In a satirical YouTube video Monday, user DarkAntics began a campaign to raise awareness about the shaming of those who are follically challenged by pointing out how movie and TV characters often descend into maleficence as they lose their hair, The Independent reports.
“I’m bald, therefore I’m evil or somehow damaged,” said DarkAntics, who suffers from alopecia. “This notion has seeped into every pore of our media and believe me, I fully expect you to sit there, blind to your hair privilege, and not have any understanding of how this pervasive negative portrayal of bald people has affected your bias.”
DarkAntics goes on to identify several villains whose shiny domes reflect their evil natures: Voldemort, from the “Harry Potter” series; Darth Vader, from the “Star Wars” series; and Lex Luthor from the “Superman” comic books and movies.
Especially, he notes, is how Vader went from “a full head of hair while on the light side of the force, but shortly after joining the dark side, he also joins the bald side.”
He identifies several tropes associated with baldness, including that hair, a symbol of vitality or life, is removed from one’s head in an act of defiance against happiness in Hollywood, suggesting that a bald person is not happy.
Another trope is the perceived weakness of bald people with the absence of their vital locks. An example? Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard’s rescue by the full-headed Captain Kirk in Stark Trek.
“When the first of four new [Star Trek] movies came out, what I witnessed was a bald, damsel-in-distress Captain Picard being rescued by a full-headed Captain Kirk,” said DarkAntics in his video.
DarkAntics identifies several dozen other mentally unstable villains whose baldness in Hollywood films and television makes it hard for other bald people to escape “hair privilege,” including the very real Brittney Spears’ descent into umbrella-wielding madness after shaving her head.
