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Beauty Equals Goodness: Difference between revisions
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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.
[[Red Right Hand]] exists because of this trope. [[Ugly Hero, Good
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.
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* Played straight in the [[The Film of the Book|film version]] of ''[[Matilda (Film)|Matilda]]''. All the evil characters are either unattractive or just average, whereas Matilda's heaven-sent teacher Miss Honey is probably the only good looking person in the movie. Not counting the cute little innocent kids, that is. This gets a bit silly when the tackily-made-up, unattractively-voiced Mrs. Wormwood starts lecturing Miss Honey about the merits of books versus looks.
** That's how it was in [[Matilda (Literature)|the book]] as well. If anything, the drawings of Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood were ''uglier'' than their live action counterparts (Mr. Wormwood looked a bit like a rodent and Mrs. Wormwood is described as being plump, with obviously-dyed hair and a "suet-pudding" face).
* Played very straight in ''[[Solomon Kane]]'', where Kane in the start is ragged and crazy-looking with his messy beard and hair, and his crazy [[Large Ham]] expressions, but after doing [[Heel Face Turn]] he smoothes out his facial hair and becomes ruggedly handsome. Likewise, when [[The Dragon]] recruits warriors, he does some kind of demonic possession-thing where the recruits receive horrible scars, black eyes and bad teeth, [[No Ontological Inertia|all which go away when they die.]] Oh, and [[The Dragon]] himself is horribly scarred under his mask, and the [[Big Bad]] invokes [[Two
* Played depressingly straight in ''[[Star Trek Insurrection (Film)|Star Trek Insurrection]]''. [[Perfect Pacifist People|The]] [[Space Amish|Bak'u]] look like catalog models, while [[Designated Villain|the Son'a]] look like [[Michael Jackson (Music)|Michael Jackson]] after 20 too many facelifts.
* In the ''[[Harry Potter (Film)|Harry Potter]]'' series, the protagonists are good-looking British teenagers, while the villain, Voldemort, is [http://bathnbody.craftgossip.com/files/2010/09/voldemort2.jpg something] [[Nightmare Fuel|out of a nightmare.]] Of course this could be because Voldemort has {{spoiler|split his soul losing much of his humanity in the process [[I Was Quite a Looker|he looked]] [http://quizilla.teennick.com/user_images/S/SA/SAI/saintgirl11/1132887422_quizcos854.jpg much more attractive] when he was fully human.}}
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* An example who was once a subversion: To the vast surprise of most people, Lancelot in ''[[King Arthur|La Morte d'Arthur]]'' and other early Arthurian works is not the handsome "[[Prince Charming]]" figure he tends to be portrayed as in modern media, but a stocky, barrel-chested walking meat wall who is notably plain in appearance. (He's also a mentally unstable berserker given to complete psychotic breakdowns at the drop of a hat. Naturally, since [[John Cleese (Creator)|John Cleese]] is an Arthurian scholar, ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail (Film)|Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'' got him completely right.)
** T.H. White takes this even further in ''The Ill-Made Knight'', the third volume of ''[[The Once and Future King]]'', and makes his version of Lancelot extraordinarily ugly, so much so that he is said to resemble an ape.
*** Further subverted ''The Once and Future King'' series with Elaine. She starts off as being young and beautiful, but becomes plump and reclusive from society when Lancelot abandons her. The narrator even mentions that she did the "wrong thing", and ought to have turned "thin and interesting" as Guenever would have done in that situation. Elaine is still portrayed very sympathetically (even if she does [[Double Standard Rape (Female On Male)|trick Lancelot into sleeping with her]] ''again'')
** Bernard Cornwell's [[Warlord Trilogy]] retained the good-looking "Prince Charming" Lancelot and then thoroughly subverted it, turning him into a cowardly, snivelling, petulant bastard with [[Alternate Character Interpretation|no redeeming features whatsoever.]] He didn't even have the good grace to be [[Magnificent Bastard]] about it. One could argue in fact that Lancelot is the major villain of the series- he's certainly one of the least likable characters.
* The series ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]'' is especially notorious for this trope, seeing as Bella's narration does nothing but describe other characters' physical appearances and how wonderful or horrible it makes them as a being, depending on how they look. She primarily judges people based on their looks. You can tell how important and "nice" a character's going to be based on how Bella finds them attractive. The only exception to this rule is Rosalie, who's depicted as [[Dumb Blonde|shallow and vain]], but that's just Meyer expressing her [[Author Filibuster|blonde-female hate]].
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** Although quite subverted with the evil [[Magnificent Bastard|Zankou]], who is implied to have had a relationship with the stunning Seer, Kyra.
* ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' is a pretty big offender. You can always tell the new character is a good guy if they look like a model. Sylar and Adan Monroe are the only exceptions.
* Played uncomfortably straight with the Cylons on the reimagined ''[[
** And given D'Anna was willing even in her most recent (S4) appearance {{spoiler|to wipe out humanity even after they helped resurrect her}} she probably deserves to be in the morally doubtful region along with {{spoiler|Tory}}.
** ''Battlestar Galactica'' also has the (only) perfectly upstanding character Karl Agathon, [[Meaningful Name|named after]] this trope (see "Kalos kai Agathos" above).
* None of the Doctors of ''[[
** 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 "[[Humanoid Aliens|monsters]]" are generally unattractive by human standards, but it's often subverted with the revelation that they're not really that monstrous. ''Some'' of them are capital-E-Evil, but some have [[Blue and Orange Morality]], some of them are [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]], and some of them are actually the good guys.
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** 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?]]}}
* Played straight in ''[[World of Warcraft (Video Game)|World of Warcraft]]: The Burning Crusade'', where the draenei were revamped from the ugly Lost One model into uncorrupted eredar. The new storyline then went on to say that the old draenei with the ugly appearance were [[Always Chaotic Evil|evil by default]] and gave all friendly Draenei of the old appearance a more [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|humanish]] form. And the Horde got the pretty, fine-featured blood elves, presumably for the sole purpose of [[Fan Service]]. However, it's subverted by the broken ones, who are certainly not as good looking as their Draenei cousins, but there are a bunch of good ones, specially those in the Earthen Ring. Played more-or-less straight in that Broken verge on [[Ugly Cute]], while the more mutated Lost Ones are far less likely to be sympathetic. Played straight again with Worgen who all become [[Progressively Prettier]] once they are an Alliance race. The new Worgen all have human hairstyles(as opposed to just fur like the old worgen) and soft puppyish faces as opposed to the hideous snarl, deformed fangs, and [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|pure red eyes]] of the old Worgen. Averted with the Horde's goblins. Averted again with the revamped male worgen models, which look like angry werewolves again. They look like bedraggled panicky dog-women for the most part, but have an even more puppyish skull structure and big soft heavy-lidded human eyes.
* 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).
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== Western Animation ==
* On ''[[Justice League (Animation)|Justice League]]'' (and ''Justice League Unlimited''), only two of the big seven are even remotely not conventionally attractive. J'onn, while green, [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|is a shapeshifter who can look however he wants]], and Hawkgirl's "weird" look is [[Winged Humanoid|angelic wings]]. Now, let's take a look at the villains: Gorilla Grodd, Ultra-Humanite, Parasite, Shade, the White Martians... Except [[Evil Is Sexy|the female ones]]. And Luthor. Bodies are likewise ridiculously one-note exaggerations, with [[Top
* The eponymous heroes of ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' are ''superficially'' ugly monsters (especially Brooklyn), which barely hides their heroic natures. Some fans of the show find them rather cute.
** Goliath - if you can get past the wings, fangs, and talons - could be seen as downright handsome. And let's face it, any man with [[Keith David]]'s voice is going to have less trouble with the ladies than he might otherwise.
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== Real Life ==
* During the Victorian era, this concept was widely held to be true; a person's physical appearance was a reflection on their morality and social standing. The introduction discusses 19th Century quackery discourses of [
* In Spanish, "to be" can be translated as two different verbs (ser and estar) "ser buena" (to be good) means to be a good/nice person, and "estar buena" (literally translated also: "to be good") means being physically attractive (although usually "hot" more than "beautiful"). This might be because ser means "usually to be a certain way" whereas estar draws its distinction in definition from meaning something more like "to be a certain way which is not so usual." In other words, "ser buena" most literally means "to be good as a regular thing" whereas the most literal translation for "estar buena" could be "to be good for the moment" and not necessarily as a regular thing. This suggests that Spanish-speaking cultures are probably at least somewhat aware of beauty's tendency to be fleeting and superficial, and have therefore linked it to temporary and superficial goodness in their language. The connection--however tenuous--between being physically attractive and being morally upright is still there, however.
* The [
* 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]].
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* [[William Howard Taft]] was the last president elected before photographs became a standard feature of newspapers (somewhat obviously).
* The opposite assumption--Ugliness Equals Evil--is exhibited in the various meanings of the Arabic word ''qabīḥ''. Its most common meaning is simply "ugly," but it can also mean "disgusting" or "monstrous" or, well, "evil" (as an adjective). However, the more usual word for "evil" is ''shirrīr'', and the other meanings of ''qabīḥ'' only occur to the educated, so it's not played ''entirely'' straight (except in the Maghreb, where it is the colloquial word for "bad"--not "evil," but "bad").
* When you get down to it, this is the principle behind [[Double Standard Rape (Female On Male)]], since the cultural standard for "female" is "beautiful." You can see this in action when it comes to things like child molestation and statutory rape. Mary Kay Letourneau does her 12-year-old student? Fine, he must have wanted it.
* Recent pictures of [http://sports.rightpundits.com/wp-content/photos/Former_Figure_Skater_Nancy_Kerrigan.jpg Nancy Kerrigan] and [http://www.tonyaharding.com/tonya_harding_now.jpg Tonya Harding] seem to play this trait pretty straight. Kerrigan still looks youthful and gorgeous, while Harding (who, as anyone who was alive during the 1990s remembers, conspired with her ex-husband and bodyguard to break her rival Kerrigan's leg to render her incapable of competing in the Olympics), looks a bit like the mother from ''[[The Fighter (Film)|The Fighter]]'' after a few ''more'' years' hard living.
* Many Christian denominations believe human souls would be reunited with their bodies on Judgment Day, and their bodies would be transformed. The righteous would receive beautiful, glorified bodies that resemble extremely idealized versions of themselves, while the wicked would be placed in twisted, pain wracked versions of their old bodies.
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** Dr Manhattan rebuilt himself in the shape of the ideal man and the classical hero, standing well over six feet with statuesque features. He even walks around naked. However, he doesn't care at all for heroism.
** The Comedian is tall, handsome and has "badboy appeal", which also plays the trope straight except... he's not much of a hero. It straightens out again when his scars and age reduce his good looks to a rather leathery looking ball of meat.
* Marv from ''[[Sin City]]'' is a massive, ugly monster of a man but is also a good man. Meanwhile, [[The Vamp|Ava Lord is pure evil but was extremely beautiful to the point where she could easily manipulate almost any man into doing her bidding.]] Junior was also fairly handsome and looked every bit the golden boy future President his father wanted him to become -- too bad about the whole [[Complete Monster/Comic Books|"raping and killing little girls" hobby]]. It's played straight with Junior after the experimental treatments that saved him from Hartigan's [[No
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** The fourth film has that all of the ogres are perfectly decent people fighting to overthrow the evil Rumplestiltskin. In that universe, Fiona also identifies as an ogre and keeps her curse of turning into a human woman by day a secret.
* Inverted in the 1953 sci-fi movie ''[[It Came From Outer Space (Film)|It Came From Outer Space]]'' where the hideous one-eyed aliens are not launching a covert invasion of Earth; they only want to quietly repair their spaceship and leave without conflict.
* ''[[
* Averted, lampshaded and parodied in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies where the hero doesn't look good at all and one of the first things said to him after he is unfrozen is that he should get a make over for his teeth. At the end of one of the movies when they watch a movie based on Austin Powers (yeah.) [[Adaptational Attractiveness|Austin is played by Tom Cruise]].
* In the [[James Bond (Film)|James Bond]] movie ''[[For Your Eyes Only (Film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', Aris Kristatos, a handsome Greek tycoon decorated by the British government for valor during [[World War II]] and devoted to his patronage of an aspiring Olympic figure skater Bibi Dahl, warns Bond that Milos Columbo, a swarthy, greasy-haired heroin smuggler, has the encryption device that Bond is attempting to retrieve. When Bond meets with Columbo, he declares that, yes, he is a smuggler, but [[Even Evil Has Standards|he never smuggled heroin]], and that Kristatos is the real drug smuggler, having warned Bond that he may have to kill Columbo to knock out the competition. By the end of the movie, Kristatos has attempted to kill Bond(and clearly had non-fatherly designs on Bibi), while Colombo aided Bond in taking him down.
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== Literature ==
* [[Shakespeare (Creator)|Shakespeare]]'s [
* [[Charlotte Bronte (Creator)|Charlotte Bronte]] stated that she deliberately created ''[[Jane Eyre (Literature)|Jane Eyre]]'' to be "as poor and plain as myself," in contrast to the beautiful and elegant romance heroines of her time. Consequently, Jane Eyre herself is never seen as anything but plain and unassuming, except in the eyes of her beloved - who in turn is not particularly handsome, but is loved by Jane for his sharp-pricked devotion to her.
** And, of course, the novel's prettiest characters are all extremely problematic in one way or the other. Blanche Ingram is a self-involved [[Gold Digger]]; Rosamond Oliver, while sweet, is nevertheless represented as a fluttery socialite-type; and St. John Rivers, although not a villain, is extremely manipulative and egotistical.
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* An unsung aversion is ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' and to some extent ''[[Sesame Street (TV)|Sesame Street]]'' as well. With muppets it doesn't matter what a muppet looks like as to how good or bad a person uh puppet will be. And at least on ''The Muppet Show'' it was even true with the guest stars you couldn't tell how nice or mean they would be purely based on looks. In fact the more you like a muppet, the more you like the way they look.
* Oh so very averted with Julie Cooper in ''[[The OC]]'', widely acknowledged as beautiful, but also suffers from [[Chronic Villainy]].
* Subverted in the ''[[
** In the ''[[Virgin New Adventures]]'' novel ''Timewyrm: Revelations'' by [[Paul Cornell]], Ace finds a pack of double-sided Tarot cards which symbolise the Doctor. One of the cards is called "We Are Friends To The Ugly/We War With The Beautiful", and shows the Doctor embracing a many-tentacled monster (possibly a Venusian, or Alpha Centuri from the Peladon stories) and confronting a calm humanoid.
** The most common source of [[Cowboy Bebop At His Computer]] in ''[[
* Averted in universe with Michael Scott of ''[[The Office (TV)|The Office]]'', he truly believes that the more attractive a person is the more trustworthy, honorable etc. they are. Pretty much every attractive person Michael puts any trust in are arrogant [[Jerkass|JerkAsses]].
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[[Category:Improbable Appearance Tropes]]
[[Category:Beauty Equals Goodness]]
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