The Hollywood film industry portrays villains and their antagonist stories with a distinct pattern. A plethora of quintessential examples can be derived from popular films such as Captain Hook portrayed as an amputee, Barty Crough Jr. suffers from a tongue twitch, and Scar in the Lion King sports a facial injury. Hollywood has a reputation of relying on depicting evil through mental and physical disabilities. Their depictions of villainy lack the open-mindedness that would allow for an able-bodied villain to be tyrannical without their detrimental behavior being linked to an ailment.
Associating Mental Illnesses with Villains
Mental illness is often the subtext of unhinged villains who do twisted things, but that illness may never be named or properly depicted, such as with DC’s Joker. In the 2019 film, Joker’s transformation into a murderous, violent character is triggered by his mental deterioration.
Psychotic illnesses are constantly stigmatized and misrepresented in fiction, and mental illness is wrongly associated with extreme violence. Characters like the Joker suggest people with mental illnesses are to be feared and may abuse otherswhen they are the ones who more commonly receive abuse. Portrayals like this are harmful to people who have real struggles and are looking for understanding and assistance from those around them.
Characters with disabilities are commonly written into the plot for one reason: the disability. It may not sound that drastic or wrong, but the problem is that filmmakers do not examine the disability in the form of its actual physical, sensory, and intellectual condition. The disability only figures into the plot or the character development as a device that allows the narrative to unfold.
Linking illnesses and disability with punishment is a harmful trope surrounding villains. It encourages an unhelpful and discouraging message as it procures the inhumane notion that individuals deserve to be sick or disabled.
The “supercrip” is no better. At first glance, it may seem like a better stereotype than “victim”. But, a positive stereotype is still a stereotype. It ignores the lived reality of most people with disabilities who struggle constantly with smaller challenges such as finding a wheelchair accessible bus and employment. It also implies that a person with disability only deserves respect if they can overcome the disability and perform extraordinary acts.
Finally, the villain stereotype dehumanizes people with disabilities. It reduces them to nefarious individuals driven to crime or revenge by resentment of their condition.
Why do so many villains have disabilities?
Giving disabilities to villains reinforces three common prejudices against handicapped individuals: disability is a punishment for evil, disabled people are embittered by their “fate”, and that they also resent the nondisabled and would destroy them if they could.
Other times, it is used to emphasize that mastermind arch-villains do not need to be physically fit in order to commit horrid acts of villainy, relying instead on their brilliant plans – often as a deliberate contrast with the hero of relatively average intelligence.