Reflection
The Persistent Trope of the “Disabled Villain”
Viktoria Geldner
What do Darth Vader (Star Wars), Le Chiffre (James Bond), Captain Hook (Disney) and Dan Taylor (Forrest Gump) have in common?
Hollywood has a history of using all kinds of questionable tropes. When it comes to villains, these misrepresenting tropes (ethnic minorities, queerness, …) become even more harmful: for what the villain is represented with, is associated with villainy – evilness. To illustrate the pervasiveness of this trope, think about this question: what do Darth Vader (Star Wars), Le Chiffre (James Bond), Captain Hook (Disney) and Dan Taylor (Forrest Gump) have in common?
A Long Tradition
This article discusses the persistent use of disability as a marker of evil in movies, which is, coincidently, the answer to the question: the villains listed above all have what classifies as a disability. These examples are, of course, far from the only “bad guys” whose evilness is showcased through ‘visible difference’. This concept, hereby, does not only refer to disability, but also to disease (Killa in the recent John Wick: Chapter 4; not only morbidly obese but also asthmatic) or disfigurement (Bond villains).
Not only Hollywood movies, but literature, too, has not been shy of employing the trope of the disabled villain: Long John Silver in Treasure Island, Erik in Phantom of the Opera, Brady Hartsfield in Stephen King’s End of Watch, or even Shakespeare’s Richard III. The same can be said of video games (The Evil Within, Bioshock Infinite) or the many times hospitals, psych wards or asylums were chosen as settings for evil to unfold, no matter the genre or the medium (Nightmare House II, Outlast (video games), AHS: Asylum (series), A Cure for Wellness (movie)).
To explain this development, it helps to have a look at the history of disability. In Ancient Egypt, the instructions of Pharaoh Amenemope made clear that people with disabilities should not only be respected, but that they held high-ranking positions, which, however, changed in Ancient Greece. The introduction of the concept of ‘social usability’ connected the right to live with ‘usefulness’ to the state, turning disability into a matter of life and death. This did not change in Ancient Rome and during the Middle Age, strongly influenced by superstition, disability was branded the ‘work of the devil’. In the late modern period, pseudo-scientific concepts such as Social Darwinism and eugenics culminated in mass murder during the Aktion T4 of the Third Reich.
In reference to disabled villains in movies, a quote by Lennard J. Davis is enlightening. According to him, disability in movies is “allegorical – it has to stand for something else” (Davis 44). This is because, “[i]n an ableist culture disability cannot just be” (ibid). This becomes especially visible when disability in movies has no further use than ‘symbolism’, as is oftentimes the case in horror movies, such as in Midsommar (director: Aster, 2019). Oracle Ruben (charmingly labeled “the disabled one” by a non-disabled character), is, according to filmmaker Aster, “a very important character” (Lopez). But he is “important more as a symbol, as an idea, than he is even as a character” (Lopez). As in Aster’s previous movie Hereditary (2018), it is argued that “physical and mental disability provides a metaphor for trauma and familial dysfunction”, whereby “the disabled body once again becomes the monstrous body, used to convey a monstrous world” (Madden). Disability as evil, that is.
I Am Not Your Villain
The prevalence of the trope of the disabled villain has not been without consequence. According to the UK-based NGO Changing Faces, people with visible differences report long-term impacts from not being represented (appropriately) in movies. Among the effects are low levels of confidence (a third), struggles with body image and self-esteem (3 out of 10), and tolls on their mental health (25%). Their research has further revealed that only 15% of the people asked have seen someone with a visible difference as a love interest in a movie. However, 39% have seen a villain with a visual difference on screen (ibid). This is combatted by Changing Faces’s campaign I Am Not Your Villain.
I Am Not Your Villain appeals to the film industry to quit the use of “scars, burns or marks as a shorthand for villainy” (Changing Faces). The campaign is backed by the British Film Institute (BFI) who said to stop funding films depicting villainy through visible difference. While the campaign does not explicitly refer to disability, it may be considered a starting point of moving away from the trope of disability as villainy, and, coincidentally, from what the essence of these tropes may perfectly be: lazy writing.
For those interested, tv.tropes.org has created a very comprehensive and eye-opening list about disability tropes on television:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DisabilityTropes (19.04.2023)
References:
Davis, Lennard J. “The Ghettoization of Disability. Paradoxes of Visibility and Invisibility in Cinema.” Culture – Theory – Disability. Encounters between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies, edited by Waldschmidt, Anne, et al., Transcript Verlag, 2017, pp. 39 – 49.
Geliebt, geduldet, getötet. Die Geschichte von Menschen mit Behinderungen. Directed by Oliver Koytek, Jan Grashof, ZDFinfo Doku, 2022. ZDF, https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfinfo-doku/geliebt-geduldet-getoetet-die-geschichte-von-menschen-mit-behinderungen-100.html
Lopez, Kristen. „A Film Under the Influence: Gender, Homage And ‘Midsommar’.” Forbes, 1 Jul. 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristenlopez/2019/07/01/a-film-under-the-influence-gender-homage-and-midsommar/?sh=67761ebc77ee (last access: 26.04.23).
Madden, Emma. “Midsommar’s ableism resurrects the dark history of eugenics-inspired horror.” The Guardian, 10 Jul. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/10/midsommars-ableism-resurrects-the-dark-history-of-eugenics-inspired-horror-ari-aster (last access: 26.04.23).
“I Am Not Your Villain: Equal representation of visible difference in film.” Changing Faces, https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/i-am-not-your-villian/ (last access: 26.04.2023).