According to 'woke' media, only ugly people should play villains

Why? What have I said that's so offensive?

The person who wrote this article believes that if a serial killer/rapist is portrayed by a handsome actor, it will somehow glamourise and 'inspire' people in real life to commit such crimes, but '*I'm* the 'stupid one'...uh-huh...

They are also fatuous enough to argue that villains should never get a happy ending in films/shows...

Right...Because pretending the world is entirely fair, and only good people have happy lives, and all evil people end up miserable, isn't remotely offensive, is it? And by that logic, Jimmy Saville must have paid for his serial crimes in raping and molesting children before he died, right...? *sigh*

PS: The mods are at it again. I get a warning for 'rudeness' (despite having said nothing about Kowalski, and only having been rude about the author of the linked article, who I doubt visits this site), and yet Kowalski is allowed to call me a 'SPECIAL KIND OF STUPID'...That doesn't seem very fair to me.

If you engage with the media on any level whatsoever (and if you don't, what exactly are you doing on a site called Movie Chat?) I'd suggest that representation *does* matter? It matters in the same way that purely negative representations of Black people, or purely negative representations of women, or purely negative representations of gay and trans people, matter. If we say that all villains must be portrayed by 'ugly' and 'homely' actors, aren't we basically implying that only 'ugly' and 'homely' people are evil? And in view of how disadvantaged 'ugly' and 'homely' people already are (studies have demonstrated that individuals considered 'better-looking' tend to be paid more and are treated better than their peers; in fact, it's one of the most blatant forms of social privilege, and yet one of the few that ever gets spoken about...possibly because various companies and corporations have a vested interest in selling us cosmetics, beauty magazines, clothes and films/TV shows dominated by the 'beautiful people'), is it right to demonise them even more? Surely all oppressed and marginalised people deserve a break in view of the systemic disadvantages they already suffer.

Did you see the title of the article?

"The problem with the entertainment industry casting physically attractive psychopaths"

Yes, I am extrapolating, but it's an entirely logical extrapolation. If it's somehow 'problematic' to cast physically attractive people as psychopaths, that means in this person's opinion it is *only* acceptable to cast 'ugly' and 'homely' people in such roles.

We already have a society that believes physical beauty is associated with spiritual beauty (and thus that physical homeliness is associated with spiritual ugliness), which in turn breeds body-shaming, self-loathing, self-harm and ultimately suicide. This writer presumably has no issue with such outcomes, just as long as her favourite hunk isn't being cast as a baddie (perish the thought).

Yeah, OP fell prey to the clickbait headline, missed the context of the writer's argument...and all this to push some ridiculous conspiracy theory about cosmetic surgery and gym memberships.

This is all about the romanticization of serial killers, that's all.

Good points. Not the same ones I was making, but good nonetheless.

I'll be honest, when it comes to ethnicity, race and sexuality, I tend to be a stickler for authenticity. I do prefer it when a Jewish actor is cast as a Jewish character, or a gay actor is cast as a gay character, but I also respect that there may occasionally be good reasons for not doing so (i.e. availability and marketability; for example, Helen Mirren was recently cast as Golda Meir, and whilst I'd have preferred a Jewish woman in the part, apart from Debra Winger, who hasn't been in the spotlight for many years, I can't think of a high-profile Jewish actress over 60 who'd be right for the part; for example, Bette Midler and Barbara Streisand don't tend to do those types of serious/dramatic roles).

Still, the point about villains is that anyone should, in theory, be allowed to play a villain, and there shouldn't be a standard. We can have white villains, Black villains, male villains, female villains, gay villains, straight villains, ugly villains and handsome villians. There shouldn't be a limit, just as long as it's not the same group that's *constantly* being portrayed as villains all the time.

The irony is that it's traditionally been 'ugly' and 'homely' people who've been portrayed as villains (particularly in animation, where there are fewer qualms about featuring an 'ugly' character), so complaining about 'good-looking villains' strikes me as particularly egregious.