Why the 'Disabled Villain' Trope is So Offensive

From the earliest days of film and television, disability has been used as a metaphor for villainy. Disabled characters have been portrayed as either innately wicked, turning diabolical in their moment of disfigurement, or generally despising their condition and seeking to harm the able-bodied. The disabled villain trope denies disabled characters any real personhood, and instead turns them into devices to visually contrast with “heroic” characters.

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[ArtemisPearl]

As someone with a disability I just have to point this out. There needs to be a balance of equal representation of villainy. We should have villains of all types. If media stops and goes completely in the other direction is ableist. People with disabilities are people and sadly a percentage of people are bad people. If media only shows us as pure and can never be bad or go bad I think that is also harmful.

[justthatblueguy]

I like how Jaime Lannister is kind of the opposite. He was a villain who grew as a character from his disability

[sopyleecrypt]

Facial differences in particular. And not just in film. Throughout literature “the bad guy” is described as ugly, scarred etc consistently. The wicked witch hides her evilness with beauty, then is revealed as bad by showing her true face: old and “ugly”.

[ashleightompkins]

It's a shame that there aren't more disabled heroes because being able to counteract or overcome the setbacks that we were given should be seen as superpowers.

[archer]

Doctor Doom is a good twist on this trope. In most canon, Victor Von Doom wears an iron mask to hide his facial “disfigurement”. But when his face is finally revealed, it turns out to be an insignificant scar, but his obsessive perfectionism and egotism magnified it to a hideous all consuming “monstrousness”.

[ladygreenlife]

The Notre dame hunchback was against this trope. It questioned people's view of Quasimodo vs the actual Villan!

[AliciaNyblade]

The Joker's entire creation reflects on how society dehumanizes people with disabilities. In 1869, Victor Hugo wrote a novel called "The Man Who Laughs", which followed Gwynplaine, a young boy who is disfigured with a Glasgow smile because his father angered the king. Gwynplaine grows up not knowing about his background and instead becomes a clown, working alongside and having a romance with a blind girl. He's a wonderfully sweet, compassionate character who feels for the less fortunate in the crowds even as they laugh at him. He even stands up for the people when, later, his past is revealed to him and he's whisked away to be reinstated to his father's titles as a lord. The novel was made into a silent film in 1928, starring Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine, and it followed the novel fairly well. But apparently all the Batman creators got from it was, "Hey, look at that dude with the freaky face. What if he was a villain instead?" and thus, the Joker was born.

[eliza]

As a disabled person I'm so happy to see this topic covered. Disability often gets left out of media conversations even though we've been saying this for decades

[starrsmith]

I think Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon series, Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Edward Scissorhands are some pretty good examples of people with disabilities or facial scars who aren’t the villains.

[terracerios]

I remember watching Elephant Man when I was a preteen. It taught some very deeply engrained lessons about seeing the person within. Hearing him yell “I am not an animal!” still moves me to tears. The raw exhaustion and pain in his voice is soul piercing.

[aminaawartani]

This is why the X-men are my favorite comic book heroes. Because their “mutations” are read as disabilities in their societies and they’re targeted because of them, but in reality they are what make them super-heroes. I love that Professor X is not just a genius in a wheel chair, he is also caring, patient and incredibly empathetic, which is why he creates a safe haven for all the mutants. I don’t think X-men gets the hype it deserves in disability representation.

[lucasartgames]

I feel a child oriented character who's done particularly well coming off the criteria listed in this video, is Finn from Adventure Time. When he loses his arm, it is something that he has to grapple with mentally for quite a long time, and in a way he starts looking for "alternatives" in an act of denial. But each time his arm is "replaced" either with a faux grass arm, or an actual prosthetic, he finally grows to accept the development in his life. And he is often seen without his prosthetic just vibing in the future. And most importantly, he's just as capable at adventuring with his disability.

I feel it stands out because he's very much the main protagonist, and in some ways is a paragon of morality in the show (despite his flubs with general kid friendly naivety.)

[melindaboulton]

I’m partially blind. I really appreciate this as I can’t drive but am otherwise healthy. I understand why people would become villains because our lives are made harder, so you might as well become a villain. Mr. Glass is a perfect example.

[drej]

If you have a chance, can you make a video into the villainy associated with those of Eastern European or Slavic ancestry as well? The stereotypical “bad guy” is always this, to the point where the mock it in cartoon films like Despicable Me and the show Phineas and Ferb. We studied this briefly in our film noir and detective book course in school, but I’d love to see a deeper analysis.

[cabbiecarmvp]

I feel like the trope of villains with facial disfigurements comes from the broader prejudice we have to people based off their looks. So often the heroes are conventionally attractive, like a symmetrical and even facial structure somehow correlates to virtue. I feel like a lot of ableist tendencies in society also discriminate against large groups of non-disabled ppl.

Like a high school dropout and someone with an intellectual disability are both bullied for being “slow”, and people are judged harshly off their appearance regardless of if that appearance was caused by a disability or just their genes. Fighting ableism helps everyone, not just disabled people

[CodeEquestria]

As a person born with cerebral palsy, watching this video was refreshing and was so will done. I'm also not a fan of how people like me are treated in entertainment. Even as a youtuber, many people don't watch my videos because of my voice. When. I see disabilities in tv, it's always a joke or pity party. We want heroes, love and understanding. As a longtime sub, this vid filled me with pride. Thank you.

[nijodesu]

For anyone looking for a heartwarming story about a disabled protagonist on screen, I highly recommend the following anime: "Ranking of Kings" and "A silent voice" ☺

[thevideocommenter]

I wish you also talked a bit about schzioprenia and how much it is wrongfully portrayed. Maybe in another video, talking about other mental illnesses too.

[bellamaz]

I love this. As a disabled person I’d also love it if you took on a bit of a riskier archetype: the Tiny Tim trope. The over-romanticized, saint-like cripple or otherwise disabled person, sometimes in the form of a savant. It’s subtly just as dehumanizing as villainization.
Edit: this video touched on it a bit by talking about “inspiration porn“, but the Tiny Tim trope is substantial and frequent enough IMO to deserve a separate analysis. :)

[WhirlwindandHeatburst]

Ah, yet another reason why Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is my favorite movie of all time. An important lesson taught is that just because a person looks a certain way, doesn’t determine their entire personality or morality.

Although he is mistreated, Quasimodo proves himself to be the hero that he was capable of being all long, while his “normal” adoptive father is pretty much evil incarnate.

What’s even better is that while Quasi is a good person at heart, he isn’t perfect and is allowed to have flaws, such as acting frustrated. He believed that romance could be the key to solving his inner conflict of wanting to be accepted, when that isn’t what he needed.

Overall, he’s a badass protagonist. Granted, he was deaf in the novel—and some people could argue that his level of strength is unrealistic for someone with a severe form of kyphosis, but I digress.