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Is Entertainment Industry biased against Nordic people?

ElikalElikal Member UncommonPosts: 7,912
in Off-Topic Discussion

See, as someone who is blond and blue eye Nordic type, I always felt it a bit a sting that assumingly 90% of all heroes of computer games, movies, TV shows and comics are dark haired types, mostly brown eyed. I mean, sure so what, you may say. But somehow don't we all somewhere want to find us in stories?

The vast majority of comic heroes is dark haired, Batman and ALL his many sidekicks, Superman, Wolverine, Wonder Woman. Same in movies, Harry Potter, Frodo, whoever you want. And games just the same. Commander Shepard, Hawke, most of the official versions of computer games were black haired or dark brown haired guys.

And Nordic types? Yes, Duke Nukem, Aquaman and Anakin. Great. Dumb, useless and evi.

I am really tried with this anti-Nordic stereotypic that blonde people are shown as dumb and arrogant and 90% of heroic characters are black haired as if Nordic type people would not exist!

Pft.

People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert

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Comments

  • ExilorExilor Member Posts: 391

    Maybe it's because most people have darker hair and brown eyes and they want relatable heroes.

  • infamouswhoisinfamouswhois Member Posts: 185

    get outta here

  • ChilliesauceChilliesauce Member Posts: 559

    Elikal are you really THAT bored?

    image

  • Covet78Covet78 Member UncommonPosts: 149

    Blame Fabio.

  • CrashrollCrashroll Member UncommonPosts: 60

    He-man? I would count Conan as rather nordic type as well...

    Not tonight dear...I have a haddock!

  • AvatarBladeAvatarBlade Member UncommonPosts: 757

    Jonny Quest.

  • IchmenIchmen Member UncommonPosts: 1,228

    what about bald people?? surly its bias to not have bald super hereos too.... if we are worrying about hair colour what about the hairless?? i mean really...

     

    does hair really matter? or eye colour??? will being blond, black, blue, purple really make you leap tall buildings or shoot straighter??... i think not unless you got some radioactive hair piece

  • mgilbrtsnmgilbrtsn Member EpicPosts: 3,430

    yep.  in fact I think they get together and talk about it.

    I self identify as a monkey.

  • LeoghanLeoghan Member Posts: 607

    All this dark haired hero stuff is all backlash because they grew up watching Luke in Star Wars and he had blonde hair. :-p

    As a Nordic type myself I don't really care, though it does occasionally get annoying when women swoon over the "tall dark and handsome" stereotype ;-)

  • KabaalKabaal Member UncommonPosts: 3,042

    It's the Gingers I feel for.

  • ElikalElikal Member UncommonPosts: 7,912

    Originally posted by Ichmen

    what about bald people?? surly its bias to not have bald super hereos too.... if we are worrying about hair colour what about the hairless?? i mean really...

     

    does hair really matter? or eye colour??? will being blond, black, blue, purple really make you leap tall buildings or shoot straighter??... i think not unless you got some radioactive hair piece

    Most bald people are old, and yes indeed we have some anti-old people in entertainment as well, only wanting to show young people in films. But we have Mace Windu and Captain Picard.

    It is always the same. Those who are not discriminated mock those who are. Just try to imagine it the other way around, and EVERY single superhero, movie hero and game hero were blond. Would you NOT feel at least a bit awkward?

    People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert

  • TeiraaTeiraa Member UncommonPosts: 447

    Wasn't Achilles in Troy blond with blue eyes? image

  • ElikalElikal Member UncommonPosts: 7,912

    Originally posted by Chilliesauce

    Elikal are you really THAT bored?

    *shrug* Do you think only earth shattering super important topics like starvation in Somalia are worth debating?

    People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,941

    Luke Skywalker


    Thor


    Aquaman


    Super Girl


    The Greatest American Hero ; )


    Hayden Panetierre ; )


     



    "Blond guys aren't dumb. They're evil. Like in The Karate Kid and World War Two."

    —Bart Simpson, The Simpsons



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  • DoktorianDoktorian Member Posts: 131

    Originally posted by Kabaal

    It's the Gingers I feel for.

    image    I have red hair and I have not played a game (where you can't customize your characters hair) or movie where a red haired person is the main character. At least there are some games with blonde main chars.

  • UnlightUnlight Member Posts: 2,540

    Dark and broody characters are popular.  It's harder to sell that as a fair complexioned blonde.  There's no global conspiracy to undermine the nordic peoples.

    And Duke is a gaming legend.  Don't knock the King.

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,941

    Originally posted by Teiraa

    Wasn't Achilles in Troy blond with blue eyes? image

    Athena came, sent by the white-armed goddess

    Hera, who loved and watched over both men.

    She stood behind Achilles and grabbed his sandy hair.

    Homers, The Iliad, Book I, lines 205-207

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  • ElikalElikal Member UncommonPosts: 7,912

    Originally posted by Doktorian

    Originally posted by Kabaal

    It's the Gingers I feel for.

    image    I have red hair and I have not played a game (where you can't customize your characters hair) or movie where a red haired person is the main character. At least there are some games with blonde main chars.

    True. Red haired mostly face a similar negative sterotyping.

    People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,941

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blond#Folklore_and_mythology

     

    According to Francis Owens[38] Roman literary records describe a very large number of well-known Roman historical personalities as blond. In addition, 250 individuals are recorded to have had the name Flavius, meaning blond, and there are many named Rufus and Rutilius, meaning red haired and reddish-haired, respectively. The following Roman gods are said to have had blond hair: Amor, Apollo, Aurora, Bacchus, Ceres, Diana, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Minerva and Venus.[38] For example, the physical appearance of Emperor Nero, descended from an aristocratic family, is by the historian Suetonius described as: "... his hair light blond,... his eyes blue..."[39]







    Details of the "bikini girls" mosaic at Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, 4th century AD.


    According to Victoria Sherrow, Romans preferred to dye their hair dark in the early period of Ancient Rome; at one point in time blond hair was even associated with prostitutes.[40] The preference changed to bleaching the hair blond when Greek culture, which practiced bleaching, reached Rome, and was reinforced when the legions that conquered Gaul returned with blond slaves.[40]

    In the Middle Ages, blonde hair was usually associated with a seductress;[40] for example, until the late 14th century depictions of Eve are usually blonde, while the Virgin Mary is usually brunette.[40]

     

     

    In European fairy tales, blonde hair was commonly ascribed to the heroes and heroines. A notable example is Rapunzel with her long golden hair. Benign mythological creatures such as fairies and elves were often portrayed as young and blond. This may occur in the text, as in Madame d'Aulnoy's La Belle aux cheveux d'or or The Story of Pretty Goldilocks (The Beauty with Golden Hair), or in illustrations depicting the scenes.

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  • ExilorExilor Member Posts: 391

    What exactly qualifies as nordic? Fair hair and pale eyes?

  • robert4818robert4818 Member UncommonPosts: 661

    Blame the Nazis.  Their attempt to create blond haired blue eyed supermen has rendered that the stereotype of evil instead of good.  

    So long, and thanks for all the fish!

  • twodayslatetwodayslate Member Posts: 724

    Skyrim?  Thor?  Just two off the top of my head, I'm sure there are others.  Definitely not as prevalent as dark hair/eye types, but the Germans kind of ruined the concept of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed good guy with the whole Master Race thing.

    Same reason why you don't see the inverted soul patch mustache anymore, unless you count those Hanes commercials.

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 44,063

    Heroic blondes that I can think of include Thor, Kara Zor-el (Supergirl), Beowulf, 2 of the female leads in the show Heroes, (Claire and ???), ILLya Kuryakin (Man from UNCLE), Blonde Phantom (look it up), Sue Storm (Fantastic 4), Green Arrow, (justice League) Angel (X-Men) to name a few.

    Sure, there aren't hundreds of them, but truthfully, 95/100 blondes you meet get their coloring from a bottle and not through their national heritage.

    Are there negative stereotypes against blondes, absolutely, but I don't see a huge conspiracy.

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  • sudosudo Member UncommonPosts: 697

    Orly

    "Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
    Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
    Hans Margolius

  • KalferKalfer Member Posts: 779

    I feel OP is on very thin ice with this thread. I think I could make half a essay about blue eyes/fair hair characters in video games. But really... Why base nordic characteristics only on these? There are many ancient bloodlines of Scandinavians with dark hair/dark eyes. 

     

    Nordic people are famed for their Viking ancestors, and for being tall. You see plenty of these characteristics, that are not dumb and evil in games like Guild Wars and Elder Scrolls. They are in many strategy games. Too Human was based around Norse Mythology. A great animation came out a while ago called How to Train Your Dragon. 

     

     

    If anything the spirit of the nordic myths lives in pop culture in a major way. It's only a matter of time before they try to do a big hollywood adaptation of it, like they have done with greek mythology. 

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