I much prefer the siren concept of a villain, where they trick you with beauty and charms.
This one always frustrates me with voice acting. All too often, when there's an evil vizier or similar traitor character, they'll use the melodramatic evil voice from the start, even in scenes where they're supposed to be presenting as genuine and loyal.
The facial scar trope has made me roll my eyes from when I was kid. I never thought about how much it might affect people with facial scars, though. I feel stupid.
Fun fact: that actor, James Caverly, was in a production of The Music Man that was both sung and performed in ASL. He played the lead role, signing the entire thing (the actor playing his buddy who lived in town did the singing); Marian both signed and sang her part, and her little brother Winthrop, instead of having a lisp, had the body language of a kid way too shy to sign clearly. It was an absolutely incredible production that completely changed my ideas as a hearing person about what musicals can be. Honestly, if they ever revive it, even if I live on the other side of the world I’ll make a trip out to see it again.
James Caverly is such a fan favorite we kind of break social media when he's on the show. He wasn't in this past season this much, but he was frequently mentioned in the script. So even after his first season debut, he's still a character who moves the plot forward. And no spoilers to anyone who hasn't seen the series yet. You simply must. There's a reason he was nominated for an award. If you are a person who doesn't think a deaf actor can make you cry, I promise James Caverly will change your mind.
@@PhoebeFayRuthLouise I think the other comment I left got eaten, but-look up Olney Theater, there are some clips of the production and interviews with Caverly. His version of Harold Hill was so charming even the audience got lost in his sweet talk! Also, this version of River City was based on a town in New England where some significant part of the population was congenitally deaf from the 1600s onwards and so for several hundred years everyone in town just learned sign language.
James Caverly is both an iconic performer and a damn snack. I loved the first season episode filmed with minimal sound. I also just love watching people sign, but obviously don’t want to stare at folks signing irl bc, well, rude
The main character from a book series called "From Blood And Ash" has notable facial scars. Interestingly, all of the villains were described as perfect, beautiful, or flawless. It was a nice flip of the script, and it also touched on the struggles related to the character's physical difference and did in fact show that character finding a love interest and overall being pretty darn cool.
I was born with localised gigantism of 3 of the toes in my right foot, the proper diagnosis is macrodactyly with syndactyly of the second and third digits, and luckily for me it’s actually a more minor case than most people with my condition. All my life I’ve had people look at my right foot like it’s alien and disgusting, like it’s some disease they could catch if they touch my foot. I’ve had people give it cruel nicknames like “seaweed toes” because supposedly they look like that. I’ve had people genuinely say “what’s wrong with your toes?” with a disgusted look on their face. The bullying about it was especially bad because for most of my childhood I did taekwondo, a sport where you have to be completely barefoot while practicing, you’re not even allowed to wear socks. My self confidence was so destroyed that I didn’t wear open toe shoes for more than a decade, and at one point I was seriously considering getting cosmetic surgery to make them look “normal”. I’m so glad I decided not to go through with surgery though, because my “weird” toes are part of who I am. Sure they make my right foot an entire size bigger than my left, which makes buying shoes really annoying. But they’re part of my identity. Not to mention I’d most definitely be stuck with chronic pain for the rest of my life if I had gotten that surgery, and since I already have fibromyalgia that gives me chronic pain, I decided to pass on that. Today I proudly wear open toe shoes and walk barefoot, if people stare at them weird I just glare at them and say “what are you looking at?” I’m proud that my toes are part of me and I wouldn’t change them for the world.
I have to be honest. As a huge Halloween Fan and as a person without limb/facial differences, it had never before occured to me that these kinds of costumes were problematic. I am so glad to have watched your Video on this. Thank you for educating me and many others on all sorts of biases that we might not even be aware about. I hope I can pay more attention to this in the future, and educate others when I see it happen. Happy Holidays!
One of my favorite movies, The Craft, actually does a great job of addressing the idea of disfigurement. Bonnie is relentlessly bullied for her burn scars, and goes through extremely painful experimental and unnecessary medical procedures for some reason without any kind of numbing agent. We also see her begging for her scars to be removed by her gods in a truly heartbreaking scene. When it all suddenly works and she's completely scar free is when her morality and kindness is erased. Her reply when called out on this is everything: "I spent most of my life as a monster and now that I'm not I'm enjoying myself."
*steers towards race issues* in NZ our incoming government is talking about legislating forcing "gang members" to cover their face tattoos in public places. Biggest problem with this (there are SO MANY problems) is ta Moko is the practice of facial tattooing in Māori culture, representing your whakapapa (who you are, where you're from, your experiences) so it gives people not only a legal but an actually encouraged reason to discriminate. I'm absolutely disgusted by it. Why'd you have to say making phone calls? 😬😱🙀 So scary
I hadn't thought of that! I will have to keep "gang tattoos" to a minimum- -or heavily research both criminal and regular tattoos, to distinguish them in my comics.
Tattoos tell a story, if you're writing and drawing comics then any tattoo you draw or allude to would be there to add to the story. Just gotta make sure the tattoo is telling the story you want it to 💜
Also I want to point out that most of the disabled/disfigured villains are men. Once in a while you get a Dr. Poison or Anne Hathaway in the Witches, but 95% of the time female villains are still expected to be hot, or at least conventionally attractive. Basically disfigured women are barely allowed to exist in films at all. (I specified disfigured because disabled women are allowed in films as "tragic" or "inspirational" provided they're conventionally attractive)
Yeah, I think this is my only torn point with a film like “V for Vendetta.” Like, it’s one of the few pieces of representation where a character who canonically has severe facial scarring is presented as heroic… yet we never get to actually see his face. Granted, there’s an actual thematic purpose for this in terms the idea “anyone” can wear the mask and be a hero, but then there’s also the fact getting to see his face could have been potentially empowering for people with facial scarring.
Great comment, random question - I am reading the graphic novel after watching the movies years ago, I am at the part where SPOILER . . . . . . . . . He kidnaps Evey, and am unsure how I feel about it, I thought I remembered everything he did was a good thing, I am conflicted about why he would use that approach, though it is faster it doesn't seem the best option, what is your take on it?
@@pradlark yeah, that’s Alan Moore’s strangely nihilistic “no one is REALLY good, everybody’s evil” shtick for you. I seem to recall the film _SEVERELY_ toning that part down by comparison, but I can’t really comment on the graphic novel as I haven’t read it.
I absolutely love this film and re-watch it every year, but I will be honest and say I have never read the graphic novel so I can't speak to that. I would say V is not a hero but actually a character trope: the sin-eater. This is a character who takes on the burden of doing morally reprehensible things so others dont have to, all to achieve a better world in the future, while knowing that this better world will have no place for them as they are monsters themselves. V changes the world for the better- both himself and through Evie- but is still fundamentally a serial killer and torturer and he knows it. The real heroes are the two policemen Finch and Dominic, who keep fighting for answers even when the system doesn't want them found and Evey, who truly learns not to blend in to the apathetic crowd but to stand up and fight oppression where she sees it.
I knew you would handle this subject with tact. As someone who has a facial difference, growing up sucked. I was called every villain name in the book. I had no friends and when they were not making fun of me, they shunned me. Not having ANY real representations in 2023 is so frustrating. So many great organizations trying to make a difference but it’s like talking in to a void because the wider public don’t care. They continue to see us as less than, that we don’t exist. You know how hard it is to get a job with a facial difference? A lot harder than it should be. I’ve had kids take one look at me and run screaming. I’ve had people just get right close and just stare at me. Anyways….lol I’m angry, but alas I wanted to thank you. Thanks for including a lot of quotes from some amazing people. If you ever want to collab let me know.
I love that dress! I realized while listening to this that I often give my video game characters a facial scar but I always play as a good guy. I've just always seen it as visible proof that they put their life on the line for others. I never thought about it until you pointed it out that we don't see heroes in the movies with any sort of scars or disabilities.
In Germany and Central Europe, in the late 19th and into the 20th centuries, it was fashionable for men to have a "dueling scar" on their face - to the point that many men would intentionally get their faces cut in order to create a scar - because it was seen as a mark of somebody who was adventurous and would be willing to fight for honour (theirs, or perhaps that of a lady). Now I'm wondering if that reinforced the "scarred villain" trope in the US and Western Europe after WW1 and WW2. Because a character coded as German or Central/Eastern European must obviously = bad guy. But I digress, my point was: It was seen as cool to have a scar at that time and place. It's the Chicks-dig-scars idea, which is why the hero in romance novels or adventure stories often has an artistically placed scar or two. And I agree, that dress is amazing.
Many of the good 'guys' in The Walking Dead franchise have become 'disfigured' during the course of the shows. Not to mention Nick Fury from the Avengers movies. And that's just off the top of my head. BTW - I grew up with pox scars on my face. Many of my contemporaries did since there was no chicken pox vaccine. I never thought of myself as 'disfigured' or 'deformed' in any way. Not was I ever treated as such by any one.
I remember being 14 or so and watching "Sailor Moon" for the first time. All the bad guys in that show were hunks with gorgeous flowy hair. I remember thinking to myself: "Why do all villains in western cartoons look terrible? This is so much more interesting!" I'm 40 now. It's high time cinemamakers learned to convey their villain's nastiness in a different way than giving them "scary" looks. (And it's been done with success - remember DiCaprio's role in "Django", anyone?)
I have had severe skin lesions sine I was in my early teens. It's not acne, and I still haven't received a proper diagnosis for it. I literally quit socializing for a decade because people would constantly comment on it, and I felt so rejected that I didn't want to exist. I'm also chronically ill, and have horrible brain fog, so that didn't help at all. I was constantly made to feel like my physical and mental infirmities were personal failings.
This was fascinating to me because I never thought about this when I upended the trope while working on my stories because I made the villain as handsome while two of the good guys have scars. I wasn't thinking about it because I wrote the characters as having aspects of my own life.
The manga Fullmetal Alchemist has a lot of characters with scars and missing limbs and when I first red it as a teen I didnt really realized how important it was in the story and for many of the characters. But I re red it recently and I felt like it was actually really well treated, there is quite a lot of impact about different caracters having diffenrent body or health issues.
Richard Harrow from Boardwalk Empire is not only one of my favorite characters ever, but a great example of an awesome, badass heroic, disabled hero. Everyone in the show is at least a bit morally gray, but Richard probably has the best inner compass. And a HELL of a shot, despite only having one eye now. A little Byronic and complicated, but that’s why I love him. He’s not so perfect that he feels unattainable or unrealistic… he’s a good man who exists in a very corrupt world and is trying to do his best. Man, I love him.
I've been working to unlearn abelism for years, and somehow I had never considered Halloween nor facial differences in media. Thank you for this video! Personally, your rant videos are my favorite!
Its funny how people push "what doesnt kill you makes you stronger" and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" yet thanks to media we know and have plenty of evidence to show that huge portions of society expect that those facing trauma and adversity to end up being pushed to a place to become villainous because of a lack of support or ill treatment. Sorry if Im not articulating this well. Im currently slumped on the couch trying to recoup some spoons since I burned through most pushing to be productive.
Ruth Codd (27, Irish, amputee) plays very positive characters in Mike Flanagan's Midnight Club and The fall of the House of Usher. She's badass and adorable at the same time.
I think Mike Flannagan is a good example of a horror director who doesnt use abelism to protray his vilians, as far as Im aware non of his vilains (or at least those in his Netflix series', I havent watched his movies yet) have facial scars or visible disabilities, in his last 2 adpations for Netflix, The Midnight Club and The Fall Of The House Of Usher have a character who is an amputee, and she's definitely not a vilian, and both characters are protrayed by Ruth Codd who has a limb differnece herself. And being an amputee isnt the only aspect of these characters personalities, and we do see one character use a wheelchair when not wearing a prosthetic, and in FOTHOU there are multiple shots where you can see her prosthetic. Granted, im not an amputee, my disablities are for the most part invisable, so obviously i dont speak for amputees or folk with limb differences, and maybe this representation isnt as good as i think it is, but I do love to see Mike Flannagan giving Ruth Codd these rolls, its great to see him support this young disabled actress, and Ruth is just a phenomenal actress!
I made my own comment on this before I found yours. Fully agree. I'd be interested to hear how much input she has in her characters portrayals regarding their limb differences. I liked that in the two shows, there was still vast differences in how their disabilaties affected them too, admittedly one had many other issues going on that surely played a massive part. But in House of Usher you could easily miss that she's got a prosthetic leg, but it's also not hidden at all. It's just there. It doesn't define her but it still affects her.
I watched both of these shows and just assumed they hired an able bodied performer and didn't push the camera in on the chair or prosthesis! Even in the negative sides of her two characters, they are two very honest versions of disability. Pain killer addiction and emotionally abusive defense mechanisms are no joke and I'm so happy to know that Flanagan wasn't talking out his ass regarding those characters.
Jessica I am so sorry for the losses you are suffering. I have recently been going through some losses too and my heart goes out to you and your family. I did want to thank you for this video. I had never heard of the “ugly laws” and am really sickened, and sad that they existed in my country. I’m also somewhat embarrassed to say I never even thought about the fact that the villains in media are usually disfigured. Thank you for once again for enlightening me, so I can do better in the future.
This might interest you years ago as a kid in elementary school. I think I was the only person who wrote a story in which the princess is called by her own father ugly because unlike her sister, who resembles their mother, she resembles her father, who is not a handsome prince he’s a king and he’s not exactly handsome, and it wasn’t a trope in her case she was beautiful. Her mother actually called her beautiful. Linda and her father called her Faya meaning ugly because in his eyes, the way she looked at him was ugly. In the end she gets the castle she gets the whole kit and caboodle, and it turns out her sister is the really wicked evil one and she’s gorgeous, the purpose of this as I was sick and tired as a kid of the trope of the handsome prince of the handsome princess they’re always gorgeous. There was blonde, and I was fed up with it. I had met a girl who was very nice and to me she was like a princess she was beautiful in the way that mattered and I decided to model the character after her and believe me when you heard the kids in school and how they treated her I used to get into a lot of fights because of it so I know all about having been both on the receiving end and the kind of kid who would stick up for others.
Porco Rosso is a good example, as it is about a veteran pilot that literally turns into a pig over having survivor’s guilt. I suppose that there is an argument to be made for Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke and Demon Slayer’s Tajiro for their scars, as well.
Quasimodo from Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame was an uplifting representation of disfigured people. I cry every time. “You are deformed...” “...i am deformed…” “And you are ugly…” “and i am ugly” “And these are crimes for which the world has no pity” 😭
@@Authentistic-ism Also he does eventually get a love interest but it's with the misfortune of being in Hunchback II which you're free to completely ignore.
@@Authentistic-ism Because in the book he actually dies with Esmeralda... She is not a Disney princess. She's more of an activist who dies for her beliefs and so does he. ...Then again the original Snow White was more of an activist who used her social rank as well and was likely murdered for her beliefs. No prince. No kiss. But the fairy tale is a lot nicer to think about instead.
I'm not disabled, but I have facial scarring, because a surgeon cut my face when performing a C-section. I'm not disfigured though because the scar isn't that big and faded out with age. Still, relate to characters with facial scars.
@@eliscanfield3913 I know how it makes my surgeon look, but it was actually a job well done. I was choking in the womb and a couple minutes longer could've resulted in a miscarriage. She pulled a miracle, my survival chances were pretty low. Although the scar is really close to my eye, so a few milimetres lefter...
I have to think about the original topic a bit But one thing I always felt to be annoying was the difference between ugly scars on the one side and pretty almost fetishized scars on the other side. When the love interest playfully touches the battle wound scar or torture scars of the hero and says Ooh tell me your story of trauma and pain, I'm so intrigued by it... if the scars look pretty the PTSD comes in its pretty form too with nightmares and brooding and a little mystery, nothing nasty!
"Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula le Guin. The main character has facial scars (and is also not white). At least in the original book, the film mucked it up.
It's very 80s, but I like Mask with Cher and Eric Stolz. It deals with not just disability but, the other-ing that happens in society all the time. The "bad" biker gang are the staunchest supporters of Rocky.
I wanna see a room full of villains with deformaties - like shrek 3 style - where all the deformaties are obvious and then u get the neurodivergant corner and the hero is just like "whats wrong with you?" And one lass pipes up "oh well I'm autistic and apparently that's terrifying to some people, anyways, busy!" And just goes back to her book while the hero is utterly terrified. Then there's a story time with each of them, like the song "I have a dream" from tangled.
One of my favourite films, Nightbreed (written and directed by Clive Barker), has many monsters and disfigured people. One of the things I love about it is that the 'normal' people are the bad guys!
The Akata Witch series makes people with a variety of differences as the wizard-types, there's good ones and bad ones. Not all the differences are obvious, like the major character with a learning disability, but some are more noticeable.
I'm not sure if this character would count as disabled but Frankie Stein from Monster High has scars and stitches keeping her limbs together (With her hand sometimes will flew off and run around at times.) is a great character! My favorite is when she was helping this dude from the island learn to love himself as a fellow monster.
I love the character DC Helen Milton, who is played by Lisa Hammond, on the show Vera. The character isn't defined by being in a wheel chair. She's just an awesome character that happens to be played by an actress in a wheelchair.
This just gives me more motivation to write a story about queer, neurodivergent, physically disabled people saving the world and kicking ass Love your videos!
I dressed up as Dabi from my hero academia this Halloween, and I know he's a villan, but I also really like his character. I have scars from a third degree burn, and I know this a very personal experience, and that undersendably not everyone feels like this. But I really enjoyed painting my scars to look like this character. It also makes me sad to be able to feel more confident in my scars if I'm wearing a halloween costume, because when people look at me, I'm dressed up, and so I have a reason to be looked at, as opposed to when I'm out in public without purple paint on my skin, and I still get stared at, when my scars are visable. But to me personally, I found it really nice to dress up as a burnt person, because I have burnt skin, and I was able to use that as part of dressing up as a character I really enjoy. All that being said, I do think it's a really interesting topic to reasearch and an impoorant thing to discuss.
It would be really interesting if you did a video on the "ugly laws", I had not heard about them before I would honestly be very interested in more disability history videos. Like the history of the DAN group in the UK or the ADA in America. It would also be cool to cover countries that are not in the Northern hemisphere lol Sometimes I am like mm I should start a youtube channel, I have so many ideas. And then I am like what am I talking about I am disabled and research requires so many spoons that I do not have Especially since I'm starting uni next year (something I never thought I'd be able to do but thanks to Jessica I actually got a diagnosis (I found out what POTS is and was like oh hey!) and I started receiving treatment and feeling a bit better)
I remember an episode from The Wild Thornberries where Eliza met a girl her age who had cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. Eliza kept treating her differently, and eventually the girl got frustrated and said she could do everything herself and didn't need Eliza's help. It was really interesting to me as a kid who hadn't interacted with someone who used a wheelchair.
Purposely arrived late at a Halloween party tonight to try and miss the movie just in case it had our least favourite trope in it - split personality bad guys! Great video though and totally agree that visible disabilities as a villainous trait needs to go. And we need more disabled good guys!
Orcs in Lord of the Rings always get to me. Not only do we have an entire race of people who are inherently evil and therefore okay to kill (yikes), but each and every one of them is disabled, scarred, and/or deformed. Think how unimaginable it would be if the noble elves were like that and all the evil orcs looked like Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler.
Actually, our modern vampires are heavily based on victims of tuberculosis being exhumed and having their decomposition misunderstood as somehow malignant. Ask a Mortician has an excellent video on the subject.
Your video is absolutely correct, visible scars or disability should never be short hand for villian, and I can think of too many examples of this trope to mention. However, I did manage to come up with 2 (and only 2) disfigured heroes. Nick Fury wears an eyepatch, and Harry Potter is famous for his scar. Harry even gets a romantic interest. It's a start, right?
Voldemort had serious disfigurement that was tied into his evil. Compared to Harry's cute, symbolic lightning-shaped scar? He might as well have had a butterfly-shaped birthmark. Deadpool. V in V for Vendetta is not all nice but he is fighting against some real villains. Mazikeen in Lucifer was often overenthusiastic but her heart was in the right place. Errm, The Toxic Avenger for some real comedy trash that challenged stereotypes? In the books James Bond had a scar.
My father had an acquired port wine stain on half of his cheek, that resulted from acne treatment he received in his late teens. I grew up used to it, but apparently other people found the dark red stain on his cheek offense. One woman even stopped to tell my mother, "They make makeup for that." My Dad had grown comfortable with the mark, none of his family made it an issue, but a stranger who couldn't bear to look at his mark, had to intrude and impose her unrequested and intrusive "solution" on my father and his family. If someone is that bothered that much by someone's scars or marks, they really need to keep their opinion to themselves.
Haven’t watched the full video but you should watch Six of Crows then. The main character is a teenage boy who uses a walking stick after a bank heist injury. He falls more into the anti hero category but he’s still a very beloved (and badass) character.
Great vid! There’s a lot of consciousness raising about invisible disabilities and well known visible disabilities but not about the ones you’ve discussed. We need to do better.
Excellent video! I have seen those reaction with my family member who is "simply" in a wheelchair... Thank you for talking about this subject... Take care...🙏🏻
Amazingly well-put. Everyone in the world needs to see this video. Negative representation should not be the only representation disabled or other minority groups get, and people's bodies should not be disrespected or used. Thank you for this amazing video
The how to train your dragon isnt always consistent in the quantity of its rep but I so appreciate it. Especially for Gobber, the twins, and Bucket. While the Twins arent disabled they are still major characters who arent conventionally attractive, are neurodivergent, yet still accepted and found ways fo contribute to their community dispite being illsuited for many jobs. Also for vampire lovers there was a series called Blood Ties with a lead dealing with a visual impairment but go into it warned that rep wasnt consistant either and it, uh, shall we say, shows the signs of the times it was made. Lots of minorities failed by no rep or bad rep there.
Ah, yes, Blood Ties. Just rewatched season 1 to be reminded of the good and the bad. It has such potential and is very much a product of less thoughtful times. 😢
@@Phoenix-zy1cx same. Though I didnt actually finish season 1. It was last week and I was going along okay despite the things that made me take pause and shake my head, but then I got to the Medusa/Gorgon episode. I just hit a wall once I remebered the conclusion and couldnt finish it. There is so much potential to the show and some things that were ahead of its time but in other ways its very much of its time and so deeply flawed.
@sternentigerkatze they are, and I do appreciate that rep, but I mentioned the others and appreciate them more as the give rep that is less polished. Hiccup is rarely seen being held back by the loss of a limb and after the initial loss when its brought up its usually just made a joke of. Toothless is slightless more realistic but also not human yet still potrayed as miles more capable and intelligent than other dragons. They both are a bit marysue when it comes to the disability side of things. Over all its still great to have the rep but I appreciate the others more and appreciate the franchise so greatly for having more than just the main characters giving representation.
I'm working on a love story about 2 women who have visible differences, both have scarring from their occupation and the one with facial scarring is considered very beautiful in universe, and by me haha
Penguin may not have always had a "scar," but he's always been physically disfigured. In some ways, making it a scar rather than full-body congenital deformity feels like it's at least a step in the right direction, though you could certainly counter that it's too litte and too slow. (You could also argue that Cobblepot in the Gotham show was technically not deformed, but it was clear that he was supposed to evoke a sernse of physical deformity, even if it wasn't explicit.)
I'd love to see a research deep dive into medieval practices around leprosy and other visible ailments. While there was much shunning, in certain communities lepers were held in high regard because they were considered closer to Heaven, and so their prayers are more likely to be answered. This led to pockets of good treatment. :) Then again, this also became justification for shunning poor people - "If they aren't poor, they won't be close to Heaven! We can't take care of their earthly needs!" 🤦🏻♀️
I don't know... I had my latest surgery just last week. The surgeon apologized for giving me new scars. "Aww, honey, it tells a story," I said, like a knee-jerk reaction. But if I'm being honest, it IS rather fearsome. I can see why it scares people. It scares even me. Especially new scars! Stitches look scary. It just is. How can I fault people for knowing what's scary?
I feel like the "we need a visual cue to know who is evil" thing in movies is SUCH a cop out! How about writing more creative characters and stories to show who is the bad guy? Musical cues? Costuming? No? Ok...
Not to mention poor storytelling. I have literally watched MYSTERIES where the villain turns out to be the only character with facial scarring. :/ Gee, what a shocking reveal.
Just wanted to let you know that I love your videos! Especially when you're having a migraine, that's pretty incredible. You're a total bada$$ and you teach me so much!
👏 Round of applause for the best scary costume idea: having to make phone calls. I can't really think of anything right off the top of my head. Anything I can think of is mostly stuff like the movie, "The Elephant Man". The main character is more tragic than heroic, though.
First thing that popped into my mind of good disable representation is Di-Gata. One of the main characters can't walk without her power boots. Also click more to see spoilers. Also another one of the main characters later on looses his arm and then wears a bionic arm.
I saw a sign while passing through Quartzite AZ the other day. Something to the affect of "say no to panhandling, donate to charity instead". It was a much worse sight in my eyes than any person I've ever seen on that corner.
The Owl House is pretty good, I think! You’ve got Hunter, Eda’s dad, and Principal Bump. Belo has the magic goop scar, but the truer form, Philip Wittebane, doesn’t. (And TOH is good for a lot of reasons, but these relate to this vid :)) Happy Nightmare Night!
While I agree with the sentiment, I think you chose a couple examples that were disfigured BECAUSE they were bad, not bad because they had scars. Freddy Krueger was an ordinary looking guy until he committed his crimes and THEN got the scars. Scarface was a violent drug lord... I've only seen him in Braveheart and Sons of Anarchy but Tommy Flanagan plays "tough guy" roles that aren't villains, and he's got the "Glasgow smile" facial scar.
While definitely not a horror series, there are a couple of episodes of the animated TV show RWBY that go into the horror genre. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially the most recent season. One of the main characters, Weiss Schnee, has a scar that runs down the left side of her face over her left eye. In addition, her teammate Yang loses her arm and gets a prosthetic one.
Often times your videos don't feel so personal (mostly because I tend to watch the happy ones more than sad ones!). But as someone who has terrible awful no-good psoriasis (that is dang resistant to everything but the Finest Pharmaceuticals), this one hits hard. Having to overhear multiple kids over the years ask, "why does that person have skin like that," and a tactless co-worker's spouse who is also a doctor butt into a conversation with, "oh, no, that's not a sunburn," it's good to get some more focus and perspective on this kind of disability. I'm ugly because my immune system has even more anxiety than my brain system. The rest* of me and my brain system work just fine. * Joints not included.
That's one of many reasons I loved the movie Nimona: The guy who everyone thinks is the villain and turns out to be the hero has a facial scar and limb difference and showed the audience not to make false assumptions.
I really liked that movie.
its such an amazing movie!
I just came to say this, Ballister is a fantastic subversion of this trope
i havent watched the movie yet but i did read the comic its based on years ago, its so beautiful!!!
That movie is up there with Spider man across the Spider verse in terms of awesomeness, freaking love that movie with all my soul.
Zuko is far better than his sister in avatar the last airbender. Generally the true villains have no disabled/scarred people in the show, while the heroes end with two.
Physically and mentally abused and raised in a monstrous culture - Zuko turned out to be a surprisingly good kid. In the context of the world, Sokka also saw himself as disabled because he did not have bending powers.
I thought of Zuko too! Lol. And Todoroki from my hero academia, who's kind of just... A Zuko clone ngl. Atla is such a good show and has remarkably solid disability rep for a cartoon for the early 2000s
Toph was awesome too!
I remember I was so shocked when we finally saw Ozai's face. With his effect on the world, just being an actual monster of a man with his actions, seeing... a 'normal' guy, someone who was conventionally 'beautiful' was so extremely unsettling. Before he'd always been a silhouette, so seeing someone who looked like anyone else was terrifying. Pinning it down as an adult, it's because it shows that anyone can choose to be a villain through their actions. I love that show so much.
Also though I know it's not quite the same, I loved Toph as a character. I have congenital hearing loss, and lost more of my hearing as I grew. It's only in one ear but it still makes a significant impact in my ability to function and my awareness of my surroundings and ability to focus. So seeing Toph, who her friends veiwed as normal and being blind was a PART of that and not despite it, who was shown as capable, who had unique skills tied into her disability that were seen as valuable (oh no, it's dark? Guess who doesn't care), but also had people who helped her without question whenever she needed it and didn't treat her as a burden (like when she got her feet burned, or in the desert with all the sand, and in the painted lady episode with the wooden docks someone was almost always just guiding her without making a big deal out of it), but also times when she had limits or was frustrated (like the desert when she couldn't 'see' even with her earthbending and couldn't save Appa, or how terrifying it was to have her feet be burned, or her hating shoes) felt so incredibly validating. Also seeing her not get the accommodations she needed and have to create her own ways to cope is sadly so familiar, both as someone who had autism and ADHD undiagnosed to adulthood, and sadly also as a hard of hearing kid. I was SUPPOSED to have an FM system as a kid in school, but I was almost never given it (it was often taken away to give to another kid, or paired to another class and the teachers refused to help me pair it to them, or it was out for repairs, or they simply forgot to give it to me). I was supposed to sit at the front of class so I could hear more easily, but once we no longer had assigned desks, the teachers would never help me if the front row filled up before I could get a seat. Often teachers would react with annoyance if I didn't hear them for 'ignoring them even though they were told that they had to tap my shoulder gently (not rap on it hard enough to hurt and spin me around aggressively to yell in my face) or wave if they were in my line of sight and call my name until I looked up. I was even a fairly confident self advocate as a kid, but I didn't understand that there wasn't a different expectation to how my family actually accommodated me (given my dad is deaf, we were pretty good at that) and how school was supposed to but didn't. So I went through my educational career with next to no support. Seeing Toph have to literally carve out her own supports and do the impossible (like learn to metalbend) is a very near and dear theme to my heart, especially after seeing that people responsible for her (in her case, her family and teacher) gave her only the supports convenient to them and not the ones that actually allowed her to thrive and viewed her as inherently less capable rather than able to be capable through different means but still with difficulties that are unavoidable and deserve compassion and respect.
@@Puddingbat toph is certified badass
Ableism in my family went like this: My mother would avoid visibly different or disabled people when they were near us in public. If we had to interact with them, she'd always privately vent her feelings to me that "they're always so ugly, so grumpy, so demanding." Now I identify as a disabled person and my internalized ableism and I are trying to unlearn all that. Even in modern times people villainize us because our presence and our needs represent the horror of society's mistreatment.
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I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that but I’m glad that you’re trying to unlearn the ableism.Good luck on your journey 🍀
What do you mean by you "identify" as a disabled person? Isn't disability a state of being and not an identification?
@@bn9611 It is not always so clear-cut. Is autism considered as being disabled, for example? Legally it differs from country to country, and different autists think of it differently, both because their autism varies (for some it comes with slower or impaired mental or linguistic development, for some not, and how it affects daily life also varies).
And not everyone is even recognised as such as kids, though always having been on the spectrum.
And a what point does bad eyesight become disability? The legal limit does not necessarily coincide with how one identifies. I know a couple of people with hearing aid, I suspect none of them identify themselves as disabled.
Hunter from the Owl House is actually a good inversion. He starts as a masked villain “The Golden Guard” and rather than the reveal of his face with a scar being a source of horror, it is the start of him being portrayed in a positive light as he begins growing as a person and ends the show as part of the protagonist squad and with a girlfriend in the form of Willow, so hero and love interest. Additionally when he gets more scars later on the reaction the rest of the cast is focused on the cause of him being injured and his well-being not the physical changes that are a result.
And Eda! She starts out being like a magic version of being chronically ill. She’s the grumpy mother (tm) character, she gets to be the cool rebellious one. She gets to overthrow a tyrant with her kids. And she becomes an amputee along the way.
Specifically loved the episode with her mom when she kept giving Eda bad advice, going down an anti vaxxer type pipeline. And Eda has a whole episode to deal with her illness and the way her family sees her. Eda gets quite a bit of screen time to make peace with her body and the owl beast. We get to learn the owl beast was never Eda’s enemy, she just needed to get to know and understand it and her situation. They could have easily made the owl beast her enemy but instead it reminded me of the way I’d fight my body because I couldn’t accept the fact it just doesn’t work like a non disabled body.
Eda the owl lady was always a hero and while the way we were introduced to her disability in season one feels a bit icky, I fucking loved seeing a chronically ill, disabled rebel with a bunch of found family overthrow a dictator while also being queer as fuck.
The owl house has my entire heart.
@@residentbogwitch and you get to see Eda teach newly disabled Lilith how to live with the Owl Beast
Honestly Owl House is a gem. They did everything right in this show and the representation is also de sweetest ever!!
I love TOH, the representation is so fantastic and Dana is a huge inspiration to me. I wish it wasn’t owned by such a terrible corporation but it’s how Dana makes her money.
OWL HOUSE MENTION!
I have a scar on my forehead from a fall that required stitches, when I was around 6. For the longest time, I was sure that scar was the first thing anyone noticed when they looked at my face. I wore bangs to hide my "disfigurement". It wasn't until I was an adult in my 40's, that I realized that not only did people not notice that I have a scar on my forehead, my own son didn't even realize that I had one. What I saw as a huge scar, was actually a small, less than an inch long, mark that is almost invisible.
I found a similar thing growing up in that people didn't always notice my facial scars, but because I found it hard to predict people's reactions, they sometimes felt like the elephant in the room to me.
I can relate. I have a scar between my eyes wasn't noticed by my partner for at least a year.
The obsession with looking pretty as presentable, I found from personal experience goes way beyond actually having scars. I have a really high forehead and there was a lot of pressure in the family to have bangs and hide it, like it was a deformity. When if you look at 90% of the women in my family we all have the same forehead. Also most people are not very noticing, I find a lot of comfort in that.
I have a mercedes-like scar on my eyebrow, and always thought people notice it, but turns out they rarely do. I had few situations when I was like "you know, this funny scar I have…" and my friends' reaction would be "what scar?" xD
I can kind of relate too. I have a scar on the side of my nose that has always seemed very large to me, but no one ever notices it unless I point it out.
Even though he starts as an antagonist, I would still say Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender is great rep for people with facial scars. While he's hunting down Aang at the beginning, he's always positioned as someone to root for and empathize with, and his redemption arc is one of the best ones in TV. And he gets a romance!
I loved Zuko. All the time I was muttering - "Listen to your Uncle, he learned from his war crimes!".
@@pattheplanter Uncle Iroh is the Best!
Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road is the first positive character that comes to mind. She’s an amputee whose limb difference isn’t a plot-point or directly mentioned, she just exists as an amputee. She is also the hero and main character of the movie (despite what the title implies). She is depicted throughout as strong, capable, and extremely tough; it’s refreshing!
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I thought she was the Fury of the title and the way to her childhood home was the Road she was on. I do tend to headcanon everything Hollywood to make it healthier.
I will add that Max is LITERALLY mad, and he’s pretty cool, too
I didn’t dig the way that a lot of disabled folks with less “pretty” disabilities were bad, but you can’t win them all
I'm gonna have to rewatch that movie because I didn't even *notice* a missing limb!
"Oh boy I sure love learning about history 1st thing in the morning"
"Did you know that there used to be laws to stop disabled people from being in public?"
Why do I do this every morning, it just makes me sad
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My partner and I have a rule in our place: "No disaster before breakfast."
"Disaster" includes: politics, current events/news, religion, natural or man-made disasters, violent happenings, and history or other information that may upset us before we eat--in either content or conversation.
It helps. Really. ❤
I found Luca's portrayal of limb differences to be really well done. Massimo is such a good character and a loving father too.
I was thinking about that! I love the fact that his difference was just there and not really relevant to the plot. As an able-bodied person, I obviously can’t really say if it’s good or not, but it seems like good representation to me.
I also love his limb difference wasn't duo a tragedy, like in the most classic monster movies. Luca is all about subverting the narrative on outsiders. The sea monster are two kids who just want to enjoy being kids, and the buff one-armed man is wonderful father (to both his daughter and surratage son Alberto) who happens to born that way.
Something I noticed about Lego minifigures at least a decade ago is that they would often have "bad guys" that featured prosthetic limbs. It was only in the past few years that they introduced a figure with a "blade" type prosthetic leg that was just a representation of a normal, everyday person. Not some hideous creature.
Their "Friends" line also has much improvements on representation!
Once again Jessica is spot on in calling out the media for bad representation.
Sloth in The Goonies comes to minds as a character that appears to be a bad guy because of the way he looks, but is really a good guy.
The recent Witches movie is a tone deaf example...pun intended
Uncle from Another World plays with these tropes, in a fantasy cartoon setting.
As a child I was prevented from seeing the movie (or learning the lesson) because my mother felt Sloth's appearance was "too scary" with no other context. :(
@@Authentistic-ism ❤️ aww, sorry. Have you been able to watch it now?
@@jennifers5560 yes it's a favorite
Stuff like this is why I worried about my son, now 13, when he started daycare, preschool, and kindergarten-he has a hand difference (think Finding Nemo, not far off). He is super smart, super friendly and cheerful-and when he was three, he came home and told me “guess what mommy, my hand’s broken.” I talked to the preschool, and then I talked to his class of three year olds. But the fact that I had to start teaching him at age THREE how to respond to other kids or adults saying horrible things about him…😡😭
This made me think of Todd Browning’s 1930s film “Freaks”….the moral of the whole film is that the “evil people” are the able bodied people who mistreated them.
Happy Halloween to all of you! 🎃
As horrifying as the film was, you could at least say it was a 1930s production. But just a few years ago American Horror Story revamped the tale, giving us an entire season of circus "freaks" who were sometimes put upon by those who were able-bodied, but who were more often than not genuinely monstrous themselves. So clearly nobody learned anything. What made this even more horrifying is that it was produced by the same people who were criticized from putting an able-bodied actor in a wheelchair to play a wheelchair-bound character when they were doing Glee!
I love that movie.
The original "Freaks" movie is fascinating. Groundbreaking, complex, and genuinely focusing on the lives of the people. It's a rather sweet slice of life story about found family and the lives of a community of performers. It isn't even a horror movie until the last act, when the people of the show enact a justified revenge on two able-bodied villains who were swindling and poisoning one of their own. The revenge was not murder, but to turn them into freaks, who the villains had hated and mistreated. Poetic justice indeed.
I'm not surprised that AHS did a terrible revamp. Everything about that show is basically awful but people keep coming back because it's "edgy." As a trauma survivor, I stay very far away from its insensitive nonsense parading as cool.
"One of us, One of us!"
One really striking thing about Freaks is that there’s a scene where one of the only able-bodied “good guy” characters talks to one of the children in the side show. This kid clearly has some sort of developmental disability that’s resulted in her head being an unusual shape. And this guy treats her like she’s a completely normal kid and a friend, telling her that her outfit looks nice and that he’s glad to see her, that kind of thing. (Her mother/guardian gives a little speech about how the disabled kids are still kids even though everyone is cruel to them.) This was a movie that said to its audience, “hey, food for thought, maybe people you consider ‘freakish’ are every bit as human as you are and deserve to be treated that way.” Almost a hundred years on, it’s still an incredible piece of film.
I cried watching an episode of Star Trek Discovery and seeing Tig Notaro's character use a sci-fi wheelchair because of chronic pain. Probably the first time I saw someone in TV/movies like me. And watching Good Omens and seeing Liz Carr as an angel who has miraculous accessibility wherever she goes was awesome, and I saw a background angel actor with Down's Syndrome as well.
I know that both TNG and DS9 had one-shot characters in wheelchairs, and in DS9 there is commiserative complaining that the Cardassians built such an ableist station.
I’ve been really pleased over the last couple months to see Liz Carr in both Good Omens and Loki!
Both are great examples of casual representation where the character has a disability because the actress they choose to play them just happened to have a disability.
she also appeared in season 2 and 3 of The Witcher :) agree with you, REALLY good to see Liz featuring so much!
I believe she's also in Silent Witness, or was, I'm not sure if she still is.
Yes! I was really happy to see that too!
Yes in good omens!!!
@evelynsnyder5866 I loved her in silent witness! Now I have seen the other shows listed she is in I might be more tempted to watch them
I always would find it very upsetting as a small child that none of my favourite characters looked anything like me. Then at school people told me that I looked like a villain from some kids' film -- not in a mean way, but it was heartbreaking to hear as a 6 year old. I find it truly soul-crushing that my story was only ever assigned to villains or outcasts, and that very little has changed over the years.
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What a horrible thing to say to someone let alone to a child! 🤯😡
I’m so sorry you went through this ❤
Finding Nemo has representstion of good characters with physical and mental differences, as an able -bodied person I'll leave it up to others to decide if its good representation or not though haha. I liked it! And at least for us growing up it was used as an example of "some people are different but it doesn't make them beneath others"
Thank you for this reminder!
My son has symbrachydactyly, which is a lot like Nemo’s lucky fin. Finding Nemo at least gave me an immediate context when we found out after his birth: I would be the anti-Marlin.
Finding Nemo was huge for me as one of my arms is smaller and doesn't work as well(birth injury). I actually felt represented and it was so cool. I still love that movie so much because of how well it addresses growing up with a disability.
This is why I always loved Wicked: in the wizard of Oz the wicked witch of the west is that typical villain with visible differences, and Wicked does a really good job at showing how the world twisted Elphaba’s story because of her visible difference
I had never heard of the ugly laws before. But it doesn't surprise me. Here in Florida (of course) they still have these types of laws, just under different names. They target poor, homeless and people begging. Some laws (looking at you Sarasota) allow the police to literally take homeless people and move them (without their consent) outside of the city limits. Can't have the tourists thinking we have homeless there, now can we.
I wonder if any of those laws still being subtly around have to do with Florida being a spot for circus performers to spend the winter?
Maybe that's an outdated reason, but it came to mind as potential background.
Unbelievable!
@@Phoenix-zy1cx Nope. Rich people vacation in Sarasota. Says it all.
And the circus performers wintered about an hour north in Gibsonton.
Honolulu, where I live, has similar laws, that they use to keep all the homeless people out of tourist-frequented areas like Waikiki. The ACLU is actually suing the city of Honolulu for their laws criminalizing homelessness.
The extent and severity of homelessness here is truly appalling, worse than I've seen anywhere else in the country. It's not just the sheer number of homeless people but also the horrifying extent of their suffering. There are literally people dying of starvation on the streets, people covered in sores getting eaten alive by flies, the kind of poverty you'd normally only expect to see in low-income countries suffering from famine. If tourists were actually exposed to this side of Hawaii, I doubt many of them would come back.
This Halloween I learned some more about cultural appropriation, fetishization and villainisation in costumes. Of course, I was already aware of the slogan "My culture isn't your costume" and that things like dressing up in a caricature of a Native American person or other cultures isn't okay, but there is always more to learn. I learned that "boho" as a style originates from the fetishisation of Romani people in France and has over time been muddled to include Native American and sometimes Black culture or versions of them. I learned that witches' hats and noses may have evolved from antisemtic stereotypes and hats Jewish people were forced to wear in Medieval Europe to identify them. Also about how the man who was the inspiration for Dracula tortured his Romani slaves. Obviously, I don't think that no one should enjoy Halloween or dressing up or parties or pieces of media or anything else that gives them joy. I just find it important to know where a lot of this stuff is coming from.
I mean, bats and ghosts are safe bets to dress up as. Same with skeletons.
I see my fellow florida.florian viewer here.
Witches hats are based on Puritan hats of the 17th century, and the hooked noses are to signify elderly women, particularly those who have lost their teeth. Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, tortured his political enemies, not his slaves.
I find it really interesting how this idea of the “good disabled” plays through in film as well. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a disability portrayed as anything other than the villain (facial disfigurement, bodily differences) or the sympathy character (frail, wheelchair user, female, conventionally attractive) who usually dies. Or in terms of neurological disabilities like autism, we’re either portrayed as the problem or conflict within the film or as a sympathy character used to highlight the hero’s kindness. Having an invisible disability, I think I never quite realized just how poignant the portrayal of disabilities are in film and media. Definitely something to think about this Halloween (and beyond)
The thing that gets me about the Bond stories is that when you consider how many fights he's been in, how many times he'd been shot, jumped off of buildings, and all the other dangerous things he finds himself tangled up in, it would make **perfect** sense for Bond himself to have visible facial (and other) scars. It's so easy for them to do it right, it literally writes itself. But no, instead we get the same tired excuses and continuing portrayal of the villian only... xx
Realisticly, Bond should have so many chronic pain thanks to all the sheningas he goes throught
I saw a post on Facebook recently that said that the reason that witches are portrayed like the stereotypical Halloween decoration (green skin, lumpy features etc) is likely due to the fact that despite the trope of women being accused publicly and taken directly to the stake, they were kidnapped first, tortured into confessing and then paraded as a confessed witch. Being beaten and generally tortured would leave them with bruised and discolored skin, broken features/limbs/hands and a tendency to hunch from exhaustion/pain.
I find myself disgusted and afraid by certain physical deformities, and I am disabled and would certainly be hit by those ugly laws. It is subconscious because of being told since childhood how bad it is. Media didn't help. I have had to work to undo my internalized ableism and fears that I got without even knowing I was being programmed to fear people who are different. As a result I even find myself disgusted with my own disabilities without understanding why I was scared of these things. You hit the nail on the head. Thank you for this because I didn't quite think that maybe being bombarded with these tropes is part of why I have these problems now. We need to do better.
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You have proven that these stereotypes harm us people with disabilities!
I LOVE RIGHTEOUSLY ANGRY JESSICA!! She is SUCH A MOOD!!
Something I think about every now and then is how you rarely see people with deformities or physical differences, as if they’re always hiding away. It makes me sad to think about. When I was a stupid kid in middle school my English teacher had a deformed left hand.. it basically looked like a paw; a fist with tiny little fingers that looked more like toes. One of my biggest regrets in grade school is when I was trying to be “cool” and “funny” to impress the popular kids. When I mentioned Mrs. Teacher’s “paw” even the mean kids were like “Wow that’s messed up”… I’ll never forget how ashamed I felt. I’m sorry Mrs. Teacher.
I don't watch films much, but most of the things I do watch are vampire-related. Which often doesn't fit this stereotype. The bad guys are deceptively beautiful, they lure you in and then kill you. I've always found the "ugly bad guys" thing kind of tacky, boring, and predictable. Like just because they look different why are they always evil? I much prefer the siren concept of a villain, where they trick you with beauty and charms.
This one always frustrates me with voice acting. All too often, when there's an evil vizier or similar traitor character, they'll use the melodramatic evil voice from the start, even in scenes where they're supposed to be presenting as genuine and loyal.
@caitlyncarvalho7637 Honestly, I don't know enough about either show to judge fairly.
The facial scar trope has made me roll my eyes from when I was kid. I never thought about how much it might affect people with facial scars, though. I feel stupid.
“Only Murders in the Building” has a deaf character who is played by a man who is actually deaf!
Fun fact: that actor, James Caverly, was in a production of The Music Man that was both sung and performed in ASL. He played the lead role, signing the entire thing (the actor playing his buddy who lived in town did the singing); Marian both signed and sang her part, and her little brother Winthrop, instead of having a lisp, had the body language of a kid way too shy to sign clearly. It was an absolutely incredible production that completely changed my ideas as a hearing person about what musicals can be. Honestly, if they ever revive it, even if I live on the other side of the world I’ll make a trip out to see it again.
@@bigjedimulletWow! That sounds incredible!
James Caverly is such a fan favorite we kind of break social media when he's on the show. He wasn't in this past season this much, but he was frequently mentioned in the script. So even after his first season debut, he's still a character who moves the plot forward. And no spoilers to anyone who hasn't seen the series yet. You simply must. There's a reason he was nominated for an award.
If you are a person who doesn't think a deaf actor can make you cry, I promise James Caverly will change your mind.
@@PhoebeFayRuthLouise I think the other comment I left got eaten, but-look up Olney Theater, there are some clips of the production and interviews with Caverly. His version of Harold Hill was so charming even the audience got lost in his sweet talk! Also, this version of River City was based on a town in New England where some significant part of the population was congenitally deaf from the 1600s onwards and so for several hundred years everyone in town just learned sign language.
James Caverly is both an iconic performer and a damn snack. I loved the first season episode filmed with minimal sound. I also just love watching people sign, but obviously don’t want to stare at folks signing irl bc, well, rude
The main character from a book series called "From Blood And Ash" has notable facial scars. Interestingly, all of the villains were described as perfect, beautiful, or flawless. It was a nice flip of the script, and it also touched on the struggles related to the character's physical difference and did in fact show that character finding a love interest and overall being pretty darn cool.
I was born with localised gigantism of 3 of the toes in my right foot, the proper diagnosis is macrodactyly with syndactyly of the second and third digits, and luckily for me it’s actually a more minor case than most people with my condition. All my life I’ve had people look at my right foot like it’s alien and disgusting, like it’s some disease they could catch if they touch my foot. I’ve had people give it cruel nicknames like “seaweed toes” because supposedly they look like that. I’ve had people genuinely say “what’s wrong with your toes?” with a disgusted look on their face. The bullying about it was especially bad because for most of my childhood I did taekwondo, a sport where you have to be completely barefoot while practicing, you’re not even allowed to wear socks. My self confidence was so destroyed that I didn’t wear open toe shoes for more than a decade, and at one point I was seriously considering getting cosmetic surgery to make them look “normal”. I’m so glad I decided not to go through with surgery though, because my “weird” toes are part of who I am. Sure they make my right foot an entire size bigger than my left, which makes buying shoes really annoying. But they’re part of my identity. Not to mention I’d most definitely be stuck with chronic pain for the rest of my life if I had gotten that surgery, and since I already have fibromyalgia that gives me chronic pain, I decided to pass on that. Today I proudly wear open toe shoes and walk barefoot, if people stare at them weird I just glare at them and say “what are you looking at?” I’m proud that my toes are part of me and I wouldn’t change them for the world.
I have to be honest. As a huge Halloween Fan and as a person without limb/facial differences, it had never before occured to me that these kinds of costumes were problematic. I am so glad to have watched your Video on this. Thank you for educating me and many others on all sorts of biases that we might not even be aware about. I hope I can pay more attention to this in the future, and educate others when I see it happen. Happy Holidays!
One of my favorite movies, The Craft, actually does a great job of addressing the idea of disfigurement. Bonnie is relentlessly bullied for her burn scars, and goes through extremely painful experimental and unnecessary medical procedures for some reason without any kind of numbing agent. We also see her begging for her scars to be removed by her gods in a truly heartbreaking scene. When it all suddenly works and she's completely scar free is when her morality and kindness is erased. Her reply when called out on this is everything: "I spent most of my life as a monster and now that I'm not I'm enjoying myself."
*steers towards race issues* in NZ our incoming government is talking about legislating forcing "gang members" to cover their face tattoos in public places. Biggest problem with this (there are SO MANY problems) is ta Moko is the practice of facial tattooing in Māori culture, representing your whakapapa (who you are, where you're from, your experiences) so it gives people not only a legal but an actually encouraged reason to discriminate. I'm absolutely disgusted by it.
Why'd you have to say making phone calls? 😬😱🙀 So scary
I hadn't thought of that! I will have to keep "gang tattoos" to a minimum- -or heavily research both criminal and regular tattoos, to distinguish them in my comics.
Tattoos tell a story, if you're writing and drawing comics then any tattoo you draw or allude to would be there to add to the story. Just gotta make sure the tattoo is telling the story you want it to 💜
Also I want to point out that most of the disabled/disfigured villains are men. Once in a while you get a Dr. Poison or Anne Hathaway in the Witches, but 95% of the time female villains are still expected to be hot, or at least conventionally attractive. Basically disfigured women are barely allowed to exist in films at all. (I specified disfigured because disabled women are allowed in films as "tragic" or "inspirational" provided they're conventionally attractive)
Yeah, I think this is my only torn point with a film like “V for Vendetta.” Like, it’s one of the few pieces of representation where a character who canonically has severe facial scarring is presented as heroic… yet we never get to actually see his face. Granted, there’s an actual thematic purpose for this in terms the idea “anyone” can wear the mask and be a hero, but then there’s also the fact getting to see his face could have been potentially empowering for people with facial scarring.
Great comment, random question - I am reading the graphic novel after watching the movies years ago, I am at the part where SPOILER
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He kidnaps Evey, and am unsure how I feel about it, I thought I remembered everything he did was a good thing, I am conflicted about why he would use that approach, though it is faster it doesn't seem the best option, what is your take on it?
@@pradlark yeah, that’s Alan Moore’s strangely nihilistic “no one is REALLY good, everybody’s evil” shtick for you. I seem to recall the film _SEVERELY_ toning that part down by comparison, but I can’t really comment on the graphic novel as I haven’t read it.
I absolutely love this film and re-watch it every year, but I will be honest and say I have never read the graphic novel so I can't speak to that.
I would say V is not a hero but actually a character trope: the sin-eater. This is a character who takes on the burden of doing morally reprehensible things so others dont have to, all to achieve a better world in the future, while knowing that this better world will have no place for them as they are monsters themselves. V changes the world for the better- both himself and through Evie- but is still fundamentally a serial killer and torturer and he knows it. The real heroes are the two policemen Finch and Dominic, who keep fighting for answers even when the system doesn't want them found and Evey, who truly learns not to blend in to the apathetic crowd but to stand up and fight oppression where she sees it.
I knew you would handle this subject with tact. As someone who has a facial difference, growing up sucked. I was called every villain name in the book. I had no friends and when they were not making fun of me, they shunned me.
Not having ANY real representations in 2023 is so frustrating. So many great organizations trying to make a difference but it’s like talking in to a void because the wider public don’t care. They continue to see us as less than, that we don’t exist. You know how hard it is to get a job with a facial difference? A lot harder than it should be.
I’ve had kids take one look at me and run screaming. I’ve had people just get right close and just stare at me.
Anyways….lol I’m angry, but alas I wanted to thank you. Thanks for including a lot of quotes from some amazing people. If you ever want to collab let me know.
I love that dress! I realized while listening to this that I often give my video game characters a facial scar but I always play as a good guy. I've just always seen it as visible proof that they put their life on the line for others. I never thought about it until you pointed it out that we don't see heroes in the movies with any sort of scars or disabilities.
In Germany and Central Europe, in the late 19th and into the 20th centuries, it was fashionable for men to have a "dueling scar" on their face - to the point that many men would intentionally get their faces cut in order to create a scar - because it was seen as a mark of somebody who was adventurous and would be willing to fight for honour (theirs, or perhaps that of a lady).
Now I'm wondering if that reinforced the "scarred villain" trope in the US and Western Europe after WW1 and WW2. Because a character coded as German or Central/Eastern European must obviously = bad guy.
But I digress, my point was: It was seen as cool to have a scar at that time and place. It's the Chicks-dig-scars idea, which is why the hero in romance novels or adventure stories often has an artistically placed scar or two.
And I agree, that dress is amazing.
Many of the good 'guys' in The Walking Dead franchise have become 'disfigured' during the course of the shows. Not to mention Nick Fury from the Avengers movies. And that's just off the top of my head. BTW - I grew up with pox scars on my face. Many of my contemporaries did since there was no chicken pox vaccine. I never thought of myself as 'disfigured' or 'deformed' in any way. Not was I ever treated as such by any one.
I remember being 14 or so and watching "Sailor Moon" for the first time. All the bad guys in that show were hunks with gorgeous flowy hair. I remember thinking to myself: "Why do all villains in western cartoons look terrible? This is so much more interesting!" I'm 40 now. It's high time cinemamakers learned to convey their villain's nastiness in a different way than giving them "scary" looks. (And it's been done with success - remember DiCaprio's role in "Django", anyone?)
I have had severe skin lesions sine I was in my early teens. It's not acne, and I still haven't received a proper diagnosis for it. I literally quit socializing for a decade because people would constantly comment on it, and I felt so rejected that I didn't want to exist. I'm also chronically ill, and have horrible brain fog, so that didn't help at all. I was constantly made to feel like my physical and mental infirmities were personal failings.
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This was fascinating to me because I never thought about this when I upended the trope while working on my stories because I made the villain as handsome while two of the good guys have scars. I wasn't thinking about it because I wrote the characters as having aspects of my own life.
The manga Fullmetal Alchemist has a lot of characters with scars and missing limbs and when I first red it as a teen I didnt really realized how important it was in the story and for many of the characters. But I re red it recently and I felt like it was actually really well treated, there is quite a lot of impact about different caracters having diffenrent body or health issues.
Richard Harrow from Boardwalk Empire is not only one of my favorite characters ever, but a great example of an awesome, badass heroic, disabled hero. Everyone in the show is at least a bit morally gray, but Richard probably has the best inner compass. And a HELL of a shot, despite only having one eye now. A little Byronic and complicated, but that’s why I love him. He’s not so perfect that he feels unattainable or unrealistic… he’s a good man who exists in a very corrupt world and is trying to do his best. Man, I love him.
I've been working to unlearn abelism for years, and somehow I had never considered Halloween nor facial differences in media. Thank you for this video! Personally, your rant videos are my favorite!
Hi Jessica, I’m sorry you’re going through a rough time right now. I hope it gets better soon. 💜
Its funny how people push "what doesnt kill you makes you stronger" and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" yet thanks to media we know and have plenty of evidence to show that huge portions of society expect that those facing trauma and adversity to end up being pushed to a place to become villainous because of a lack of support or ill treatment.
Sorry if Im not articulating this well. Im currently slumped on the couch trying to recoup some spoons since I burned through most pushing to be productive.
Ruth Codd (27, Irish, amputee) plays very positive characters in Mike Flanagan's Midnight Club and The fall of the House of Usher. She's badass and adorable at the same time.
I think Mike Flannagan is a good example of a horror director who doesnt use abelism to protray his vilians, as far as Im aware non of his vilains (or at least those in his Netflix series', I havent watched his movies yet) have facial scars or visible disabilities, in his last 2 adpations for Netflix, The Midnight Club and The Fall Of The House Of Usher have a character who is an amputee, and she's definitely not a vilian, and both characters are protrayed by Ruth Codd who has a limb differnece herself. And being an amputee isnt the only aspect of these characters personalities, and we do see one character use a wheelchair when not wearing a prosthetic, and in FOTHOU there are multiple shots where you can see her prosthetic.
Granted, im not an amputee, my disablities are for the most part invisable, so obviously i dont speak for amputees or folk with limb differences, and maybe this representation isnt as good as i think it is, but I do love to see Mike Flannagan giving Ruth Codd these rolls, its great to see him support this young disabled actress, and Ruth is just a phenomenal actress!
I made my own comment on this before I found yours. Fully agree. I'd be interested to hear how much input she has in her characters portrayals regarding their limb differences.
I liked that in the two shows, there was still vast differences in how their disabilaties affected them too, admittedly one had many other issues going on that surely played a massive part. But in House of Usher you could easily miss that she's got a prosthetic leg, but it's also not hidden at all. It's just there. It doesn't define her but it still affects her.
I watched both of these shows and just assumed they hired an able bodied performer and didn't push the camera in on the chair or prosthesis!
Even in the negative sides of her two characters, they are two very honest versions of disability. Pain killer addiction and emotionally abusive defense mechanisms are no joke and I'm so happy to know that Flanagan wasn't talking out his ass regarding those characters.
Jessica I am so sorry for the losses you are suffering. I have recently been going through some losses too and my heart goes out to you and your family.
I did want to thank you for this video. I had never heard of the “ugly laws” and am really sickened, and sad that they existed in my country. I’m also somewhat embarrassed to say I never even thought about the fact that the villains in media are usually disfigured. Thank you for once again for enlightening me, so I can do better in the future.
This might interest you years ago as a kid in elementary school. I think I was the only person who wrote a story in which the princess is called by her own father ugly because unlike her sister, who resembles their mother, she resembles her father, who is not a handsome prince he’s a king and he’s not exactly handsome, and it wasn’t a trope in her case she was beautiful. Her mother actually called her beautiful. Linda and her father called her Faya meaning ugly because in his eyes, the way she looked at him was ugly. In the end she gets the castle she gets the whole kit and caboodle, and it turns out her sister is the really wicked evil one and she’s gorgeous, the purpose of this as I was sick and tired as a kid of the trope of the handsome prince of the handsome princess they’re always gorgeous. There was blonde, and I was fed up with it. I had met a girl who was very nice and to me she was like a princess she was beautiful in the way that mattered and I decided to model the character after her and believe me when you heard the kids in school and how they treated her I used to get into a lot of fights because of it so I know all about having been both on the receiving end and the kind of kid who would stick up for others.
I’m so glad to be born in this time… we’re not perfect but at least better than it used to be
Porco Rosso is a good example, as it is about a veteran pilot that literally turns into a pig over having survivor’s guilt. I suppose that there is an argument to be made for Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke and Demon Slayer’s Tajiro for their scars, as well.
The budget those Scooby Doo villains had for their disguises was out of control
Quasimodo from Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame was an uplifting representation of disfigured people. I cry every time.
“You are deformed...”
“...i am deformed…”
“And you are ugly…”
“and i am ugly”
“And these are crimes for which the world has no pity”
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and why didn't he get his princess romance??!!!!
@@Authentistic-ismI suspect because they only tweaked the very depressing book to make the movie they didn't completely rewrite it.
@@Authentistic-ism Also he does eventually get a love interest but it's with the misfortune of being in Hunchback II which you're free to completely ignore.
@@Authentistic-ism Because in the book he actually dies with Esmeralda... She is not a Disney princess. She's more of an activist who dies for her beliefs and so does he.
...Then again the original Snow White was more of an activist who used her social rank as well and was likely murdered for her beliefs. No prince. No kiss. But the fairy tale is a lot nicer to think about instead.
That movie is what we call inspirational porn. It is NOT a positive depiction.
I'm not disabled, but I have facial scarring, because a surgeon cut my face when performing a C-section. I'm not disfigured though because the scar isn't that big and faded out with age. Still, relate to characters with facial scars.
😱 I'm so sorry that happened to you!
Good lord! That took some ...talent... *hugs*
@@eliscanfield3913 I know how it makes my surgeon look, but it was actually a job well done. I was choking in the womb and a couple minutes longer could've resulted in a miscarriage. She pulled a miracle, my survival chances were pretty low. Although the scar is really close to my eye, so a few milimetres lefter...
@@zhenia2511 Ooh, I thought you were the parent, not the baby. Must need more caffeine or sleep.
@@eliscanfield3913 That surely would have been a miss.
I have to think about the original topic a bit
But one thing I always felt to be annoying was the difference between ugly scars on the one side and pretty almost fetishized scars on the other side. When the love interest playfully touches the battle wound scar or torture scars of the hero and says Ooh tell me your story of trauma and pain, I'm so intrigued by it... if the scars look pretty the PTSD comes in its pretty form too with nightmares and brooding and a little mystery, nothing nasty!
kaz and adrik from the grishaverse and cinder and winter from the lunar chronicles (both book series) are pretty awesome imo
"Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula le Guin. The main character has facial scars (and is also not white). At least in the original book, the film mucked it up.
We can safely ignore the film…it doesn’t exist…we don’t remember it…it’s just a really bad knock-off.
I love Earthsea! I really need to read more of the series, it's been too long since I picked up an Earthsea book 😭
Have fun with Rupert tonight. Toddlers are fun at Halloween.
It's very 80s, but I like Mask with Cher and Eric Stolz. It deals with not just disability but, the other-ing that happens in society all the time. The "bad" biker gang are the staunchest supporters of Rocky.
That was a really good movie.
I love these well-researched deep dives!!
I wanna see a room full of villains with deformaties - like shrek 3 style - where all the deformaties are obvious and then u get the neurodivergant corner and the hero is just like "whats wrong with you?" And one lass pipes up "oh well I'm autistic and apparently that's terrifying to some people, anyways, busy!" And just goes back to her book while the hero is utterly terrified. Then there's a story time with each of them, like the song "I have a dream" from tangled.
One of my favourite films, Nightbreed (written and directed by Clive Barker), has many monsters and disfigured people. One of the things I love about it is that the 'normal' people are the bad guys!
So to the point and hilarious!! The sarcasm is SO ON POINT! Could watch this forEVAA
🔥😅
Jessica I'm sorry to hear you're having a rough time at the moment, my best wishes to you and your family.
The Akata Witch series makes people with a variety of differences as the wizard-types, there's good ones and bad ones. Not all the differences are obvious, like the major character with a learning disability, but some are more noticeable.
I'm not sure if this character would count as disabled but Frankie Stein from Monster High has scars and stitches keeping her limbs together (With her hand sometimes will flew off and run around at times.) is a great character! My favorite is when she was helping this dude from the island learn to love himself as a fellow monster.
I love the character DC Helen Milton, who is played by Lisa Hammond, on the show Vera. The character isn't defined by being in a wheel chair. She's just an awesome character that happens to be played by an actress in a wheelchair.
This just gives me more motivation to write a story about queer, neurodivergent, physically disabled people saving the world and kicking ass
Love your videos!
I dressed up as Dabi from my hero academia this Halloween, and I know he's a villan, but I also really like his character. I have scars from a third degree burn, and I know this a very personal experience, and that undersendably not everyone feels like this. But I really enjoyed painting my scars to look like this character. It also makes me sad to be able to feel more confident in my scars if I'm wearing a halloween costume, because when people look at me, I'm dressed up, and so I have a reason to be looked at, as opposed to when I'm out in public without purple paint on my skin, and I still get stared at, when my scars are visable. But to me personally, I found it really nice to dress up as a burnt person, because I have burnt skin, and I was able to use that as part of dressing up as a character I really enjoy.
All that being said, I do think it's a really interesting topic to reasearch and an impoorant thing to discuss.
It would be really interesting if you did a video on the "ugly laws", I had not heard about them before
I would honestly be very interested in more disability history videos. Like the history of the DAN group in the UK or the ADA in America. It would also be cool to cover countries that are not in the Northern hemisphere lol
Sometimes I am like mm I should start a youtube channel, I have so many ideas. And then I am like what am I talking about I am disabled and research requires so many spoons that I do not have
Especially since I'm starting uni next year (something I never thought I'd be able to do but thanks to Jessica I actually got a diagnosis (I found out what POTS is and was like oh hey!) and I started receiving treatment and feeling a bit better)
so sorry for your losses Jessica, if you meant your grieving loved ones, sending you strength and warm wishes🤎
I remember an episode from The Wild Thornberries where Eliza met a girl her age who had cerebral palsy and used a wheelchair. Eliza kept treating her differently, and eventually the girl got frustrated and said she could do everything herself and didn't need Eliza's help. It was really interesting to me as a kid who hadn't interacted with someone who used a wheelchair.
Purposely arrived late at a Halloween party tonight to try and miss the movie just in case it had our least favourite trope in it - split personality bad guys! Great video though and totally agree that visible disabilities as a villainous trait needs to go. And we need more disabled good guys!
Orcs in Lord of the Rings always get to me. Not only do we have an entire race of people who are inherently evil and therefore okay to kill (yikes), but each and every one of them is disabled, scarred, and/or deformed. Think how unimaginable it would be if the noble elves were like that and all the evil orcs looked like Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler.
Actually, our modern vampires are heavily based on victims of tuberculosis being exhumed and having their decomposition misunderstood as somehow malignant. Ask a Mortician has an excellent video on the subject.
I love Ask a Mortician!
Sending love from New York!! ❤🎃
Your video is absolutely correct, visible scars or disability should never be short hand for villian, and I can think of too many examples of this trope to mention. However, I did manage to come up with 2 (and only 2) disfigured heroes. Nick Fury wears an eyepatch, and Harry Potter is famous for his scar. Harry even gets a romantic interest. It's a start, right?
Voldemort had serious disfigurement that was tied into his evil. Compared to Harry's cute, symbolic lightning-shaped scar? He might as well have had a butterfly-shaped birthmark. Deadpool. V in V for Vendetta is not all nice but he is fighting against some real villains. Mazikeen in Lucifer was often overenthusiastic but her heart was in the right place. Errm, The Toxic Avenger for some real comedy trash that challenged stereotypes? In the books James Bond had a scar.
How could I forget Tanjirou Kamado from Demon Slayer?
Captain Harlock would like a word! 😄
I mean. Does Barbossa count
Thank you for this very informative video! I hope your hard times get easier soon.
My father had an acquired port wine stain on half of his cheek, that resulted from acne treatment he received in his late teens. I grew up used to it, but apparently other people found the dark red stain on his cheek offense. One woman even stopped to tell my mother, "They make makeup for that." My Dad had grown comfortable with the mark, none of his family made it an issue, but a stranger who couldn't bear to look at his mark, had to intrude and impose her unrequested and intrusive "solution" on my father and his family.
If someone is that bothered that much by someone's scars or marks, they really need to keep their opinion to themselves.
I'd like to see more women/young people with walking sticks in TV/film, there are a few people e.g. Dr House but they are mainly older men.
Haven’t watched the full video but you should watch Six of Crows then. The main character is a teenage boy who uses a walking stick after a bank heist injury. He falls more into the anti hero category but he’s still a very beloved (and badass) character.
I guess that would be cool, but the reason they don't show them is because it's very rare.
Best Halloween anything I’ve seen.
Great vid! There’s a lot of consciousness raising about invisible disabilities and well known visible disabilities but not about the ones you’ve discussed. We need to do better.
Excellent video! I have seen those reaction with my family member who is "simply" in a wheelchair... Thank you for talking about this subject... Take care...🙏🏻
Amazingly well-put. Everyone in the world needs to see this video. Negative representation should not be the only representation disabled or other minority groups get, and people's bodies should not be disrespected or used. Thank you for this amazing video
The how to train your dragon isnt always consistent in the quantity of its rep but I so appreciate it. Especially for Gobber, the twins, and Bucket. While the Twins arent disabled they are still major characters who arent conventionally attractive, are neurodivergent, yet still accepted and found ways fo contribute to their community dispite being illsuited for many jobs.
Also for vampire lovers there was a series called Blood Ties with a lead dealing with a visual impairment but go into it warned that rep wasnt consistant either and it, uh, shall we say, shows the signs of the times it was made. Lots of minorities failed by no rep or bad rep there.
Ah, yes, Blood Ties. Just rewatched season 1 to be reminded of the good and the bad. It has such potential and is very much a product of less thoughtful times. 😢
@@Phoenix-zy1cx same. Though I didnt actually finish season 1. It was last week and I was going along okay despite the things that made me take pause and shake my head, but then I got to the Medusa/Gorgon episode. I just hit a wall once I remebered the conclusion and couldnt finish it. There is so much potential to the show and some things that were ahead of its time but in other ways its very much of its time and so deeply flawed.
Toothless and Hickup count as disabled positive characters (heroes?) (Don't know if this was already mentioned, have not watched the video fully yet)
@sternentigerkatze they are, and I do appreciate that rep, but I mentioned the others and appreciate them more as the give rep that is less polished. Hiccup is rarely seen being held back by the loss of a limb and after the initial loss when its brought up its usually just made a joke of. Toothless is slightless more realistic but also not human yet still potrayed as miles more capable and intelligent than other dragons. They both are a bit marysue when it comes to the disability side of things. Over all its still great to have the rep but I appreciate the others more and appreciate the franchise so greatly for having more than just the main characters giving representation.
I'm working on a love story about 2 women who have visible differences, both have scarring from their occupation and the one with facial scarring is considered very beautiful in universe, and by me haha
Penguin may not have always had a "scar," but he's always been physically disfigured. In some ways, making it a scar rather than full-body congenital deformity feels like it's at least a step in the right direction, though you could certainly counter that it's too litte and too slow. (You could also argue that Cobblepot in the Gotham show was technically not deformed, but it was clear that he was supposed to evoke a sernse of physical deformity, even if it wasn't explicit.)
Two-Face is the trope personified.
Cobblepot in Gotham limps from being injured after betraying Fish Mooney in the first season.
Oh, he evoked the "sense of physical deformity" from his first second on screen, way before she had him beaten. :P
I'd love to see a research deep dive into medieval practices around leprosy and other visible ailments. While there was much shunning, in certain communities lepers were held in high regard because they were considered closer to Heaven, and so their prayers are more likely to be answered. This led to pockets of good treatment. :) Then again, this also became justification for shunning poor people - "If they aren't poor, they won't be close to Heaven! We can't take care of their earthly needs!" 🤦🏻♀️
I don't know... I had my latest surgery just last week. The surgeon apologized for giving me new scars. "Aww, honey, it tells a story," I said, like a knee-jerk reaction. But if I'm being honest, it IS rather fearsome. I can see why it scares people. It scares even me. Especially new scars! Stitches look scary. It just is. How can I fault people for knowing what's scary?
I feel like the "we need a visual cue to know who is evil" thing in movies is SUCH a cop out! How about writing more creative characters and stories to show who is the bad guy? Musical cues? Costuming? No? Ok...
Not to mention poor storytelling. I have literally watched MYSTERIES where the villain turns out to be the only character with facial scarring. :/ Gee, what a shocking reveal.
Just wanted to let you know that I love your videos! Especially when you're having a migraine, that's pretty incredible. You're a total bada$$ and you teach me so much!
👏 Round of applause for the best scary costume idea: having to make phone calls.
I can't really think of anything right off the top of my head. Anything I can think of is mostly stuff like the movie, "The Elephant Man". The main character is more tragic than heroic, though.
First thing that popped into my mind of good disable representation is Di-Gata. One of the main characters can't walk without her power boots. Also click more to see spoilers.
Also another one of the main characters later on looses his arm and then wears a bionic arm.
I saw a sign while passing through Quartzite AZ the other day. Something to the affect of "say no to panhandling, donate to charity instead". It was a much worse sight in my eyes than any person I've ever seen on that corner.
The Owl House is pretty good, I think! You’ve got Hunter, Eda’s dad, and Principal Bump. Belo has the magic goop scar, but the truer form, Philip Wittebane, doesn’t. (And TOH is good for a lot of reasons, but these relate to this vid :)) Happy Nightmare Night!
While I agree with the sentiment, I think you chose a couple examples that were disfigured BECAUSE they were bad, not bad because they had scars. Freddy Krueger was an ordinary looking guy until he committed his crimes and THEN got the scars. Scarface was a violent drug lord...
I've only seen him in Braveheart and Sons of Anarchy but Tommy Flanagan plays "tough guy" roles that aren't villains, and he's got the "Glasgow smile" facial scar.
While definitely not a horror series, there are a couple of episodes of the animated TV show RWBY that go into the horror genre. I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially the most recent season. One of the main characters, Weiss Schnee, has a scar that runs down the left side of her face over her left eye. In addition, her teammate Yang loses her arm and gets a prosthetic one.
Often times your videos don't feel so personal (mostly because I tend to watch the happy ones more than sad ones!). But as someone who has terrible awful no-good psoriasis (that is dang resistant to everything but the Finest Pharmaceuticals), this one hits hard. Having to overhear multiple kids over the years ask, "why does that person have skin like that," and a tactless co-worker's spouse who is also a doctor butt into a conversation with, "oh, no, that's not a sunburn," it's good to get some more focus and perspective on this kind of disability.
I'm ugly because my immune system has even more anxiety than my brain system. The rest* of me and my brain system work just fine.
* Joints not included.