Villains in Film & Television
- Deema Jony
- Jul 25, 2024
- 5 min read
Did you know that a 6-month-old baby can tell the difference between a good and bad person? Scientists discovered this by playing a scenario in front of sixteen six-month-olds. In the scenario, a climber attempting to scale a hill was hindered by a square-shaped figure blocking his path, while a triangle-like figure assisted the climber and pushed him up. After showing the babies this scenario, scientists asked them to pick between the triangle and the square. Fourteen out of sixteen babies picked the triangle over the square. When the same experiment was performed with ten-month-old babies, all of them picked the triangle, revealing no outliers. Although there is a lot more to society than good and bad, this indicates that from a very young age, we are able to make social judgments based on how a person behaves. While this is interesting, it could be harmful when considering the stereotypes children might form. More specifically, I want to address the topic of villains in media and the patterns I've observed. For example, Disney villains often tend to be plus-sized: consider Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" or the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland." Do we want children to begin assuming from a very young age that plus-sized individuals are "evil"? I certainly hope not.
In this article, I'm going to cover a wide range of stereotypes of the typical "bad guy" seen in Hollywood. First, let's talk about color. Society has long associated darkness with evil and ugliness, while white is seen as an angelic color symbolizing purity. An NYU professor conducted research on this phenomenon, nicknamed "Bad is Black," and discovered that individuals tend to believe people with darker skin are more likely to commit crimes than those with lighter skin. Humans subconsciously equate dark skin with "badness." This isn't surprising given that for hundreds of generations, stories have depicted heroes in the daylight wearing bright clothing, while villains are veiled in dark coats hiding in the blackness of night. Although it might not seem like a big deal to have a hero always wearing white, it becomes problematic when the idea that "bad is black" is repeatedly shown in children's movies.
Look at the Disney classic "The Lion King," in which the heroes, Simba and Mufasa, have lightly colored fur and red manes, while the evil uncle Scar has darker fur and a darker mane. This issue extends to real-life human beings: research shows that when someone hears about an evil act, they are more likely to link it to someone with darker skin. This can be seriously problematic in numerous ways: will a darker-skinned child be blamed for something they didn't do? Will eyewitnesses of a crime mistakenly identify a suspect because of skin color? This trend of colorism in the media, from films to video games, needs to be addressed as it continues to affect how humans perceive darker-skinned individuals. A more specific villain stereotype seen on television is that Hispanics/Latinos are criminals. A study by the USC Annenberg School analyzed numerous films from 2019 and found that 39.5% of top-billed Latino characters were involved in criminal activity, while 40% were involved in violent crime. This means that whenever a Latinx actor is given a lead role, there is a 40% chance that this role involves aggressive illegal activity. These depictions feed into the idea that the Latinx community is dangerous and cannot be trusted. USC researchers also found that out of the 100 highest-grossing movies from 2007-2018, only three featured a Latinx actor as a lead or co-lead. UCLA's 2019 Hollywood Diversity Report revealed similar information about the Black community, stating that only 9% of all film roles were played by Black actors. These statistics link to what I mentioned earlier: the media perpetuates colorism and the idea that "bad is black" as we rarely see people of color taking protagonist roles. It's obvious that if we don't change POC representation in film and television, society will continue to associate Latinx and Black individuals with danger.
Now that you can see how unfair the media actually is, let's take a look at what I first mentioned in this article: how children are perceiving these stereotypes. One 2012 study about television revealed that "watching TV negatively impacted the self-esteem of all girls and black boys, but increased the self-esteem of white boys". This is because white people are more likely to be in positions of power while black individuals are more likely "criminalized". Other research found that whenever a person of color was portrayed as a white protagonist's "side-kick", children subconsciously perceived that "white is right" as children from all races strive to act like the "hero" white character. The idea that white = normalcy also caused colored children to struggle with their own identities, according to a study about Latinx representation in US film and TV by Aldama and Christopher Gonzalez. It was also revealed by Greenberg and Mastro's study that the more frequently a race appears in the media, the more value that race has in society. All of this research is a huge red flag, revealing to us that colored children are only hurting from the portrayal of people of color in media. Although Hollywood finally began to cast non-white races for important roles, these roles almost always tend to be the antagonist or the craven side-kick, rather than the strong lead that everyone cheers for. Rather than feeling pride for who they are, children of color are left questioning their own identities. As a 17-year old Iraqi girl who grew up in America, I myself can attest to these claims. Growing up, I always felt shame for who I was; the only time Iraq was ever mentioned in any movie was when a white protagonist pondered on his "days back in Eye-raq" where he was a hero that protected America from the dangerous terrorists that I was unfortunately connected to by blood. It's pretty obvious that American film and television sets harmful ideals in children's brains and causes people of color to question their roles in society and their own culture.
However, this definitely doesn't mean that we should lose hope, as there is some light that can be seen at the end of the tunnel. Take a look at Disney's 2021 film Encanto, which tells the story of Mirabel Madrigal and her large Columbian family. This is one of the first major Disney movies that is purely based off of Latin American culture in which the protagonist is a young Columbian girl, contrasting the typical dangerous Latino antagonist that no one is rooting for. The movie also highlights Latinx values that are underrepresented in media, such as keeping strong family ties or always finding a way to contribute to your community. Movies like Encanto give hope to many young children by representing different cultures positively on television, making them proud of who they are and defying past stereotypes that Hollywood has imposed on society.
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