tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/villains-25483/articles
Villains – The Conversation
2021-10-06T14:34:53Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169411
2021-10-06T14:34:53Z
2021-10-06T14:34:53Z
No Time to Die: the problem with Bond villains having facial disfigurements
<p>As the 25th James Bond film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">No Time to Die</a> hits the cinemas, we are once again reminded of the way that disability is depicted negatively in Hollywood films. The new James Bond film features three villains, all of who have <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/james-bond-disability-campaigners-villains-b1928355.html">facial disfigurements</a> (Blofeld, Safin and Primo).</p>
<p>If you take a closer look at James Bond villains throughout history, the majority have facial disfigurements or physical impairments. This is in sharp contrast to the other characters, including James Bond, who are able-bodied and presented with no physical bodily differences. </p>
<p>Indeed, many films still rely on outdated disability tropes, including Star Wars and various Disney classics. Rather than simply being part of a character’s identity, the physical difference is exploited and exaggerated to become a plot point and visual metaphor for villains.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11523/narrative_prosthesis">their book</a> about depictions of disability in fiction, academics David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder coined the term “narrative prosthesis” to highlight how disability is used to prop up or propel a narrative. </p>
<h2>The problem</h2>
<p>Although James Bond films are particularly consistent with this trope, other examples include Peter Pan and The Lion King, where Scar has a facial scar and Captain Hook has a missing limb. In both films, their impairments are exploited so much that they are even named after them.</p>
<p>There’s also <a href="https://dcextendeduniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Doctor_Poison">Dr Poison from Wonder Woman</a>, <a href="https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Tom_Riddle">Voldermort from Harry Potter</a>, <a href="https://www.starwars.com/databank/kylo-ren">Kylo Ren from Star Wars</a> and many more – particularly in horror and sci-fi films. Often, these characters have a tragic backstory that provides their narrative with an explanation of their facial disfigurement as well as a reason why they are evil. Many of these characters seek revenge because of what happened to them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Simba and Scar." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425022/original/file-20211006-23-1iwf03u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Scar from The Lion King acting the villain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The reliance on this trope and the continuous use of it in films has been labelled as <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/james-bond-villains-facial-disfigurements-disabilities">lazy, boring and outdated</a> by disability activists. It is also important to note that many of these characters are played by actors who do not have facial disfigurements, which is another issue of representation in the film industry.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>These representations are harmful to people with facial differences. When facial differences are used only as signs of evil, this reinforces the damaging beliefs about people with facial differences in society. </p>
<p>Disabled people want to see disability represented in a variety of roles and narratives on the screen instead of constantly being portrayed as evil, pitied or for comedic value. <a href="https://rl.talis.com/3/exeter/items/54D1D11B-F7B0-D595-5779-D89B74462B3E.html">Tom Shakespeare</a>, a disability studies scholar, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The use of disability as a character trait, plot device, or atmosphere is a lazy shortcut. These representations are not accurate or fair reflections of the experience of disabled people. Such stereotypes reinforce negative attitudes towards disabled people and ignorance about the nature of disability. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/">Changing Faces</a>, a charity that supports people who have a visible difference or disfigurement, has set up a campaign “<a href="https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/i-am-not-your-villian/">I am not your villain</a>” to fight for equal representations of visible difference on screen. It has called on the film industry to stop using scars, burns and other facial disfigurements as a shorthand for villainy. The British Film Institute (BFI) was the first organisation to sign up and has committed to stop funding films that feature negative representations depicted through scars or facial differences – a step in the right direction.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.changingfaces.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/i-am-not-your-villian/">Research from Changing Faces</a> has found that people with facial differences feel lower levels of confidence, struggle with body image and self-esteem and have mental health problems because they are not represented accurately in society and popular culture. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bA4BcwEeikA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>This short film highlights how these representations are damaging to people with facial differences, stressing the importance of change in the film industry. As one woman in the video states, “often or not, it’s not their own acceptance it’s society’s acceptance that is the problem. How do you integrate yourself into work, dating, into schools? But if you had a positive character, I think some of these things would just make it easier to deal with”.</p>
<p>This is why it’s time we moved beyond the <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/james-bond-villains-facial-disfigurements-disabilities">regressive stereotypes of disability</a> as evil, and for people with facial differences to be portrayed as the hero or the love interest rather than just the villain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Gibson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A sign of evil? A look at the use of facial disfigurement in James Bond films.
Jessica Gibson, PhD Candidate in the Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice, University of York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147290
2020-10-13T10:53:07Z
2020-10-13T10:53:07Z
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s greatest villain
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363003/original/file-20201012-21-1450nyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C1%2C1192%2C926&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hamlet and Ophelia by Agnes Pringle.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/hamlet-and-ophelia-178865">Chiswick Town Hall</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who is Shakespeare’s greatest villain? Richard III? Iago? Macbeth? They all have a claim to the title; however, the correct answer is Hamlet. </p>
<p>Hamlet not only behaves villainously throughout his eponymous play, but has somehow persuaded generations of audiences and critics that he is actually its hero. That is what takes his villainy to the next level. </p>
<p>Look at the roll call of Hamlet’s crimes. </p>
<p>First he kills Polonius – chief counsellor to the King and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Hamlet skewers him when he discovers him eavesdropping from behind a tapestry. Polonius may be an “intruding fool,” as Hamlet dismissively calls him on discovering his body; but Hamlet is in no position to feel superior, having “intruded” on Claudius’s private meditations in just the previous scene. Double standards are, however, a hallmark of this play.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lure-of-hamlet-why-this-is-the-test-of-a-lifetime-for-benedict-cumberbatch-45455">The lure of Hamlet – why this is the test of a lifetime for Benedict Cumberbatch</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To make his treatment of Polonius worse, once dead, Hamlet drags his corpse through the court, hiding it from his loved ones and leaving it to decay and rot without proper burial. </p>
<p>Such disrespect of Polonius in death, however, is no different from how the prince treated him in life. Using his rank, Hamlet continuously insults Polonious, ridiculing him for his age, calling him names and refusing to talk to him directly at times. Hamlet does so knowing Polonius can not answer back. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2868804?seq=1">Punching down</a> is Hamlet’s usual style with social inferiors: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Osric all experience similar treatment. </p>
<h2>Mad, bad and dangerous to know?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of Ophelia floating after she drowned in a river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C193%2C1372%2C804&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362998/original/file-20201012-13-27ahru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Everett Millais’s Ophelia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506">Tate</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most egregious crime is the death of Ophelia, whom Hamlet drives to madness and suicide with a campaign of <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/is-hamlet-sexist-meet-the-director-who-says-shakespeares-hero-wa/">misogyny, gaslighting and open sexual harassment</a>, one moment condemning her for the crime of being female, the next degrading her in public with obscene puns.</p>
<p>Then there’s his casual proxy murder of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whose only crime is to obey the king’s order to find out what is troubling their friend and then to escort him to England. Although Hamlet has no evidence that his friends know the fatal contents of the letter they carry, commanding the prince’s execution, he goes out of his way to ensure that they are not only killed but damned for eternity by being denied confession. By his own account, he never gives them another thought.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/patriarchys-ghosts-in-the-light-bulbs-hamlet-at-the-royal-exchange-31191">Patriarchy’s ghosts in the light bulbs: Hamlet at The Royal Exchange</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Never Hamlet’</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Set design feature four of Hamlet's characters in a round lit by spotlights with crosses hanging above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C918%2C1888%2C1266&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363001/original/file-20201012-21-sjwkv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Set design for shakespeare’s Hamlet by Georgian artist Dimitri Tavadze.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hamlet_in_art#/media/File:1974_Shakespeare_%E2%80%93_Hamlet_(2).jpg">Dimitri Tavadze/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Laertes, like Hamlet, has a murdered father, as well as a sister driven to suicide. When he takes a few lines to mourn at her graveside, Hamlet (whose self-absorbed soliloquies have already filled many pages) is outraged that the focus of attention should be on anyone else even for eight lines (“What is he whose grief/ Bears such an emphasis?”) and declares, on the basis of no evidence that we have seen, that he loved Ophelia 40,000 times more than her brother. Despite this hyperbolic protestation, he never again mentions or alludes to Ophelia from that moment on, let alone expressing regret at her death. </p>
<p>The usual excuse made for Hamlet is that many of these deeds are committed when he is of unsound mind. Indeed, this is his explanation to Laertes for the death of Polonius (“Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet”). That excuse would carry more weight had Hamlet not persuasively told his mother the opposite within moments of the killing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,</p>
<p>And makes as healthful music: it is not madness</p>
<p>That I have utter’d: bring me to the test,</p>
<p>And I the matter will re-word; which madness</p>
<p>Would gambol from.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By the end of the play, Hamlet has not only ruined his own life and those of his family and friends, but freely given away his country to a foreign power – the very thing his admired father had struggled so hard to prevent. </p>
<p>In short, Hamlet is a self-centred, entitled, manipulative, callous bully. However, he is also intensely charismatic, so much so that he has persuaded the world to share his Hamlet-centric view. </p>
<p>That is what makes him a villain of genius.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Butler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
You might think he’s the hero of his own story but the murder happy Hamlet is really an unconscionable brute.
Catherine Butler, Reader in English Literature, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/145359
2020-09-21T18:57:12Z
2020-09-21T18:57:12Z
Why Chadwick Boseman is more of a hero than Hollywood’s Black Panther
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357961/original/file-20200914-24-hy9eqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C84%2C4699%2C3142&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man photographs a mural of late actor Chadwick Boseman's character T'Challa (Black Panther) from the 2018 film 'Black Panther,' on Sept. 8, 2020, in Los Angeles. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The public condolences offered for Chadwick Boseman, such as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/08/chadwick-boseman/615868/">David Sims’ piece in <em>The Atlantic</em>, frequently refer to the actor as “heroic</a>.” </p>
<p>For many, Boseman crafted his personal life with the same regal comportment he used when playing the role of T’Challa, the beloved king-cum-chief-warrior and Black Panther.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xjDjIWPwcPU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Black Panther.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To illustrate their mirrored qualities, consider that both Boseman and Boseman’s T’Challa are not only <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/why-fashion-is-key-to-understanding-the-world-of-black-panther/553157/">well-dressed</a> but distinctly <a href="https://www.prestigeonline.com/th/people-events/people/chadwick-boseman-fashion/">fashionable</a>. </p>
<p>Both not only <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZwDQ2r5bf8">command international audiences</a> with their rhetorical skills, but offer speeches that are <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/sag-awards-chadwick-boseman-black-panther-acceptance-speech-goosebumps">inspiring</a>. And when both faced imminent death, they did so with uncommon bravery and grace: T’Challa in a ritual battle for Wakanda’s throne when his nemesis-cousin Erik Killmonger throws him over a cliff, vis-à-vis Boseman, as he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/08/28/chadwick-boseman-dies-after-cancer-battle/">battled colon cancer</a>.</p>
<p>But, if truth be told, Boseman’s everyday valour exceeds the heroism depicted in <em>Black Panther</em>, because Boseman’s heroism emanates from an ethical understanding of Black humanity. The same can’t be unequivocally said for Hollywood’s film, particularly in how it relied on stereotypes to both exalt a hero and demonize a villain.</p>
<h2>Enactments of Black manhood</h2>
<p>Indeed, Boseman displayed remarkable enactments of Black manhood in his personal life — enactments that honour, respect and buttress a kaleidoscope of other Black masculinities. </p>
<p>To put it another way, Boseman’s real-life Black masculine performance exceeds the gallantry of Hollywood’s attempt at a Black superhero. Representations of various other <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hollywoods-alien-and-predator-movies-reinforce-anti-black-racism-127088">Black masculinities are either absent from or vilified within fictions emanating from Hollywood</a>; these movie portrayals are what inform perceptions of Black men.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357965/original/file-20200914-14-80qzpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actor Chadwick Boseman poses for a photo before the start of the NBA All-Star basketball game, February 2018, in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Compare, for example, the masculinity of T’challa with that of <a href="https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Erik_Killmonger">Erik Killmonger</a> (portrayed by Michael B. Jordan). He is a former United States Navy SEAL and veritable modern-day Black <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/the-truth-about-viking-berserkers/">berserker</a>.</p>
<p>Killmonger offers a brand of African American manhood that calls to mind many racist stereotypes used to create and justify fear of Black men. However, Killmonger challenges these stale stereotypes with his unapologetic <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-dont-be-like-that-now-the-english-history-of-african-american-english-129611">use of African American English</a> and his exceptionally rugged swagger.</p>
<p>To illustrate, Killmonger delivers a strong denunciation — dripping with Black English and masculinity — when he defeats T’Challa: <a href="https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/black-panther-killmonger-meme/">“Is this your king?” he asks loudly</a>. “Huh? … He’s supposed to protect you! To lead Wakanda into the future! Nah, I’m your king!”</p>
<h2>Villainizing urban Black masculinity</h2>
<p>Making urban Black masculinity the extreme antagonist, the object of scorn, is too easy, perhaps expected. This is where, to my mind, <em>Black Panther</em> as a film fails in depicting Black manhood.</p>
<p>The logic of the movie renders Killmonger’s urban masculinity anomalous, deviant; for there is no other Wakandan that shares Killmonger’s masculine characteristics, displaying his same language, demeanor and style. Killmonger’s urban atypicality makes him seem more villainous. </p>
<p>What’s more, Killmonger is pitted against the other male figures because his actions are viewed as despicable, fuelled by desperate hopes to be Wakandan, the nation’s king and to root out injustice against Blacks all over the world by creating tyranny with Wakandan technology.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Characters Killmonger and Black Panther face each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358250/original/file-20200915-14-1aw4xcx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The character Killmonger’s urban Black masculinity is depicted as deviant, and he’s pitted against the other male figures because his actions are viewed as despicable. Here, Killmonger (Michael T. Jordan) faces T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Disney/Marvel Studios)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The practice of negatively comparing African American men to their African brothers, with the effort to devalue the African American, is not <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/woke/#:%7E:text=Woke%20means%20being%20conscious%20of,as%20being%20%22with%20it.%22">lost on the “woke”</a> consumer. </p>
<p>There are long-standing distinctions amplified in cultural practices or sentiments that pit one kind of acceptable brown or Black person against another type that’s despised. During legal segregation in America (circa 1896 to 1954) Africans and other dark-hued men were not subject to the same level of discrimination and racism in America as their African American brothers: As I have previously argued, <a href="https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/bourgeois-boojie">in order to benefit from the rights guaranteed them as citizens and to be treated fairly, some dark-skinned African Americans passed, ironically, as dark-skinned <em>non-citizens</em></a>. These individuals, of course, also had to disassociate themselves from other American Blacks. </p>
<h2>Despising the Black underclass</h2>
<p>Booker T. Washington provides examples of this circumstance in his critical 1901 memoir <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2376/2376-h/2376-h.htm"><em>Up From Slavery</em></a>. Washington reports that an angry white mob set to hang an African from Morocco because the Moroccan was lodging at a racially exclusive hotel. The man escaped the lynching by speaking Arabic and proving he was not an American-born Black man. </p>
<p>Distinctions of pitting one kind of “acceptable” brown or Black person against another did not end with desegregation. Currently it’s the Black urban underclass that’s despised.</p>
<p>Thus, notwithstanding the pyrotechnics within the Hollywood blockbuster, Black Panther is a rather flat hero, even if he is also the kind Hollywood audiences want to love. The character is flat and probably beloved because he fully participates in the mundane narrative that urban Black masculinities are in need of saving, and their saviours are either white or romanticized African or both, as depicted in the movie.</p>
<h2>Boseman advanced real stories</h2>
<p>Where Black Panther fails, however, on Black masculinities, Boseman himself prevails. Boseman did not pit and privilege one type of masculine performance against and over another. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/08/29/chadwick-boseman-praised-student-protesters-2018-commencement-speech-howard-university-watch-video/">In his 2018 commencement address at Howard University</a>, Boseman recalls playing an urban “young man in his formative years with a violent streak pulled into the allure of gang involvement.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RIHZypMyQ2s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Chadwick Boseman’s Howard University 2018 commencement address.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Boseman asked the producers for more about the character’s background. He says: “That’s somebody’s real story. Never judge the characters you play. That’s what we were always taught.… [B]ut I was conflicted because this role seemed to be wrapped up in assumptions about us as Black folk.” Boseman <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chadwick-boseman-fired-tv-show-question-black-stereotypes-2018-5">was fired for asking questions about the humanity of his character</a>, his agents telling him there was now a stigma and he was seen as “difficult.”</p>
<p>And who could forget Boseman giving away the MTV award he received for his role in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4282816/chadwick-boseman-waffle-house-hero-james-shaw-jr-mtv-awards/">Black Panther to James Shaw Jr., a Black man who took down a shooter at a Waffle House</a>. Boseman said, “Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing, but it’s even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life.”</p>
<p>For me, the lesson of Boseman’s legacy isn’t how similar he was to Black Panther the superhero, but rather how much better he was than T'Challa of Hollywood, especially in creating positive space for other black masculinities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vershawn Ashanti Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Unlike the Hollywood hero he portrayed, Boseman created space for a kaleidoscope of Black masculinities and challenged the narrative that urban Black men are in need of saving.
Vershawn Ashanti Young, Professor, Department of Drama and Speech Communication, University of Waterloo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124832
2019-10-08T12:00:34Z
2019-10-08T12:00:34Z
Joker makes for uncomfortable viewing – it shows how society creates extremists
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295822/original/file-20191007-121088-19dbkfu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC Comics</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The backlash against the backlash has begun. Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Todd Phillips of Hangover trilogy fame, has opened to conflicting reviews and negative press. </p>
<p>Having been hailed as a <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/joker-joaquin-phoenix-robert-deniro-premiere-venice-1203320139/">masterpiece</a> when it first screened at the Venice film festival (and drawing an eight-minute standing ovation), a slew of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/evj5ep/incel-shitposts-are-making-people-nervous-about-the-joker-premiere">anxious commentaries</a> have since worried about the film’s potential to incite mass shootings and civilian violence. Since its general release, the tide has begun to turn once again in favour of the film, suggesting that the general public is far more capable of discerning the difference between social commentary and incitement to violence than some pundits believe.</p>
<p>The film takes the iconic comic book villain from the Batman series, and traces his evolution from the failed comic, Arthur Fleck, to the devilish monster, “Joker”. Despite its roots, the film is far more concerned with how evil manifests in the real world than with comic book villainy, offering a compelling portrayal of the failure of a certain ideal of white, American masculinity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295825/original/file-20191007-121079-12rlxgd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caring for his mother.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2019 Warner Bros.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This ideal, witnessed in the Hollywood tradition from Clint Eastwood to Sylvester Stallone, posits an image of the successful American male as virile, violent, and economically independent. These men are agents of violence for the benefit of society, figures who protect American values against perceived threats from the outside using extreme force. </p>
<p>Having now seen the film, I think the controversy around it speaks to a certain hypocrisy around the depictions of violence – we like our violence slick and stylish, and don’t want to have to think about our role in creating the individuals who commit it. Amazingly, Joker does just this.</p>
<h2>Male violence</h2>
<p>The first half of Joker takes the viewer on a journey through the many ways Fleck falls drastically short of the American male ideal. </p>
<p>A gang beats him up; he has an ill-defined mental illness, takes prescription drugs, and sees a counsellor; his colleagues bully him. Significantly, he is feminised — he lives with and cares for his mother, in what we are invited to view as Norman Bates-esque creepiness. The viewer also watches him dancing, his semi-naked body an emaciated form put on display as it gyrates and contorts before the camera.</p>
<p>The film reflects what sociologist Michael Kimmel calls the “aggrieved entitlement” of the white American male, where the failure to procure the social status and goods you believe you deserve (money, employment, property, sex, family), leads to anger and violence at groups you blame – women, people of colour, sexual minorities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t433PEQGErc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>And so it is no surprise that some are troubled by Fleck’s close approximation to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/raw-hatred-why-incel-movement-targets-terrorises-women">incels</a> (involuntary celibates). It has been <a href="https://time.com/5666055/venice-joker-review-joaquin-phoenix-not-funny">suggested</a> that in the character of Joker, incels could find a “patron saint” who embodies many of their supposed traits: isolation, anger, lack of employment, and failure to attract women.</p>
<p>Films like Joker – and antecedents such as Fight Club, which has been taken up as an icon by white supremacist groups in the US – invite us to question the line between reality and fiction. Do such films reflect social conditions or do they, in the end, help create them?</p>
<h2>Sympathy for the devil</h2>
<p>Much of the debate around Joker’s potential to inspire “copycat” violence has centred on the film’s apparent “empathy” or “sympathy” for Arthur Fleck. <a href="https://time.com/5666055/venice-joker-review-joaquin-phoenix-not-funny">The theory goes</a> that violent-minded young loners will see Fleck and try to emulate his actions. </p>
<p>But the audience is not encouraged to empathise with Fleck. Film techniques that encourage the audience to identify with a character, such as point-of-view shots and close ups, rarely occur in Joker. Instead, we see Fleck through a range of distorted surfaces, such as windows, mirrors, and television screens.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295828/original/file-20191007-121051-1hewhjn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smile.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2019 Warner Bros.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fight Club’s main characters were buff, brawny, articulate leaders of a movement. Fleck’s body, by contrast, is a grotesque object of disgust. His skinny form as it contorts and writhes is difficult to watch, and we also witness black bruises, snot dripping from his nose, grainy and caked clown make up. His laugh, initially a curiosity, makes you writhe in your seat by the end of the film. Certainly, there are times when we pity his situation, and may feel moved to condemn the social conditions that contribute to his isolation. But we want to turn away from this man, not become like him.</p>
<p>This is where the suggestion that the film tries to incite incel violence fails. Commentators appear to have forgotten that how “we”, larger society, see people like incels and other extremists, is not the way they see themselves. Threads on 4chan (a website that hosts an incel forum) have said that comparing incels with Joker showed how wider society viewed them — as monsters. </p>
<h2>Heroes and villains</h2>
<p>People who commit acts of violence on behalf of an ideology don’t imagine themselves as lonely, depressed, unattractive, and physically weak men like Fleck – they join these movements to leave such <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/08/violent-extremists-share-one-thing-gender-michael-kimmel">inadequacies behind</a>. They imagine themselves in the guise of the cowboy, the Terminator, Rambo, the American sniper — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/saviors-of-the-white-race-perpetrators-of-hate-crimes-see-themselves-as-heroes-researchers-say/2018/10/31/277a2bdc-daeb-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html">heroes</a> fighting the forces of “evil”.</p>
<p>And so there is a deep hypocrisy in certain responses to Joker, a film which, in the end, contains far fewer scenes of violence and death than any Tarantino film. Joker is not a satire, nor is its violence “cool”. Our witness of the dank and depressing origins of the movement overshadows everything.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295830/original/file-20191007-121092-lg5dax.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A grim depiction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 2019 Warner Bros.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fleck’s story disrupts any easy distinction between “good” and “evil”, a narrative mainstay of Hollywood film from Westerns to Marvel. The problem with the heroes and villains narrative is that there is no responsibility required on the part of the viewer or the other characters — some folks are born bad and deserve what they get.</p>
<p>Fleck is evil, ugly, and cynical. But so is the world he lives in, a world whose inequality and cruelty towards the most vulnerable in society finds echoes with our own. Perhaps we condemn Joker because the elevation of a spiteful, selfish, and narcissistic caricature of a man to a state of power feels painfully, and shamefully, close to home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Flood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We don’t want to have to think about our role in creating the individuals who commit violence. Amazingly, Joker asks us to.
Maria Flood, Lecturer in Film Studies, Keele University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66725
2016-10-25T02:33:05Z
2016-10-25T02:33:05Z
Why sports fans need villains
<p>As the new NBA season begins, the Golden State Warriors find themselves in an unfamiliar role: villain. </p>
<p>After the Warriors drafted Stephen Curry from unheralded Davidson College in 2009, fans across the country became enamored with his exciting style of play. Through the years, the team added players to complement Curry’s scoring prowess – Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. In 2015, they won the NBA championship, ending the franchise’s 40-year championship drought. Last year, they broke the Chicago Bulls’ record for most regular season wins.</p>
<p>But when superstar Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder to sign with the Warriors during this past summer – turning an already dominant team into a “superteam” – the backlash was swift: “The Warriors Went From Heroes to Villains in Record Time,” <a href="https://theringer.com/golden-state-warriors-villains-nba-finals-8868bfa6274b#.sy1e268n5">The Ringer declared</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, Durant, previously a well-liked player, <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/17118187/nba-how-kevin-durant-adjusting-role-nba-newest-villain">had become a “reviled villain.”</a> </p>
<p>“Watch the exponential increase in venom thrown [the Warriors’] way this year,” sportswriter Marcus Thompson II <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/07/04/thompson-kevin-durant-makes-warriors-most-hated-team-in-league/">wrote in The San Jose Mercury News</a>. “Durant jerseys are already ablaze in Oklahoma City.”</p>
<p>I’ve been studying sports marketing and the psychology of sports fans for several years. Fans and executives often lament the formation of “superteams,” saying it’s bad for competitive balance and bad for business. But while these teams quickly become loathed, psychology research has shown that they also make us more likely to watch – and bask in the joy of seeing them fail.</p>
<h2>From darling to despised</h2>
<p>Among sports fans, how does a well-liked team become a villain? Why can the turn be so sudden, the vitriol so sharp?</p>
<p>Scholars David Tyler and Joe Cobbs studied dozens different rivalries to identify the factors that contribute to especially intense and emotional <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2530260">rivalries</a>. They found that rivalries intensify when one team becomes dominant, but also when it’s thought to have an unfair advantage. </p>
<p>We’ve seen it in the vitriol heaped on the New England Patriots, a team that has made the playoffs in 13 of the past 15 seasons but has also been accused of bending the rules in the Spygate and Deflategate scandals. And we saw it when LeBron James went to Miami in 2010 to create a “superteam” with Dewayne Wade and Chris Bosh.</p>
<p>In the case of the Warriors, neither Durant nor the front office broke any rules. However, it’s no surprise that a superstar joining a rival team filled with other superstars – including the reigning MVP – might be seen as an unfair advantage. </p>
<p>The rich have become richer, while critics have lambasted Durant as cravenly jumping on a championship bandwagon.</p>
<h2>The appeal of a villain</h2>
<p>If a team becomes stacked with talent and loathed, you would think this would make fans of other teams less likely to tune in: It becomes that much more unlikely that their own favorite teams will win the championship. In fact, the Warriors are <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/warriors-rare-odds-favorites-win-nba-title/story?id=42891374">the preseason odds-on favorite to win the NBA championship</a>, meaning they have a better than 50 percent chance of winning. (The last time this happened was during the reign of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the mid-1990s.)</p>
<p>After Durant joined the Warriors, NBA Commissioner <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2016/7/12/12168934/adam-silver-warriors-kevin-durant-superteams-bad-for-nba">Adam Silver</a> said he wasn’t fond of “superteams” because they hurt the league’s competitive balance, <a href="http://www.chiefs.com/news/article-2/Goodell-Hunt-Stress-Importance-of-Maintaining-League-Parity/eebe6aca-6e49-4f96-a903-bcf8022fc480">something league executives across professional sports usually strive for</a>. The thinking is that more fans will be interested if they think their favorite team has a chance to win it all.</p>
<p>However, Dallas Mavericks owner <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/17065541/dallas-mavericks-owner-mark-cuban-says-golden-state-warriors-becoming-villains-fans-good-nba-business">Mark Cuban</a> was quick to point out that a team in the cross-hairs will generate higher interest and ratings. According to Cuban, fans who now loathe the Warriors will follow them closely, rooting for them to lose.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRyQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=dolf+zillmann+affective+disposition+theory&source=bl&ots=-0zRtR868k&sig=hx087zs3lWCRrs7vKDGmN96MR2Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXuLnN2N_PAhVJ62MKHb_9Dks4ChDoAQg6MAc#v=onepage&q=dolf%20zillmann%20affective%20disposition%20theory&f=false">Affective Disposition Theory</a> supports Cuban’s position. Originally introduced by entertainment psychology expert Dolf Zillmann, it’s based on the idea that people’s emotional engagement to a competition becomes stronger when they take a side. In entertainment and sports (and even politics), viewers determine who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are – and <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/tv-so-good-it-hurts-the-psychology-of-watching-breaking-bad/">root accordingly</a>. </p>
<p>While this can mean turning on the TV to root for the good guy, it can also mean tuning in to root <em>against</em> a bad guy. </p>
<p>Many movies use a simple formula that capitalizes on this very idea: A liked protagonist, a disliked villain, a struggle between the two and, eventually, a triumphant victory by the hero over the villain. Of course, it is much easier to have the good guy beat the villain in a movie than in a sporting event. But this can also increase the excitement over the villain’s loss in sports: Viewers know it hasn’t been scripted in advance.</p>
<p>From the 1990s and early 2000s, baseball’s New York Yankees were a “superteam”; like the Warriors, many fans thought of them as villains. Prior to the 2001 American League Championship Series (ALCS) between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners, ESPN conducted a <a href="https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/44302/BeeColleenBusinessRivalriesSponsorAffiliation.pdf?sequence=1">poll</a> on its website asking fans, “Which statement best describes your rooting interest in ALCS?” The statement that received the highest percentage of votes (32.5 percent) was “hate the Yankees.” An additional 14.1 percent indicated they “root against (but secretly admire) the Yankees.” </p>
<p>Of the 31,544 people that voted, almost half stated they were going to follow the series because of their strong dislike for the Yankees.</p>
<p>That year, the Yankees would go on to lose the World Series, and the viewership for Game 7 remains the highest for a World Series-clinching game since 1991. In fact, the Yankees have played in seven World Series over the past 20 years. All of them are in the top 10 for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_television_ratings">most-watched World Series</a> during this time span. Three are in the top five.</p>
<h2>Loving to hate</h2>
<p>By evoking strong emotions, thinking of teams as heroes and villains makes us more likely to tune in. They also affect our enjoyment of the viewing experience: While we’re glad when good things happen to the teams we like, we also feel happy when bad things happen to teams and players we dislike.</p>
<p>There’s a German word, Schadenfreude – pleasure at the misfortune of others – for this emotion.</p>
<p>A few years ago I conducted a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J396v29n01_03">study</a> with my colleague Jeff Langenderfer to investigate the appeal of villains in reality TV. We followed comments posted on the CBS chat rooms one hour before and after each show for an entire season of CBS’s hit show “Survivor.”</p>
<p>Consistent with the Affective Disposition Theory, viewers’ interest in the show was partly driven by their desire to follow characters they disliked. “I got to admit I love to hate the bad ones; [they] make it interesting,” one viewer wrote.</p>
<p>As expected, viewers wanted good things to happen to the characters they liked and bad things to happen to the ones they disliked. Not surprisingly, they celebrated or expressed frustration accordingly.</p>
<p>Sports, given the emotional bonds fans form with their favorite teams, provide a context in which these tendencies are especially likely to emerge. In 1996, NFL owner Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, where they became the Ravens – something Cleveland fans viewed as the ultimate betrayal. After Modell passed away in 2012, I conducted an <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sdut-csusm-study-examines-when-fans-cross-the-line-2015feb01-story.html">analysis</a> with coauthors Joanna Melancon and Tarah Sreboth of comments posted by fans on the ESPN story reporting his death. About 40 percent of the comments expressed some form of schadenfreude. Several Cleveland fans openly celebrated his death with comments like “best day ever” and “glad you’re dead.” </p>
<p>Bottom line: In order to enjoy the victory by the hero, there needs to be a villain; for all the hate we heap on “superteams,” they increase the enjoyment of the viewing experience. As for the Warriors, they’ve probably already started to brace themselves for boos and taunts as they tour the country, with opposing fans rooting especially hard for them to stumble along the way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vassilis Dalakas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many decry ‘superteams’ like the NBA’s Golden State Warriors as bad for the sport. But psychology research shows that they also make us more likely to watch – and bask in the joy of seeing them fail.
Vassilis Dalakas, Professor of Marketing, California State University San Marcos
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/55725
2016-03-08T15:31:01Z
2016-03-08T15:31:01Z
Race, gender and the stereotyping of young people’s role models
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114277/original/image-20160308-22123-1zi5z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mere celebrity poses on the red carpet.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-284247542/stock-photo-cate-blanchett-attends-the-carol-premiere-during-the-th-annual-cannes-film-festival-on-may.html?src=gcVzl6LpYxk8PErNG8zi5g-1-66">Denis Makarenko / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are lots of concerns these days about the kind of <a href="https://theconversation.com/celebrity-youth-culture-and-the-question-of-role-models-46945">role models that young people look up to</a>. </p>
<p>Social commentators fear that the youth of today have been <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/well-being/does-your-child-have-celebrity-worship-syndrome">captured by popular culture and the so-called cult of the celebrity</a>. This is backed by a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01596306.2012.698865">growing amount of research</a> suggesting that the increasing attachment of young people to celebrity “heroes” is shaping their identities and aspirations in damaging ways. </p>
<p>For educators, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10427622/Miley-Cyrus-is-a-poor-role-model-to-girls-and-gives-them-mixed-messages-says-headmistress.html">there are additional concerns</a> that children and young people look up to those whose short-lived fame is based on luck, physical prowess or limited talent – rather than more enduring and socially beneficial achievements. Some even worry that this encourages children to reject the more traditional pathway to success of academic achievement, hard work and educational qualifications.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114315/original/image-20160308-22123-56qokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is Justin a hero or a villiain? Depends on who you Belieb…</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-105451622/stock-photo-new-york-june-justin-bieber-fans-hold-signs-before-the-concert-on-the-today-show-at-rockefeller.html?src=7zESUR3vaH6_q0RrJAIa0g-1-36">Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite these concerns, very few people have examined who it is that children and young people actually admire. Even fewer have looked at who it is that they dislike – and how their dislikes may be as revealing of their values as their admiration. </p>
<h2>What children think</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2015.1129311">recent study</a>, we asked participants to provide two lists of “up to three famous people that you most admire and dislike”. We decided to frame the questions to include only “famous people” as we were worried about the difficulty of analysing responses that referred to family members and friends. In our analysis, we refer to those they admire as “heroes” and those they dislike as “villains”.</p>
<p>The 1200 children and young people – who were in years six, eight and 10 at the time and attending 29 schools in different areas of Wales – provided more than 7000 names. After sorting and organising the data, we decided to focus only on those famous people who were identified as a hero or villain by at least five respondents. This gave us a somewhat reduced tally of 3478 responses – 1683 of which were “heroes” and 1795 were “villains”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114275/original/image-20160308-22132-n04vr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WISERD</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking at the top 20 nominations we can see that the concerns over young people being captured by popular culture are justified: while there is clearly a range of nominations – the most popular only received 3 per cent – 18 of the 20 are from the fields of pop music or sport. </p>
<p>The nature of their celebrity status is also strongly gendered. With the exception of athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, all the female heroes in the top 20 are pop singers. The male heroes do include pop stars, and one boy band, but are mainly footballers and rugby players – four of whom play for Welsh national sides. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the identities and fields of achievement of the top 20 villains are also very similar to the heroes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114276/original/image-20160308-22126-341b9m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WISERD</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social glue</h2>
<p>One very noticeable feature in the two top 20 lists is that four individuals appear in both. In fact, if we look across the responses as a whole, the majority of our 84 villains were other people’s heroes. This suggests that admiration or dislike may be less to do with the famous people themselves and rather more to do with the way in which children and young people appropriate them in order to foster particular allegiances.</p>
<p>Expressing a love or hate for this popstar or that football player is one of the ways in which social ties are made and remade. If it is the case that who you admire or dislike says more about yourself than the objective virtues or vices of your chosen famous person, this may explain the relatively low nominations for those who have done truly heroic or villainous acts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114318/original/image-20160308-22123-1cjvasv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lady Gaga, Wayne Rooney and David Cameron were all named as villains ahead of Hitler.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-215528821/stock-photo-germany-circa-adolf-hitler-talking-to-young-girls-during-a-meeting-with-his-supporters.html?src=DBEJMjnjhxkeOlI-ZXBIsA-1-31">IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Take, for example, Adolf Hitler, who places 12th on the villian list, after seven pop acts and David Cameron. Hitler’s legacy is far worse than those of Justin Bieber, or indeed the British Prime Minister, but it seems that for a child or teen, it is far more socially pertinent to say that they hate Bieber’s brand of pop stardom over the truly horrendous acts of Hitler in the 20th century. That is not to say that given an option between the two they would think the singer is worse than the Fuhrer’s, however.</p>
<p>So does it really matter who children admire and dislike? The answer is not as clear-cut as it may seem, and there still are some serious issues to be considered. </p>
<p>The landscape of celebrities is highly classed, raced and gendered – and our young people’s nominations reflect this landscape. As men are over-represented in most walks of public life generally, it is not surprising that they are over-represented in our data. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114317/original/image-20160308-22114-1533imz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Does Taylor Swift have bad blood?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-240957160/stock-photo-new-york-city-december-more-than-one-million-celebrants-marked-the-new-year-in-times.html?src=C5hGTsHMSd9xw4YS2K0GMQ-1-0">a katz / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where’s the diversity?</h2>
<p>With the exception of Barack Obama and Martin Luther King, the overwhelming majority of famous black and minority ethnic (BME) people nominated in our survey were from the fields of pop music and sport. There were no BME writers, academics or actors nominated more than five times, and nominations for BME women outside the fields of pop music and sport were even harder to find. </p>
<p>These patterns suggest that the use of famous people and celebrities in the development of identities and allegiances may provide the glue for developing social ties. However, the fields of their achievements – particularly for women – are relatively narrow, which is as likely to compound as to challenge notions of female and BME success. </p>
<p>To determine which is more important for children – having a range of diverse heroes to look up to, or being able to build social ties through celebrity associations – is a difficult question to answer. On the one hand, it is good that children engage with sport and popular culture to find heroes that affirm their national, ethnic or gender identities. On the other, it is a shame that their heroes’ fields of achievement conform to stereotype.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Power receives funding from HEFCW and the ESRC.</span></em></p>
The ‘cult of celebrity’ is not as damaging to children as it may seem – but they do select their heroes and heroines from a fairly narrow world.
Sally Power, Director of Research, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.