History Main / SoBeautifulItsACurse

* Myth/ClassicalMythology:

** Narcissus, this trope's most famous victim. He was so beautiful that every woman and man who looked upon him fell in love with him. He knew about this, and was a jerk about it, to the point of urging at least one suitor to commit suicide. The gods, wishing to punish him, arranged things so that he would fall in love with his own reflection in a lake, resulting in him wasting away because he didn't want to tear his gaze away from the sight.

** In the Literature/BookOfEsther, the king of Persia has a nation-wide beauty contest to pick a HotConsort. ([[TheBluebeard He got rid of the last one]].) Esther seems determined ''not'' to win, since she doesn't do anything to beautify herself before meeting him. [[SpringtimeForHitler Guess who winds up the new queen anyway]].

** There's also the fact that the [[VainSorceress Storm Mothers]] forbid any woman more beautiful than them from sailing on ships in the West and will often attack vessels for this reason. However, the Storm Mothers themselves are so ugly that that "women more beautiful than them" means "women in general".

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' has the Fairest, humans who were taken by [[TheFairFolk the True Fae]] to be playthings, lovers, and toys. On the one hand, the lot of them are beautiful and have a buy-in with magic powers that give them unearthly beauty and influence. On the other hand, they were subject to [[EldritchAbomination the True Fae]]'s personal attention and bizarre definition of 'good', making their Durances just as bad as those of changelings who were taken as outright slaves; imagine living a life that could go from ''Kubla Khan'' to ''Hellraiser'', or being crucified to a wall like insects are pinned in notebooks.

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' has the Fairest, humans who were taken by [[TheFairFolk the True Fae]] to be playthings, lovers, and toys. On the one hand, the lot of them are beautiful and have a buy-in with magic powers that give them unearthly beauty and influence; on the other hand, their Durance likely swung between ''Kubla Khan'' and ''Hellraiser'' with little warning, and the special attention the True Fae ladled on them have left them disconnected from humanity and more prone to a fall down the SanityMeter.

* Miranda Lawson from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is genetically engineered to be perfect (in her "father"'s opinion), this is the cause of a lot of her angst, as she doesn't believe she's genuinely earned the position she has on her own merit.

** There's also the fact that you probably wouldn't be too proud of your physical appearance if a) you were engineered to have it, and b) the person who designed said appearance was your egotistical father who used only his own DNA in the process.

** Jataro Kemuri in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' wears his mask all the time because he believes he's ugly, and he was bullied in the past for looking different. In reality, the source of his problems is that he's ''beautiful'', not ugly. [[AbusiveParents His emotionally abusive mother]] neglected him and hated looking at him since she felt that his beauty meant that they had to put more effort into looking after him than they already did.

** In ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', Tawneee, so beautiful that Sally and Angua (no slouches themselves in the looks department) feel [[GreenEyedMonster stirrings of envy]] at her attractiveness, suffers from "Jerk Syndrome", and figuring this out allows them to overcome their [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]]. She is so beautiful that most men "[[ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe can't believe she would notice a guy like me]]", so they don't approach her for fear of rejection. Which leads her to think something is wrong with her, and date pathetic losers...the kind of people who are ''used'' to rejection. On top of that, she is "[[BrainlessBeauty thicker than a yard of lard]]", and doesn't think she's very attractive at all.

* ''Literature/DonQuixote'': Deconstructed with Marcela: Marcela noticed since childhood that she attracted men with her beauty, so when she was fifteen, she decided to become a shepherdess, only to be "free". She is always rejecting anyone who declares her love to her, [[StalkerWithACrush resulting in every bachelor becoming a shepherd just to court her]]. At Chrysostom’s funeral, she makes her speech (in a remote and inaccessible forest) claiming [[AnAesop that she is free and if Chrysostom chose to be]] SpurnedIntoSuicide was his decision. In a RomanceNovel, this speech would have aroused the pity of her audience and everyone would have cried. In this deconstruction, no one of the audience [[AllMenArePerverts (made up of men) hears anything and they are only interested in Marcela’s beauty]]. They want to follow her, but Marcela was in a remote point to prevent them from following her... because she has been trying to be free all her life and this is only another day for her. The scene ends with Don Quixote forbidding anyone to follow Marcela, claiming that she is a decent person who deserves her freedom.

** Thomas Raith is a good incubus. Naturally, he has the (supernaturally) good looks one would expect an incubus to have, however he feeds on people via sex, and it can easily lead to OutWithABang, which he is unwilling to do due to being a good person and having made the woman he loved almost suffer that fate. He was also for a while unable to hold a job, as his ([[EvenTheGuysWantHim mostly]]) female colleagues would throw themselves at him. He couldn't even go for a walk without random joggers throwing themselves all over him.

** Elle not only finds out she only got Callahan's internship because she's pretty but finds him coming on to her with the implication that if she doesn't acquiesce he'll screw her in other ways. Earlier, she is even dumped by her long-time boyfriend for being too pretty to be a future President's wife. Multiple times throughout the film, she's assumed to be a DumbBlonde because she's an extreme GirlyGirl, but actually has a 4.0 GPA, and passes the LSAT with only one point less than a perfect score, and proves herself to be a dedicated lawyer.
** Brooke Windham (nee Taylor) is played by late 90s super hottie Creator/AliLarter and the prime suspect in the murder of her wealthy husband due to it being a MayDecemberRomance. Even her legal team assumes she's guilty, assuming she was a shallow GoldDigger and having an affair with her pool cleaner. Not only was she also as rich as him, thanks to her fitness empire, but she genuinely loved her husband. [[spoiler: The actual murderer is her stepdaughter, who was so disgusted by the age difference that she was actually trying to kill Brooke herself!]]

* Bully the Kid complains of this early in ''Chinese Odyssey 2002'', as he feels it makes him less intimidating as a bully.

* Justified in a dark and diseased way in ''Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural'', where Lila Lee's beauty and angelic singing symbolize her budding sexuality, which in turn attract so much unwanted attention that nearly all males in the film ''are'' predatory monsters. The only exceptions are her father, who is taken out of the picture early, and her reverend, who is clearly struggling with his feelings towards her.
* Stupefyin' Jones in ''ComicStrip/LilAbner''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf1WlLITjzM See for yourself!]] An unusual occurrence of weaponized beauty.
* Taken to an intentional extreme in the dark teen comedy ''Looks That Kill'', where a young man is born with a face so beautiful it kills anyone who sees it.

* In the Mexican film ''Prayers For the Stolen'', the story takes place in a poor village full of drug cartels. The protagonist Ana is a cute little girl, and one day her mother takes her to have her beautiful long hair [[TraumaticHaircut cut off]]. The reason she gives is to control headlice, but it's actually because Ana is getting older and her mother fears her getting raped by the cartels if they find her too attractive. One equally cute friend Paula has to as well, and they continue to wear it short after a TimeSkip. Their friend Maria doesn't have to, because she has a cleft lip and is presumed to be safe from potential rapists.

* Princess Petulia of ''A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears'' is so beautiful that any man who sees her face turns to stone. She is forced to wear a veil and later kidnapped by a lonely giant. (She gets a happy ending, though.)
* In the Sherry Thomas romance, ''Beguiling the Beauty'', Venetia Easterbrook is described beautiful enough to incite riots. Nearly every man she meets falls desperately in love with her at first glance, and when she was a child, her younger brother could not invite friends over for fear they'd become smitten with her. This causes Venetia many problems. Her first husband marries her for her looks, only to become trapped in a downward spiral of alcoholism and self-loathing when Venetia, whom he initially viewed as nothing more than "a pretty accessory", garners more attention and regard than he does. After realizing that every man he meets will lust after his wife, he blames her and becomes verbally abusive as well. Her beauty also makes her the target of vicious rumors, and when she meets her love interest Christian de Monfort, he initially wants nothing to do with her because of her reputation. Although Venetia often laments her beauty, she is a sympathetic character because although she possesses many virtues--such as wit, intelligence, determination and charm--most people see her only as beautiful and make assumptions about who she is based solely on her physical attributes. Somewhat subverted in that Venetia recognizes the advantage her beauty gives her, to point of developing an alter ego she refers to as "The Great Beauty"--a stereotypical version of herself who employs the haughtiness and snobbery that others have wrongfully assumed are a real part of her nature--which she lapses into whenever she needs to manipulate someone into doing her will. That she does this only as a last resort keeps her from being an unsympathetic character.

* In the Chinese classic ''Biographies of Exemplary Women'', a magistrate says that he disproportionately punished a petty criminal on the basis that- if he had punished her fairly- people would say he'd been seduced by her beauty. Is it rational? No, but rumors rarely are. (The heroine believes him, but says that it wasn't a good enough reason to pervert justice.)
* The Colleen [=McCullough=] novel ''Bittersweet'' is the story of four sisters, two sets of identical twins, attending nursing school in 1920s Australia. While they are all attractive, it is unanimous that youngest sister Kitty is the prettiest, something that their mother has ''obsessed'' over since they were children, to the point where Kitty actually tried to mutilate herself on one occasion and attempt suicide on another, feeling that her mother did not care about anything but her good looks. Of the four, she struggles the hardest to be taken seriously in her studies, constantly fends off numerous unwanted advances, and the man she eventually marries has to spend ''years'' trying to convince her that he loves her for reasons other than her beauty, and she's never 100% sure that she isn't more than a TrophyWife.

* In ''Charm'', a re-telling of ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'' by Creator/FrancescaLiaBlock, the protagonist says she has this. Kinda a JustifiedTrope in that well, she's Sleeping Beauty in modern times. She was forced to star in pornography from childhood, got addicted to heroin, and is being pimped out by a douchebag.

* In ''Literature/{{Doctrine of Labyrinths}}'', everyone is startled by Felix's exotic beauty. It isn't an unalloyed good because, in his past, it led the pimp Lorenzo to imprison him in a brothel catering to sadists. Years later, he's almost gang-raped in a foreign city, but saved by the intervention of a kindly prostitute. Lorenzo also purchased Vincent Demabrien for his brothel, presumably because, of the Demabrien brothers, he was "the youngest and most beautiful of the three". Shannon also suffers from a helping of this trope: because he so closely resembles his gorgeous but villainous blond mother, who earned the nickname "Golden Bitch," people refer to him as the "Golden Whelp" and suspect him (wrongly) of similarly treasonous behavior.

* At the end of ''Duckling Ugly,'' [[spoiler:Cara is now inhumanely beautiful instead of hideously ugly, but she carries a curse that makes everyone (and every''thing'') around her ugly instead]].

* Heather Simmons in ''The Flame and the Flower'' is known for her beauty and this gets her into trouble.

* Creator/TanithLee's short story, "Strindberg's Ghost Sonata," in Marvin Kaye's anthology ''The Ghost Quartet.''
* In Creator/SheriSTepper's ''Gibbon's Decline and Fall'', Sophie, one of the central group of friends, is described as radiantly and effortlessly beautiful. However, she is disturbed by any sort of male lust towards her (including the MaleGaze, even when it's not acted on), and her friends help her by fashioning an "ugly" disguise, including drab makeup, large glasses, baggy clothes, unflattering hair, and a giant book to carry around, the ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' by Edward Gibbon. [[spoiler:Later in the book it is revealed that she was genetically engineered by a [[OneGenderRace female-only society]], who failed to consider the consequences of making someone perfect in appearance. Being raised without any males around explains her discomfort when suddenly exposed to them at university.]]

* This trope frequently occurs in novels by Iar Elterrus (Иар Эльтеррус). The CrapsackWorld of the ''Gray Sword'' novels has a particularly abhorrent example: raping a free-born in a certain fashion demotes the rape victim to the rapist's slave. Let it suffice to say that in the world's largest city surgeons are paid by girls to scar them or outright perform [[MercyKill euthanasia]], as this is preferable to a slave's life.

* The (initial) antagonist of Justine Larbalestier's ''How to Ditch Your Fairy'' isn't especially beautiful, but she has a literal [[BlessedWithSuck All the Boys Like You fairy]] which makes her damn near irresistible to anything with XY chromosomes, regardless of sexual orientation; the only thing is, not only is she not all that ''interested'' in boys, she's miserably harassed and intimidated by their constant refusal to take "go away" for an answer, and none of the other girls in school will talk to her because they think she must be reveling in the attention from their boyfriends.

* In the Creator/DanielleSteel novel ''Kaleidoscope'', one of the three heroines wonders why [[AllMenArePerverts every man she meets]] (and [[PsychoLesbian some women]]) have made advances to her or outright tried to assault her. She says this bawling her eyes out having just fended off yet ''another'' AttemptedRape. The narration explains, plain and simple, "It was because she was beautiful."

* In Simone de Beauvoir's novel ''The Mandarins'', Josette Belhomme feels misunderstood and has low self-esteem both because men only ever see her beauty, not her human qualities, and because her cruel mother regularly tells her she'll never be good-looking enough. Surprisingly, she's a very endearing character.

* Virtually every stranger Scarlet meets in the ''Scarlet and the White Wolf'' books tries to rape him. [[spoiler:They don't succeed]].

* Similarly, in the Creator/SidneySheldon novel ''A Stranger In The Mirror'', (paired with CastingCouch), aspiring actress Jill Castle finds herself hit on by every agent/director/producer she visits. She's relieved when the latest agent she goes to is a woman, but sure enough, she turns out to be just as bad.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':

* ''The Veil of Irazade'' by Eleanor Farjeon is about an Immortal princess so beautiful that all her suitors murder each other and she is forced to wear a veil "for the safety of the world," that has the added effect of driving off all the new suitors because they're angry that they can't see her.

* In Raithby's ''Winter Wolf'', the [[MeaningfulName appropriately-surnamed]] Katalina Winter considers this trope:

* PlayedForLaughs on the "Creator/SharonStone[=/=]Music/PearlJam" episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' (Season 17, Episode 17, original airdate April 11, 1992). There is a sketch where Sharon's character is sitting at a bar and guys are walking up to her and being utterly ''terrified'' to speak to her, until Creator/JonLovitz's character is the only one brave enough to actually sit down and talk to her. Another skit in the episode takes this to creepier levels. Stone's character is walking through a metal detector and is forced to strip to her underwear by the TSA agents and the pilots who insist that the detector keeps going off and that she needs to remove her clothes to ensure that she's not carrying a weapon. They finally relent after hearing that an equally beautiful woman is at another scanner, raising the FridgeHorror implications that they behave like this frequently.

** In another episode where George is hiring a new secretary, Jerry naturally assumes he's going to hire a beautiful woman, but George tells him that his intention is just the opposite--he ''doesn't'' want to do that, knowing that it will distract him from his work. He is promptly seen telling several gorgeous applicants, "you're obviously very qualified, but looking at you, I can't even remember my own name and if I hire you, it's only a matter a time before you file a complaint for sexual harassment." Never mind that they can actually sue him for discrimination as he's outright telling them that he not hiring them because of how they look.

** Guts himself actually has this problem as well despite many people fearing him and being quite terrifying when on a [[UnstoppableRage rampage]]. Guts has gotten a lot of unwanted sexual attention over the course of his life. Like Casca, he got bought as a SexSlave as a child when a pedophiliac mercenary named Donovan noticed him and asked Gambino -- Guts' adoptive father -- if he could have him for a night (Guts killed Donovan the next day as revenge for that, by the way). Things got worse for Guts as Griffith became attracted to him and refused to [[IfICantHaveYou let him go]] and went crazy when Guts eventually left. There's also Slan, the sole female member of the Godhand, who lusted after TheHero the moment she met him and pursued him after the Eclipse, dragging him into a PocketDimension where she could molest him. Even Rosine, who seemed to be strictly into her friend Jill, flirted with him and called him hunky before attempting to kill him. Also, Farnese was attracted to the sight of his scarred muscular torso after giving him lashes, and had repressed sexual desire for him which was released and exacerbated upon after a demon from the group following Guts possessed her and made her undress and act overtly sexual towards him in an ominous manner. For a much less creepy example, when Guts attended a ball all decked out in formal attire with the rest of the Band Of the Hawks, he was surrounded at one point by a group of noblewomen who were in awe of him and his muscular handsome features. He quickly got fed up and went off to be by himself. He also has garnered crushes amongst many normal girls but as he [[SingleTargetSexuality only has eyes for Casca]] he is not interested. It’s no wonder Guts has developed [[HatesBeingTouched Haphephobia]].

'''Monk''': [[CatchPhrase "...and a curse?"]]\\

** There's also the fact that you probably wouldn't be too proud of your physical appearance if a) you were engineered to have it, and b) the person who designed said appearance was your '''father'''. Implications... ''unpleasant.''

* In ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'', your character is either AnythingThatMoves or this, because she's unusually beautiful InAWorld where all men have their brains locked in permanent rape mode.

* Minerva Mink in the ''ComicBook/{{Animaniacs}}'' ComicBookAdaptation enjoys the attention she gets for her looks, except when she tries to get something normal done, like shopping for groceries or filing her taxes. Inevitably, the way she looks makes it harder to do, because every male around her is panting and howling. The only males who ''don't'' have this reaction are those she's attracted to, which [[NotSoAboveItAll causes her to react in a similar gawking manner]].
* Used in ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' as an inversion of Bash Street Kid Plug's ugliness, in which the Kids have to try and "make a sow's ear out of a silk purse" by making a guest character who's so handsome he makes people faint, more like Plug.
* In ''ComicBook/CastleWaiting'', this is the back story to the Solicitine Nuns, which honor a saint whose great beauty made her father insist on an ArrangedMarriage. She prayed to be made ugly and sprouted a beard. (This is based on several genuine saints' legends.)
* ''ComicBook/FaithValiantComics'': Faith's nemesis, Hollywood actor Chris Chriswell, is a strange, evil example. He grew up admiring supervillains and finding the heroes reactive and boring. When he got into acting, he dreamed of playing bad guys, but because of his good, rugged looks, he kept getting cast in heroic roles, to his profound frustration.
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': Bleez of [[Characters/GLRedLanternCorps the Red Lanterns]] was kidnapped and gang-raped because of her beauty.

* The Polish comic book series ComicBook/LilIPut ("Lil and Put") has a storyline that focuses on the "most beautiful princess in the world", so attractive that everyone who saw her became mad with envy on the spot and began to hate the princess. Everyone, including male characters, her ''own reflection in the mirror'' and forces of nature. The princess was rather miserable because of this, especially that she was abandoned by everyone for being so [[UncannyValley inhumanly]], incomprehensibly pretty. [[TakeOurWordForIt Her face is never shown]] so [[FridgeBrilliance the reader doesn't turn against her, too]].
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' had a minor character named Charma who had an [[PowerIncontinence uncontrollable power]] to make all men love and want her and all women insanely jealous of her. She got put into the general population of a prison and was killed, [[CynicismCatalyst all for the purpose]] of making her MadScientist boyfriend go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against life, the universe, and everything, starting with trying to kill the Earth.
* In ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'', Amora ComicBook/TheEnchantress often gets kidnapped by beings who want her because of her beauty. The Asgardians and Loki, who also desire her, will often call a truce to go rescue her.
* ComicBook/PowerGirl sometimes complains because everyone only pays attention to her... [[MostCommonSuperpower attributes.]] Though perhaps she'd have less of a problem if she covered over the [[CleavageWindow peek-a-boo(b)]] window in the front of her costume. They're touted to be part of her disguise. Nobody's going to be [[MyEyesAreUpHere looking at her face]], after all, are they? How about putting on some pants? She's even got a belt, apparently, so her [[LeotardOfPower skintight leotard]] doesn't fall off.
* This is the power of Allure from ''ComicBook/RelativeHeroes''. She was enchanted by the god Eryx with mystic pheromones and other powers of persuasion in return for her hand in marriage.
* One of the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual specials]] in Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's ''ComicBook/RisingStars'' is a woman whose power is that she appears to everyone who sees her as the most beautiful woman they can imagine. This gets her lots of unwelcome attention and means that no one sees the real her, instead just being focused on their own lusts and such.
* ComicBook/{{Rogue}} actually has a tragic variation of this trope, as due to the [[TouchOfDeath nature]] of her mutation anyone who's attracted to her (which is ''[[MsFanservice a lot of people]]'') is at risk of being killed which is why Rogue's FirstKiss was a horrific affair as Cody the boy who kissed her [[KissOfDeath ended up]] in a coma and died. This is also the reason why she and ComicBook/{{Gambit}} are StarCrossedLovers as Rogue tries (and fails) to keep her distance from him fearing for his safety, while Gambit is relentlessly attracted to her believing the [[PowerParasite risk]] of touching her body is WorthIt. Played straight when Rogue was in the Savage Land where she is BroughtDownToNormal and ComicBook/{{Magneto}} has to save her from being ravished by marauders, as she now had all the beauty but none of the [[SuperStrength strength]] and [[TouchOfDeath skin]] to defend herself. Which made Rogue somewhat grateful for her mutation.
* [[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7a/a9/02/7aa9021a67244cd465aa3d14caac01c7.jpg Siryn]] has a problem with this not because of her looks, but [[ArousedByTheirVoice due to a side effect of her]] CompellingVoice. [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer It works regardless of gender]].
* ComicBook/SpiderWoman (Jessica Drew) has a similar problem in that her powers cause her to release pheromones that make men naturally attracted to her. It gets worse since the same pheromones also cause women to hate her.
* Tara from ''ComicBook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'' was gorgeous even before she ascended to godhood. As a result, she's been sexually harassed since she was ''eleven'' and it only gets worse as she becomes famous. She despises the attention directed at her looks but her attempts to spotlight her artistic ability just lead to people hating her, and giving the people what they want gets her labelled as an AttentionWhore.

* In episode 43 of ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' Knuckles says, "I can't help being attractive! It's a blessing and a curse!" after he's accused of playing a part in burning down Tails' workshop because of a flirtatious female character. It turns out that the female's attention was all in Knuckles' imagination.

* ''Literature/TalesOfTheKettyJay''. Trinica Dracken was a famed high-society beauty who was captured by SkyPirates and used as a SexSlave for years until she manipulated and murdered her way to becoming a sky pirate captain. Knowing her men would feel driven to undermine an attractive female leader, she's changed her appearance to give herself a ghoulish look with her white hair, pale skin, [[EvilWearsBlack all-black outfit]] and [[BlackEyesOfEvil black contact lenses]] to make herself a [[TheDreaded figure of fear and awe instead]].

* Jack Nicholson's character assumes this of Michelle Pfeiffer's in ''Film/{{Wolf}}'', and calls her out on it.