Beauty Is Bad: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.|St. Augustine}}

 

 

Please note that '''Beauty Is Bad''' refers to conventional measures of beauty. If more than one standard of beauty is competing in a work and this comes into play, it's the more conventional beauties who will be not-so-good.

 

 

{{examples}}

* Griffith {{spoiler|as Femto}} in ''[[Berserk]]'' is quite attractive. He's also pretty much a [[Complete Monster]].

 

* ''[[Hairspray]]'' is a milder example, in that Tracy Turnblad, while chubby, is still usually quite pretty. The fact remains, though, that the thin, attractive Van Tussel women (and most of the other cast members on ''The Corny Collins Show'') are portrayed as being snobbish and cruel, apparently just because they ''are'' thin and attractive.

** While the Van Tussels remain just as horrible in the second ''Hairspray'' movie, the other attractive cast members are shown to warm up to Tracy. The Negro Day girls who are thin and attractive are nice from the start.

** Famously Inverted with {{spoiler|seemingly wholesome Peggy}}

 

* Princess Laideronette (whose name is the French word for "ugly" rendered into a feminine name- one of the translations into English renamed her Hidessa) from the 18th-century fairy tale novella "[https://web.archive.org/web/20190710220722/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/greenserpent.html The Green Serpent]" is, in spite of having a good figure and lovely hair according to the original illustrations (they only show her from the back), so badly disfigured from birth by a curse flung at her by a fairy who was scorned by Laidronette's parents that she is kept locked away from the world and forced to wear a veil. When she wants to attend a ball in honor of her vain, beautiful, shallow sister Bellotte (who escaped the curse), the only concession her parents make is allowing her a peep-hole to watch the ball so she doesn't frighten the guests. Her virtue is rewarded by the restoration of her beauty, marriage to a handsome prince, and becoming queen in her own right rather than just a consort, while Bellotte is left with nothing.

* In ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', Jane herself and Rochester are nothing special, even joking about each other's hideousness, while Blanche Ingram and Georgiana Reed are more conventionally attractive, but horrible and snobby. Charlotte Bronte admitted this was her intent when she wrote the novel, in a rebuttal to her sister Emily, to prove that a heroine didn't have to be beautiful.

* Though there are plenty of characters in [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] who are both good-looking and good people, being attractive and [[Blond Guys Are Evil|blonde]] is one of the trademarks of the Lannister clan, who are generally speaking ''not'' nice people.

 

* This idea was played with on the reality show ''True Beauty'', which took a cast of good-looking people and then attempted to see if they were as good on the inside as they were on the outside by testing their kindness and morals. Some of them were, some of them... weren't.

* Most children's shows where the main characters are a [[Grotesque Gallery]].

* On soap operas, the super sexy characters engage in all kinds of immoral and unethical behavior.

 

* The Jimmy Soul song "If You Want To Be Happy" (famously covered by the Coasters) has this to say:

{{quote|''A pretty woman makes her husband look small

''She'll always give you peace of mind.'' }}

 

* Attractive women are often seen as inferior wrestlers, or are pre-judged to have gotten their jobs on looks rather than athletic merits. This attitude dates back to [[Sable]] in the late 90s. On one hand Sable was ultra-popular for a while and brought back women's wrestling to mainstream promotions. On the other hand, she'd had so much plastic surgery she could barely bump and had to be carried through her matches by the less attractive but more talented Jacqueline and Luna Vachon. To this day [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] tends to hire models that their talent scouts find attractive and send them to developmental territories instead of hiring girls from the independent promotions. There are also the Diva Search divas, who get their jobs by winning a contest that most wrestling fans find boring. So ex-models regularly get accused of being talentless and undeserving of their jobs, regardless of how hard they work to improve their skills.

* WWE wrestler [[Cody Rhodes]], especially in his stint as "Dashing Cody Rhodes", whose character was that of a handsome, but utterly vain and egotistical heel who'd denigrate fans and other superstars for their supposed "ugliness".

 

* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series, nearly every female that other characters describe as "beautiful" turns out to be pure evil. Plenty of "good" female characters are considered attractive by the fandom - [[The Obi-Wan|Mia Fey]] [[Most Common Superpower|in particular]] - but it rarely comes up in the games themselves.

* One of the Hoenn-introduced Pokémon from ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' versions is Beautifly. Despite its appearance of a seemingly innocent butterfly, it has a much darker side. It drains other Pokémon's body fluids to survive. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Of course, this is not possible in game]].

** Also introduced in the same game, meet Gorebyss. Despite its elegant appearance, it aggressively chases its prey with its spear-shaped mouth into submission. After it catches its prey, it proceeds by draining the prey's bodily fluids with its mouth.

 

* In the "The List" episode of ''[[South Park]]'', after Kyle is voted the ugliest kid in the class, Abraham Lincoln tells Kyle that ugly people develop character and kids who are considered to be hot rarely do.

** Subverted (Or even inverted) because Stan (The third) is the [[Only Sane Man]] and [[The Messiah]], Token (The Second) is a [[Nice Guy]], while the Cartman (The Ugliest kid) is a Bastard and a [[Villain Protagonist]].

 

* Fashion model [[Naomi Campbell]]. She's taken potshots at other black models (including [[Tyra Banks]]) and has quite a habit of abusing her assistants. An incident where she threw her cellphone at someone has gained [[Memetic Mutation]] status. Now she's in court for war crimes accused buying blood diamonds from former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's regime. Or it could be seen as society's need to prove this trope. According to others, she's exacting but polite to her staff, and if you would turn down a handful of diamonds someone gave you, throw the first stone.

* There is an increasing size discrimination against women who are "supermodel thin". Never mind that some women really are built to be size 2 and there's no more they can do about it than the natural size 14s of the world; they are automatically classified by some as negative and unrealistic role models and earn the frequent scorn of groups and individuals who say that a thin woman isn't a "real" woman and that "real women have curves."

** There's also Mo'Nique, whose ''entire act'' revolves around this trope. Less than 200 pounds? You're a skinny bitch who can't cook who is secretly trying to steal all of the good men from the bigger sistas.

** This seems to be the main point of Dove's [[True Beauty Is on the Inside|Campaign For Real Beauty]] as well. You'll notice that all the women in the commercials have ''very'' attractive faces and perfect hair; they just happen to weigh twenty pounds more than your average model (they're not even fat, either; just the larger end of average). [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins?currentPage=5 They even Photoshopped them to be prettier.]

** Only if they didn't match their social station. Nobles and royals could be as pretty as they liked. Attractive peasants needed to tread carefully, however.

* [http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/onthejob/archive/2009/job0903.html The recommendation career coach Marty Nemko makes to employers is to hire ugly people.] The reasons he gives are that they're nicer, work harder and are more loyal.

** Indeed, according to scientific studies, it's far harder for a beautiful woman to get work in the traditionally male professions, like the police, than her less attractive peers, and if by some fluke they get in, they can expect endless sexual harassment and are unlikely to ever be taken seriously. Beauty really is a curse (professionally) if your goals in life involve more than being pretty for a living.

** That's the go-to bullying method for victims who are considered attractive. Paradoxically, less attractive victims are mocked for the ''opposite'' reason.

* Many of the prettiest animals in Nature are that way because they use bright, striking colors to advertise to predators how poisonous they are. Do ''not'' touch the pretty jungle frogs.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:The Beautiful Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Aesops]]

[[Category:Sour Grapes Tropes]]