Beauty Equals Goodness: Difference between revisions

It almost goes without saying that this is very old; an attempt was even made [[Older Than Radio|in the 19th Century]] to quantify this attitude into the "science" of physiognomy, which posited a direct correlation between appearance and moral character.

 

 

As this trope is ubiquitous, please only add [[Egregious]] cases. [[Invoked Trope]] and [[Defied Trope]] examples are the best ones. [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] often leads to [[Historical Beauty Update]] because of this trope.

* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', the distinction between in-group (elves) and out-group (humans and trolls) has been striking from the get-go. Elves are the embodiment of otherworldly beauty, while [[Humans Are Ugly]] and idiosyncratic and trolls are bulbous and warty. While a few humans and the occasional troll are easy on the eyes, they are nothing compared to the elves -- even evil elves, even genocidal elves, they're never ugly. See, [[Humans Are Bastards]] the enemy and trolls are untrustworthy, but "[[Our Elves Are Better|All elves are one]]". You can kill humans and trolls in self-defense, but [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape|Elves Don't Kill Elves]] no matter the provocation. Recent years have seen these principles change. More and more humans have been joining the list of allies, so the in-group/out-group distinction is weakening significantly. The "Elves Don't Kill Elves" prohibition has been broken on a few occasions and no longer elicits the [[Heroic BSOD|agonizing guilt]] that Strongbow felt over Kureel (the first such killing). Now that Wendy Pini isn't [always] doing the art herself, certain artists draw humans all but indistinguishable from elves (which means as beautiful as elves). They look so similar that a human wearing ceremonial elf ears leaves you wondering, not about the ears, but if his ''thumb and four fingers'' are a mistake -- a confusion that would never have been possible in the early books. The whole thing is at least mildly justified, anyway: elves are a different ''species'' from both humans and trolls, usually have access to healing magic that the latter don't, and their ancestors deliberately took forms that would appeal to humans in preparation for making contact (they just didn't count on getting thrown thousands of years backwards in time and losing most of their magic in the process). [[Word of God]] has it that the Wolfriders, the tribe who had to fight humans most often, even went out of their way to deliberately prevent or eliminate ''scars'' whenever possible in order to present a more formidable face to their enemies, who'd just have been encouraged by the notion that their weapons could actually leave marks on the 'forest spirits'.

* A lot of ''[[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]]'' villains are deformed in some way - the Joker's skin is bleached white and he has a permanent smile, Two-Face is scarred down half of his body, Mr Freeze's skin is an unearthly white, Clayface is a giant goop monster, [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Killer Croc is reptilian in appearance]], and the Penguin resembles his namesake animal. In fairness, though, most of the time these deformities are part of what caused them to become villainous in the first place, and there are a few better looking villains like Poison Ivy. (Oddly, those characters all seem to be female. [[Most Writers Are Male|Funny how that works.]])

* Played [[Anvilicious|laughably straight]] in almost anything by [[Chick Tracts|Jack Chick]]. In fact, people ''go ugly as soon as we find out they [[Hollywood Atheist|disagree with Jack]]''. The only exception is that strange tract about homosexuality, where Satan is [[Walking Shirtless Scene|constantly shirtless]] and has obviously been working out. Is there something you want to tell us, Jack?

* [[Dick Tracy (Comic Strip)|Dick Tracy]] villains are almost universally malformed and ugly. Prune Face is the most extreme example. The hero, by contrast, is a handsome square-jawed detective.

 

== Film ==

** There was at least one neat subversion, though, in the [[Complete Monster]] villain being called "[[Fluffy the Terrible|Angel Eyes]]".

* In ''[[The Wizard of Oz (Film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', the Good Witches are pretty, and the Wicked Witches are ugly. Glinda says straight up that "Only bad witches are ugly". (This sentiment is deconstructed and subverted ''hard'' by ''[[Wicked (Literature)|Wicked]]''.)

* In English literature, the most common [[Older Than Radio]] example of this trope is ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', even though it is a [[Deconstruction]]. Wilde was critiquing the commonly held belief during the 19th Century that physical appearance both reflected and was influenced by morality, piety, and social status.

* A strange example - neither subversion or aversion but not completely straight either - comes from the work of Rex Stout, the writer of the [[Nero Wolfe]] novels. Stout wrote a short story called "Murder is No Joke" in late 1957. One of the characters, Flora Gallant, is a fat, shrewish, bitter, ugly, crude middle-aged female social misfit - virtually a perfect example of the trope played straight. The next year, Stout was asked by the ''Saturday Evening Post'' to expand the story into a novella. In this version, Flora Gallant is a gorgeous, vivacious young woman who romances Archie to some success - the opposite of the trope. The rest of the plot, including the identity of the killer, is identical, except that in the first story, Archie has Flora tagged as the killer; in the second, he thinks she's the next victim. {{spoiler|She's neither.}}

* Naturally, played for laughs in ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literature)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'':

{{quote| In all this ancient and mysterious history, the most mysterious figures of all were without a doubt the Great Circling poets of Arium. These Circling Poets used to live in remote mountain passes where they would lie in wait for small bands of unwary travelers, circle around them, and throw rocks at them.<br />

* Very common in ''[[The House of Night]]''. When Stevie Rae died and then un-died she was repulsive and smelt really bad. When the ritual to give her and the other Red Fledglings back their humanity was complete, they were all pretty again. Also the Bull of Light, which is black is described as "deep, mysterious and beautiful to behold". Compared to the Bull of Darkness, which is white and is described as "a nightmare come alive."

* Subverted in [[The Pale King]] with Meredith, who becomes a vain, neurotic mess if you let her talk about her problems long enough.

* A short story by [[Dick King Smith]] might count as an inversion where the protagonist is a male fairy and is ridiculed by all the others except one who is described as "not very pretty but had a kind face". At the end when said fairy is kind to him he realises how beautiful she actually is, suggesting that maybe goodness equals beauty.

* Played with ''all over the damn place'' in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]''. The list of hot evil chicks and handsome evil dudes is about as long as their good counterparts. In fact, its implied that their good looks helped them on the road to be big enough bads to seriously break things.

* None of the Doctors of ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' were victims of savage beatings with the ugly stick (or at least not for long), but most of them are or were unconventionally handsome. Most subversive is [[Tom Baker]], who was not what you'd call the most handsome of men, yet was easily the most popular and well-recognised of the Doctors in the classic series (though that second is partly longevity). The previous (Tenth) Doctor, [[David Tennant]], receives female attention because he's pretty dang attractive as well as being [[One of Us]]. The younger, more classically handsome Doctors - Peter Davison (Five), Paul McGann (Eight), Tennant - tend to get more attention from the [[Shipping|Shippers]]. And the ''companions'' tend to be outright attractive!

** Though there is a subversion -- The Master's not a bad-looking guy in most of his incarnations; Delgado and Ainley are both sort of suave older men and Simm is more conventionally attractive.

* The major subplot of the ''[[American Gothic]]'' episode "Eye of the Beholder" plays with and then toes the line of this trope from the [[A Day in The Limelight|heroic perspective of a minor character]]. [[Xanatos Gambit|In order to obtain custody of his 'son' Caleb]], [[Manipulative Bastard|Sheriff Buck]] tries to discredit Dr. Crower as a potential legal guardian by [[Backstory|revealing his past difficulties with alcohol]]. To attest to this, he needs the aid of an orderly at the hospital who worked with Matt before he came to Trinity. When the orderly refuses, Buck sends his wife a magic mirror which swiftly turns her into a [[Sex Is Evil|tempting]] [[The Vamp|seductress]]. The orderly breaks the mirror... which also horribly disfigures his wife. Freed from the spell, she urges him to refuse Buck's deal and stand by his friend Matt instead, and he professes to [[Aesop|love her no matter what she looks like]]. Despite this and the name of the episode, the orderly inexplicably does Buck's bidding--and even though his testimony is as unbiased as possible, and Buck doesn't get his hands on Caleb due to a delicious [[Bait and Switch]] [[Chekhov's Gun]] from earlier in the episode, the sheriff still keeps his end of the deal by rewarding the orderly, restoring his wife's beauty so they can leave town in peace and good conscience. [[Broken Aesop|Sigh]].

* In ''[[Baywatch (TV)|Baywatch]]'' parody ''[[Son of the Beach (TV)|Son of the Beach]],'' a high-school girl commits a string of murders because she's ugly and jealous of pretty girls; however the day is saved when the hero tells her to "take off your glasses," and "now, untie your hair!" and she is revealed that she was ''really'' beautiful all along.

* Played straight in the American version of ''[[The Office (TV)|The Office]]'': you can roughly approximate how much of a [[Butt Monkey]] each character is by how young and attractive they are, with Pam and Jim being basically the only characters who are not played up as buffoons, get tons of screen time, and end up being shipped together.

* Averted and called out by one episode of ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'', where a creature so [[Brown Note|horribly ugly it drove you insane]] turned out to be the good guy. Played straight the rest of the time, Klingons are all rough and rugged, evil Spock has a beard, every girl Kirk falls in love with is horribly attractive.

** This is especially evident in the TNG Klingons. The evil or unpleasant ones, such as the Duras sisters, are hideous, while Worf is much more attractive. This might, however, have something to do with the fact that his adoptive parents introduced him to the wonderful human invention known as a comb.

 

== Video Games ==

** Basically if you're a sympathetic character in ''[[Fire Emblem (Video Game)|Fire Emblem]]'', you're either at least quite attractive, or you're old. And if you fall into the latter category, you were likely [[I Was Quite a Looker|quite a looker when you were younger]]. There are only a few major exceptions to this (i.e. most axe-users).

** An exception to this trope might be: [http://www.feplanet.net/media/gallery/view.php?id=241 Dorothy] from ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe (Video Game)|Sealed Sword]]''. However she's hardly as ugly as the support conversations make her out to be. She's more plain [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/Site/FE6/Dorothy.png ingame still not ugly though].

* Played straight in ''[[Drakengard]]''. Another layer is added on with the [[Our Elves Are Better|impossibly beautiful and pacifistic elves]] and the [[Nightmare Fuel]]-inspired design for the monsters, who are bloodthirsty and primitive. These other creatures are [[Low Fantasy|rarely seen]], however. And really, what's more beautiful than {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination|a baby?]]}}

* The only nice demon bound in Jerro's Haven in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' is also the one who goes around disguised as an Eladrin.

* In ''[[Star Wars (Franchise)|Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic (Video Game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'', if the player character goes to [[The Dark Side]], s/he develops pale whitish skin and yellowed eyes. In the sequel, the player character can influence his or her allies to go Dark, causing a number of changes in their appearances (none of them good).

* The 1960 US presidential election debates were the first to be televised. Polls showed that those who watched the debate on television thought the handsome [[John F Kennedy]] had won the debate, while those who listened on the radio thought the sweaty, uncomfortable looking [[Richard Nixon]] had won. Of course, TV being a relatively emergent technology that was only just starting to be adapted at the time could have resulted in differences in the demographics of television owners and non-television owners. And, of course, while it might be a poor reason to not vote for someone because they look like a slightly-crazed, paranoid, crook, the fact that Nixon in fact turned out to be a slightly-crazed, paranoid, crook is of no little relevance.

** Even more interesting: While Kennedy was the president who brought the US military into [[The Vietnam War]] full-force (before then, we were supplying troops but it was not an official war), the less-attractive [[Lyndon Johnson]] has tended to receive the lion's share of the blame for the conflict. Nixon was the one who eventually pulled us out, but this is rarely mentioned, mainly due to A. His initial escalation of the fighting and B. He's friggin' [[Richard Nixon]].

** Phryne, an Athenian [[High Class Call Girl|courtesan]] known for her beauty, was once accused of a form of blasphemy. At trial, her defense consisted, at least in part, of stripping off her clothes and saying to the (all-male) jury: "Would you dare destroy ''this''?" She was acquitted.

** [[Socrates]], on the other hand, was famously ugly (both [[Aristophanes (Creator)|Aristophanes]] and [[Plato]] make quite a few "ugly guy" jokes at Socrates' expense). This may have figured into the decision to convict Socrates at trial (the decision to execute him, on the other hand, was more or less because of what he said).

* Kintano from ''[[Angel Densetsu (Manga)|Angel Densetsu]]'' is the [[Nice Guy]], [[The Pollyanna]], [[The Messiah]], and an [[Actual Pacifist]]. [[Face of a Thug|His face,]] however, ''literally'' makes small children cry.

* Beauty may equal goodness, but on [[Bobobobo Bobobo (Manga)|one show in particular]], "Beauty" equals...[[Only Sane Man|exasperation]] (constantly).

 

 

* [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Ben "The Thing" Grimm]] is one of the most popular characters in the [[Marvel Universe]], despite, or perhaps because, he's a massive rock creature.

* [[Beta Ray Bill]]. He looks like an orange humanoid crocodile/horse hybrid, yet he is one of the noblest beings in the Marvel Universe. One of the most badass, too. After all, he was the ''first'' non-Asgardian to be deemed worthy enough to wield [[The Mighty Thor]]'s hammer, Mjolnir, which was of course intended to be a shock to both Thor and readers.

* [[Spider-Girl (Comic Book)|Spider-Girl]], in her identity as May Parker, started out as a star basketball player with short hair, a major subversion from just about all the mainstream superheroines who've ever gotten their own series. Since that time, while May has grown her hair a little longer, what little [[Fan Service]] exists is rather mild, if not non-existent, compared to what many readers have come to expect.

* ''[[Fables (Comic Book)|Fables]]'' has the actual Prince Charming as a major character and also shallow, heartless, bastard. Goldilocks is very attractive and turns out to be murderously violent. Bluebeard is well [[The Bluebeard|Bluebeard]]. Beauty is beautiful but happens to be a total bitch. Bibgy's looks are up for debate but his actions support him being a subversion whether you thing he's good looking or not.

* Of course, played with often in ''[[Watchmen (Comic Book)|Watchmen]]'', thanks to the series blurring the lines between ugliness and beauty, and heroism and villainy.

* There are countless fairy tales where the protagonist is given vital aid on their quests by dwarves, crones, and sometimes even giant, disembodied heads.

* In the story of "[[Tatterhood (Literature)|Tatterhood]]", the eponymous heroine is filthy and dresses in rags while wearing a goat. Her sister is traditionally beautiful, but is a [[Distressed Damsel]] and contributes virtually nothing to the story besides having [[It Makes Sense in Context|her head stolen by trolls]]. The end of the fairy tale does prove that she can be beautiful if she wants, but she makes it clear that she prefers to be dirty.

 

 

** Played straight and sarcastically lampshaded in ''Going Postal''. A minor villain is described as being obese and looking like "a piglet having a bright idea", with a voice like "a small, breathless, neurotic but ridiculously expensive dog". He has exactly the personality one would [[Fat Idiot|stereotypically]] associate with these physical traits. In a [[Footnote Fever|footnote]], the author notes that "it is wrong to judge by appearances" and that "snap judgements can be so unfair" but strongly suggests that such judgements are actually correct most of the time.

** IN SHORT: Discworld averts this trope ''hard'' (most of the time).

** A lot of the problems in the setting exist because the general populace believe this trope is true all of the time when it really isn't.

* [[Sherlock Holmes]] was not ''described'' as terribly good-looking -- and in fact his creator Conan Doyle criticized the stories' illustrators for their portrayals of the character, saying that he had always imagined Holmes as "uglier" than they had depicted him in their drawings (though he added that "perhaps from the point of view of my lady readers, it was as well"). ''Watson'' was supposed to be the attractive one (and quite a ladies' man to boot). Unsurprisingly, this is generally ignored in screen adaptations.

{{quote| ''[[Science Marches On|A disciple of such character–judging anatomists as Gratiolet or Engel could have read this man's features like an open book]]. Without hesitation, I identified his dominant qualities—self–confidence, since his head reared like a nobleman's above the arc formed by the lines of his shoulders, and his black eyes gazed with icy assurance; calmness, since his skin, pale rather than ruddy, indicated tranquility of blood; energy, shown by the swiftly knitting muscles of his brow; and finally courage, since his deep breathing denoted tremendous reserves of vitality.''<br />

''I might add that this was a man of great pride, that his calm, firm gaze seemed to reflect thinking on an elevated plane, and that the harmony of his facial expressions and bodily movements resulted in an overall effect of unquestionable candor—according to the findings of physiognomists, those analysts of facial character.''<br />

* In [[John C Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium (Literature)|Count to a Trillion]]'', Menelaus watches how this trope plays out after he released some technology that allowed the rich to become more beautiful, not just through the [[Ermine Cape Effect]], but actually. He doesn't approve.

* [[Inverted Trope]] In [[Roald Dahl]]'s ''[[The Twits]]'': Goodness equals beauty. The narrator explains that no matter what skin or bone structure you have, as long as you are a happy person who thinks good thoughts, your face will always shine like the sun.

* ''[[Lost in Space]]'' episode "The Golden Man''. Two aliens are in conflict: the handsome title character and his ugly frog-like opponent. The Golden Man turns out to be the bad guy.

* Played straight in the original series of ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' with Captain Kirk. [[Gene Roddenberry]] was originally opposed to casting a bald lead for ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' due to this trope, but changed his mind after seeing [[Patrick Stewart]]'s audition. Stewart was later called the "The Sexiest Man on TV" by ''[[TV Guide (Magazine)|TV Guide]],'' bald head and all; this is telling.

** There's actually plenty of instances in the original series of ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' where good-looking people are the villains (or most of the time, [[Affably Evil]]). Not sure if this would be a subversion, aversion, or some variation, but the women in "Mudd's Women" are actually very ugly unless they take a pill which makes them radiantly beautiful. It's later revealed to basically be a case of the [[Placebo Effect]], and the women's beauty was merely a factor of their self confidence. They then become beautiful without the pill.

** Spock himself quoted this trope in the episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty", commenting on the Greek ideal that "what is beautiful must therefore be good." The episode subverted this trope hard: Kollos, a member of a race described as so ugly that no one can look at them without going mad, turns out to be friendly and helpful when he shares minds with Spock, but his human aide Miranda, while very attractive, is cold and aloof, and later jealous of Kollos' bond with Spock. Kirk himself admits, "Most of us are attracted by beauty and repelled by ugliness -- one of the last of our prejudices."

** "Though there was no disguising his inhumanity [...] there was the overgrown gigantism of the face, that particular characteristic of the Astartes, almost equine". That's Captain Loken, the definitive Good Guy of the first ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' book, [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''Horus Rising''. Also, the book gives us an idea how much Space Marines stink after some time in their powered armor. On the other hand, most Primarchs, who are even taller than Marines, are godlike beautiful.

** An even harder subversion in ''[[Warhammer (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer]]'': See that really hot, half-naked elf woman? She's the Dark Elf Hag Witch who kills children and bathes in their blood. That fat frog guarded by the huge, frightening lizards she's fighting? The frog's a Slann Mage-Priest, and those lizards are Temple Guards, among the noblest soldiers in the world.

** And subverted again with followers of Slaanesh, who are described as [[Ugly Cute|Disturbingly beautiful]] at worst. The ability of the artists and modelers to convey this, however, varies due to individual skill and decency laws.

*** Though played disturbingly straight with Slaanesh's two champions, Lucius and Fulgrim. Fulgrim was one of the most beautiful primarchs while on the side of the Emperor, but now he's a four armed snake thing. Likewise, Lucius was called a pretty boy by his allies because he had never taken an injury in battle. You only start seeing his ugly side after Loken [[Start of Darkness|breaks his nose]], and when he truly [[Face Heel Turn|turns]], he starts cutting his face up whenever he kills someone. Hence how he looks in the 41st millennium.

* In ''[[Razes Hell]]'', the cute and cuddly Kewletts are an evil army on a genocidal campaign to destroy those not cute enough by their standards.

* The Japanese-developed ''[[Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War]]'' subverts this. The base commander is a [[Fat Bastard]], but the handsome-in-an- [[Uncanny Valley]] -way adjutant {{spoiler|is [[The Mole]] for the Belkans.}}

* Subverted and played straight in ''[[Lunar]]: SSSC'' with Phacia and her sisters. Then, played straight in ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete|Lunar: EBC]]'' with Lucia. In fact, some [[NPC|NPCs]] in the game express disbelief at how someone that beautiful can be the Destroyer (which Lucia isn't, but oh, well...).

** Xenobia and Royce (the aforementioned sisters of Phacia) would probably fall under [[Evil Is Sexy]] rather than a subversion of this trope.

** Then played straight when the draenei--particularly draenei women--became very obvious perpetual fanservice. Fanart has ''very'' quickly caught up to reflect this.

** Played straight in a Horde quest in the latest expansion, where players help overthrow a cruel but incompetent Orc commander in favour of her more noble sister. The tyrant uses one of the "ugly" Orc female faces with red eyes and a perpetual snarl, while the sister has the most conventionally attractive face available to Orcs.

* In the ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou Project]]'' series, hideous and otherwise monstrous entities, some of whom even state outright that they do/have done things we might otherwise consider repugnant in their lives, have been turned into [[Cute Monster Girl|Cute Monster Girls]]. They are also extremely well-loved by both their creator and the [[Fandom]], even if "human" is their main delicacy.

** Then there is Saigyou Ayakashi which uses it's beauty to lure people to it and then drain their souls.

* Though it has many straight examples of this trope, ''[[Mass Effect]]'' also has numerous subversions in all three games of the series.

** Turians aren't exactly handsome by human standards, sporting insectoid mandibles and spikey exoskeletons; however, the one that joins your team, [[Friendly Sniper|Garrus Vakarian]] ends up becoming one of [[Player Character|Shepard's]] closest friends. This is subverted even further in the second game, when Garrus gets shot in the face by a enemy gunship; though he survives, he's inflicted with permanent scarring and plastic surgery isn't brought out as an easy way to keep him "handsome." This doesn't effect his morality in the slightest.

** In a far more alien example than most, Rachni Queen might be a terrifying insectoid [[Hive Queen]] that speaks through the bodies of the dead and dying and her species did engulf the galaxy in war several centuries ago, but she isn't inherently evil. In fact, she's just been imprisoned and enslaved as a means of creating shock-troops; if you release her, she joins forces with you out of gratitude, and honours her promise without any backstabbing.

** Morinth, one of your optional team-members from the second game, is a beautiful Asari with class and sophistication on her side. She's also a [[Serial Killer]] who operates via [[Mind Rape|Mind Raping]] her victims [[Out With a Bang|to death]], and has [[Lack of Empathy|absolutely no empathy for anyone she has to kill in order to feed her hunger for power.]]

* [[Warren Harding]], considered the most incompetent president in American history. It was his outward appearance rather than any outstanding internal qualities that contributed most strongly to his political success.

** On the opposite end of the spectrum, [[Abraham Lincoln]], often considered to be America's best president, was thin-faced and wrinkly. His opponents mocked him for having the face of a horse-thief. Most pictures of him smooth out his face quite a bit. There's some evidence that he was actually medically deformed due to Marfan's Syndrome, also explaining his extremely unusual height.

* Quite a few serial killers (such as Ted Bundy) subvert this trope nastily when it comes to using good looks to lure potential victims. They first [[Invoked Trope]] it by getting women to automatically trust them on their good looks alone ("He wouldn't hurt anyone, just look at how hot/cute/handsome he is!").

* This trope came out to play regarding Susan Boyle. When she walked on stage, the judges looked at her awkward appearance and assumed she was going to be a total disaster. When she had an amazing voice come out of her mouth, they judges were visibly floored, and left commentators asking why we assume lack of physical beauty automatically means lack of talent.