Post No.: 0999
Fluffystealthkitten says:
Hackneyed stereotypes are frequently perpetuated in fictional media like movies and videogames. Those with psychosis – or something unspecific concerning them mentally – are too often cheaply and lazily deployed as tropes for deranged villains without any deep exploration into their condition or background, and almost invariably without any empathy or compassion for them. They’re either modelled on highly extreme and rare cases or caricatured to the point of being completely unrealistic. They mercilessly kill their own henchmen. Everyone in a lunatic asylum is apparently murderous!
Even characters with mental conditions who aren’t villains are customarily depicted with tics, high-pitched voices or manic laughs, or as weak, a burden and useless, or as too ****ed up, hopeless and destined to commit suicide. Sometimes they’re everything rolled into one, as if, analogously, a character who’s ‘physically disabled’ has got to be blind, deaf and quadriplegic all in one(!)
It’s like ‘here’s an orphaned boy – therefore he’s going to be ****ed up in the head for it, so let’s make him sociopathic’ rather than ‘let’s give him a break’. Or ‘here’s the vengeful spirit of a victim of sexual abuse or some other maltreatment – therefore we must set out to destroy this evil poltergeist’ when it’d be more appropriate to show her compassion, not further ostracism.
Even if they’re given tragic backstories like they experienced horrendous childhood neglect, we’re not normally made to feel empathy for these villains but to want to vanquish them – which would logically make us the monsters; even though we’ll believe we’re playing the heroes(!) Too many ‘heroes’ in our entertainment culture kill, set out to kill and are armed to kill. Fear drives ordinary people to commit the real evil acts, under the guise of ‘we’re just protecting ourselves’.
A common supernatural villain trope goes along the lines of ‘they were disfigured by fire when young, got bullied for it, and so became an indiscriminately vengeful revenant at their old school’ and our mission is to banish this terrorising phantom. Hopefully nowadays we’re increasingly more likely to think, “Poor tortured soul, they need solicitude, a hug and society’s apologies.” Shouldn’t we feel sympathy, not fear, if they suffer from mutilations? Or if they were created evil by some ‘mad scientist’ (who’s probably not just mad for having mad ideas but has some sort of maniacal laugh that’s supposed to suggest a personality disorder, and they’ll look scruffily unkempt too), we’ll hopefully nowadays recognise that this wasn’t their fault, even if they’re out to hurt us. Creators thus need to come up with cleverer backstories or motivations for villains, or allow players a way to help and save instead of just vanquish or banish them.
We judge on appearances. When we assume that ‘people who look bad are bad’ – that’s the horn effect. There are pernicious biases like ‘I think she’s the baddie because she’s uglier’ or ‘I don’t trust him because of his clothes’. Fictional villains are stereotypically given physical deformities of some kind – from scars, warts, hunched backs, ‘witches noses’ to strange skin colours. Even if not, once viewers realise that a character is supposed to be evil, many of them will look to make comments such as ‘her eyes are too buggy’ or ‘his voice is shrill’ – as if that has anything to do with their unholy personalities! These shallow, physical stereotypes are so strong that we intuitively seek to confirm them.
There’s an intolerance towards videogame characters who look ‘dopey/derpy’ – they’re adjudged by many gamers themselves as mistakes that require patching instead of included as a bit of diversity (because some real-life people look unusual too) against the almost expected big-breasted and long-legged female and muscular male protagonists.
Is it ‘just joking/banter’ – not bullying – as long as it’s directed at someone who’s powerful and abusive of that power, like when satire mocks the face, (lack of) hair, hands or some other surface feature of a despot? Isn’t that missing the point about what actually makes them a tyrant, which would be their internal characteristics?! I guess trying to belittle powerful figures however we can is a sort of soothing strategy. But this doesn’t do anything practical to change an undesirable situation. It moreover perpetuates the stereotype that ‘evil people look weird or are physically challenged’. And it’s a confirmation bias because we don’t venerate the ugliness of kind yet physically ugly people, or pillory the prettiness of vile yet physically pretty people. We’re so superficial we might even believe these make good-natured people seem dull and diabolic-behaving people seem hot(!)
Attractive or cute victims of crime generally receive more media coverage and sympathy. Murder or rape victims who are mothers receive more sympathy than those who are prostitutes. But this is all discrimination.
Victims of abuse during their childhood don’t perpetrate even most kidnappings, homicides or arsons/bushfires in reality yet villains with such backgrounds are over-represented in indie horror videogames. People, including children, with intellectual and developmental disabilities are often used as antagonists too. They’ll often be exaggerated with demonic eyes or unnatural movements. They, or those with schizophrenia, might alternatively be portrayed as ‘oracles’ because of their cryptic gibberings or visions. This has left some to conclude that children are just creepy! These aren’t good lessons for real life because those who commit evil acts in reality are typically unsuspected because of how otherwise normal they appear.
Some people still assume that all mental health conditions are inevitably accompanied with some mental capacity issues, such as a lower IQ, learning dysfunctions or uncontrollable impulses. Something like a learning disability, dementia or severe stroke might affect a person’s mental capacities – in which case they might actually need things like specific laws to protect them from others, not others from them, such as from exploitation or when they’re sold products they cannot fully understand. They may need help with everyday tasks. (Voluntary powers of attorneys with trusted relatives can help safeguard their finances if they one day become too mentally incapacitated. There have been some negative high-profile cases regarding involuntary conservatorships though.)
If someone has a mental condition without a mental capacity issue though, they shouldn’t be treated as if intellectually incapable. Some neurodiverse conditions can actually enhance a person’s capabilities in certain domains, even though they might diminish them in others.
The uneducated and frightened habitually wish to shun (i.e. physically and/or psychologically harm, even if unintentionally) those they don’t understand; when doing so only exacerbates or precisely causes mental health problems in those they marginalise. Some majority groups can effectively bully minority groups because the former fear the latter could be harmful towards society because the latter don’t appear to conform to expected norms of looks and behaviour. The former will believe they’re acting in pre-emptive self-defence against something they believe will corrupt society – but ‘acting in pre-emptive self-defence’ is just another term for ‘attacking first’. ‘Offensive defence’ is oxymoronic in this context. It’s just like attacking a random mosque because one fears that the Muslims who go there will one day plot a terror act against us – not accepting that this attack on the mosque is an act of terror in itself.
We may therefore think we’re the solution to a problem when we’re really an intrinsic part of the problem. That’s why we need to seek to get better educated about those we don’t understand rather than fear them. We may then learn that compassion and tolerance is the solution rather than ostracising these ‘weirdos’.
So bullying, prejudice or marginalisation – and this could be overt or covert, brazen or subtle, intentional or unintentional – against ‘outcasts’ is basically doing actual harm towards those one fears could be harmful towards us. Prejudice causes real-world harm towards the prejudiced. The bullied or abused sometimes in turn end up bullying or abusing others through displacement behaviours – yet those with mental health conditions remain statistically more likely to be the victims, not perpetrators, of crimes.
Those who are bullied or feel marginalised might, in some very rare cases, feel pushed to respond violently as an act of revenge towards their bullies or towards society generally. Such a reaction would be excessive hence isn’t morally defensible yet they’ll perceive it as justified against the injustice they experience in life. It’s easy from the outside to say one shouldn’t experience strong desires for revenge, or suicide ideations, if one hasn’t personally experienced enough abuse or exclusion to be pushed over the edge.
If we push people into the margins, they’ll also go to whoever will accept them, and these groups might hold extremist views, like the femcel/incel community. They’ll be echo chambers and there’ll be groomers. Modern social media amplifies this problem but isn’t the root problem. The root problem is experiences of inequity, unfairness, loneliness, prejudice and discrimination concerning whatever disadvantage they feel – like they might find it difficult to get jobs, find love or feel understood, respected or accepted as they are. Even if an unfairness is down to the genetic lottery and thus no one’s fault, our culture doesn’t have to hector, prejudice or marginalise those who are unlucky in this lottery.
Intentional abuse, as well as unintentional neglect, towards the unfortunate or downtrodden are problems that a compassionate society needs to tackle to prevent violence being perceived as the apt reaction by the desperate. Similar to trying to understand and love our enemies as a route to lasting peace, this can be tough – but we must try to understand and care for those who feel marginalised and who may even express hate against us and society in general. Marginalisation is possibly the overall root problem that we collectively need to overcome. So if we personally tease, bully, shun or neglect anyone – mayhap because they seem a bit ‘weird’, troubled, intellectually slow, or even just subjectively physically unappealing – then we’re a part of society’s problem.
History helps explain present behaviour. Whether we agree or disagree with a particular behaviour is one thing – but we can learn to understand and empathise with it. This applies to how literally everyone and everything is. To ignore the causal reasons for someone’s present attitudes and behaviours will mean we won’t learn from the past. We’ll continue to push away certain groups of people then wonder why a few members of that group will ‘go berserk’ and seek to take revenge on society one day. If someone appears ‘insane’ then they’ll have their reasons; and these may include what we directly or indirectly did, like chronically ignore and disrespect them. We ‘normals’ thus need to take responsibility and change our own attitudes and behaviours if we want a better world. Have better empathy and compassion. Pay more attention to how others may feel as a result of our actions or inactions. Make no one ever feel unloved or desperate. Use the Twitter comment button below to share your thoughts on this.
The more we learn, from all levels and angles, like from every academic subject possible, with as much objectivity as we can accomplish – the more this world and literally every single person in it makes total sense. Again we may not condone what other individuals or groups (or nations) do but we can understand why they do it based on their history, which may include how we (or our ancestors) had treated them in the past.
Many high-achievers who were driven to succeed have a history of experiencing tribulations though, like needing to care for an infirm parent when young. They may also have had someone they really wanted to please, like their parents again. So adversity isn’t always damaging. But such people did usually fortuitously have the opportunities and support to attempt their ambitions i.e. they experienced enough protective environmental factors.
Meow. Real people aren’t born evil or to become villains. Parts of the solution concern providing every single child a loving upbringing environment, and us all simply being more considerate towards everyone.
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