Do Bigots Have to Be So Predictable?
After this week’s backlash to the EURO 2020 final and The Little Mermaid remake, it feels like we’re long overdue for a better class of racist asshole.
As I continue my inexorable march to the grave, something I’ve tried to grapple with is the extent to which decades of pop culture consumption has impacted my development, and trying to deprogram its more pernicious effects. Sometimes those critiques are aimed internally, such as the way that (insert-royal-flush-of-descriptors-indicating-privilege-bingo-except-I’m-Black) men are conditioned to relate to or treat women. Sometimes they’re external, like the presumptive nigh-infallibility of the police.
But recently, I’ve hit on a new one: the idea that villains tend to have some redeeming factor, or otherwise attractive quality if they don’t.
Maybe they abide by a strict code of honor despite their villainy. Maybe they have a tragic backstory, or have been radicalized by historical abuses. Maybe their good intentions have taken them a few steps too far down the road to hell, or they’re acting out of a well-justified personal grudge against the protagonists. In the absence of these, maybe the villain in question is incredibly charismatic or intelligent. Maybe they’re genuinely…
