| 1 | %% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=ain0cq0q |
| 2 | %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800%%% |
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| 5 | [[quoteright:295:[[ComicBook/{{Animaniacs}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animaniacs_sexy.png]]]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:295:"Boys. Go fig."]] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | ->'''Jessica Rabbit:''' You don't know how hard it is, being a woman looking the way I do.\ |
| 9 | '''Eddie Valiant:''' Yeah well...you don't know how hard it is, being a man...looking at a woman looking the way you do... |
| 10 | -->-- ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | A very specific form of AppearanceAngst and/or BlessedWithSuck that comes up regularly where a character's beauty is a source of problems. This is usually because of its effect on other characters, often times inspiring [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]], [[AttractivenessIsolation intimidation]], [[BeautyIsBad suspicion]], or [[StalkerWithACrush unwanted attention]]. Otherwise, the character is only noticed because of their looks and not their personal merits. In cases where a character complains about their beauty, expect their complaints to be dismissed or add more resentment from other characters. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | They may also be the target of UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming if they are sexually harassed or assaulted. The beautiful character may be MisBlamed or WronglyAccused by the friends and family of a StalkerWithACrush or someone [[IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn who they unwillingly attract]], or even just the general public, as a way to [[NeverMyFault deflect blame from the person who harassed them.]] Needless to say, this is depressingly common in RealLife. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | In historical settings, her family will try to exploit her beauty for their social advantage. This may be a RagsToRoyalty ArrangedMarriage -- or a less formal form. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | RapeAsDrama is the most vivid form of illustrating this "curse". This trope is also a CyclicalTrope in that a given audience may or may not take it seriously depending on current events and the time period. If the character in question is pushed far enough, they might end up TarnishingTheirOwnBeauty. May take the form of OnlyHasSameSexAdmirers, particularly in PrettyBoy and {{Bifauxnen}} characters. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Many writers will often use this trope as a "flaw", but what needs to be understood is that it is not a flaw in and of itself, but a situation that can lead to a character ''developing'' flaws as a result. When someone's beauty is all that many people see, the character may well grow distrustful and cynical of others, fear being stalked or taken advantage of, or harbor harmful and emotionally damaging beliefs about themselves and others, such as a belief that their only worth is in their looks, that looks are all people value in them, and/or that they will never be respected for their own personal merits or achievements not related to beauty. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Contrast LooksWorthKillingFor, and the FatalAttractor, whose victimization is not explicitly tied to their looks. See DCupDistress for when a [[BuxomBeautyStandard well-endowed woman]] resents the attention her breasts get, IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn for a character arouses another by accident and MyEyesAreUpHere from when a character verbally requests another to cease their ogling. These types of character may also be victims of those who are InLoveWithLooks. |
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| 24 | %%%% |
| 25 | %%Administrivia - Examples Are Not Recent. Do not talk about trends, please. |
| 26 | %%% |
| 27 | |
| 28 | It's generally not a good idea to pair this trope up with ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful unless you ''[[HateSink want]]'' your character to develop a nice frothy {{Hatedom}}. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !!Examples: |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 36 | * The Pantene commercial where Creator/KellyLeBrock says [[MemeticMutation "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful"]]. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 40 | * One of Creator/ArinaTanemura's one-shot manga stories dealt with this: a girl named Eve who was stunningly beautiful and hated it. She was a victim of attempted kidnapping, no girls would talk to her because she was rumored to have stolen a girl's boyfriend, and she never knows if boys are only interested in her for her looks or not. On the other hand, she gets beauty treatments and buys cute, expensive clothes because "people say a cute girl who isn't fashionable must be a slob." Thus, this trope is either self-inflicted or a [[MortonsFork damned if you do, damned if you don't situation depending on perspective.]][[note]]Note to editors: don't add your perspective here. This is not a review page.[[/note]] |
| 41 | * ''Manga/{{Adekan}}'': |
| 42 | ** Shiro is a delicate looking PrettyBoy and as such he occasionally garners unwanted attention for his good looks by men and women who want to enslave him and forcibly make him a prostitute. He also had to escape his SexSlave position at Shinohome's hand. |
| 43 | ** Kojiro, being majorly TallDarkAndHandsome, gets unwanted attention from men like Anri ([[HoYay unless its Shiro]]) for his good looks as well. |
| 44 | ** Anri is also a feminine PrettyBoy and his good looks led to his troupe leader making him his SexSlave. |
| 45 | * ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': |
| 46 | ** Casca certainly has shades of this in the Golden Age Arc, but it's even more prevalent after the Eclipse when she became insane. True to TheOphelia ideal, Casca is now much more desirable with the added bonus of becoming [[DamselInDistress innocent and (mostly) defenseless]]. Since the Berserk-verse is very much a world where [[AllMenArePerverts everything with a dick has the high potential of being a scumbag rapist]], post Eclipse Casca is prime prey for a plethora of men AND monsters who want to have their way with her and [[{{Protectorate}} has to be protected 24/7]]. Luca, Casca's one-time [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold kind-hearted prostitute]][=/=][[TheCaretaker caretaker]], is aware of this, and tries to [[DefiedTrope defy this outcome as best as she can]] by [[BandagedFace wrapping Casca's face in bandages]] and passing her off as a victim of syphilis. |
| 47 | ** [[MagnificentBastard Griffith]], being quite beautiful for a man, [[EvenTheGuysWantHim happens to attract the attention of not just women, but also other men]]. In fact, [[AntagonisticGovernor Governor Gennon]] is lewd enough to want to have sex with him, and Griffith begrudgingly does to fund the Band Of The Hawks. [[SubvertedTrope However]], Griffith tends to use his attractiveness to his advantage, rather than being outright taken advantage of. |
| 48 | ** 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 HatesBeingTouched. |
| 49 | * ''Manga/BetrayalKnowsMyName'': Luka's beauty has attracted a {{yandere}} StalkerWithACrush in the form of Elegy. |
| 50 | * ''Manga/BlackButler'': |
| 51 | ** Ciel is often the target of harassment and was [[spoiler:targeted by Baron Kelvin, an old man who fell in love with him when he was seven. The Baron had multiple plastic surgeries just to be considered beautiful enough to be with Ciel]]. |
| 52 | ** Sebastian's [[HotAsHell devilishly beautiful looks]] do not go unnoticed either. In fact, he garners four if not more unwanted admirers throughout the anime/manga due to his beauty. |
| 53 | * ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Lelouch has numerous girls as well [[EvenTheGuysWantHim as a few men]] that are in awe of him. He is probably more pretty than a lot of the girls in the setting. It’s said he had over 100 dates lined up for him at one point. This all is more a nuisance to him more than anything as his main goal in life is to save his sister. It’s also implied Rolo became a {{Yandere}} for him out of a growing attraction to his beloved brother. |
| 54 | * In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', it is part of the Upper-6 demon Daki’s past as the human [[spoiler:Ume]] not present in the manga, being revealed in the 2nd Databook instead; [[spoiler:her mother was actually jealous and terrified of Ume’s natural beauty, coupled with her perfectly bright natural white hair when Ume was just an infant, this irrational jealousy of her own daughter prompted her to one day try to cut Ume’s hair out of spite; that marks the beginning of Gyutaro’s role as a true protector for his little sister, Gyutaro fought back against his mother for the first time ever, shielding Ume so her hair wouldn’t be ruined, since then their horrible mother put some distance from her children, afraid of her son, till she died from syphilis]]. |
| 55 | * In ''Anime/DirtyPairFlash'', Yuri suspects that one reason an intergalactic clan of assassins is trying to kill her and Kei is that she's so beautiful she's made them all jealous. NOT because they're intergalactic mercenaries themselves, NOT because they're known to be law(wo)men, NOT because they routinely kill terrorists on an hourly basis and said assassins are, in fact, terrorists... |
| 56 | * ''Manga/DragonBall'': Being something of a melodramatic diva, Bulma ''thinks'' that she's this -- though whether this is true is up for debate. For example, she attributes not being able to fit the OnlyThePureOfHeart criteria for riding Goku's Nimbus cloud to being "so beautiful that it's a sin." |
| 57 | * In ''Manga/FamilyComplex'' we have the Sakamoto family where every member, [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer except Akira]], is beautiful. They say that it's annoying since they get stared at a lot and the little girl gets cornered by perverts a lot... [[HypocriticalHumor but they also know (and make use of) the many advantages beauty can bring them]]. |
| 58 | * The {{Artificial Human}}s known as Fatimas from ''Manga/TheFiveStarStories'' suffer heavily from this. A Fatima who goes out in public without her master ''will'' be raped. Though this may have less to do with their ageless beauty and more to do with the fact that they are programmed to be incapable of hurting a human unless ordered to by their master, so perverts who catch one alone know she won't be able to resist. |
| 59 | * ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose'': [[NaziNobleman Count Germont]] pursues [[KidHero Jeudi]] because she's a very pretty woman, which includes kidnapping her and stalking her all over Austria and Switzerland. [[spoiler:It's later revealed there's more to this - Jeudi is a dead ringer for her mother Hélène, who he was once engaged to before she left him. With Hélène presumed dead, Count Germont turns his attention to her little daughter, Jeudi....]] |
| 60 | * In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Winry thinks she is followed by a stalker and tells [[ButtMonkey Sheska]] she must be happy because she doesn't know how it feels to be stalked because you're beautiful. This is ironic as CuteBookworm Sheska [[NerdsAreSexy has her fans.]] |
| 61 | * Lampshaded in ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' as Hotohori is prone to saying this about [[EvenTheGuysWantHim himself]]. Also played for laughs: he tells his advisors he isn't interested in his harem because he himself is more beautiful than anyone in it. He then says he was joking. |
| 62 | * Kirie from ''Manga/GirlsBravo''. Her overall prettiness (and her large breasts) have gotten her not one, but two [[PsychoLesbian psychotic female admirers]] who ''refuse'' to take "No" for an answer. She also tends to be a favorite target of local pervert Fukuyama. Plus, sometimes she can't even walk down the street without being bombarded by guys who fall in love with her on sight. And yes, this once included a perverted old man and a ''little kid''. |
| 63 | * Florian from ''Manga/GorgeousCarat'' never says this, but he's entitled too, what with all the [[spoiler:drugging and the raping and the general crossdressing and harassment]] he endures from being a pretty blonde with purple eyes, and his looks helped seal the deal on his servitude to Rei in the first place. |
| 64 | * In ''Manga/HauntedJunction'' Red Mantle, the strikingly beautiful bathroom ghost, wears a mask at all times so people don't see his face. This is not due to him actually being ugly, but rather he's so beautiful that ''anybody'' who sees his face will become passionately lovesick, a force of beauty so powerful it can even override MindControl. This is a [[CursedWithAwesome curse]] because it makes the viewers [[AllergicToLove literally lovesick]], incapacitating them for several days with a high fever. |
| 65 | * The ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' character Seras Victoria, being beautiful and curvaceous, is frequently sexually harrassed, and was nearly raped on one occasion. Fortunately, she becomes a vampire, which made her strong enough to fight off most attackers. |
| 66 | * Discussed in-universe about Arslan's mother Queen Tahamine in ''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'', though she herself has yet to voice an opinion about it. Her incredible beauty seems to have a knack for provoking powerful men to go to extremes to have her for themselves, leading them to unfortunate ends. |
| 67 | * Suiren from ''Manga/HibiChouchou'' got harassed several times in elementary and middle school due to her beauty, making her avoid any contact with people. |
| 68 | * The male lead of ''Manga/HighSchoolDebut'' received at least one present or letter (love ''and'' hate) a day in elementary school; in middle school was complained about by college guys and girls' parents; and once caused the girls in his class to divide into two teams to fight over him. |
| 69 | * Sakie Satou of ''Manga/InterviewsWithMonsterGirls'' is a succubus. She naturally emits an aura of sexuality that can affect anyone that might be even potentially attracted to her. It takes constant effort and concentration, as well as making a point to dress and make herself up as unflatteringly as possible, to keep things manageable in day to day life. When she sleeps, full on PowerIncontinence hits and causes erotic dreams in anybody near by. Satou can't live in densely populated areas because of this and crimes involving succubi are always a tricky business due to having to sort out whether or not the succubi intentionally seduced someone into whatever actions they took. |
| 70 | * Arata Minami of ''Manga/KaijuGirlCaramelise'' admits his popularity is overwhelming and at worst annoying due to the unwanted attention. He's usually acting like a good sport about it, but it's later clear that a lot of this annoyance comes from him having to starve himself to maintain his attractive body shape, given that he is FormerlyFat. |
| 71 | * In ''Manga/{{Karin}}'', the beautiful single mother Fumio Usui has a hard time holding a job because of the inevitable sexual harassment. Which she strongly [[MegatonPunch resists]]. |
| 72 | * Gilbert from ''Manga/KazeToKiNoUta'', arguably (arguable as he enjoys the attention in a sick, twisted little way). Also Rosemarine, if RapeAsBackstory is anything to go by. An inversion is Serge's mother, who was beautiful but happy that her looks led her to be with Serge's father, as she was a gypsy prostitute and he was a noble. |
| 73 | * Miu of ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' is quite beautiful, so much so that she had some social problems at her last school because of it (implied to be other girls bullying her). To that end, in her current school, she puts on glasses and wears her hair in braids to make herself look plainer, specifically to avoid such problems (although she's still considered gorgeous by her classmates - it's not like she makes any noticeable effort to hide how curvaceous she is, after all). |
| 74 | * This is a problem for the title character of ''Manga/KomiCantCommunicate''. Shouko Komi is ''extremely'' beautiful, and is adored by almost everyone because of it. However, this, alongside her [[NoSocialSkills crippling social anxiety]] leaving her unable to speak to others (a trait usually mistaken for [[AloofDarkHairedGirl aloofness]] by other characters), causes people to either be to scared to try and talk to her, or lead them to believe they aren't worthy of interacting with her, something that directly contrasts [[IJustWantToHaveFriends Komi's desire to make friends]]. |
| 75 | * In ''Manga/KyoumenNoSilhouette'', Teshio is a DudeLooksLikeALady in a world where manly men appeal better to the girls and perverted men are the only thing Teshio can attract. |
| 76 | * ''Manga/LifeWithAnOrdinaryGuyWhoReincarnatedIntoATotalFantasyKnockout'': Tachibana's female form is extremely beautiful and has passive skills that keep other people attracted to her. Among the issues caused by being so beautiful is a band of thieves killing each other to be with her, and an elf chieftain fighting her and Jinguuji because she couldn't handle that there's a girl more beautiful than her. Tachibana is later selected as a sacrifice, since a Squid God wanted to eat the most beautiful girl his villagers could find. |
| 77 | * Alto Saotome of ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' is rather annoyed about [[PrettyBoy his appearance]], to the point that mentioning his looks is his BerserkButton. Though, to be fair, he doesn't dislike being attractive so much as he just really hates how he [[DudeLooksLikeALady apparently got his looks from the wrong side of the gender spectrum]]. |
| 78 | * ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'' has a rather big example late in the series: [[spoiler:It turns out that the "Charismatic Female Pervert II" who created the BadFuture dominated by perverts is none other than the series' female lead, Youko Shiragami -- and none of it is on purpose. Her natural vampiric powers went out of control shortly after her 18th birthday, which included a CharmPerson effect that attracted perverts to her and made her their queen, with them causing all the chaos while she just hid away in a remote castle and was blamed for everything. All she really wanted was to be with the man she loved, which doesn't happen until about 50 years later, thanks to the intervention of their granddaughter Rin]]. |
| 79 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 80 | ** Tsunade runs into this problem a lot, as men young (Sarutobi) and old (Jiraiya) drool over her, even the normally chaste Killer B has the hots for her. Since she's considered the most beautiful kunoichi in the world, this isn't that surprising. |
| 81 | ** Sasuke's good looks garner him unwanted attention from people like [[ClingyJealousGirl Karin]], who intended to ravish him when he was asleep, and Orochimaru, who frequently makes comments about Sasuke being "beautiful" and "wanting his body". |
| 82 | ** However attractive as Sasuke is, he's got nothing on his teacher Kakashi, as ''just a glimpse'' of his unmasked face made Ayame and [[EvenTheGuysWantHim her father Teuchi]] [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c5/a3/11/c5a31136e6547c4dc70fc48aad32e829.jpg fall for him.]] When Kakashi is disguised as another person and leaves his face uncovered, Sakura gushes over him. It's almost suggested Kakashi is so damn handsome that he wears the face wrap out of necessity. |
| 83 | * ''Anime/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'': Mahiro is stated to be the most beautiful being in literally all of spacetime, something that nearly gets him molested and kidnapped multiple times. Not to mention the annoying titular character who won't leave him alone. Particularly unfair is that he himself [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm can't actually perceive this beauty]]. To human senses he's just an average teen, it's only in the AlienGeometries that the series' many Lovecraftian characters can [[BizarreAlienSenses perceive]] that he's so ungodly attractive. |
| 84 | * Ayase of ''Manga/OkaneGaNai''. It has absolutely horrific consequences for Ayase. He is raped in the first chapter by the man who "bought" him, and virtually enslaved to said man by working off the money through sex in the chapter after that, and in the next ''thirty'' chapters he has had at least [[EvenTheGuysWantHim nine different men]] attempt [[CrapsackWorld to rape him]], with about eight others [[EvilPlan still plotting to]] (one of the nine was one of Ayase's [[IJustWantToHaveFriends few friends]], and five of the eight are the rest of Ayase's [[FalseFriend small friend group]]). |
| 85 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 86 | ** Nami brings this very trope into question during the Davy Back Fight, believing she'll be the one picked to leave the crew because of how attractive she is. Usopp shoots her down saying she's [[VanityIsFeminine full of it]]. Unfortunately for Nami, there are arcs (such as Thriller Bark) where this trope ''[[VillainousCrush isn't]]'' PlayedForLaughs. |
| 87 | ** The pirate "White Horse" Cavendish is such a parody of PrettyBoy characters that random women often faint in his presence. Apparently, he was the prince of a kingdom who was exiled because he was such a ChickMagnet that none of the women wanted to marry anyone else, forcing him to leave for the good of society. Cavendish is also a supreme AttentionWhore who enjoys the ships of fangirls chasing after him. |
| 88 | ** [[spoiler:Kiku from Wano (given the UnsettlingGenderReveal) makes Cavendish look plain in comparison, being ''so beautiful'' even a HandsomeLech like Sanji (who unwillingly lived on an island full of cross-dressers for two years) mistook Kiku for a woman. Also, FatBarstard Urashima frequently harassed Kiku and tired to [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe force]] marriage upon him/her, not knowing there's was more to Kiku than meets the eye.]] |
| 89 | * Tamaki in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' is keenly aware of his own beauty and perfection. His image song ''Guilty Beauty Love'' starts with the line "My sin is that God has made me too beautiful." Despite being the ButtMonkey of the show, though, his beauty never seems to cause him any ''actual'' problems... Those are caused by him being [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense an idiot.]] If you're wondering what a good example of the "deliberately played for eye-rolling" version of this trope looks like, Tamaki would be it... Even the ''other characters'' start ignoring him when he talks about it. Invoked in the fourth episode where Tamaki is playing the role of himself but notably more humble; angsting about people idolizing him for his looks. |
| 90 | * The eponymous Galko of ''Manga/PleaseTellMeGalkoChan'' is a voluptuous, bimbo-looking girl with a strong sense of fashion. As a result, people tend to think the worst of her. For example, every time she shows up late to school, everyone assumes its because she was sleeping around, whereas it's usually a more mundane reason such as staying up too late watching television. |
| 91 | * ''Manga/PrincessJellyfish'': Kuranosuke's [[DudeLooksLikeALady looks]] causes him to get hounded by modelling agencies and the like wanting to scout him and causes many girls to become [[LoveMakesYouCrazy madly in love with him]]. He says his looks cause trouble among women as they fight over who will have him which resulted in him hating woman. |
| 92 | * Parodied in ''Anime/PrincessTutu''. A character named Femio believes that he's so beautiful, it's a ''sin'' because it causes every woman ([[EvenTheGuysWantHim and a few men]]) who sees him fall maddeningly in love with him -- so much so that they can barely stand to be around him! It's SUCH a sin, he constantly "repents" for it by allowing himself to be trampled by a bull called by his faithful servant. However, it turns out that he's so egotistical and so bizarre with his self-imposed punishments that everyone '''hates''' him and do everything they can to avoid him, and he's too obsessed with himself to see it. |
| 93 | * Joe from ''Manga/RainbowNishaRokubouNoShichinin'' never ''says'' anything of the sort, but his 'exotic' ButNotTooForeign blonde hair and blue eyes (in 1950s Japan) and PrettyBoy appearance puts him into this, having caught him the attention of multiple would-be rapists (and at least one actually successful one). |
| 94 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': |
| 95 | ** Ranma, both as male and female, attracts a lot of unwanted attention from girls and boys. |
| 96 | ** Akane initially. She had several dozen male classmates step up to Tatewaki Kunō's challenge of having to beat her to date her, and those may just have been the ones who continued to face her despite her violent defeats of them -- there may have been even more to begin with, given her track record. |
| 97 | * ''Anime/SailorMoon'': |
| 98 | ** Parodied when Minako laments - "surely it is a curse to be this beautiful?" - and the other girls roll their eyes. |
| 99 | ** Mamoru gets even more unwanted admirers than Usagi for his good looks. More than one antagonist has kidnapped him to use as a SexSlave. |
| 100 | ** Usagi too has attracted a dark admirer in the form of Prince Demande who became infatuated with Neo Queen Serenity from the moment he saw her and goes after Usagi because she's the queen's younger self. |
| 101 | ** The villain of the ''Super S'' season, Queen Nehelenia grew up alone and friendless, feeling that her beauty was all she had. Her villainy was driven by a desire to maintain her youth and beauty forever. |
| 102 | * Souma from ''Manga/SakuraGari''. The readers are constantly reminded in the story of how Souma suffered a messed up childhood due to his gorgeous looks and how anyone he gets together with later become overly possessive and jealous should he try to leave him. |
| 103 | * Yakumo from ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' is loved and admired by everyone because of how seemingly mature she is so they don't help her when her life was in real danger. |
| 104 | * ''Manga/SensualPhrase'': Sakuya is widely loved for both his musical talents and his striking natural blue eyes. However, later he reveals to Aine that he used to think his blue eyes were a curse, because it's [[spoiler:the main cause of why his stepdad walked out on him and his mom resulting his mom to neglect him, blaming him for it]]. Even in the epilogue, it is shown that when he was a child, he was bullied by other children for it as he looked weirdly different. |
| 105 | * ''Manga/SeraphOfTheEnd'': Yuu and Mika are both {{pretty|boy}} enough that they gain several admirers, the worst of which is Ferid whose bloodsucking carries rape undertones. It's notable that Ferid only drinks the blood of beautiful boys and girls. |
| 106 | * Aya Tojo ''Manga/StrawberryOneHundredPercent'' becomes better looking by letting her bangs down, and beautiful by taking off her glasses and unbraiding her hair. But she attracts the attention of the boys so much that even come from other classes to see her and is almost harassed by the gym teacher. |
| 107 | * The lead female character of the manga ''Telepathic Wanderers'' hates being beautiful because not only do most men she meets lust after her, but, being [[{{Telepathy}} psychic]] (and [[PowerIncontinence unable to control her power]]), she's forced to watch every fantasy a man has about her in her presence. (And, in keeping with what seems to be a theme with this trope, she also almost gets raped at one point in volume 1.) |
| 108 | * ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'': |
| 109 | ** The plot starts because Rize initially became enamored with Kaneki's good looks and pursued him with the intent to eat him. Other characters partly fall for him due to his pleasant facial features as well and most of their attraction is of the AxCrazy kind. |
| 110 | ** Mutsuki's good looks and body type (complete with scars) led to Torso becoming enamored with him, capturing him with the intent to "marry" along with implied sexual assault. |
| 111 | ** Nishiki grows up to become very handsome and receives unwanted attention from Nico in one chapter. |
| 112 | ** Rio is attractive enough to cause many women to crush on him, one to the point that she wants to eat him and he almost lost his first kiss to Nico. |
| 113 | ** Urie becomes a MrFanservice due to ArtEvolution and attracts unwanted attention from Matsuri which he hates as he seems to be aware of the attraction and the burden this places on him. |
| 114 | ** Tsukiyama is mentioned by Chie as "the type of guy who spends the whole day staring at himself in the mirror". And indeed Karren becomes jealous to an extreme extent out of her love for him and it's assumed this is partly due to his good looks. |
| 115 | * From ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' we have Sephie, the queen of Deviluke and mother of Lala, Nana, and Momo. Her beautiful appearance and voice allow her to affect the behaviour of other people, but she wears a veil around other people apparently if someone would see her uncovered face they would turn into a Beast. The only two people to see her uncovered face without immediately molesting her are her future husband Gid (who was at the time so much of a BloodKnight she resorted to throwing herself on him to communicate her interest) and Rito (who is incredibly chaste and unfailingly dedicated to his crush despite a notorious reputation as an AccidentalPervert). |
| 116 | * While Kyohei from ''Manga/TheWallflower'' never says anything to the likes of this, he certainly fits the trope. He can't hold a job thanks to constant sexual harassment, he's had a slew of stalkers that eventually drove his family to kick him out, he used to have to be escorted to school to avoid being attacked, it was implied that he had been raped several times by many strangers as a grade-schooler and there was even one time where he was [[JamesBondage kidnapped]] off the street by a HostClub for the purpose of selling him to the highest bidder as a sexual slave. |
| 117 | * In ''Manga/WastefulDaysOfHighSchoolGirls'', Lily's beauty is the cause of her [[DoesNotLikeMen androphobia]]. Specifically, her beauty invited the worst from the male around her, culminating in a rabid fan flashing his privates in her face, she ended up being traumatized. |
| 118 | * Akiko Aoshika from ''Manga/WolfGuyWolfenCrest'' is a gorgeous HotTeacher with wonderful curves, but ''because'' of this she's been sexually assaulted several times in her life [[spoiler:(and the last time was a horrifying gang-rape at the hands of Haguro and his yakuza goons... which lasted several manga chapters)]], and these bad experiences [[BrokenBird have left her so screwed up]] that she now believes her looks are to blame. |
| 119 | * Dandoodle from ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' was an extremely attractive man when he was alive, to the point where he ended up being fired from his job for being too distracting. After being crushed by a giant plank of wood, he was reborn as a [[OlympusMons Legendary Yo-Kai]] with the uncontrollable ability to make anyone and anything around him "handsome". Unfortunately, most people affected by his ability usually end up looking more creepy than handsome, as shown when Whisper and Jibanyan become "[[Creator/BruceWillis Bruce Willisper]]"[=/=]"[[Creator/WillSmith Will Smithper]]" and "[[Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio Leonyardo DiCaprinyan]]". |
| 120 | * Asuka Tenjoin in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' has never been happy about how [[HeadTurningBeauty everyone seems to be infatuated with her]], as it prevents them from taking her seriously as a duelist. |
| 121 | [[/folder]] |
| 122 | |
| 123 | [[folder:Asian Animation]] |
| 124 | * ''Animation/BreadBarbershop'': In "Butter's Quest for Ugliness", Butter's good looks end up causing a bunch of women to faint from his beauty, causing him to get placed on ''house arrest''. The rest of the episode is him trying to figure out how to look ugly so he can get out of the house and not cause people to faint. |
| 125 | [[/folder]] |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 128 | * ''ComicBook/{{Animaniacs}}'': Minerva Mink in the 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]]. |
| 129 | * ''ComicBook/TheBeano'': Used 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. |
| 130 | * ''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.) |
| 131 | * ''ComicBook/{{Faith|ValiantComics}}'': 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. |
| 132 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Bleez of [[Characters/GLRedLanternCorps the Red Lanterns]] was kidnapped and gang-raped because of her beauty. |
| 133 | * ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats'': |
| 134 | ** Melody is so beautiful that almost any man who sees her gets DistractedByTheSexy and suffers AmusingInjuries. In one story, the Pussycats can't get any work at a club because the female customers are so infuriated at losing all their boyfriends to Melody. |
| 135 | ** Zig-zagged in a story where a little boy is seen stalking Melody. When Alexander uncovers him, the kid tearfully confesses that he was stalking Melody because [[PrecociousCrush he was in love with her.]] Melody is so flattered she kisses the boy right on the lips, which sends him rocketing into the sky. |
| 136 | * ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': Charma has the [[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. |
| 137 | * ''ComicBook/LilIPut'': The Polish comic book series 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]]. |
| 138 | * ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheEnchantress Amora the Enchantress]] 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. |
| 139 | * ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'': Power Girl 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. |
| 140 | * ''ComicBook/RelativeHeroes'': This is the power of Allure. She was enchanted by the god Eryx with mystic pheromones and other powers of persuasion in return for her hand in marriage. |
| 141 | * ''ComicBook/RisingStars'': One of the [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual specials]] 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. |
| 142 | * ''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. |
| 143 | * ''ComicBook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'': Tara 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. |
| 144 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'': |
| 145 | ** 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. |
| 146 | ** [[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]]. |
| 147 | [[/folder]] |
| 148 | |
| 149 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 150 | * ''ComicStrip/NineChickweedLane'': Edda, a ballerina-turned-model, projected such a wholesome GirlNextDoor image that she became more popular than the clothes she was (barely) wearing and made the CorruptCorporateExecutive[=s=] of the clothing line want to fire her over it despite the fact they originally didn't even want her face -- it was her rear they admired. Heaven knows no one in the fashion industry wants a beautiful person model for them or have their ads go viral after discovering an ingenue. |
| 151 | * Riley Freeman of ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'' struggles with making himself look like a thug because he's "cursed with cuteness". Something similar happened to Huey when he began ranting and an old lady ignored the whole rant because she thought he was so adorable. |
| 152 | * In the CastFullOfGay comic strip ''ComicStrip/ChelseaBoys'', ridiculously gorgeous, muscled young hunk Sky is a victim of this. He finds it hard to be taken seriously for his art because everyone is fawning over his hotness, but he maintains an overall cheery demeanor even when his roommate points out that some people just give him extra favors cause they want to get in his pants. |
| 153 | * In ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'' (which is based on 2nd edition ''D&D''), the party once runs into an evil nymph who tries to kill them by disrobing. Nodwick and Piffany look away; Arthax and Yeagar comment that they've "never enjoyed succeeding a saving throw that much before". |
| 154 | * Marigold the unicorn in ''ComicStrip/PhoebeAndHerUnicorn''. When she sees her reflection, she is trapped staring, sometimes for days. This is plot-relevant more than once. |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Fairy Tales]] |
| 158 | * Similarly in [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html "All-Kinds-Of-Fur"]] and [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/shebear.html "The She-Bear"]]: |
| 159 | ** In ''Allerleirauh'', when the mother of the eponymous heroine dies, she tells her father to re-marry only a woman that has golden hair too... [[ParentalIncest now guess where he looks.]] |
| 160 | * In the Italian fairy tale "The Devil's Breeches", the impoverished hero tries to support himself working as a valet, but either the wife or sister of each master falls in love with him for his beauty, and he has to quit to avoid complications. |
| 161 | * In ''Literature/{{Donkeyskin}}'', the queen makes the king promise not to marry until he found "a woman more beautiful and better formed than myself." In due course, the king does find such a woman: [[ParentalIncest his own daughter.]] She has to flee to escape. |
| 162 | * In ''[[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38488/38488-h/38488-h.htm#ch6 The Evil Eye of Sani,]]'' the beautiful Chintamani is captured by boatmen and prays to Lakshmi to make her hideous and spare her rape. It works. |
| 163 | * In the Hungarian fairy tale "Literature/TheGratefulBeasts", Ferko's brothers cripple and blind him because they think his beauty will win him favor. |
| 164 | -->''His two brothers were as jealous of him as they could be, for they thought that with his good looks he would be sure to be more fortunate than they would ever be.'' |
| 165 | * In ''Literature/KateCrackernuts,'' the queen has her stepdaughter, Anne, cursed for being prettier than her own daughter, Kate. [[TrueCompanions Kate loves her stepsister]] and [[CallingTheOldWomanOut calls her mom out on this]]. |
| 166 | * In ''Master Semolina'', the hero's astounding good looks inspire a queen to have him kidnapped -- and lets her direct her men, by having them take the man who is so astoundingly handsome. |
| 167 | * Pintosmalto of ''Literature/{{Pintosmalto}}'' is a marzipan statue decorated with gems that is brought to life by the Goddess of Love. He is astoundingly beautiful, which inspires a queen to abduct him to have for herself on his wedding day. His wife Betta has to save him. |
| 168 | * In ''Literature/{{Puddocky}}'', a witch transforms a young woman under her care into a toad because three princes start a quarrel over the young woman's beauty. |
| 169 | * In ''Literature/TheRoseTree'', the WickedStepmother's hatred is in part incited by her golden hair. |
| 170 | -->''Then the stepmother hated her more for the beauty of her hair'' |
| 171 | * Perhaps the all-time most famous example in fiction and folklore is the tale of "Literature/SnowWhite" a young girl sentenced to death by her envious Step-Mother, in original tellings her Mother, for the ''"crime"'' of being the [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Fairest of them All.]] |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 175 | * ''[[http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?psid=222200 After She Woke]]'' The main character attends Hogwarts under a spell that makes her so completely undetectable that no one even knows she's attending school, because she's just far too beautiful. Every boy would be in love with her, and every girl would be insanely jealous of her beauty if they saw her. The idea of hiding her beauty through makeup, transfiguration, or just a mask never occurs to her or her parents. |
| 176 | * ''Fanfic/ArrowRebirth'': Before the ''Gambit'' went down, Sara Lance used to take a lot of pride in her looks. After it went down and she started getting raped for said looks, that changed, and she now despises men who ogle her as nothing more as a sex object. One of the reasons why she fell in love with [[NiceGuy Barry Allen]] is because [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan he's one of the few who only saw her as a person]]. |
| 177 | * Mabel in the older AU fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13020704/1/The-Big-Pines The Big Pines]]'' grew to be almost [[BuxomBeautyStandard ridiculously buxom]]. At first, she enjoyed the attention but found that the only kind of guys she attracted were perverts who thought she was [[AllWomenAreLustful easy]] and only cared about her body, not the young woman attached to it. |
| 178 | * In ''FanFic/{{Deserving}}'', Dennis Creevey (!) becomes a PrettyBoy GaryStu who laments this at one point. The [[http://szaleniec1000.livejournal.com/22799.html review]] has some ''FanFic/MyImmortal''-related fun with this. |
| 179 | * Hinted in ''Fanfic/TheDressmakerQueen'' as being the cause of Jenny Thompson's troubles when Prince Gray sees her and announces that he'll marry her. It also doesn't help that he has a habit of taking the most beautiful women he can find for his own selfish purposes... |
| 180 | --> The prince didn’t have a kind reputation when it came to womankind, often taking those who suited his fancy… Some he kept as mistresses in his various homes around the country, well paid until they got too old and wrinkled or he sighted another one. Others disappeared, whether they ran away, were shipped off to convents, sent to live with distant family members or committed suicide. All were ruined. |
| 181 | * WebVideo/TheFanFictionCritic tears this trope a new one in her [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn84RAQoGdQ&context=C296f4ADOEgsToPDskLRvlyiw__MjCsI_3xaV0c7 review]] of ''Fanfic/ForbidenFruitTheTempationOfEdwardCullen'': |
| 182 | -->'''Linney:''' "We have us a classic Mary Sue here. All the boys want to bone her...and all the girls hate her because she's just too perfect. I mean, who the hell walks up to you and says, 'you'd be prettier if you weren't so ethereal!' Who says that! '''Who!'''" |
| 183 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10221824/1/Fangirls-and-Fanboys Fangirls and Fanboys]]'', Many of [[Manga/Reborn2004 Tsuna's]] classmates begin to take notice of him after puberty turns him into a PrettyBoy. While at first he enjoyed it because the other kids started being nice to him and he was no longer [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer being bullied]], he soon starts regretting his good looks when his admirers became more obsessed with him. |
| 184 | * In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/15033803/chapters/35463378 Fluffy Hero Izuku,]]'' Izuku is not a fan of the way his quirk, Fluffy Beast, gives him the [[LittleBitBeastly features of a several cute animals]], [[ChickMagnet which naturally makes him popular with a lot of women]]. The way these women tend to baby Izuku makes him feel doubtful in his dream to become a hero. |
| 185 | * ''Fanfic/GinnyWeasleyAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': Fleur is dismissive of her own beauty, seeing it as something that she never had to work for (as a consequence of her Veela heritage) and therefore something she didn't earn. All it does is make people ignore all her other skills and accomplishments. She got a job at Gringotts not to be close to Bill (though that was a nice bonus) but because goblins consider her to be just as ugly as all other humans, and so any advancements are purely on her merit. |
| 186 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12986371/18/Harry-Potter-and-the-Goblet-of-Fire Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'': |
| 187 | -->'''Rowena:''' I have an aunt. You wouldn't know her, but she's one of the most sought after fashion models in the Muggle world. She is beyond stunning. She's the nicest, kindest person I've ever met in my life and she has exactly two friends in the world; my mother and a childhood friend who didn't let being the ugly one – and I use that term facetiously – turn her jealous. The thing is, she's so beautiful it's the only thing about her that interests anyone. She's given up making friends. Any woman she tries to make friends with just worries she'll steal their boyfriend or husband. The one thing she wants in the world is to find a guy who actually trusts her and marry him. But any guy she's ever dated, within six months, is convinced she's cheating on him. She can't so much as talk to another guy without them getting all possessive and controlling. I know it sounds weird, but being as pretty as Fleur isn't as easy as you might think. And before you scoff at me, I'll point out that every one of you four, even Ginny, whose boyfriend hasn't so much as looked at Fleur twice, is jealous of the attention she gets from boys, or, given present company, some girls. |
| 188 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8933157/1/Heavenly-Resonance Heavenly Resonance,]]'' Lauren briefly mentions this as a very real danger she faced in Afghanistan. Though mercifully, nothing came of it. |
| 189 | -->"I was trapped for five hours in a four by four crawl space, with two children, while a rebel gang ransacked the village my team was responsible for assessing and helping. Knowing any noise, we made, any movement would give away our position and that would mean..." ''(shudders)'' "The children would probably be taken to join the rebels, they were boys, old enough to be trained, strong enough to hold a gun. And a pretty blonde foreigner like me well..." |
| 190 | * ''Fanfic/HowBadCanALittleGossipBe'': Luca's cute looks unfortunately attract the twisted and creepy attentions of [[SmugSnake Mr Ricci's son]], who began [[StalkerWithACrush stalking him]] in order to make him his. |
| 191 | * John experiences this in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World''. Having been transformed into a [[WingedHumanoid muscular winged demigod]], he is sexually attractive to everyone...but he's also no longer human and has no interest whatsoever in human women (and men, for that matter). Indeed, he finds them vaguely repellent when considered as sexual partners. This makes life...awkward...at times. |
| 192 | * [[http://www.fanfiction.net/~mrevil Mr. Evil's]] OriginalCharacter Susan Knives, aka Sword Hunter. She was born with an extreme form of eczema that makes her own sweat cause her to break out in rashes. So she is forced to wear a swimsuit worth of material as clothing. Aside from that, she is extremely attractive which causes males to instantly lust for her and the women think of her like a slut, all while anyone unaware of her condition automatically thinks she is a tramp. Due to this she has nearly been raped several times and forced to change schools because of the harassment she is forced to endure. Though it wasn't until her last school did she meet true friends that revealed to her how she could turn that curse into a weapon for her own gain. |
| 193 | * In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/17330426/chapters/40771925 Midoriya Izuku. Quirk: Cuteness]]'', [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Izuku]] is bothered by all the attention he receives becomes of his quirk's ability to make him cute, especially since people always dismiss his dream of being a hero on the basis that he's too "cute" and "fragile" for that kind of work. |
| 194 | * ''Fanfic/MoonDaughter'': Flavia, claims her beauty is a curse from Artemis to [[InsaneTrollLogic keep her a virgin forever]]. |
| 195 | --> "I knew once again that Artmeis had cursed me, too many guys wanted me!" |
| 196 | * [[OverlyLongName Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way]], heroine of masterful TrollFic ''FanFic/MyImmortal'', is propositioned by everyone she meets, leading to the, uh, immortal lines: |
| 197 | -->''"Yeah but everyone is in love with me! Like Snape and Loopin took a video of me naked. Hargrid says he's in love with me. Vampire likes me and now even Snaketail is in love with me! I just wanna be with you ok Draco! Why couldn't Satan have made me less beautiful?... Im good at too many things! [[IJustWantToBeNormal WHY CAN'T I JUST BE NORMAL?]] IT'S A FUCKING CURSE!"'' |
| 198 | * [[spoiler:Quaithe]] in ''Fanfic/NedStarkLives''. So much, that [[spoiler:she was raped by her own father and brothers when she was 12]], and wears a mask when she wants to speak with someone. |
| 199 | * An Elseworlds story of ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'' has little Eri become the mighty ComicBook/{{Shazam}} with the powers of the gods. One of those gods happens to be the goddess Aurora, who bestowed upon her incredible beauty. As a result, Eri has stunning looks and a mature, womanly figure that causes older men to ogle her whenever she's Shazam. She's understandably {{Squick}}ed by this, as she's just [[YoungerThanTheyLook six years old.]] |
| 200 | * A pirate version of WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic wished once that he could disfigure himself because of this. It's not as pretentious as it sounds though, because he's thinking this while being traumatized from being gang-raped by Ask That Guy and the crew. |
| 201 | * As Dr. Merlin of ''[[http://firefox.org/news/articles/651/1/The-Original-Mary-Sue-Litmus-Test/Page1.html the original Mary Sue Litmus Test]]'' says, "Anyone who says 'She's so pretty that it's like a disability because everyone hates her or wants to have sex with her' will be summarily keelhauled." |
| 202 | * In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/17352398 Pigtails,]]'' [[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug Marinette]] gains some unwanted attention from a couple of boys because her temporary hairstyle makes her look more "mature". |
| 203 | * ''Fanfic/UltimateSpiderWoman'': Mary Jane Watson is a gorgeous young coed who enjoys being the center of attention at parties and at the beach, and takes pride in how good she looks. Unfortunately, her beauty has also been a major source of grief for her: |
| 204 | ** The parents of one boy she was dating hated her because they were convinced she was a GoldDigger who was only using her beauty to try and get a share of the family money; |
| 205 | ** The parents of her current boyfriend despise her because she works as an actress and a model, and they see her as flaunting her body and sexuality to sell products. They're also enraged because they think that Mary Jane cheated on their son and that it's the reason he came home from a date with her suffering a HeroicBSOD. Mary Jane was WronglyAccused, but she and her boyfriend can't explain the truth without compromising her SecretIdentity; |
| 206 | ** Some of the directors she's auditioned for think that she's trying to get by on her looks rather than her actual talent as an actress; |
| 207 | ** Another director assumes that Mary Jane only got a role in an indie film because she was sleeping with one of the film's major sponsors; |
| 208 | ** The middle-aged, perverted owner of one of the modeling agencies she worked for groped and sexually harassed her, and used his influence to keep her from getting work once she rejected his advances; |
| 209 | ** A particularly LoonyFan of Mary Jane in her identity as the spectacular Spider-Woman began murdering people to show his affection for her, up to and including becoming a PsychoElectro supervillain to do it. When Spider-Woman expressed her disgust and horror at what he was doing, the LoonyFan became determined to kill her for [[InsaneTrollLogic "leading him on"]]. |
| 210 | * The ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfiction ''Winds Of Change'' invokes this trope seriously, with some members of the Uchiha clan (usually male members), but with other characters commenting on it, instead of the characters themselves complaining, [[spoiler:with the exception of Sasuke at one point, who winds up scarring himself]] and treats it in a half-humorous, half-creepy way with [[spoiler:Hinata]], who wistfully expresses the wish she wasn't so attractive when she keeps on having guys fall for her/lust after her. [[spoiler:The creepy part is that one of her "admirers" is Eight-Tails, who wants to recreate ''Rosemary's Baby'' with her]]. |
| 211 | * The hero of ''Fanfic/TheWorldWellLost'' mentions falling victim to something like this, although it's not due to hir being brain-breakingly beautiful, so much as it's because ze is beautiful and UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}, and some insecure straight guys react badly to this. |
| 212 | * ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Carol is a budding AmazonianBeauty and YoungerThanSheLooks, passing for a high-school or college student in middle school. This creates huge problems for her, as she is always at the receiving end of sexual attention from men who are way too old (and she is far too young for a relationship anyway), while other girls appear to be jealous of her. At the start of the fic, her only male friends are her honorary brother Lex and Jean-Paul, who is gay. This means that she is naturally distrustful with poor social skills. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 216 | * Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon: |
| 217 | ** Belle of ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' is attractive to the point that everyone notices and she attracts unwanted attention from Gaston due to her beauty which turns into a homicidal crush. |
| 218 | ** ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'': In Esmeralda's case, the downside to being the MsFanservice is, occasionally, you get the [[VillainousCrush wrong attention]] from [[SinisterMinister the wrong sources]]. |
| 219 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'': Like in the games, Bowser has a VillainousCrush on Princess Peach, to the point where he stole the Ice Kingdom's Super Star so he can impress her. [[spoiler:He later tries to sacrifice all his prisoners (which includes Luigi) in her honor (and almost succeeds in doing before Peach uses a smuggled Ice Flower]]. |
| 220 | * ''WesternAnimation/WakkosWish'': Hello Nurse's part in the group IWantSong is about how she's tired of only being appreciated for her beauty and not her considerable intelligence. This makes sense, as in the show proper she is a licensed medical professional, which is hardly a job for a BrainlessBeauty. |
| 221 | [[/folder]] |
| 222 | |
| 223 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 224 | * ''Film/TwelveYearsASlave'' has Patsey, played for all the horror it's worth. Patsey (played by Kenyan actress and model Creator/LupitaNyongo) is not only very beautiful but also really good at picking cotton, and her master Edwin Epps is [[{{Yandere}} crazy about her...]]. He rapes her and subjects her to beatings out of possessiveness, and his wife is also violently jealous of the girl. She is DrivenToSuicide but [[ICannotSelfTerminate cannot go through with the deed herself]], and tries to pay Solomon to drown her (in real life, ''Mrs. Epps'' tried to pay Solomon to drown her, and Mr. Epps treatment of her was ''more'' abusive than depicted - that's right, what you see in the film is ''toned down''). |
| 225 | * ''Film/ThreeHundred'': Sparta's Ephors (old, inbred, diseased priests) ''"choose only the most beautiful Spartan girls to serve as oracles"'', and what do the Ephors do with them in their spare time? (hint: it's not predicting the future). |
| 226 | -->'''Dilios''': Their beauty is their curse, for the old wretches have the needs of men... and souls as black as hell. |
| 227 | * ''{{Film/Carrie 2013}}'': WordOfGod is that this is the reason behind casting the beautiful Creator/ChloeGraceMoretz to play the titular social outcast, and actually downplaying the beauty of AlphaBitch Chris Hargensen. In this adaptation, Chris bullies Carrie because she's secretly jealous of the latter's more natural beauty. |
| 228 | * In ''Film/{{Casino Royale|2006}}'', Film/JamesBond thinks that Vesper believes her beauty is a drawback and that she compensates by wearing masculine clothes and acting aggressively. Ironically, he points out that her superiors mistake this attitude for arrogance, which reduces her chances of promotion. |
| 229 | * Bully the Kid complains of this early in ''Film/ChineseOdyssey2002'', as he feels it makes him less intimidating as a bully. |
| 230 | * Griet of ''Film/GirlWithAPearlEarring'' is so beautiful that she has a guy after her that tries to rape her. |
| 231 | * Played straight in ''Film/{{Gohatto}}''. The male protagonist is so beautiful that one of his companions instantly falls for him, while his superiors exploit their power to sexually pursue him. And then [[spoiler:people start dying]]. |
| 232 | * ''Film/TheGumballRally'': The 911 Porsche team loses time twice because men chase after them and force them to pull over to flirt with them. The first time (the girls tried to outrace them and the car's engine malfunctioned), the men were nice enough to fix it for them. The second time [[YankTheDogsChain is a whole lot more unfortunate]]: they make it within minutes of getting to the finish line but they end up arriving at night, almost dead last ([[BrickJoke except]] for [[ButtMonkey Lapchik the Mad Hungarian]]), because of a pair of highway patrolmen. |
| 233 | * Beverly Marsh from ''Film/It2017'' is an uncommonly pretty young girl, but her looks bring her nothing but jealousy from other young girls, unwanted attention from adult men (including her own father) and an undeserved reputation for promiscuity. |
| 234 | * Parodied in ''Film/AKnightsTale'', Jocelyn is chided by a bishop for giggling with her handmaiden over the antics of "Sir Ulrich". She says the following exchange in [[DeadpanSnarker perfect monotone]], and the priest is mollified. |
| 235 | -->'''Bishop:''' Does this not shock you, ladies!\ |
| 236 | '''Jocelyn:''' Certainly my lord. I just, I only laugh to keep from weeping.\ |
| 237 | '''Bishop:''' Beauty is such a curse. Pray your years come swiftly, pray your beauty fades, so you may better serve God.\ |
| 238 | '''Jocelyn:''' I do. I pray for it all the time. Why, God, did you curse me with this face? |
| 239 | * ''Film/LegallyBlonde'': |
| 240 | ** Part of the film's premise is how no one takes Elle Woods seriously because she ''looks'' like a cliche [[DumbBlonde dumb, shallow blonde bombshell]]. Her long-term boyfriend dumps her because he thinks she looks to silly to be a Senator's wife, and Callaghan only takes her as an intern because she's pretty and would rather extort sexual favors than teach her law. If you ''don't'' jump to conclusions about her extreme GirlyGirl tastes, it quickly becomes clear that Elle is an excellent student, having perfect grades and able to ace the Harvard entrance exam first try. She doesn't even see how it's that hard, even though Harvard only accepts 5% of applicants. |
| 241 | ** 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. Both assumptions are wrong; she genuinely loved her husband and didn't need his money as her fitness empire meant she was actually just as rich in her own right. [[spoiler: The actual murderer is her stepdaughter, who was so disgusted by the age difference that she was actually trying to kill Brooke herself. Being a ''murder target'' because somebody thinks you're ''too'' young and pretty is one serious curse.]] |
| 242 | * ''Film/LegendsOfTheFall'' makes many comments on Susannah's beauty. It sadly causes discord between the Ludlow brothers - as she's to be the wife of Samuel, but both Tristan and Alfred lust after her as well. After Samuel's death, Tristan uses her for sex and then abandons her. The family ends up divided partially because of their attraction to Susannah. Notably before [[spoiler:killing herself]], Susannah cuts some chunks out of her beautiful long hair - which has been interpreted to be an attack on the beauty that landed her in this situation. A deleted scene from the trailer even has the family patriarch blaming Susannah for the discord between the brothers. |
| 243 | * Justified in a dark and diseased way in ''Film/LemoraAChildsTaleOfTheSupernatural'', 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. |
| 244 | %%* Stupefyin' Jones in ''ComicStrip/LilAbner''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf1WlLITjzM See for yourself!]] An unusual occurrence of weaponized beauty.%%Weblinks are not examples. |
| 245 | * Taken to an intentional extreme in the dark teen comedy ''Film/LooksThatKill'', where a young man is born with a face so beautiful it kills anyone who sees it. |
| 246 | * ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'': While most of the women in the Citadel are [[HumanResources hooked up to a machine to be harvested for their breast milk]] in Immortan Joe's tyrannical patriarchy, the most beautiful women of the Citadel get the misfortune of becoming his {{Sex Slave}}s. If they fail three times to give him a healthy baby boy, they are banished to the wasteland. |
| 247 | * ''Film/TheMagdaleneSisters'': |
| 248 | ** Pretty, confident Bernadette gets sent away to the titular laundries because of her beauty. Her teachers see her flirting with boys, and the nuns declare that she must be hidden away just in case she inspires boys to do sinful things because of her beauty. |
| 249 | ** Discussed earlier in the film between Bernadette and two other orphan girls, who ask if it's a sin to be beautiful. |
| 250 | --->'''Bernadette:''' "Look at the Virgin Mary. She's beautiful. It's a sin to be vain." |
| 251 | * ''Film/{{Malena}}'': Malèna's looks spark lust and envy in the townspeople; when her husband dies in combat, the gossip only intensifies, to the point that Malèna is dragged into court to defend herself against accusations of adultery. When the women of the town refuse to sell her edible food at the market, Malèna has little choice but to become what she's been unjustly accused of being. |
| 252 | * A slight variation is hilariously invoked in ''Film/MeanGirls''. The high school girls have been building a trust exercise: they read out apologies for all the bitchy things they have done, then fall backwards to be caught by the other girls. The simultaneously vain and deeply insecure Gretchen Wieners actually utters the following 'apology' completely without irony (The other girls do ''not'' all rush to catch her when she falls backwards): |
| 253 | -->''"I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me... but I can't help it that I'm so popular."'' |
| 254 | * In ''Film/TheMexican'', a character asks her kidnapper whether she's [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe attractive enough to be raped]]. He explains that rape is about hate, not attraction. |
| 255 | * ''Film/TheNeonDemon'' essentially revolves around this trope with the lead Jesse. While her captivating beauty helps her rise through the ranks of the modeling world quickly, it also makes her a target for envious models as well as two people who attempt to rape her. It only gets worse from there. |
| 256 | * In the Mexican film ''Film/PrayersForTheStolen'', 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. |
| 257 | * ''Film/ShesOutOfMyLeague'' features this trope mainly from the perspective of a not-very-attractive guy who has landed a very attractive girlfriend -- she really digs him, but his own insecurities and the pettiness, jealousy, and spite of the people around him work to poison the relationship. |
| 258 | * ''Film/SuckerPunch'''s heroine Baby Doll has beauty that makes her look like TheIngenue, and that means Blue wants to rape her. Likewise, some of the other girls in the asylum are quite pretty but it's implied they too are sexually abused by Blue and his orderlies. |
| 259 | * This happens to the main character's daughter and her friend in the film ''Film/{{Taken}}''. After landing in Paris unattended, they're targeted and kidnapped by HumanTraffickers to be made into {{Sex Slave}}s. |
| 260 | * {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956''. An Egyptian overseer lusts after a female Hebrew slave, leading the other Hebrews to comment that "Beauty is but a curse to our women.". He takes her away to be a SexSlave, despite her pleading, [[spoiler:and while he's killed before he can rape her, she's just passed off to another man who blackmails her into telling everyone it's consensual by [[ScarpiaUltimatum threatening to kill her lover Joshua]].]] |
| 261 | * Parodied in ''Film/UndercoverBrother''. |
| 262 | -->'''Penelope Snow:''' I know what it feels like to be discriminated against... they look at me, and all they see are my full breasts and my narrow waist that tapers to my pert backside. It's just not fair. |
| 263 | * ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Jessica Rabbit is a MsFanservice lounge singer and it's such a blatant case of UglyGuyHotWife, she's the prime suspect in Roger being framed for murder; Eddie assuming she's a FemmeFatale after catching her seemingly cheating on him. Not only was she set up to be in that position for the framing, she sincerely loves her husband, and bemoans how people judge her. |
| 264 | --> "You don't know how hard it is being a woman looking the way I do." |
| 265 | * A main plot point in ''Film/WithnailAndI''. Poor Marwood (Creator/PaulMcGann) looks extremely fey without even trying, and he's constantly MistakenForGay and, at one point, almost raped. |
| 266 | * Jack Nicholson's character assumes this of Michelle Pfeiffer's in ''Film/WolfMikeNichols'', and calls her out on it. |
| 267 | -->'''Will Randall''': You know, I think I understand what you're like now. You're very beautiful and you think men are only interested in you because you're beautiful, but you want them to be interested in you because you're you. The problem is, aside from all that beauty, you're not very interesting. You're rude, you're hostile, you're sullen, you're withdrawn. I know you want someone to look past all that at the real person underneath but the only reason anyone would bother to look past all that is because you're beautiful. Ironic, isn't it? In an odd way, you're your own problem. |
| 268 | [[/folder]] |
| 269 | |
| 270 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 271 | * Vida in Creator/RichardBrautigan's ''Literature/TheAbortion'' is the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman -- by American standards. She's tall, slim, has "Playboy-furniture" legs and [[DCupDistress huge breasts]]. Inside, she is an elfin, delicate creature and wanted to be a ballerina, but instead became trapped in a body she feels is a "grotesque, awkward machine". Since she was eleven years old, the men around her have imploded simply from being in her presence. They're so DistractedByTheSexy that they have car crashes or fall downstairs; they commit suicide because she won't go out with them. She writes a book about what it's really like to have the perfect body, decides to donate it to a mysterious library filled with books no one reads, and there she meets the librarian who, though enchanted by her beauty, is not driven insane by it, and is actually able to listen to her story. |
| 272 | * ''Literature/TheAgainstTaffySinclairClub'' |
| 273 | ** The book centers around a group of fifth-grade girls who bond over their mutual dislike of Taffy Sinclair-- a pretty, blonde classmate who hit puberty early and is a bit of a snob-- and devote a lot of time trying to one-up her and humiliate her in small ways. It's not until the last quarter of the book, when Taffy's overbearing, somewhat brutish mother finds out that there is a ''club'' devoted to ''bullying her daughter'' and confronts main character Jana and her mother about it, that the main characters realize that what they've been doing is wrong. Jana's mother points out that Taffy has never actually done anything to any of them-- she just happens to be pretty. |
| 274 | ** Over the course of it, there's a subtle [[DeconstructedTrope realistic]] version of what the curse of being beautiful really means: when people hate you for being beautiful, they go out of their way to look for your flaws in order to prove you're not ''perfect'', which implies both that you're so close to perfect that people have to actively seek out any imperfections you have, and that even the smallest, single one of those imperfections is evidence that you're a lesser person who has the un-earned benefit of being beautiful. Jana's running irritation with Taffy's one crooked bicuspid continues on-and-off for most of the book, and blinds her to the fact that Taffy ''doesn't actually have friends''. The worst thing she ever does is wear the same dress to school as Jana and look better in it because of [[BuxomBeautyStandard her more developed figure]]. All the "snobby" behavior the Club disdains is really just ''loneliness'', filtered through [[UnreliableNarrator the eyes of girls who go out of their way to hate her.]] |
| 275 | ** The follow-up series ''The Fabulous Five'' plays this straight too. Taffy (while still present), has been replaced by SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Laura [=McCall=], who, like Taffy, is blonde and beautiful. When Laura beats out Beth for the role of Glinda in the school's production of ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', a jealous and angry Beth immediately decides that this is [[BuxomBeautyStandard because Laura is buxom]]. It couldn't possibly be that Laura possessed genuine acting talent (never mind that Beth has just insinuated that the casting director is a pedophile). Laura being an AlphaBitch doesn't help much, but Beth uses her bust size, something she has no control over, as yet another reason to dislike her. |
| 276 | * Riki of ''Literature/AiNoKusabi'' is so attractive that he attracts attention from not only women but men as well, some of it unwanted. Iason, in particular, made Riki his SexSlave due to his looks and rebellious nature. And Guy is also Yandere for him. |
| 277 | * The Beauty in ''Literature/TheAnnalsOfTheChosen'' is one of the Chosen roles, with the intent being for her beauty to distract a Wizard Lord so he can be killed. While attractive to begin with, her ''ler'' vastly amplify her beauty and its effect on others. The current Beauty lives in near-isolation and wears bulky clothes that reveal only her eyes; even then, she has to be careful of fights erupting over her. |
| 278 | * ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' features a version of this in ''Anne's House of Dreams'', in which the newly-married Anne's nearest neighbour in a small seaside village is a statuesque blonde "goddess" named Leslie Moore. Who, as it turns out, has a spectacularly tragic backstory, culminating in being trapped in marriage to a man she hated (he had coerced her by threatening to foreclose on a mortgage) leading her to openly despise the beauty she holds responsible--"I wish I was as brown and plain as the brownest and plainest shore girl." |
| 279 | * Jinshi, from ''Literature/TheApothecaryDiaries''. While he does exploit his looks to his benefit, it has also led to much harassment. For example, there have been many times when his servants have left their 'underthings' in his drawers. Disgustingly, one even had pubic hair sewn into it. |
| 280 | * In the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' novel, "Phaze Doubt", Flach is asked to help a female frost giant with a vexing problem: Her beauty and passionate nature was such that any male that she tried to be intimate with (not "was intimate"; "''tried'' to be") spontaneously melted. When she and Flach (magically changed into a frost giant at the time) tried to test this out, Flach was only saved by his own magic power and the fact that he wasn't a true frost giant. Flach cast a spell that halved the desire her chosen partner had for her, allowing nature to take its course without casualty. |
| 281 | %%* In ''Literature/AreYouThereGodItsMeMargaret'', Margaret and the other girls envy Laura Danker, who developed breasts early. Boys ogle her and girls circulate gossip about her. Later in the story, it's revealed that Laura wishes she didn't have them: she doesn't like the attention they attract. |
| 282 | * Karen from Creator/JohnSteakley's ''Literature/{{Armor}}'', whose beauty scares almost all men away except for those (her step-father, many superior officers in Fleet, etc.) who rape her and get away with it because the juries are so awed by her that they forgive the men for buckling under the irresistible temptation. |
| 283 | * Hideyoshi Kinoshita in ''Literature/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'' is [[DudeLooksLikeALady a guy so feminine-looking and beautiful]] no one believes him to be a guy, and gets confessions from guys every day. A certain someone wrote to him a poem which kind of gave him nightmares for a while. |
| 284 | * Princess Petulia of ''Literature/ABarrelOfLaughsAValeOfTears'' 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.) |
| 285 | * In the Sherry Thomas romance, ''Literature/BeguilingTheBeauty'', 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. |
| 286 | -->'''Christian:''' I disapprove of your character, Mrs. Easterbrook.\ |
| 287 | '''Venetia:''' You do not know my character. You only know my face. |
| 288 | * In ''Literature/BigLittleLies'', Celeste is so beautiful than everyone comments on it and what a great couple she and Perry are. This in spite of the fact that Celeste has the roughest domestic life, as Perry is also extremely abusive. |
| 289 | * In the Chinese classic ''Literature/BiographiesOfExemplaryWomen'', 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.) |
| 290 | * The Colleen [=McCullough=] novel ''Literature/{{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. |
| 291 | * In ''Literature/TheBriefWondrousLifeOfOscarWao'', the title character's female relatives are cursed with beauty, to the point where lust for one of them ''brought down a small country''. |
| 292 | * In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' Jerin is scolded for walking around in public unveiled, because it could tempt women into kidnapping him. The worst that comes of it is a group of sisters offering money for a night with him, but it is heavily implied that worse could happen if his heavily armed sisters weren't close by. |
| 293 | * ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}'': Petra's looks cause nothing but misery through her life. She is raped by her master's [[TeensAreMonsters teenage son and his friends]] who blame her [[SlutShaming "leading them all"]] and she is auctioned off due to being [[DefiledForever "spoiled goods"]]. Her best friend Besma attempts to buy her freedom because she knows Petra is too pretty, and horrible things would happen to her if she falls in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happens and she is sold to a brothel where she is abused ''even more'' by the clientele. |
| 294 | * Richard from ''Literature/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'' is so gorgeous he constantly attracts attention--and harassment. Sometimes people can't even tell if they like him or just his looks. |
| 295 | * In ''Literature/{{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. |
| 296 | * Creator/CSLewis's ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Chronicles of Narnia]]'': |
| 297 | ** In ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader''. Lucy has the opportunity to read a spell from a Wizard's book that would give her supernatural beauty. The book came complete with handy illustrations showing people worshiping her, then turning on each other, fighting wars over her, and so on. Lucy almost reads it anyway, but after an illustration of an angry [[CrystalDragonJesus Lion]] fills the page, she changes her mind. |
| 298 | ** In ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'' Narnia is invaded by a neighbor so their crown prince can kidnap Susan & make her his bride. Edmund and Lucy are among the generals trying to prevent this. |
| 299 | * Deconstructed in ''Literature/CloudOfSparrows''. Emily, the 17-year-old heroine is very beautiful. But because the story is in the 1800's, the world is a sexist, victim-blaming place. She's raped by her stepfather at 13 and escapes to the neighbors, who gossip about how she's tainted now and partially to blame for the sin of being good-looking enough to 'seduce' her step-father. So when the sons overhear this, they think "well, she's fair game for us -- it's her fault after all," and the neighbors choose to blame her instead of their sons. She internalizes this, and so hates "her accursed beauty" and longs to escape from it. So she goes to Japan, where no one's seen a Western woman before and everyone finds her not just odd-looking but extravagantly hideous -- yay! And she spends the whole plot trying desperately to stay in Japan rather than return to a land where she'll be considered beautiful again (and thus, vulnerable to sexual assault). |
| 300 | * Examined in Creator/GregoryMaguire's ''Literature/ConfessionsOfAnUglyStepSister'', a retelling of the Cinderella story. Clara's beauty and charm may have played a part in ruining her family's fortunes. At one point, she says her looks overshadow any other aspect of her personality; Clara is juxtaposed with her stepsister Iris, who, despite being thin and plain, is observant, witty, and enduring. |
| 301 | * A male example from ''Literature/{{Corsair}}'': Canale, the resident blind LongHairedPrettyBoy, has to deal with rape and [[AttemptedRape rape attempts]] fairly consistently from the age of seven upwards and [[spoiler:his brother's unwanted lust for him]] gets him blinded and left for dead in the woods. He certainly doesn't feel he deserves his beauty, but, conversely, it's also saved his life on some occasions. |
| 302 | * Horrifically, Vlad Dracula's younger brother Radu in ''Literature/CountAndCountess''. As an eleven-year-old war hostage, he is so waifish and beautiful that rather than hand him a sword, the Turks [[SexSlave pass him around as a way to unwind]]. |
| 303 | * ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'': Rhysand. All that beauty did was put him in the crossfires of being a SexSlave for fifty years. |
| 304 | * Alejandro Dolina, in ''Literature/CronicasDelAngelGris'' ("Chronicles of the Gray Angel") tells a tale of a girl so beautiful that she never had a boyfriend, because every man who glances at her [[BrownNote dies at once]]. To worsen her misery, she has a (mostly ordinary) sister, with lots of boyfriends. |
| 305 | * Deliberately invoked in ''Literature/TheDaevabadTrilogy'', where the ifrits' [[MadeASlave slavery curse]] includes making the victim extraordinarily beautiful (and completely obedient) in the hopes of [[SexSlave forcing this]]. Dara is apparently gorgeous, and has completely blocked out most of the several hundred years he spent enslaved. |
| 306 | * In Sherrilyn Kenyon's ''[[Literature/TheDarkHunters Dark Hunters]]'' series, there is Acheron; born an Atlantean god but unwittingly raised as a human, he is 'touched by the hand of desire.' This sounds pretty cool... until it turns out that this little gift is meant to punish the only person who genuinely loves him and makes every, single, human being who sees his face desire him so much some will end up killing each other to have him. From the moment he was born. And the only exception is blind people; not even his own family is spared, to the point his human father is so disgusted with himself he blames his young son and starts physically abusing him. Then his uncle sees him... His life averted the DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale and in [[Really700YearsOld current times]] women think it's fair game to sexually harass him. |
| 307 | * In Creator/GiovanniBoccaccio's ''Literature/TheDecameron'', one of the early tales is about a Babylonian princess, Alatiel, who is so beautiful that no man (aside, thankfully, from her father and his loyal knights) can lay eyes on her without immediately contriving to know her in the Biblical sense. As result, she ends up becoming the mistress of some nine different men in the space of a few years, each of whom [[KlingonPromotion killed her previous liaison]] in order to claim her. |
| 308 | * ''Literature/{{Deerskin}}'', by Creator/RobinMcKinley, is a sort of [[{{Grimmification}} Grimmified novelization]] of ''Donkeyskin''. The princess is imprisoned, brutalized, raped, and impregnated by her father; after she escapes, the subsequent ConvenientMiscarriage nearly kills her. While she never actually remarks on it, she does panic when her nursemaid tells her she looks so much like her mother, who had been called "the most beautiful woman in seven kingdoms". She knows there's something really wrong with her father, even if she doesn't know what it is, and ''really'' doesn't want him to have any reason to pay her attention. (It doesn't help that her mother made the king promise not to remarry with any woman less beautiful than her; that makes the princess's resemblance to her mother a little squicky to more people than the princess herself, even if nobody will acknowledge it.) |
| 309 | * Deborah from ''Literature/{{Dexter}}'' has a milder and more realistic version in the first book; she always wanted to be a cop, but nature decided to give her the body of a model. This causes most of her workmates and superiors to disregard her ideas and underestimate her abilities, and being in vice, she ends up on a lot of [[DirtyHarriet undercover assignments]]. This improves when she gets promoted to homicide and doesn't get brought up again. |
| 310 | * Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': |
| 311 | ** ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'': the thin, beautiful, {{brainless|Beauty}}, talentless Christine, when questioned about her scanty breakfast, tells the fat but highly-talented Agnes, "It's lucky for you, you can eat whatever you want." Agnes tries to be charitable but "deep down inside, [she] thought a rude word." The book goes on to say that while being a talentless beauty can be a curse, being a talent with no beauty can be a ''worse'' curse. |
| 312 | ** 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]]", [[AttractivenessIsolation so they don't approach her for fear of rejection]]- so the only people who ''do'' ask her out are the sort of pathetic losers (like Nobby Nobbs) who've become inured to rejection from facing it so often, which in turn means she thinks that there's something wrong with her because the only people who apparently like her are losers. On top of that, she is "[[BrainlessBeauty thicker than a yard of lard]]" and doesn't think she's very attractive at all. |
| 313 | * In ''Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths'', 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. |
| 314 | * Creator/LordByron's AlternateCharacterInterpretation of ''Literature/DonJuan'' (and [[CreatorBreakdown Lord Byron himself]], too, for that matter). |
| 315 | * ''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 that [[{{Aesop}} she is free to court who she wishes]] and if Chrystosom chose to be SpurnedIntoSuicide that was his own decision. In a classic romance story, her suitors probably would have had a JerkassRealization and backed off. In this deconstruction, no one of the [[AllMenArePerverts all-male audience]] [[IgnoredAesop listens to a word she said]] [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint because they're all thinking the same thing the same thing Chrystosom did]]. They all try to follow her, only to be stymied because she was somewhere inaccessible... because she's so used to being stalked that she habitually takes measures to lose her stalkers. The scene ends with Don Quixote forbidding anyone to follow Marcela, claiming that she is a decent person who deserves her freedom. |
| 316 | * [[Literature/DoraWilkSeries Dora Wilk]] has problems with this sometimes. She's succubus-like witch, making her one of the most beautiful and attractive women in the 'verse, so when she converses with her male friends (not boyfriends, just friends), their partners sometimes think she's flirting. What's worse, most of her perceived attractiveness comes from her magic. When [[spoiler:Jezebel]] charms her, multiplying the effect, she's attacked twice on the way home by would-be rapists. |
| 317 | * In Justina Ireland's ''Literature/DreadNation'', a steampunk alternate history zombie thriller, the main characters are black girls are training to be Attendants, bodyguards who protect rich women. One of them, Katherine, is ''so'' gorgeous it ruins her chances of ever being hired, because her potential clients all see her as competition instead. This gets her shipped off to a horrible town run by a racist, tyrannical Sheriff--her friend's quick thinking allows her to pass as white, which allows her to escape being enslaved, but lands her as almost every man in town's new crush. This is not a good thing when she knows what they'd do to her if they found out she was actually biracial. |
| 318 | * In the ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'', Tiaanet is lusted after by every man who sets eyes on her, including her own father. |
| 319 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': |
| 320 | ** Thomas Raith is a good incubus (White Court Vampire, technically, but the difference is mostly semantics). As such, he has supernaturally good looks and an alluring aura... meant to ''lure prey'', so it kicks in whether he wants it to or not (and he usually doesn't, since it usually leads to OutWithABang and he nearly killed the woman he loved this way) if he's hungry. For a while he couldn't hold down a job since [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale his female (well, most of the time) coworkers would try to rape him and he'd get blamed for it]], going on walks tends to mean random bystanders throw themselves at him, and Harry once mentions an incident where he answered the door for a saleswoman and she ''physically injured'' him while trying to molest him. |
| 321 | ** Another, darker example would be Lily. All she wanted was to settle down, get married and have a family of her own, but because she's a changeling (half human, half Sidhe), she's been tormented and abused by Lloyd Slate, the Winter Knight (yes, [[RapeAsBackstory like that]]) purely because of her beauty. [[spoiler:Then she was a pawn in the Summer Lady Aurora's mad plan to end the war of Summer and Winter, the end result being that Lily was forcibly made the Summer Lady after Aurora's death. The Summer Queen Titania, mourning the sudden, painful loss of her daughter, was not willing or able to mentor her in her new role, leaving Lily easy prey to the machinations of the Winter Lady Maeve, who was if anything even more mad than Aurora had been. She then gets tricked into an even more convoluted plot that would've both destroyed a huge part of the US and unleashed insanely powerful, nigh-unkillable dark creatures on the world, all while believing that she's the hero of the story. And to top it off, Maeve then unceremoniously kills her off, just to spite her mother Mab, the Winter Queen.]] |
| 322 | ** Hannah Ascher suffers a variant. She's a gorgeous woman, but she lives in a world where most gorgeous women (and men, to be fair) are some sort of supernatural predator using sex appeal as a lure (Sidhe, White and Red Court Vampires, some Ghouls, etc.), so even though Hannah herself is completely human, most of her peers avoid her out of instinct because they've been conditioned to view inhuman beauty as a warning sign. If she looked ''less'' pretty, she'd definitely have a more fulfilling love life.[[spoiler: Of course, she also proves everybody wary of her ''completely right'' by taking up Lasciel's coin, but Hannah isn't self-aware enough to make the connection.]] |
| 323 | * At the end of ''Literature/DucklingUgly,'' [[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]]. |
| 324 | * In Creator/AletheaKontis's ''Literature/{{Enchanted}}'', "fair of face" Monday is famed far and wide as the most beautiful woman and hates it. Especially when her grief over Tuesday's death only made her more beautiful. |
| 325 | * Stealth in ''Literature/ExHeroes'' dons a superhero costume specifically to obscure her beauty, so she can be judged on her actions rather than her looks. At the same time, her costume is designed to show off her figure. To give an idea of how extreme her case is, prior to the ZombieApocalypse that the story revolves around, she was a genius of such a high caliber you could consider her a combination of Batman, Reed Richards, and Bruce Banner (minus the Hulk), all rolled into one, and that would still not be doing her justice to her intellect and physical prowess. But from even an early age she was, due to her gender and overall attractiveness, treated as less than a person. Case in point, in spite of making perfect grades in high school, and setting records in track and field and weight lifting, the guidance counselor recommended she take an "easier" school. She broke his nose, and then went on to make the Dean's list at MIT with a 4.0. |
| 326 | * Florimell in ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' doesn't complain but has a right to. After fleeing from three guys who try to rape her, a hyena-like monster, and a witch who clones her, she's kidnapped by Proteus and thrown in his dungeon until she agrees to sleep with him (which she adamantly refuses to the end). The author feels deeply sorry for all the troubles he puts her through... all because she's so beautiful. |
| 327 | * Susan Jagger of Creator/DeanKoontz's ''Literature/FalseMemory'' is actually an unwitting case of this. She's a realtor who sells a psychiatrist a particularly nice house, not realizing he's a [[MindRape mind-raping]] sociopath. He implants agoraphobia into her subconscious and then slowly destroys her for his own entertainment, all because she is, in his own narration, "exceptionally beautiful". She never figures this out. |
| 328 | * In Creator/RobinHobb's ''Literature/{{Farseer}} Trilogy'', when Burrich gets around to discussing his backstory, he talks about his grandmother, who was a slave in the Chalced States. Apparently (paraphrased) "Beauty is the worst trait a slave can possess. Her mistresses hated her and her masters raped her." |
| 329 | * PlayedForLaughs in this exchange from ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'': |
| 330 | -->'''Augustus:''' But can I help my own deadly beauty?\ |
| 331 | '''Hazel:''' You cannot.\ |
| 332 | '''Augustus:''' It is my burden, this beautiful face. |
| 333 | * ''Literature/FinalFantasyVIIRemakeTraceOfTwoPasts'' plays the beauty of iconic MsFanservice Tifa Lockhart for drama. It starts with her being unable to make friends with most boys during her childhood because they were blatantly seeing her as a prize to be won, then goes in a darker direction when she's an adult, with [[spoiler: her "friend" Rakesh]] sabotaging her attempts to make it out of Container Row, motivated by an obsessive crush. |
| 334 | * ''[[Literature/GracelingRealm Fire]]'' and its titular heroine take this trope and heavily deconstructs it. Fire is a "human monster", a type of creature that looks like a gorgeous human. The problem is that her beauty is literally, supernaturally, mesmerizing (it also comes with mind manipulation) and she has zero control over it; unless someone has a very strong mind or knows ahead of time and is on guard for it, just ''looking'' at Fire will have someone so DistractedByTheSexy they can't think of anything else. At best, those with weaker minds will proclaim their undying love. At worst, they'll attempt to rape her, fly into a murderous rage, or both, forcing her to surround herself with a loyal guard at all times. Compounding all of this is the emotional component; much of human empathy comes from how people look. The crappier someone looks, the more likely a person is to feel sympathy/empathy for them and reach out with comfort and understanding. Fire's appearance will ''never'' reflect how she feels; she could be covered in tears and snot and still look absolutely stunning. The chance that stranger will reach out to her while she's distressed and have it ''not'' be because they just really want to hug or have sex with her is very small. |
| 335 | * Justified in the book ''Literature/FiveChildrenAndIt'' by Creator/ENesbit, where the kids get a wish to "be as beautiful as the day" but nobody recognizes them, and they aren't even allowed into their own house. (Fortunately, the wish has a built-in time limit.) |
| 336 | * Heather Simmons in ''Literature/TheFlameAndTheFlower'' is known for her beauty and this gets her into trouble. |
| 337 | * ''[[Literature/{{Flashman}} Flashman's Lady]]''. Mrs. Flashman says this in her diary after she's kidnapped by a pirate who'd become smitten with her, lamenting the fact that she's so pretty, especially compared to her less attractive sisters (the rest of the sentence is deleted by the sister who's editing the book). |
| 338 | * ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'': Sousuke. Many people who get to know him or even just glance at him wind up becoming entranced by his good looks. An aside in "Ending Day by Day" notes that he was often a target of unwanted sexual advances when conducting joint operations with unfamiliar mercenary and guerilla units, including several cases of AttemptedRape all because there were no women around and he was very pretty. He's come to view it as just another occupational hazard and it’s partially why he has such a ParalyzingFearOfSexuality. |
| 339 | %%* Creator/TanithLee's short story, "Strindberg's Ghost Sonata," in Marvin Kaye's anthology ''The Ghost Quartet.'' |
| 340 | * In Creator/SheriSTepper's ''Literature/GibbonsDeclineAndFall'', 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.]] |
| 341 | * ''Literature/TheGoodEarth'' -- about Chinese farmers -- draws a distinction that a beautiful wife is not desirable. The reason is that she was unlikely to be allowed to grow to maturity as a virgin. O-Lan was a slave but was only beaten, as she was too plain for the masters to be attracted to her. She alludes that the prettier slave girls were "carried to a man's bed". |
| 342 | * Shungo Ninomiya from ''Literature/GoodLuckNinomiyaKun''. He's harassed on a regular basis by a majority of the girls at his school who think that his "[[TroubledButCute troubled face]]" is very cute. Plus the sheer number of ''[[EvenTheGuysWantHim guys]]'' in one episode who swooned over his good looks, and crowded around him, complete with unwanted touching...Or when Reika tried to kiss him, among other things, while he was sleeping. Also, Reika's alternate personality once lured Shungo to a private location where she ''actually attempted to rape him''... |
| 343 | * This trope frequently occurs in novels by Iar Elterrus (Иар Эльтеррус). The CrapsackWorld of the ''Literature/GraySword'' 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. |
| 344 | * In the ''[[Literature/TheGrishaTrilogy Grisha Trilogy]]'', the character of Genya is a Tailor--a Grisha with the magical ability to alter physical appearance. Genya is so beautiful that she is [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer shunned by the other Grisha]], and her status as a servant allows the King of Ravka to take advantage of her. |
| 345 | * A strange inversion occurs in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series with the veela: They are inhumanly gorgeous, and simply being around one can cause a man to fall in love with her. It ends up being a curse for the man, especially if she goes into OneWingedAngel mode (at which point the veela is "no longer remotely beautiful" and instead looks like a bird of prey). |
| 346 | * In ''Literature/{{Hawaii}}'' by Creator/JamesMichener the leper colony on Molokai is a WretchedHive of utter depravity because there is no law. As [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil the fullest expression of this depravity]], women exiled there whose leprosy has not disfigured them yet are BlessedWithSuck -- so desirable that they are gang-raped for months by the terrifyingly disfigured long-term inhabitants of the leper colony until the women [[RapeLeadsToInsanity are driven insane]] and [[PromiscuityAfterRape become promiscuous]], either out of [[StrawNihilist nihilism]] or the need to deny that the advance of their leprosy has rendered them undesirable, foreshadowing their deaths. |
| 347 | * Vanyel Ashkevron of the ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Last Herald-Mage]]'' trilogy's stunning PrettyBoy looks cause a great deal of jealousy and sneering by his peers, but not so much that he doesn't keep playing up his looks throughout "Magic's Pawn." In "Magic's Price," he catches far worse while captured by a group of thugs who decide that he's "as good as a woman." |
| 348 | * PlayedForDrama in María Luisa Bombal's short story "La Historia de María Griselda" ("The Story of María Griselda"). The eponymous María Griselda is an ''incredibly'' beautiful woman who's just as sweet and gentle as you can expect from a PuritySue... but her sisters shunned her out of envy as kids, her parents tried to compensate by [[ParentalFavoritism shunning María Griselda and favoring them]], [[ICantBelieveAGuyLikeyouWouldNoticeMe the only man brave enough to marry her]] gradually became an alcoholic wreck [[InsecureLoveInterest because he considered himself unworthy of such a beautiful woman]], her brother-in-law and her sister-in-law's fiancé couldn't resist her beauty, ''and'' her mother-in-law and the UnreliableNarrator of the story was ready to hate her to death [[DoomMagnet for all the gloom her presence brought]], only relenting when [[BrokenBird María Griselda]] explained her DarkAndTroubledPast to her. |
| 349 | * In the ''Literature/HollowKingdomTrilogy'''s ''Close Kin'', Sable ruins her face by cutting the skin off her cheeks in the ActionPrologue, to avoid a fate of DeathByChildbirth after the leader of her group turns his gaze to her. |
| 350 | * Paulo D'Arezzo from the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series is first introduced as someone who was obviously stuck up and self important because of all the work he's obviously had done on his looks. It turns out that his looks are from genetics, [[spoiler:in that he is from a line of genetically engineered sex slaves and never knew his mother because she died so that he could escape that life. Between that and the rest, every time somebody gets hung up on how he looks it unearths a mass of horrible memories]]. |
| 351 | * The (initial) antagonist of Justine Larbalestier's ''Literature/HowToDitchYourFairy'' 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. |
| 352 | * Esmeralda in ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame''. Her beauty is the cause of all the tragic events in the book, including her death. |
| 353 | * ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Being attractive can help you win the games, as shown by Finnick Odair; lots of people will want to sponsor you and give you various helpful goodies. However, if you're attractive and ''do'' win, you'll be forced into prostitution in the Capitol, because those very sponsors who paid to help you win the games will pay even ''more'' to actually have sex with you. |
| 354 | * In the ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' duology, this is implied with Oreg - Ward has some thoughts about what owning (Oreg is an immortal slave to the family) such a pretty boy might have meant to some of his ancestors. It never explicitly says that he's thinking of child molesters, but it is pretty clearly implied. And then there is [[spoiler:Garannon, who was made the king's sex slave because of his beauty]]. |
| 355 | * Inverted oddly in ''Literature/IDoNotWantToDoThis'': Joanna is not particularly beautiful, but is cursed with a succubus aura that makes any man who gets too close to her think she's the hottest thing ever and start desiring her. Worse still, it works on her as well, attracting her indiscriminately to any and every guy around. This leaves her [[ShrinkingViolet shy and withdrawn,]] unable to get close to anyone she might build a relationship with [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality for fear of losing control.]] |
| 356 | * In Creator/PeterDavid's ''Imzadi'', part of the Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse, the project leader of the science team studying the Guardian of Forever is an Orion female nicknamed "Mary Mac". Having to cope with the recurring stereotype that all Orion females are ''"animalistic sex kittens"'', she deliberately dresses down in baggy clothes and huge, anachronistic NerdGlasses. Inverted in that her experience is that most people are pleasantly surprised to learn that she actually has a brain (rather than being disappointed she is not a sex kitten), and this adds to her appeal. |
| 357 | * ''Literature/InCryptid'': Artie is an incubus with PowerIncontinence, which means his [[LivingAphrodisiac pheromones]] cause any non-relative who's attracted to men (including some non-human species) to be overcome with lust for him. He mostly deals with it by becoming a {{Hikikomori}} who only goes out covered in [[{{Perfumigation}} enough cologne to destroy the sense of smell of anyone in a ten-foot radius]]. |
| 358 | * In David Foster Wallace's ''Literature/InfiniteJest'', Joelle Van Dyne wears a veil ostensibly to cover the damage from an acid attack, but it's heavily implied that she really wears it because she's so beautiful and can't deal with the reaction she gets (her in-universe nickname is PGOAT--the Prettiest Girl of All Time). Indeed, it's implied at one point that witnessing her having sex is enough to put anyone in a permanent catatonic state of bliss. |
| 359 | * The ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'' manga has a downplayed example; Miyuki doesn't ''hate'' her beauty, but she's irritated by it because it means egoistical strangers often make passes at her. (And it's one of many reasons she won't be able to MarryForLove- if [[AbusiveParents her family]] can make any profit off of her marriage, they will, and such a beautiful girl has no shortage of suitors.) |
| 360 | * Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'': |
| 361 | ** In the series, kidnapping and enslavement are a constant threat to Martian women. The more beautiful she is, the more she is at risk. [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Dejah Thoris]] has it worse of all, with the male [[BigBad main villains]] of the first trilogy [[VillainousCrush desiring her for themselves separately]]. |
| 362 | ** In ''The Master Mind of Mars'', Valla Dia, when she finds herself [[GrandTheftMe transplanted into an old and ugly body]], admits that she enjoyed her beauty, but that it had not been an unmixed blessing, as men had fought and died over her. She is content in this body, that at least no one would fight over. Indeed, when Ulysses Paxton offers to have her put in a younger and more beautiful body, she rejects it because of the danger that that body would be sold (since they are in a MadScientist's lair and he sells such body transplants). |
| 363 | * In the Creator/DanielleSteel novel ''Literature/{{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." |
| 364 | * ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'': The Kukuana people under Twala's rule have a ritual in which the unmarried girls dance for the king and his guests. The one who is fairest and the best dancer is sacrificed. |
| 365 | * In ''Literature/LoreLay'' by Clemens Brentano, Lore Lay is very unhappy about all the men that fall in love with her, as she loves none of them. She even says to see her own reflection is so painful to her, she wants to die. Her beauty also leads to her being accused of witchcraft. |
| 366 | * In ''{{Literature/Maia}}'', the semi-pornographic sequel to ''{{Literature/Shardik}}'', the protagonist grows up in a small cabin and ends up so beautiful that she is seduced by her stepfather, causing her jealous mother to sell her to a passing slave-trader. |
| 367 | * In Simone de Beauvoir's novel ''Literature/TheMandarins'', 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. |
| 368 | * In Steve Perry's ''Literature/MatadorSeries'' 'verse, the Albino Exotics are a deliberately created human mutation who are without exception preternaturally beautiful and sexually attractive. Additionally, they can consciously control their pheromones, to enhance or decrease the effect they have on other humans. ''And'' the mutation breeds true -- the child of an Albino Exotic and a non-Albino Exotic will have all the beauty and abilities of the Albino parent. Originally, they were made to be sexual playthings for the very wealthy. Most die young, the victims of violence from someone who wants to have them or own them. Very few manage to escape being involved in the sex trade in some way; and most of those who do so manage it by acquiring a very powerful "protector". |
| 369 | * In ''Literature/TheMermaidOfBlackConch'', Aycayia's beauty and singing voice drew the attention of men, whose wives became jealous and prayed to Jagua to banish her to the sea. |
| 370 | * A bizarre and creepy version shows up in Salman Rushdie's ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'', in which one character is so beautiful that it is [[BrownNote physically painful to look at her.]] The problem is solved by ''cutting up her face with clamshells.'' |
| 371 | * Subverted in Richard Purtill's ''Literature/TheMirrorOfHelen'', in which a young Helen of Troy complains that no one is interested in her, just her beauty. However when a confidant disguises her with makeup making her look old and plain, Helen is honest enough to admit she doesn't like it as much as she thought she would. Later in the book, Aphrodite takes away Helen's beauty, and she has the pleasure of learning that Menelaus does indeed love her for herself, NOT for "the Face". |
| 372 | * In ''Literature/MistakenlySavingTheVillain'', Yue Wuhuan is kidnapped and raped repeatedly while his rapists tell him it's his own fault because he's beautiful. After Song Qingshi rescues him Yue Wuhuan starts wearing masks and veils to hide his face. |
| 373 | * Beauty really is a curse for Skaa in ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}''. There are laws forbidding crossbreeding between the nobility and the Skaa underclass, but all this means is that they are very careful to kill the Skaa when they are done with them. |
| 374 | * Played straight in Creator/RobertAsprin's Little Myth Marker from ''Literature/MythAdventures''. Skeeve's new moll (aka doxy) plays the role of brainless beauty/aggressive sex kitten to the hilt because it makes her clients leave her alone so she can just live her own life. She only does that because, being beautiful, no one would take her seriously if she tried to actually use her brains, because (paraphrased): |
| 375 | -->'''Bunny:''' That's all men want from a woman.\ |
| 376 | '''Skeeve:''' Come on, Bunny. That's not fair[...]\ |
| 377 | '''Bunny:''' You're right: I should have said 'that's all men want from a ''beautiful'' woman. |
| 378 | :: Skeeve then muses that he often discussed the shortcomings of being very unattractive with Massha, but never the shortcomings of being very attractive. |
| 379 | * Mahiro from ''Literature/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'' might look only mildly cute to the viewers but to aliens, he's apparently the hottest guy in the universe, and it's often the source of his problems. In short order, this earns him several [[UnwantedHarem unwanted admirers]] from the Franchise/CthulhuMythos ''and'' sees him get kidnapped and almost auctioned off to unwillingly star in a BoysLove TV series. The second season of the anime adaptation adds insult to injury by showing that he's well-known enough that there are {{Yaoi|Genre}} {{Doujinshi}} of him...some of which ended up on Earth. |
| 380 | * A weird inversion is [[InnocentFanserviceGirl Remedios the Beauty]] from ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'', where her beauty is a curse... for her family and the men who get mesmerized by her. Her family constantly battle to maintain her under protection because, even if she looks like an adult, she has the [[ManChild mental age of a preschool kid]], which causes her to do and say things that are [[TheIngenue genuinely innocent]] but, to the ones who only see her hot body and pretty face, [[IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn came out as seductive and provocative]]. Whatever they try to mitigate her beauty backfires, only increasing her hotness. The poor girl is ''completely'' unaware of her own attractiveness or the reactions she provokes, and when people start to die out of love of her (because they were [[DistractedByTheSexy distracted by her beauty]]) she is unfazed and [[HypocriticalHumor qualifies them as simple and dumb]]. |
| 381 | * A minor theme in ''Literature/OnlyEchoesRemain'', which centers on Isa, a homeless girl living on the streets of Chicago. Despite her circumstances, Isa is stunningly beautiful. Isa complains occasionally about her looks causing problems, and sometimes wishes her appearance wasn't so conspicuous, but she's sufficiently self-aware and grounded to stop short of being obnoxious about it. |
| 382 | * In his dedication of ''Palamon and Arcite'' (a translation of [[Literature/TheCanterburyTales Chaucer's]] ''Knight's Tale'') to the Duchess of Ormonde, the poet John Dryden hints that that lady's misfortunes were due to her extraordinary beauty, which marked her as being of the highest blood: "O true ''Plantagenet!'' O Race divine! (For Beauty still is fatal to the Line!)" (In reality, her troubles were mostly due to her husband's political ineptitude.) |
| 383 | * Subverted in ''Literature/{{Perfume}}'' with Laure Richis. While everyone is convinced that she is ''extraordinarily beautiful'' (so much that even her father wishes to be some random guy to be able to marry her, and not her father), Grenouille knows that it is her smell that makes people think she is beautiful. When he is about to be executed for murdering her, he uses one drop of the perfume [[HumanResources he made of her]] to make everyone think he is the most beautiful and innocent thing in existence. [[GoneHorriblyRight And it works]]. |
| 384 | * Creator/MaryRenault's ''The Persian Boy'', the second volume of her trilogy about Alexander the Great: the eponymous character, Bagoas, loses his family in the court intrigues of the Persian Empire, but his father's assassins decide that the boy's youthful good looks will fetch a high price for him as a SexSlave - provided they preserve those youthful looks by castrating him. |
| 385 | * In ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', poor Christine Daae is subject to this, being exceptionally beautiful ever since she was a little girl. Christine, during her time at the Opera House, gets plenty of jealous detractors as well as admirers (particularly ThePrimaDonna Carlotta), and Christine's childhood friend Raoul stalks her feverishly. Worse ''still'', Christine becomes the obsession of the titular, deformed, AxCrazy musical genius, ''who [[{{Yandere}} threatens to blow up half of Paris]] if [[ScarpiaUltimatum she doesn't consent]] to [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe marry him]]''. However, Christine's appeal also comes from her [[BeautifulSingingVoice angelic singing voice]] and her [[PurityPersonified pure-hearted compassion]], not just her good looks. |
| 386 | * In Creator/JackCampbell's ''Literature/ThePillarsOfReality'', Asha, Mari's GreenEyedMonster, is not a serious problem, but as an acolyte, her beauty was taken as a sign that she wasn't properly detached from the world of appearance -- which got bad enough that she was considering mutilating herself. One elder informed her [[Catch22Dilemma that would taken as a strong sign that she was not properly detached, to care that much.]] |
| 387 | * A. S. Byatt's novel ''Literature/{{Possession}}'' features Maud Bailey, who as a professor of feminist literature finds her beauty such a curse that she keeps her head shaved for a while, then ties her hair up in tight braids and a scarf to fend off the accusations of her peers that she grows and dyes it to please men. Arguably, the book is conscious of this trope (she has an ex-lover who used to trapeze around naked and pointedly quote Yeats's "Your Yellow Hair" at her), but plays it very straight. |
| 388 | * The book version of ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' sort of deals with this. Buttercup laments that everyone puts her on a pedestal, it's such a hassle to maintain such beauty, nobody thinks she's smart, etc. Apparently being the most beautiful woman in the world isn't all peaches and cream. While her beauty does get her promoted to future queen, the Prince threatens to kill her if she refuses. "[E]verybody had told her she was probably the most beautiful woman in the world. Now she was going to the richest and most powerful as well. Don't expect too much from life, Buttercup told herself, be happy with what you have." |
| 389 | * In ''Literature/QueenOfTheTearling'', Marguerite (who has recently been freed from the fate of a [[SexSlave rape slave]]) explains to Kelsea that beauty can be a curse. Kelsea, who is plain and very jealous of Marguerite, does not get it, despite having witnessed the woman's fate ... and being the Queen herself, and as such in a much better position than a random beautiful woman. Even more ironic because Kelsea, when she was worried that a man might have raped her while she slept, was told by him that she's too plain for his tastes. |
| 390 | * ''Literature/RainOfTheGhosts'': Aycayia. Not only does she have to deal with men desiring her without caring about her as a person, [[WickedWitch Guanayoa]] was able to use this supernatural beauty as evidence that Aycayia must be the First Witch instead of her. |
| 391 | * It's brought up by someone talking to the fey character in ''Literature/RiddleOfTheSevenRealms''. She subsequently comes to adopt this trope as her own, and ends up in a relationship with Astron, because he's the only one who she believes can love her for herself. |
| 392 | * A minor character in ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' is a copper who is so good-looking, nobody can believe he's a policeman. This is great for undercover work, less so when you're trying to exercise your authority. Apparently, he was once arrested for ImpersonatingAnOfficer, despite showing the arresting officer his warrant card, and the fact he was ''riding a police horse'' at the time. |
| 393 | * Heaven help you if you're a beautiful woman in Tess Gerrittsen's ''Literature/RizzoliAndIsles'' series, because the eponymous former character will ''instantly'' hate you and automatically assume that you're a bitch, tramp, idiot, or any of a hundred other negative things, or some combination thereof--all out of jealousy that she herself is plain and average looking. Unfortunately, you'll have no choice but to contend with her, as she's a detective and you have been or will be the victim of some psycho stalker/rapist/murderer, at which point Rizzoli will actually have a sliver of ''sympathy'' for you by musing that it must be difficult to contend with the unwanted attention that can result from looking a certain way. Amusingly, the TV series cast former model[=/=]''Series/BaywatchNights'' star Creator/AngieHarmon as Jane. |
| 394 | * Caroline Lawrence's ''Literature/TheRomanMysteries'': |
| 395 | ** Miriam. Almost every adult male character save only her own father and that of Flavia is either awestruck when they lay eyes on her and/or is in love with her; but her love is for Flavia's uncle Gaius only. In ''The Dolphins of Laurentum'' she laments this and claims she hates being beautiful. |
| 396 | ** {{Deconstructed}} in ''The Sirens of Surrentum'', Flavia's friend Polla Pulchra (whose second name is Latin for "beautiful") gives Flavia some BrutalHonesty in telling her that Nubia is beautiful, but Flavia is not, but that is actually a great advantage; Pulchra's own mother has often said that ''"only boring girls need to be beautiful"'', and Flavia is anything but boring, and when a man decides to love her, she will know that he loves her for herself and not for her looks. [[spoiler:In the final book, Pulchra is proven right.]] |
| 397 | * ''Literature/SafeHaven'': When the heroine flees from her abusive husband, he's able to track her down in Philadelphia because everyone she interacted with along the way--the ticket agent, the bus driver, the hotel manager, her employer--remembers her because was so pretty. He himself almost lampshades this with his thoughts on the matter: "She made a mistake at the bus station, though she really couldn't help it. She should have bought her ticket from a woman, because men always remember a pretty girl." She's more successful in escaping from him a second time because this time she buys her ticket from a woman. Sure enough, when he questions them, no one remembers her. |
| 398 | * In the Literature/SallyLockhart novel ''The Shadow in the North'', there is a character called Lady Mary, described thus: |
| 399 | --> ''She had discovered already that her beauty was a curse. It awed people. Even hardened charmers, eligible young men about town, felt uneasy in her presence, clumsy and dirty and tongue-tied. Quite early on in her teens she had felt intuitively that instead of attracting love, she might even helplessly repel it, through being too beautiful.'' |
| 400 | * Virtually every stranger Scarlet meets in the ''Literature/ScarletAndTheWhiteWolf'' books tries to rape him. [[spoiler:They don't succeed]]. |
| 401 | * According to Ayesha in ''Literature/{{She}}'', her beauty drives men mad. It doesn't seem to bother her that much, in fact she rather enjoys blasting them when they get on her nerves. She is frankly not a nice person. |
| 402 | * Lúthien in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' dies earlier than she should because "the flame of the beauty of Lúthien as she wore [the Silmaril] was too bright for mortal lands." Her beauty also results in her being the target of lustful men, from the evil elves Celegorm & Curufin to [[SatanicArchetype Morgoth himself]]. It was even said that Morgoth's plan to rape Luthien was the most vile thought he ever had, and considering Morgoth killed tens of thousands of people in his conquest of Middle-Earth (and plan to kill countless more), that's saying something. |
| 403 | * In ''Literature/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants'', [[ShrinkingViolet Lena]] does not ''exactly'' refer to her exotic beauty as a curse, but does complain often about the unwanted attention that she gets from boys, as well as the way that she can never tell if a boy likes her for her or because of her 'celery-green eyes' and 'olive Mediterranean skin.' |
| 404 | * ''Literature/SkippyDies'': Lori is popular at school because of her looks, but this brings her mainly fake friends who betray her at the first chance, and lust from psycho creeps like Carl. After Skippy dies and she receives media attention for the fact that Skippy scrawled her name in his dying breaths, it becomes clear that the public and especially her parents are interested only in her beauty and don't care about her inner self. Lori starts starving herself to dangerous degrees in part to make herself less beautiful and make all the attention go away. |
| 405 | * In ''Literature/{{Smoke}}'': Michael Pendergast, one of the tobacco company’s test subjects to try and reproduce the invisibility formula. Her looks keep her from being taken seriously as a scientist and hoped that being invisible could change this. To her consternation the experiment fails and just makes her ‘’more’’ beautiful. |
| 406 | * Played straight in George R.R. Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 407 | ** When a village is taken by Gregor Clegane's men, while many of the women are assaulted, one in particular is especially attractive, and because of this is raped many times per day by The Mountain's men. Eventually, she gets desperate and tries to fend off an attacker with a rock. As punishment, Clegane beheads her. |
| 408 | ** Peasant girl Pia (nickname Pretty Pia) is the most beautiful serving girl in Harrenhall. That makes her life a living hell of sexual abuse and rape once the war starts and castle is occupied and changes hands multiple times. |
| 409 | ** The incredibly beautiful Sansa Stark suffers from this a lot, resulting in a lot of unwanted attention from all the wrong sorts of men. To add up the grossness factor, she's ''eleven'' at the start of the series. |
| 410 | * Ko Kijin in ''Literature/TheStoryOfSaiunkoku'' is so beautiful that when he took the examination to qualify for government office, his looks distracted the other candidates so much that only he and two other people - both friends of his who were already accustomed to his beauty - were able to pass the exams, and thirty officials had to be fired for forgetting to ring the bell to signal the end of the exam period. He eventually took to wearing a mask constantly in order to hide his face, and the threat of having him take off his mask during court is enough to cause chaos; when he actually takes it off, it entrances anyone who looks at him and sends several men into hysterics. |
| 411 | * Similarly, in the Creator/SidneySheldon novel ''Literature/AStrangerInTheMirror'' (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. |
| 412 | * Nicci of the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth''. She is repeatedly mentioned as one of the most attractive females in the series, to the point where the heroine, previously stated to be the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman, felt "as ugly as a clod of dirt" in her presence. Nicci, however, is quite familiar with the downsides of being physically perfect, as her beauty has gotten her quite a bit of [[RapeAsBackstory unwanted attention]] from several villains and other male characters, and provided another opportunity for [[AbusiveParents her mother]] to bully and cast blame on her. |
| 413 | * Zorayas from Creator/TanithLee's book ''Night's Master'', part of the ''Literature/TalesFromTheFlatEarth'' series, is transformed by the demonic Azhrarn into [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman the most beautiful woman in the world]]. Anyone who sees her becomes hopelessly obsessed and many die by performing risky deeds to get her attention or [[SpurnedIntoSuicide by suicide when she spurns them]]. One man gives her his fortune in diamonds but wastes away and kills himself when she does not return his affections. The man's brother makes himself temporarily blind [[NoEyeInMagic to prevent himself from seeing her]] and gives her a magic mirror. She [[DistractedByMyOwnSexy falls in love with her own reflection]] and tries to embrace it, which causes the mirror to explode and kill her. |
| 414 | * In ''Literature/TalesOfTheFiveHundredKingdoms'', there's Kaari, whose attractiveness actually doesn't come from physical attractiveness. In her people, they read runes at a certain age to tell their talents and abilities. Kaari's first two are simple -- Craft and Hearth -- but her last one is ''Heart''. This means that everyone likes and wants to either marry her or be friends with her -- which is awkward when it involves old married men. She actually considers early on that it is good it is her -- if she hadn't been sweet-tempered and good-natured or had been spoiled, she could have very well been a tyrant -- the worst kind for no one would rise against one who is ''loved''. Unfortunately, this means the villagers try to stop her and her mother-in-law from saving the one guy, her fiance Veikko, who cares for her ''because'' she is herself, and not because of the Heart rune. |
| 415 | * ''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 [[WhiteHairBlackHeart white hair]], [[UndeathlyPallor pale skin]], [[EvilWearsBlack all-black outfit]] and [[BlackEyesOfEvil black contact lenses]] to make herself a [[TheDreaded figure of fear and awe instead]]. |
| 416 | * Played with in ''Literature/TalesOfTheOtori''. Kaede is attractive enough to have men fighting over her, and everyone who takes an interest in her dies. However, she doesn't spend much time angsting over it, and and spends more time training to become an ActionGirl and educating herself to prove that women are equal to men. |
| 417 | * Played depressingly in ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles''. Tess is beautiful and her mother exploits that in hopes of winning a position in the household an aristocratic "cousin" who rapes her and leaves her to suffer in a society that defines by her impurity and probably blames her for it. |
| 418 | * In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TillWeHaveFaces'', Psyche's problems follow the myth. Her older sister, Orual, is in fact incredibly ugly, but after she takes to wearing a veil, people forget her looks, and one explanation they invent is that she is stunningly beautiful and forced by a goddess to wear it. |
| 419 | * In ''Trickster's Choice'' from the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet'' series, the aristocrat Aly never stops being proud of her looks, but quickly decides they'll attract unwanted attention when she's kidnapped and sold as a slave, so she deliberately disfigures herself while in the pens. An onlooker recognizes why she's doing it, but remarks that some people would prefer concubinage to the backbreaking lives of labor slaves. |
| 420 | * ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'': |
| 421 | ** Rosalie Hale's beauty led her to get bashed and gang-raped as a human...by her fiance and his friends, no less. |
| 422 | ** Bella, who is annoyed by her many admirers, as she doesn't know how to get rid of them. She is in danger of being gang-raped at one point, but your mileage may vary on whether this is more due to her beauty or more due her looking like an easy victim, or just being female and alone. |
| 423 | * In ''Literature/{{Uprooted}}'', the remarkably beautiful and talented Kasia is loved very...carefully by her family and friends because their wizard-lord, the Dragon, claims a young woman who is markedly special every ten years (naturally, everyone assumes for a mistress). Kasia is resigned and prepared for it but naturally has some buried resentment. And then everyone is shocked when the Dragon takes her best friend, Agnieszka ThePigpen, instead. |
| 424 | * ''Literature/TheVeilOfIrazade'' 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. |
| 425 | * Literature/VickyBliss, the character from the books by Elizabeth Peters, complains at least once a book about how no one takes her seriously as an intellectual because she looks like a supermodel. |
| 426 | * Lois [=McMaster=] Bujold's Literature/VorkosiganSaga: |
| 427 | ** Commander Elli Quinn: After getting her face burned off in a space battle, Miles pays for it to be replaced with the best face that 30th-century reconstructive surgery can supply. She is initially delighted with her new face, "but the second time a soldier made a pass at me instead of following an order, I knew I definitely had a problem." She does go into the details of why it is actually a problem. It's not the beauty itself; it's because her change in appearance happened after she had already spent decades ''not'' being stunningly beautiful. Growing up she had never learned how to handle being treated this way--never learned how to politely let somebody know she is uninterested or learned how her naturally friendly personality could be misinterpreted. |
| 428 | ** In ''Literature/ShardsOfHonor'', many female prisoners-of-war suffer sexual assault at the hands of the Barrayarans, but a particularly beautiful Escobaran woman is picked for Vorrutyer's most creative tortures, simply because her striking beauty made her stand out. |
| 429 | * ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': |
| 430 | ** [[PrettyBoy Rosethorn]] (a.k.a. [[MeaningfulName Romeo]]) falls into this -- time and again, he notes that girls don't like ''him'' being the pretty one in the relationship. |
| 431 | ** Fey has this problem too. She's astonishingly beautiful, and on top of that she is [[TheFairFolk part Sidhe]] so she has a faerie {{Glamour}} that makes everyone (even gay guys and [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer straight women]]) feel attracted to her. It was [[ReluctantFanserviceGirl really a problem at first]], when she was still dealing with the issue that a few months earlier she had been a [[GenderBender normal teenaged boy]] who liked girls. She has adapted, learning to tone it down while at the same time come to terms with the fact that she can't turn it off completely. And it has [[IHaveBoobsYouMustObey come in handy more than once]]. |
| 432 | ** Phase too. He's a guy whose mutation gave him a mostly-female body, but he still has male genitals. He thinks of himself as male and is desperately trying to go back to being a boy, so he ''really'' hates his looks when people compliment him, especially as they mostly think of him and refer to him as female. |
| 433 | * ''Literature/WhoFearsDeath'': PlayedForDrama with Binta, a teenage victim of ParentalIncest. When word gets out, she [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming becomes known]] in her misogynistic home village as "the girl so beautiful her own father could not resist her." |
| 434 | * In the ''Literature/WildCards'' anthology series, Succubus is a Joker-Ace whose mutation causes her to [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting look]] (and [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody act]]) like the perfect lover for whomever gazes upon her. Her parents pimped her out when she was a child, and her life does not improve from there. |
| 435 | * In ''Literature/WillOfHeaven'', the [[DudeLooksLikeALady historically pretty]] Zhang Liang is so distinctive-looking that he has to spend years in hiding after his failed assassination attempt on the First Emperor. |
| 436 | * ''Literature/TheWindupGirl'' plays this from an unusual angle. One of [[ArtificialHuman Emiko's]] most notable physical features is her smooth, flawless, and beautiful skin. The problem? This was accomplished by genetically tweaking her DNA to make her pores much smaller than normal humans' -- too small to be functional, in fact. As a result, she can't properly regulate her body temperature and has to regularly apply ice to her skin to keep herself from dangerously overheating in the sweltering climate of 23rd-century Thailand. |
| 437 | * In Raithby's ''Literature/WinterWolf'', the [[MeaningfulName appropriately-surnamed]] Katalina Winter considers this trope: |
| 438 | -->''...she’d always wondered whether she’d been left on Mr. and Mrs. Winter’s doorstep as some kind of joke: her eyes, of blue-silver, looked as if they were carved of ice themselves. Katalina had hair that was so light blond it was white in the sunlight, and pale skin to match. She was the embodiment of winter.\ |
| 439 | She’d been the butt of many jokes, but after a while, she’d come to embrace her unique looks.'' |
| 440 | * In ''Literature/{{Wolfsangel}}'', a slave mutilates her face so that her owner will stop raping her. It doesn't work--her pretty face was a bonus, obviously, but it wasn't the exact...body part...he was interested in. |
| 441 | * Very true in ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', where it is repeatedly implied that the more beautiful a woman is, the better she tastes to monsters. |
| 442 | [[/folder]] |
| 443 | |
| 444 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 445 | * Addressed in ''Series/EightSimpleRules'' where Kerry sets out to make a documentary showcasing that her sister Bridget has it easy because of her looks. During filming, Bridget gets a broken nose and has to wear a facial mask. She tries to stay at home from school because she's worried that all she has is her beauty and without it, she'll be rejected by everyone else. Her mother pointedly makes her go to school to prove that she has more to owe the world than her looks. [[spoiler:True enough, the other students still love her]]. Elsewhere in the sitcom, it's shown that Bridget is very concerned with maintaining an image -- not wanting people to know she ''uses the bathroom''. |
| 446 | * ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode "The Bubble". Liz's boyfriend is so handsome (to give you an idea, he's played by Creator/JonHamm) that people don't acknowledge his incompetence. |
| 447 | * ''Series/AllMyChildren'': Erica Kane, while a ProudBeauty later in life, was subjected to this, when her Hollywood Big Shot wannabe [[AbusiveParent father Eric Kane]], allowed one of his movie star friends to rape his lovely daughter in return to star in one of his movies. She was 14 at the time. |
| 448 | ** Ironically in Real-Life her actress Creator/SusanLucci was almost passed over for the role of Erica, being seen as "too beautiful" to play the part by casting directors. |
| 449 | * Played believably sympathetic and in a non-comedic way on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' 10, where Beauty Queens Dustin & Kandice talked about how people dismissed all the hard work they did because of the way they looked. It worked because the show repeatedly showed it to be true, as another, plainer female team discounting all of Dustin & Kandice's moves as them getting favors because of their beauty, even though Dustin & Kandice were repeatedly being shown to be getting these advantages due to their own smart gameplay, not their looks. |
| 450 | * A girl in cycle 13 or 14 of ''Series/AmericasNextTopModel'' whines about how people don't understand how difficult it is to be beautiful. Yeah. |
| 451 | * Momoyama Lily, the main character in the Japanese drama ''{{Anna-san no Omame}}'' (a.k.a. ''The Best Friend of Beautiful Anna'') is so convinced of her own beauty that she constantly thinks that people that she meets are either coming on to her or jealous of her beauty. A predicament that she bemoans loudly. |
| 452 | * A RealityShow contestant, Audrey Evans of ''Series/TheApprentice'', dove headfirst into this trope when she tearfully declared that she [[SelfMadeMan earned everything she has]] despite her life sucking because, [[DarkAndTroubledPast among other things]], girls she encountered growing up hated her for her beauty. Came very close to becoming a walking ClicheStorm, but was "saved" by not being a particularly effective Apprentice. |
| 453 | * Parodied in ''Series/BetterOffTed''. Veronica, handling a complaint from a group of black employees, tell them that she, too, knows what it's like to deal with discrimination... and then proceeds to talk about how no one liked her in high school because she was so pretty. |
| 454 | -->'''Veronica:''' If it wasn't for the modeling contracts and the comfort of college boys, I don't know how I would have made it. |
| 455 | * A segment of ''Series/BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction'': A vain woman actually tells her hairdresser that her looks have always been a handicap because "no one has ever truly appreciated her." Because this is ''Beyond Belief'' it doesn't take long for {{Break the Haughty}} to kick in. |
| 456 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 457 | ** Cordelia. So much. In "Out of Mind, Out of Sight," she and Buffy bond over this, oddly enough, given that Buffy used to be the AlphaBitch at her own school before becoming the [[TheChosenOne Slayer]]. |
| 458 | ** Later on in "Earshot", a distraught Jonathan mocks Buffy for being "beautiful and athletic", assuming that because of her looks and strength she has a problem-free existence. Buffy snarls back, owning her beauty but telling him in no uncertain terms that [[ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne her life is far from simple and easy]]. |
| 459 | ** Inverted in another episode where Buffy and Faith compare the respective suckitude of their lives but are willing to acknowledge that, yes, being hot and [[CursedWithAwesome having superpowers]] actually does make up for it a little bit. |
| 460 | * ''Series/{{Capadocia}}'': Consuelo, better known as La Colombiana. She says so herself, as her beauty has managed to get her nothing but trouble. |
| 461 | * ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': In Season 7's "The Gift of the Woodi", Rebecca concludes that the reason the corporate directors don't take any of her ideas seriously is because she's ''"too darn beautiful"'', and they dismiss her as a ''"sex kitten"'' (not because said ideas suck). She asks for Lilith's help in dressing down for the next board meeting, but this backfires spectacularly when Lilith accompanies her to the meeting and is immediately appointed to a regional management position, despite having no affiliation with the corporation whatsoever. |
| 462 | * ''Series/ColdCase'': |
| 463 | ** A storyline had a new detective joining the squad and Detective Vera instantly assuming, without even having met her yet, that she was going to cause trouble because she was female and good-looking. When [[NoodleIncident vague references]] are made to a sexual harassment complaint that she filed against a fellow officer, he insinuates that she probably brought it on herself or blew something innocent out of proportion and he's rude to her throughout her brief time on the show, despite the fact that she repeatedly shows herself to be a competent detective. |
| 464 | ** Another one had virtually every man who met or knew the VictimOfTheWeek (or one of them, being the female half of a married couple) as being instantly awestruck by her beauty and 16 years later in the present day couldn't stop commenting on it—even Lily, a woman, uses this to taunt one of the suspects, suggesting that he killed her because of his obsession with her. While she's wrong about this guy, this is precisely the reason that the real killer acted as he did. |
| 465 | * ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': |
| 466 | ** Sierra in suffers from this: her exotic beauty leads her to be sold to the Dollhouse by a rich well-connected man so he can have sex with her whenever he wants, she is also raped while in her blank state and the memories haven't quite left her. Although it's shown that it's just not her beauty but the fact that the men are on pervy power trips when abusing her. The fact that her real personality is strong-willed and not likely to have sex with any rich pervy men on power trips probably has something to do with it. |
| 467 | ** Echo also has shades of this, her beauty is one reason the Dollhouse spent two years tracking her down as well as the fact she had evidence Rossum was up to illegal stuff. This is probably true for other actives as well. |
| 468 | ** Whiskey, in that Alpha supposedly carved her up precisely because she outshone Echo. (Or at least, that's his ostensible reason. Could be just as much ForTheEvulz.) |
| 469 | * Ari in ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' spells it out for Eric, on how Vince's good looks and easy success make it very hard for him to make real friends. Eric, Drama, and Turtle are his only real friends in the world. |
| 470 | --> '''Ari:''' The point, Eric is that he is an insecure fuck -- just like every other beautiful-but-handed-everything-on-a-silver-plater person. He doesn't trust anyone in this world besides you. You've been born into royalty, baby. You know it. Now all you gotta do is be thankful and wear the crown. |
| 471 | * In ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'', Jules is attractive to everyone, which means that Rue becomes instantly dependent on her and falls in love with her, she's very popular with men far too old for her who use her for sex, and [[spoiler:Nate]] becomes instantly, disturbingly obsessed with her the minute he sees her. |
| 472 | * In ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Joey bemoans the way Rachel takes Monica and Phoebe's advice over his: |
| 473 | -->'''Joey:''' Fine, take their advice, no one ever listens to me. When the package is this pretty, no one cares what's inside! |
| 474 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Sansa Stark. When a DudeMagnet breeds with a DoomMagnet, this is the result. Sansa is frequently praised as being very beautiful and she tends to get into trouble because of it with a nightmarish gallery of suitors — Joffrey expresses a desire to rape her when she's being wedded to Tyrion, she very nearly gets gang-raped in the King's Landing riots, Littlefinger has a creepy obsession with her and ''Ramsay'' admits he finds her attractive. Even Tyrion had a desire to sleep with her, but he refused to force himself upon her. Sandor claims to Arya that he should have "fucked her bloody" when he had the chance during The Battle of Blackwater, but it's unclear how much he meant it (considering his obvious soft spot for Sansa) and how much he was merely saying it to goad Arya into killing him. The last two were the least unpleasant. |
| 475 | * ''Series/{{Glee}}'': One of Finn's monologues in the opening season talks about how much of a chore it is to be popular as if being good-looking is a burden. The Cheerios (particularly Santana and Quinn in the first half of season one) are the same way. |
| 476 | * [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with Blanche on ''Series/TheGoldenGirls.'' Since she has an [[ItsAllAboutMe extremely high opinion of herself]], she's prone to whining about her looks being a burden to her ("My beauty has always been a curse") and saying that the other Girls have it easier because they're so plain, which is usually PlayedForLaughs. However, a few episodes, including "End of the Curse" and "Journey to the Center of Attention," reveal that Blanche suffers from severe self-esteem issues and ''needs'' to be the prettiest person in the room, as she doesn't know who she'd be or what she'd do without her looks; those episodes play the trope much more sympathetically. |
| 477 | * Izzie Stevens from ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' admits to being this...while ''owning'' it, reacting to the lack of respect she gets from other doctors because of her modeling work in the past with this rant: |
| 478 | -->'''Izzie:''' What are these? Oh, my God! Breasts! How does anybody practice medicine hauling these things around? And what have we got back here? Let's see if I remember my anatomy. Glutes, right? Let's study them, shall we? Gather around and check out the booty that put Izzie Stevens through med school! Have you had enough, or should I continue, because I have a few more very interesting tattoos. You want to call me Dr. Model? That's fine. Just remember that while you're still sitting on two hundred grand of student loans...I'm out of debt. |
| 479 | * A male character suffers from this in ''Series/{{Haven}}''. He's one of the [[BlessedWithSuck troubled]] and his power causes anyone who makes eye contact to really, really, really like him. He's so annoyed with it that he falls for the first girl immune to his power, [[ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou precisely because she doesn't like him at all]]. |
| 480 | * Dr. Chase goes through this phase on ''Series/{{House}}'' after he fails to deliberately turn women off while SpeedDating. Dr. House told him that most women don't notice anything about Chase other than his looks, and Chase didn't believe him. So, as a test, House removed every other attribute he has that raises Chase's partner value -- he isn't allowed to use his rather adorable Australian accent, his nice job as a doctor can't be mentioned, and he has to act like a complete aimless, jobless moron -- and bets that even with this, he'll still get more than 12 out of 20 numbers. He does, losing $100 to House as a result. Even straight-up [[YouAreFat calling a woman fat]] fails to turn off the date. |
| 481 | * An interesting example occurs in one episode of ''Series/JonathanCreek'' where an ''ugly'' character is the one making out beauty to be a curse. Height says that because when he and his wife met, they were both fairly ugly, they knew their feelings for each other were real, and not based on superficial aspects. Incidentally, he's talking to his daughter-in-law, a beautiful pop singer who has just learned her husband had an affair because he had difficulty reconciling the gorgeous sex-symbol of her public persona (which he was initially attracted to) and the dowdier aspects of her everyday personality, thus giving her a somewhat roundabout experience of this trope. |
| 482 | * On ''Series/LawAndOrder'', a murder suspects' alibi is sunk when no one remembers seeing her at places she claimed to be and various men remember seeing her at places she denied being (and with the victim) because her stunning looks apparently made her presence or lack thereof that memorable. |
| 483 | ** On the police side of the show, their is a male example in Detective Rey Curtis. He is constantly hit on by women while doing his job, with some of them not taking no for an answer at first, which he finds annoying as he wants to be a good and faithful husband to his wife, and taken seriously as a law enforcement officer. There are even cases where the prosecution are at risk of losing, because the defense accuses Rey of sleeping with a female suspect or key witness during trial and tainting them, because they assume he would. [[spoiler:Unforutnately, he does eventually give in and cheats on his wife with a woman he met at a park one day. He confesses this to his wife out of guilt and it eventually ruins their marriage. Her getting diagnosed with multiple sclerosis shortly afterwards adds to his guilt and shame.]] |
| 484 | * In the mini-series ''A Man Called Intrepid'', a woman has been recruited as a spy to be dropped into Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite her exceptional language skills David Niven's character wants to reject her, pointing out that she's so beautiful anyone who saw her would never forget her. She does, in fact, get remembered by a German sentry, leading to her eventual capture. |
| 485 | * Hilariously averted in one episode of ''Series/MindYourLanguage''. Danièle admits to Mr. Brown that she has a big problem, then proceeds to tell him that five men "are all after the one thing: my body". As it turns out [[SubvertedTrope this is not her problem]]: the problem is that, at one man every day of the week, she gets bored on weekends. |
| 486 | * ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': Sexy party girl Alisha assumes that the reason Simon is surprised by her kindness was that he thought she was an AlphaBitch. His surprise was actually due to being a ButtMonkey for so long. |
| 487 | --> '''Simon:''' I've never thought you were a bitch. Sometimes I think it's difficult for beautiful girls. People don't see past their looks. |
| 488 | * Subverted in the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas". Natalie is talking about using her feminine wiles to get information, ''and'' special treatment from the concierge: |
| 489 | -->'''Monk''': Boy, it's like you have superpowers.\ |
| 490 | '''Natalie:''' It's a gift.\ |
| 491 | '''Monk''': "...and a curse?"\ |
| 492 | '''Natalie''': No, just a gift. |
| 493 | ** But played for {{irony}} in the later episode "Mr. Monk and the Genius", when Natalie's daughter uses her own wiles to get Monk into a chess tournament, and it drives Natalie crazy: |
| 494 | -->'''Monk''': What's she doing?\ |
| 495 | '''Natalie:''' She's... flirting.\ |
| 496 | '''Monk''': Well, she's good at it...\ |
| 497 | '''Natalie''': Shut up. |
| 498 | * In ''Series/MrRobot'', Elliot is beautiful in both his looks and "power", which causes him to attract unwanted attention from and be used by most villains. He nearly gets gang-raped in prison by the neo nazis before Leon saves him, he gets forced to strip and verbally harassed by a drug dealer while buying morphine from him and both Tyrell and Vera become immediately obsessed with him for different reasons, though Vera's obsession with him is worse than Tyrell's. |
| 499 | * Gloria Steinem (Creator/RoseByrne) in ''Series/MrsAmerica'' deals with this, which [[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/books/review-my-life-on-the-road-gloria-steinems-journey-as-a-traveling-feminist.html she also]] [[https://people.com/bodies/gloria-steinem-no-interest-in-being-sexy/ deals]] with in RealLife where the media would focus on her more than other figures in the Women's Liberation Movement due to her beauty while treating her intelligence and compassion for social issues as an afterthought, in her personal life she'd deal with men sexually harassing her (a pornographic caricature of her in ''Screw'' magazine or her money guy commenting out loud how she got writing jobs because of her legs) or women being very chilly and jealous of the media attention she'd get (like from the older and comparatively [[HollywoodHomely plainer]] Betty Friedan). Her friend and ally Bella argues it'd be a useful tool. |
| 500 | -->'''Gloria:''' Is that all I am? A pretty face?\ |
| 501 | '''Bella:''' No, we need your tits and ass too. |
| 502 | * ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'': Kamala laments that she's ''too'' curvaceous to be a fashion model, when mistaken by a besotted biker for one. |
| 503 | * ''Series/NewGirl'': Minor example. While Cece never complains about her beauty, her old friend Jess often uses it to explain her slovenly behavior. She never picks up after herself, can't change the sheets on a bed, and overall has trouble with a lot of basic adult things. |
| 504 | -->'''Jess:''' Ever since she got boobs, people stopped making her do stuff. |
| 505 | * ''Series/NipTuck'': |
| 506 | ** In the episode "Willow Banks", a woman wants to look ordinary because she feels her beauty is a curse. She gets what she [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wished for]] in a [[spoiler:car accident]] and then realizes that, no matter how much she romanticizes the ugly for being liked for who they are, or how "hard" it is to be beautiful, anything less is at least ten times worse. |
| 507 | ** Christian Troy is devilishly handsome [[TheCasanova Casanova]], but he's strictly heterosexual. He's gotten [[IncompatibleOrientation unwanted advances from more than one man]], which he usually reacts to either with disgust or in one instance a punch to the face. Played for laughs when he agrees to be featured in ''Playgirl'' in the hopes that it will draw in more female clients, not knowing the usual readership of the magazine. |
| 508 | * ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' has Ann Perkins, who is so pretty that she's never been dumped. When TheAce breaks up with her, she doesn't actually understand what's happening, and goes off the deep end due to never having experienced rejection (not helped by the fact that TheAce is such an upbeat person that he made the breakup into a fun conversation). In an earlier episode, Ann's best friend Leslie doesn't pick her to go with pair with on the hunting trip and apologizes: "I always forget you're so pretty you're not used to rejection!" |
| 509 | * One of the patrons of ''Series/PushingDaisies''' rent-a-friend agency was a woman who struggled to make friends because her beauty made women jealous and men only interested in her for her looks, whereas her friend from the agency was interested in her for...her money. |
| 510 | * 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, resulting in her being quite miserable and lonely 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. [[note]] 32 years later during a podcast, Creator/DanaCarvey apologized to Stone for the sketch [[/note]] |
| 511 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': |
| 512 | ** Elaine's good looks attract numerous male admirers and stalkers to her. George even tells her one time that a couple's relationship problem is her fault because she's too charming for her own good. |
| 513 | ** 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's not hiring them because of how they look. |
| 514 | * The male variant was played with repeatedly on ''Series/SexAndTheCity''. In one episode, Carrie brings home a male model who complains that women always want him for sex and he can never be taken seriously. Later, Samantha helps her actor boyfriend become a star by turning him into a sex symbol, but now he can't get serious roles and Samantha is jealous of the attention he gets. |
| 515 | * In the ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'' episode "[[Recap/SharpeS2E1SharpesCompany Sharpe's Company]]", Sally Clayton is regarded as the prettiest wife among the regiment's soldiers. The problem with this is that she attracts the attention of the resident SociopathicSoldier Obadiah Hakeswill, who will try and rape any pretty woman he can find. Sure enough at the end of the episode, [[spoiler:Sally is raped and murdered by Hakeswill when he deserts the army.]] |
| 516 | * In ''Series/StargateSG1'' at least one minor character uses this trope almost verbatim, with the justification that [[PuppeteerParasite Goa'uld]] always want attractive hosts, so being too pretty is more than just a social problem. Since said character was captured as a girl and trapped as a Goa'uld host for god only knows how long until her symbiote was killed, it really was a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 517 | * Jenna Morasca of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' infamously tried to invoke the trope in one Tribal Council, talking about how she's spent her life feeling like her looks are a disability as they cause people to think she isn't smart (it ain't your ''looks'' that make 'em think that, honey!). It backfired spectacularly, as she said it while sitting right next to someone who was ''deaf.'' |
| 518 | * Parodied in ''Series/ThisIsWonderland''. When Elliot is trying to chat up the courtroom's [[LatinLover Spanish translator]], he gets halfway through telling her that her beauty must have been a curse back in South America, before he gets interrupted. |
| 519 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E6EyeOfTheBeholder Eye of the Beholder]]" is an interesting case, in that the protagonist is revealed to be beautiful ''to us'' but in her world she's ugly. |
| 520 | * The female hosts (and some male hosts) in ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' suffer from this as they are specifically designed to be attractive to clients and can be raped with impunity. |
| 521 | * The VictimOfTheWeek in the ''Series/WithoutATrace'' episode "American Goddess" had gone on a reality TV show to have extensive plastic surgery to upgrade her from frumpy PlainJane to beauty queen, only to learn the hard way that becoming beautiful didn't automatically solve all her problems--she was just as insecure and awkward as she'd been before her makeover and couldn't cope with all the newfound attention and admiration she received. When the agents finally find her, she'd gone to a BackAlleyDoctor to have all her procedures undone. |
| 522 | [[/folder]] |
| 523 | |
| 524 | [[folder:Manhwa]] |
| 525 | * Yvienne from ''Manhwa/CielTheLastAutumnStory'' plays with this trope. One of her teachers compares her to an equally beautiful woman she knew named Saskia, who killed herself, and says that because Yvienne's been able to get so much so easily with it, she doesn't know how to value anything and will eventually think of everything as being trivial. Yvienne herself even says, "Have you ever once heard of a really beautiful woman being happy?" However, at the same time, she knows that it's a very real benefit to her, and has no qualms about using it to her advantage whenever she has to, and almost all of her complaints about it are just made jokingly. |
| 526 | * ''Manhwa/CynicalOrange'': Hye-Min is the most beautiful girl she knows. All the boys love her, all the girls tease her mercilessly and believe that she is a man eater. As a result, and possibly because of her 'cousin's' meddling, she is quite violent and anti-social. The girls all spend their time in her presence either insulting or threatening her, and the guys (except the one guy she actually likes) tend to either keep at a distance so they can ogle her politely or do things for her that [[UnwantedAssistance inflame the wrath of the other girls.]] |
| 527 | * Wye from ''Manhwa/IWish'' used a magical love potion to make himself attractive to both genders. It worked too well and now, even ''the Sun'' wants a piece of him. |
| 528 | [[/folder]] |
| 529 | |
| 530 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 531 | * Ani Difranco's lyrics, from "32 Flavours" include the lines "God help you if you are an ugly girl. Too pretty is also your doom, because everyone harbours a secret hatred for the prettiest girl in the room." |
| 532 | * There was a ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' CD, "The Best Day Ever", in which ''Squidward'' sang that his beauty was a curse. Which did become an actual plot in an episode (see below) |
| 533 | * Done more seriously and convincingly with Music/EmilieAutumn's "Thank God I'm Pretty", which is about the impositions made upon pretty women. |
| 534 | -->''Thank God I'm pretty\ |
| 535 | Every skill I ever have will be in question\ |
| 536 | Every ill that I must suffer merely brought on by myself\ |
| 537 | Though the cops would come for someone else, I'm blessed\ |
| 538 | I'm truly privileged to look this good without clothes on\ |
| 539 | Which only means that when I sing you're jerking off\ |
| 540 | And when I'm gone you won't remember\ |
| 541 | Thank God I'm pretty. Oh, oh...'' |
| 542 | * Golem! has a song on their album ''Citizen Boris'', based on an interview with the songwriter's grandmother, who as a child in Ukraine had nothing to do except brush her hair in the mirror and lament how beautiful she was. Hence the chorus: "Oh, God, why did you make me so beautiful?" |
| 543 | * The Music/BarenakedLadies song "Jane" from ''Maybe You Should Drive'' (1994) hints at this, especially in the chorus. |
| 544 | -->''Jane, desired by the people at her school and work\ |
| 545 | Jane is tired 'cause every man becomes a lovesick jerk'' |
| 546 | * Dr. Hook's "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman" features this trope from the perspective of the boyfriend[=/=]partner of said beautiful woman, since he has to deal with the suspicion and jealousy of watching everyone (including his friends) putting the moves on his girlfriend and the paranoid insecurity that she's having an affair with someone more attractive than he is: |
| 547 | -->''You know that it's crazy\ |
| 548 | You wanna trust her\ |
| 549 | Then somebody hangs up when you answer the phone...'' |
| 550 | * The subject of the SoBadItsGood single "Hot Problems". |
| 551 | * Alluded briefly in the July Talk song "Paper Girl" |
| 552 | -->''It must be hard -- To be a Pretty Girl\ |
| 553 | It must be hard -- To watch your body growing old'' |
| 554 | * The traditional Calypso song "Marry a Woman Uglier Than You". |
| 555 | -->''If you want to be happy living a king's life\ |
| 556 | Never make a pretty woman your wife\ |
| 557 | Now all you have to do is just what I say\ |
| 558 | And then you may be jolly, merry [[HaveAGayOldTime and gay]]\ |
| 559 | Therefore, from a logical point of view\ |
| 560 | Better marry a woman uglier than you'' |
| 561 | * German band ''Music/TicTacToe has a song called "Spiegel" ("Mirror") about two young women and a guy in group therapy. The second young woman (Michelle, 21 years old) is beautiful and is an example of this trope, in contrast to the first one who wishes she were pretty. To translate: |
| 562 | -->''Cos even beauty can be a curse when you're 90-60-90\ |
| 563 | Everyone thinks you have money and friends, often and by heaps, at that\ |
| 564 | I know a lot of people but no-one that I could talk to\ |
| 565 | And men want only one thing, I can't find a single one I could live with\ |
| 566 | I ''don't'' like sex and guys stress me out like hell\ |
| 567 | I was premature and was raped already at age 13 and\ |
| 568 | I feel like screaming, everything's so shitty \ |
| 569 | Only my mother keeps me from pouring acid into my own face\ |
| 570 | Cos I don't want to be pretty anymore, no\ |
| 571 | I know y'all must be thinking "She's got to be crazy"... yeah...\ |
| 572 | But I know what I'm talking about, and I hate my job\ |
| 573 | Even if that's how I earn my money, mostly!'' |
| 574 | * Defied and mocked by DEMONDICE in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIk73rPZsrQ "Appasayo"]]: |
| 575 | -->''Back to bitching and crying, we're all friends with that kid:'' |
| 576 | -->''"Not all of us chose to be born so attractive!'' |
| 577 | -->''I always get hit on, like, what should I do?"'' |
| 578 | -->''Well, good golly gee, '''[[SarcasmMode don't it suck to be you]]'''''? |
| 579 | * The Music/EltonJohn song "Candle in the Wind" frames Creator/MarilynMonroe this way, lamenting that the public's obsession with her beauty and body obscured the person she really was. The lyrics point out that Monroe was being objectified at the literal moment of her death: |
| 580 | -->''Even when you died, oh, the press still hounded you''\ |
| 581 | ''All the papers had to say was that Marilyn was found in the nude...'' |
| 582 | [[/folder]] |
| 583 | |
| 584 | [[folder:Myths & Religion]] |
| 585 | * In Literature/TheBible and Literature/TheQuran, Joseph is MadeASlave and receives the romantic attention of his master's wife. When he turns her down, she hits him with a FalseRapeAccusation and gets him thrown in jail for several years. Based on this story, both Jewish and Islamic legends describe him as being one of the handsomest men to ever live. |
| 586 | ** He may have inherited it from his mother Rachel: Jewish tradition notes that when the family is meeting Joseph's EvilUncle Esau, Joseph is listed as stepping out in front of his mother, while his half-siblings stood behind theirs. Apparently Joseph was worried that Esau would see Rachel and want to kidnap her for himself. |
| 587 | ** 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]] for snubbing him.) 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]]. |
| 588 | * Myth/CelticMythology: |
| 589 | ** Deirdre of [[Literature/TheExileOfTheSonsOfUisnech Irish lore]] was the daughter of the royal storyteller of the king the kingdom of Ulster and her legendary beauty made her life suck so much (kings and lords, among other men, fought over her) that she is given the epithet "Deirdre of the Sorrows." |
| 590 | ** The knight Diarmuid of the Love Spot, whose beauty mark made all women who gaze upon him fall madly in love. This later kills him as the king with healing hands didn't like how his fiance eyed him ([[StarCrossedLovers and ran away with him, and had children with him]]) and didn't treat his wounds until it was too late. |
| 591 | ** Cú Chulainn, whose beauty threatened the men of Ulster enough that they unanimously decided he needed to be married off before he charmed all of their wives and daughters into bed (which he did anyways, because he's [[ReallyGetsAround Cu Chulainn]]). He met his end after turning down the wrong warrior-goddess. |
| 592 | * Myth/ClassicalMythology: Being pretty in Ancient Greece tended to get you one of three fates: cursed by a jealous goddess (Aphrodite if you were just super pretty, Hera if you attracted Zeus's affection), turned into a plant to avoid getting raped, or killed in the crossfire of gods fighting over you. |
| 593 | ** Helen of Sparta (later of Troy), from Greek Mythology, was "the face that launched a thousand ships" and kicked off the ten-year Trojan War between her lover Paris and her husband Menelaus. A war in which she did not have fun. If you read the myths that lead up to UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar, Helen was living a moderately quiet and happy life before her status as "the most beautiful" got her tapped to be the bribe in a contest between three vain goddesses. She also got kidnapped when she was ''eight'' because her beauty was already evident, and nearly caused a war between her suitors. It took Odysseus's wisdom to prevent it. [[TheWoobie Poor, poor Helen]]. |
| 594 | ** Psyche was so beautiful that first, everyone was worshiping her as a goddess, but no one was willing to marry her and then, second, Aphrodite -- the ''goddess of beauty'' -- got [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]], and sent her son Eros to make her fall in love with something loathsome. Psyche was so beautiful that Eros, the god of love, fell in love with her himself and refused to carry out Aphrodite's instructions, instead taking her to live in luxury with him. Psyche ruins paradise by [[ForbiddenFruit ignoring Eros's warning not to look at him at night]] and accidentally burning him with lamp oil, but, after a decent amount of suffering, Eros ''still'' loves her and convinces Zeus to elevate Psyche to immortality. |
| 595 | ** Princess Andromeda had a similar story to Psyche, with a little help from her StageMom, Cassiopeia, who bragged incessantly about her daughter's beauty. That got the poor girl ChainedToARock and about to be eaten by a monster until her soon-to-be husband Perseus stopped by after killing Medusa and pulled a BigDamnHeroes. |
| 596 | ** 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. Nemesis punished him for his cruelty by arranging for him to fall in love with his own reflection, and he wasted away due to his unwillingness to take his eyes off his own beauty. |
| 597 | ** Hyacinthos was another famous victim from Greek mythology. He was so beautiful that [[LoveTriangle two gods fell in love with him]], Apollo and Zephyrus. Zephyrus ended up killing him in a jealous rage. |
| 598 | ** {{Medusa}}, who in one version of her myth was turned into a monster by Athena because Poseidon "was overcome by her beauty" and raped her in Athena's temple. (In the original she ''always'' was a monster.) |
| 599 | ** Adonis was so stunningly beautiful that he charmed ''two'' goddesses (Aphrodite and Persephone) when he was a ''baby''. While the two goddesses initially agreed to [[{{Polyamory}} joint custody]], the moment Adonis awoke to hormones Aphrodite used her powers to make him fall in love with her. The jealous Persephone told Aphrodite's on-and-off lover Ares about her new beau, and he killed Adonis in a jealous rage. |
| 600 | ** Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was so beautiful that Zeus fell in love with him, decided to kidnap him and took him to live with him in Olympus as cupbearer for all eternity, gaining himself the anger of Hera in the process. So much so that Zeus had to turn Ganymede into the constellation Aquarius ("Water-bearer"). |
| 601 | ** Some myths from the Orphic tradition say that Persephone was courted vigorously by many gods besides Hades because of her beauty. Demeter had to hide her in a cave in Sicily to help her escape her suitors and she was seduced by Zeus in the form of a serpent. The whole thing ended with the [[AbductionIsLove famous abduction]]. |
| 602 | * Sita in the epic ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}'' is kidnapped by Demon King, Ravana because of her legendary beauty. Although, part of Ravana’s motivation was revenge for Sita’s husband Rama cutting off his sister Shurpanaka’s nose in self-defense. |
| 603 | * Draupadi is a legendary beauty in ''Literature/TheMahabharata'' and suffers at least two attempts at kidnapping/assault from Kichaka and Jayadratha because of it. She is also humiliated and stripped in the open court. |
| 604 | * Literature/AraTheHandsome was an Armenian hero considered so fair that the Assyrian queen Semiramis waged a war on Armenia just to capture him and have him for herself. He ends up dying because of this. |
| 605 | * In [[Myth/NativeAmericanMythology American Indigenous tales]], [[ChekhovsVolcano Mt. St. Helens]] is often the heroine (or at least one of the heroines) among the Puyallup, Cowlitz, Klickitat, and Yakima nations: according to the Puyallup, elderly Loowitlakla, or "Loowit", was rewarded with eternal youth by the Chief of the Gods since she had preserved fire in her lodge for two nations, but the chieftains of each tribe, who were brothers and handsome young men but notoriously hotheaded, began warring because the fair maiden who kept the communal fire could not choose between them, a war that burned and buried whole villages and forests. |
| 606 | [[/folder]] |
| 607 | |
| 608 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 609 | * The ostensible villain of the world of ''Podcast/DeathByCliche'' wears a mask to hid his face not because he's ugly, but because he's so beautiful that anyone who sees it full-on [[spoiler:promptly has their eyes melt, shortly before they drop over dead]]. |
| 610 | [[/folder]] |
| 611 | |
| 612 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 613 | * In general female wrestlers who come from beauty backgrounds -- modelling, dancing, gymnastics, etc. -- often have to face an uphill battle from fans. Usually the prettier the female is (and if she has a modelling background), she'll quite easily be dismissed as just eye candy. For years it was also assumed that model-turned-wrestlers either didn't care about the business or were using it as a stepping stone for other forms of entertainment such as acting (Not helping that some, such as Wrestling/{{Sable}} and Wrestling/StacyKeibler have outright admitted as such). Wrestling/MariaKanellis once unloaded with a speech defying this attitude.[[note]]"That is so horrible...You want to know my honest opinion on it? I mean, do you have any idea how much we would love to stay, we would love to be there, how we would love to do everything we dream about? The only reason a lot of us have left is because we didn't get the opportunities there we wanted or thought we'd earned, or the opportunities we fought for, that's the only reason! All that "you're just a diva"; it sounds so trashy. If you are on the road 250...350...days a year there is no way [it's just for fame]…you obviously want to be there. Sure you get on television, but every weekend [on house shows], you're getting your ass kicked, you're all covered in bruises, I look at Candice Michelle, she was a Go Daddy girl she got there. But she worked hard. I used to look at her legs; from the top to the bottom they were covered in huge bruises from all the different places Beth had grabbed her to put her in position...She worked her tail off to become champion! For you to say that you have no clue how passionate these women are! I would still be there if I got the opportunities I wanted. We're not actresses on television playing an action star who doesn't really get hit; we were getting hit. I'm no longer there because I spoke up and because I got spoke up that's why I'm sitting here."[[/note]] Lest you think this is just restricted to WWE's women, Marti Belle who trained on the indies (thus fulfilling the PayingTheirDues that is the main attack of the model-turned-wrestlers) says she faced the same attitudes when she was breaking into the business because of her modelling background. |
| 614 | * Just sticking to the wrestling shows on camera, Wrestling/TorrieWilson suffered greatly throughout her career because of her beauty. Wrestling/{{Nidia}} was jealous that Torrie was chosen to pose for ''Playboy'' over her, Wrestling/DawnMarie ended up making unwanted advances because she was attracted to her, and Wrestling/{{Sable}} was a bit of both. Likewise, Kenzo Suzuki fell for her, leading to his wife Hiroko to get jealous and attack Torrie for it. |
| 615 | * Wrestling/TrishStratus suffered this from both men and women: |
| 616 | ** She was repeatedly targeted by several male creeps who didn't intend to take no for an answer. Wrestling/PaulHeyman demanded she date and sleep with him, and threatened a beating from Wrestling/BrockLesnar if she refused. Wrestling/EricBischoff booked himself into a match with her where she'd have to spend the night with him if he won, but which turned out to be BullyingADragon when Trish kicked his ass and Linda [=McMahon=] overturned the match results after Bischoff won by getting [[Wrestling/CarleneMoore Jazz]] and [[Wrestling/LisaMarieVaron Victoria]] to provide a VillainousRescue. [[FatBastard Viscera]] also made no secret of his lust for Trish and used his massive bulk to block her attempts to get away from him. |
| 617 | ** Women started doing this to her once she TookALevelInBadass to become Women's Champion. Serious wrestlers like [[Wrestling/CarleneMoore Jazz]] hated her because they thought she was getting by on her looks. The prudish Wrestling/MollyHolly hated her sex appeal taking too much attention away from the wrestling. And then [[Wrestling/LisaMarieVaron Victoria]] just hated her in a crazy jealous way. Years later her beauty also caused her to have a StalkerWithACrush in Wrestling/MickieJames -- who did not [[{{Yandere}} like being rejected]]. |
| 618 | * {{Wrestling/Melina}} in her early days faced trouble for being considered "too small". While there grumblings about her paegant queen status too, they really didn't become too audible until in WWE where she was mistaken for a Diva Search[[note]]a contest that gave models and other non-wrestlers chances to enter WWE[[/note]] girl -- due to her background as a beauty queen and debuting on TV around the same time as several other Diva Search contestants. She had actually trained on the indies as Kyra, but many people overlooked her wrestling experience and thought of her as a {{Fanservice}} valet. Due to some of the Fanservice she provided -- dropping into the splits on the apron to give the crowd a PantyShot -- there was a storm of controversy when she won the Women's Championship. Like many others, she shook this off through consistently good ring work. The cover of the October 2007 issue of ''The Wrestler'' asked, "MELINA: Too Beautiful To Be Taken Seriously?" |
| 619 | * Krissy Vaine alluded to this when describing her battle with depression while in the WWE developmental system. She and the other Divas became paranoid about preserving their looks -- "it's either be a perfect 10 or bye bye Diva wannabe" -- even spending half their monthly pay on cosmetic surgery. Krissy also noted that when DSW was integrated into OVW, the only reason she wasn't fired along with so many other girls is that she had a modelling background. |
| 620 | * In the early days of the Wrestling/WWEDivaSearch, the contestants that got sent to developmental territories to train reportedly had a very raw deal at the hands of the trainers. One glamour model revealed that she and another woman were called to the front on their first day by Wrestling/{{Ivory}} who then said: "sluts like you all sleep your way to the top". Kristal Marshall also said in an interview that she felt the trainers resented the fact that she ''wanted'' to learn to wrestle and "I don't think they wanted me to get good". |
| 621 | * Parodied by Wrestling/{{Crossbones|TheWrestler}}, in a very [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] way, at ''Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} Young Lions Cup III Night II'', July 23, 2005. After his opponent Shiima Xion had introduced himself as the first Filipino model wrestler, Crossbones [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mda4Mbtiuns claimed]] to be the first male model from PartsUnknown. He added that he had to wear a mask because all the ladies would run to him if he wrestled without it. |
| 622 | [[/folder]] |
| 623 | |
| 624 | [[folder:Puppet Shows]] |
| 625 | * In a discussion with ''Series/TheMuppetShow'''s guest of one episode, Miss Piggy claims her beauty is a curse. While her belief that she is beautiful is unquestionably present, how beautiful she actually is -- and how much she believes it to be a curse -- is debatable. |
| 626 | * In ''Film/TheMuppetsWizardOfOz'', Kermit needs a brain, Gonzo a heart, Fozzie courage, and Pepe is "so sexy, it hurts." |
| 627 | [[/folder]] |
| 628 | |
| 629 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 630 | * In ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' v4, Charlene Norris's first thoughts upon realizing she is on SOTF is that "people like her, the popular girls with bodies to die for, were rape targets". |
| 631 | [[/folder]] |
| 632 | |
| 633 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 634 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Aberrant}}'', novas (superhumans) with Mega-Appearance can have this due to Taint effects. Taint is more likely to produce deformities, but possible effects also include [[UncannyValley inhuman beauty that frightens rather than attracts]], irresistible desire, or an inability to be taken seriously (known as the "bimbo-nova" effect). |
| 635 | * ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'' has "Curse of Venus" as one of the Flaws that a character can take. Characters who have this Flaw are very attractive to people the character does not ''want'' to attract, who get crushes on him or her and will not be dissuaded. The character also tends to fall in love with inappropriate people in inappropriate circumstances, and the people the character ''is'' interested in tending to think that the character is vain and shallow. |
| 636 | * In the Sword and Sorcery game ''Blade of the Iron Throne'', the Legendary Beauty asset can be taken as either a Good asset or a Poor asset. While the Good version of the asset gives you bonuses for interactions with those compatible to you and penalties for interactions with those not compatible to you, the Poor version of the asset falls right into this trope, with the character in question receiving more than their fair share of unwanted attention from powerful but obnoxious suitors, leches, slavers and the like. |
| 637 | * ''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'' with zero warning, or being crucified to a wall like insects are pinned in notebooks. |
| 638 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 639 | ** Played hilariously straight by the Nymph, a fey woman who is so beautiful that looking at one can blind or kill (in 3.5 Edition, the killing effect was replaced with a voluntary ability to stun people). She can, however, turn it on and off. (In Second Edition, whether the nymph killed or blinded was based on whether she was naked or clothed, respectively, and couldn't be turned off voluntarily.) The above being [[OlderThanTheyThink based on]] actual [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]. |
| 640 | ** Played more seriously with [[GorgeousGorgon Medusas]] in 5th Edition. Unlike previous editions, 5E Medusas are supernaturally beautiful because they're people who foolishly made a DealWithTheDevil for youth and beauty. Once the deal was up, they were cursed to become Medusas, but they retained their beauty and vanity, so if a Medusa ever catches sight of her reflection she'll helplessly stare at it until she succumbs to her [[TakenForGranite gaze attack]]. |
| 641 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': There are no ''specific'' examples, but in a world with amorous jerkass gods, nightmarish demons, nihilistic ghosts, soul-sucking fairies, insane god-kings, eldritch abominations, and worse entities, being attractive enough to attract the attention of one or more of them definitely counts as a curse. For example, it's explicitly stated that concubines chosen by the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears... don't survive the night. And as the Manual of Exalted Power: Infernals puts it: |
| 642 | -->Sometimes, [[EldritchAbomination Adorjan]] falls in love. Her hatred is safer. |
| 643 | ** And having a character with High Appearance stat (3+) and a few dots in Infamy is never a good combination. |
| 644 | ** 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 you'd have to look quite hard to find a woman who ''doesn't'' fit the criteria. |
| 645 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', good looks give you a reaction bonus. However, the highest levels of good looks can give you a reaction ''penalty'' if the other character already has good reason to dislike you. |
| 646 | ** If you try to use magic to improve your appearance above the highest possible level you gain the Terror ability because "too much is too much". |
| 647 | ** The point cost difference between the second-highest and very-highest level of good looks is fairly small. The rules justify this by noting that the very highest level exacerbates the negative side effects of good looks (in addition to the jealousy problem noted above, there are issues like being noticed and remembered when you're trying to keep a low profile or attracting unwanted attention from would-be suitors, [[StalkerWithACrush stalkers]] or even [[SexSlave slavers]]). |
| 648 | * In the old ''Franchise/JamesBond'' RPG, attractiveness is a characteristic you have to buy for your character. Being [[TheNondescript average looking]] is actually far more expensive than being stunningly attractive because good looks make you more recognizable (generally a bad thing for a spy). On the other hand, average looks are also far more expensive than being remarkably ugly. This encourages players to re-create the James Bond atmosphere, where most main characters are either stunningly attractive or hideously deformed while requiring them to pay a price if they want to have looks that help them blend in with the crowd. |
| 649 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Kult}}: Divinity Lost'', a character with the disadvantage "Object of Desire" has something about them that tends to ignite deep and unhealthy desires in other people that they are unable to keep in check. The Doll archetype, whose life has been made hell by the unwanted attentions of others and seeks to break free and take control of their own life, has this disadvantage by default. |
| 650 | * Ananda, Lord of Murder, the Infinite, and the Fourth Age in ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' has this. When he shows up, everything -- and we mean ''everything'' -- loses itself in rapture at his presence. In one town he visited, the humans went insane or died, the grass turned to crystal, and the birds fell out of the sky, singing until their hearts gave out. Even ''pictures'' of him cause physical/psychological damage. |
| 651 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': |
| 652 | ** Whereas aasimars have traditionally been portrayed as universally loved since they first appeared in ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', ''Pathfinder''[='=]s ''Blood of Angels'' sourcebook describes them as having this trait to the extent they are BlessedWithSuck. In essence, aasimars are seen as being so beautiful, special and talented that they are invariably accosted by superstitious people begging for lucky charms (such as locks of their hair), or for healing touches or similar, and who often get upset with the aasimar when they refuse, even if told that such trinkets and actions won't work. Many aasimars who fall to evil do so due to this making them feel all others are selfish, shallow, petty creatures. On top of everything else, the aasimars' beauty and their disconnect from their communities make them common victims of the [[SuperhumanTrafficking slave trade]]. |
| 653 | ** From ''Pathfinder'' also comes the changelings, the daughters of humanoids and [[MageSpecies hags]] who are described as always being beautiful, but in such a fashion that the effect is eerily... ''[[UncannyValley off]]'' and so people find them unnerving more than they do attractive. |
| 654 | ** Nymphs are some of the beautiful creatures in existence in the material world, to an extent that their magic likely plays a role in making them the visions of beauty that they are. Anyone looking at a nymph is gripped by a supernatural obsession with the fey that will drive them to seek closeness with her by any means possible -- and nymphs cannot control this. The result is that most nymphs need to live in hiding to know anything like peace, and while they're more than capable of fending off nosy mortals and lesser fey, things become rather more dangerous when someone like a powerful wizard or a demon becomes obsessed with a nymph. |
| 655 | * ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'' has this as part of the Disquiet effect for Galateids, who are universally beautiful and, as the name implies, were originally created for purposes of companionship. However, their form of Disquiet initially manifests as a crush that slowly develops into an obsession (or, in the case of folks dealing with sexual orientation issues, [[StupidSexyFlanders severe discomfort]]) and from there turns into mindless adulation (for those directly affected) and envy and vitriol towards "that slut" (for the loved ones of those directly affected). |
| 656 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' has the fan-created "Banshee" subrace of [[{{Mutants}} Calibans]], a strain that always manifest as beautiful women [[CuteMonsterGirl despite being no less mutated than other caliban strains]], but whose beauty, whilst ''technically'' unmarred, never grants them true happiness, as humans still find them inherently repellant and subconsciously loathe them. At best, their beauty merely exposes them to all the horrors visited upon beautiful women in a land like the Land of Mists. Mechanically, they gain a racial bonus to their Charisma score, but suffer the same Outsider Rating of 5 (which is a penalty to all Charisma skills (except Intimidation) and reaction rolls) as do any other calibans. |
| 657 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}'', Epic Appearance comes in two forms -- beautiful and ugly. The problems of high-level "ugly" Epic Appearance are a given, but it can be nearly impossible to deal with mortals on an even level with high-level "beautiful" Epic Appearance. As a result, there's a Knack that turns it off for a while -- leaving you either generically pretty or generically ugly. The Knack's name is "My Eyes Are Up Here". |
| 658 | * A similar concept is discussed in the ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' sourcebook ''Lawyers, Guns and Money''. One character is noted as being attractive though not amazingly beautiful, the ideal point for a con-woman. After all, being attractive sends a little false hope to the mark, a very subtle encouragement. Being amazingly beautiful, however, would instead [[TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction raise questions]]: Why me? What do I have for this girl? As a con-woman, you never want your mark asking questions. |
| 659 | * ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' |
| 660 | ** The Nosferatu [[TheGrotesque usually don't have to deal with this]]; however, one of their [[PrestigeClass bloodlines]], the Galloi, has the power to make its members beautiful through [[BloodBath ritual immersion in specially prepared blood]]. Small problem -- this makes them inhumanly, androgynously beautiful, so they still suffer from the same problem (having trouble relating to others because they seem... [[UncannyValley off]]) as they did before. And if they stop bathing... well, it gets worse. ''Much'' worse. |
| 661 | ** Also, in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', if a low-generation vampire has an Appearance stat exceeding the human maximum of 5, you are supposed to be so beautiful that you violate the {{Masquerade}} if seen by humans. Gamemasters don't always follow the book on this detail, though. |
| 662 | [[/folder]] |
| 663 | |
| 664 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 665 | * Princess Eboli, LadyInWaiting to the Queen of Spain in Music/GiuseppeVerdi's {{Opera}} ''Theatre/DonCarlo'', dedicates a setpiece aria, "''O don fatale''" ('O fatal gift'), to cursing her beauty ("''Ti maledico, o mia beltá''") when she realises that [[spoiler:her affair with King Philip II has cost her both her job and her friendship with the Queen]]. [[NarmCharm In the right hands]], the effect is [[RageAgainstTheHeavens awesome]] rather than angsty. |
| 666 | * A male example: in ''The Food Chain'' by Nikki Silver, the superficial supermodel Serge says this, then immediately follows it up by listing off his cursed attributes and titillating the two characters listening to his speech. |
| 667 | * Sophia in ''Theatre/{{Fools}}'', who has to fight off the advances of the villain. Also, her ancestor's beauty caused the curse of [[TooDumbToLive utter stupidity]] that drives the plot. |
| 668 | * A hilarious monologue in the mostly serious play ''Theatre/HowILearnedToDrive'' has the main character comparing her emerging boobs to parasitic aliens who have latched on to her. |
| 669 | * Male example: in Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's ''Theatre/{{Patience}}'', Grosvenor constantly complains about how he charms every young lady he meets. In fact, he's so beautiful that the woman he loves refuses to marry him because keeping him all to herself would be too selfish. |
| 670 | * Referenced in the (aptly named) play ''Reasons to Be Pretty'', where one of the characters comments on the problems her beauty has caused her, and hopes that her unborn daughter won't be ''too'' attractive so that she can be spared that. |
| 671 | -->'''Carly:''' I really hope she's no more than pretty. That she's not some beauty queen that people can’t stop staring at because I'd hate that for her, to be this object, some ''thing'' that people can't help gawking at. Because if she is, if she ends up with a face that is some sort of magnet for men, the way I've been, I'd almost rather it was a situation where she was oblivious to it — not blind or anything, I wouldn’t wish that on her, but close. Some sort of oblivion that gets pasted over her eyes so she can go about life and not be aware that people are cruel in many ways, not just with their words but with the ways they look at you and desire you and, and, and almost hate you because of it. |
| 672 | * In ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'', Maureen uses her beauty as an excuse for 'flirting with a woman in rubber.' |
| 673 | * In ''Theatre/SixTheMusical'', this is ultimately the fate of Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife. At first she's rather arrogant about her beauty and claims that she's the best-looking of the monarch's many lovers ("I think we can all agree / I'm a ten amongst these threes"). But then she starts going into her past--"And ever since I was a child / I'd make the boys go wild"--and explains that throughout her life, men have treated her like a sex object (in RealLife, for example, Katherine was only thirteen when her music teacher, Henry Mannix, began having sex with her--and he was ''thirty-two''). Though initially Katherine claims that she likes all of the attention and power she derives from these relationships, she ultimately realizes that she's been a victim of statutory rape and abuse for her entire life, and the one time she [[HopeSpot thought she'd finally made a male friend]], it turns out he just wanted to have sex with her too; to rub salt into the wound, it was her friendship with that man which ended up getting her killed, as she was accused of adultery. The fandom has universally dubbed her TheWoobie for her horrible past. |
| 674 | * ''Theatre/SweeneyTodd'': |
| 675 | ** In the original Christopher Bond version, Sweeney believes this about his wife, and with good reason -- it's the reason he was falsely transported for life. |
| 676 | --->'''Anthony:''' What was your crime?\ |
| 677 | '''Sweeney:''' My wife was beautiful. |
| 678 | ** The musical ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' (which is based on Bond's version) also follows this. Sweeney's wife was so beautiful that she attracted Judge Turpin, which kick starts the plot. Then her daughter Johanna is equally as beautiful and also attracts the Judge (despite him [[WifeHusbandry being her adoptive father]]). Sweeney himself is also cursed since he attracts Mrs. Lovett, which leads to several of the tragic circumstances throughout the story. So really the plot is because a whole family is So Beautiful, It's A Curse. |
| 679 | [[/folder]] |
| 680 | |
| 681 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 682 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Blasphemous}}'', Aurea. She was so beautiful people began to worship her. As a pious woman of the theocracy of Cvstodia, [[UnwantedFalseFaith she was horrified by this]], so she burned her face with hot oil and joined a convent. The Miracle saw to it that, as a reward for her devotion, the scar never healed -- [[MartyrdomCulture Cvstodia]] and [[JerkassGods the Miracle]] have a strange definition of "reward". [[{{Irony}} This all led to her being worshipped as a saint]]. |
| 683 | * In ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'', your character is either ExtremeOmnisexual or this, because she's unusually beautiful InAWorld where all men have their brains locked in permanent rape mode. |
| 684 | * The [[DanceBattler Shieldbreaker]] in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' was a talented and beautiful dancer who could mesmerize men with her movements. She was enslaved by an infatuated Vizier who had his men carry her off presumably for his harem, though she succeeded in escaping. It's shown in her Fearful or Paranoid state that she is traumatized by the whole ordeal (especially since she had to [[LifeOrLimbDecision amputate her hand to save herself]]) and fears the Vizier's men are still hunting her. It also might explain why she wears a veil across the lower half of face at all times to hide her beauty. |
| 685 | * In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', you hear that women are nothing more than enslaved broodmares in Caesar's Legion. Siri says that if you're too young or old, the legionnaires leave you alone... [[{{squick}} most of the time]]. One of the random bits you can hear from legionnaires if they're not hostile towards you is a rather creepy "I hear some of the new slave girls are quite beautiful". |
| 686 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRebirth'': While the original game and ''Remake'' implied that Tifa had problem with people seeing her for her beauty, ''Rebirth'' shows that getting people to see beyond her body is an ongoing problem in Costa del Sol. Johnny's prospective girlfriend Jenny feels inferior to her and demeans her when the to meet, and when Tifa tells Aerith it's something she has put up before Jenny assumes she is humble bragging. And while Hojo is [[spoiler:looking for candidates to ''create a new hero'' in his latest afront to nature he considers her a great specimen as he drops her in a tank with mutants with the implications he wants her physical characteristics to create ideal offspring with the creatures.]] |
| 687 | * In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', Yotsuyu was sold into {{Sex Slave}}ry by her parents after her abusive husband died. Although she was not okay with this, the brothel owner continually offered her to customers because of her beauty and [[DullEyesOfUnhappiness empty, soulless eyes]] that kept drawing business. |
| 688 | * ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': |
| 689 | ** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'', Celica's mother, Lady Liprica, was the victim of this trope. King Lima IV forced her into his RoyalHarem due to how beautiful she was (the remake shows that she looks [[StrongFamilyResemblance VERY much]] like a lighter-haired Celica, who is very cute herself). |
| 690 | ** The Heron tribe in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' seems to suffer this, and its few survivors have to cope with the constant threat of poachers. A substantial mission in the first game involves saving Reyson [[spoiler:and his sister]] from a beauty-obsessed noble collector. |
| 691 | * Lucio from ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' is often mobbed by people who want to recruit him into some kind of business for his good looks and those people sometimes end up fighting to get to him. Lucio himself is displeased by all the fighting he causes and crowds getting in the way but doesn't seem aware of why they're fighting. |
| 692 | * The whole premise of ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'' is that you play as poor Fiona Belli a very beautiful and curvaceous 18 year old girl who is trapped in a creepy castle where every single male (apart from Hewie who’s a dog) wants to either "play with her" such as Debiltas or worse rape and impregnate Fiona which is Riccardo's [[StalkerWithATestTube goal]]. The only other female is Daniella who spites Fiona jealousy for being a "complete woman" while she’s not, though even Daniella [[EvenGirlsWantHer gropes Fiona while she’s sleeping]] probably done out of envy... probably. |
| 693 | * Black Magic from ''VideoGame/HeroesRise'' is so utterly gorgeous that after his/her parents died and left him/her on the streets, s/he was forced into prostitution by the local mafia to survive. [[CorruptionOfAMinor As a teenager]]. By the time s/he was able to leave, [[BrokenBird the damage to his/her psyche had already been done]] and s/he was left with the notion that people would only value him/her for his/her looks. |
| 694 | ** Miss Boss from the sequel, too. She's so beautiful that people ''only'' judge her by her looks and scoff at the idea that she can be more than just the local MsFanservice, [[BrainlessBeauty because someone as attractive as her can't be all that smart or competent]]. While she hasn't let these prejudices jade her, she still clearly has some pent-up resentment. |
| 695 | * Miranda Lawson from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is genetically engineered to be perfect (in her "father"'s opinion). So she's a beautiful and competent woman... and can never believe that any of what she had was earned on her own merit instead of being engineered into her. |
| 696 | ** What really causes her to angst, is that she looks at [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]], and sees their accomplishments and feels that Shepard earned them through hard work rather than genetic modifications. She references their past and tells Shepard that she looks at them and feels inferior. |
| 697 | ** There's also the fact that although she ''is'' very pretty, she's also essentially a female clone of Mr. Lawson, because he was such a narcissist that he only used his own DNA for the project. And when we actually meet him in ''3'', we find that he's even '''worse''' than Miranda made him out to be.[[spoiler: He turned a refugee camp onto a Husk factory]]. So every time she (or anyone who knew her father) looks at her face, they're going to be reminded of ''that''. |
| 698 | * Male example: Gannayev in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2: Mask of the Betrayer'' asserts that the reason he's in jail is that he's "too handsome to look upon." He's not lying either -- sort of. According to the warden, Gann has the habit of [[TheCasanova bedding nearly anything in a skirt]], much to the dismay of every BoyfriendBlockingDad on the continent. There's even a set of elaborate runes lining his cell just to make sure he doesn't do it in his ''sleep'' (which he can. Gann's probably the only Spirit Shaman who uses his dream hopping powers to get laid.) |
| 699 | * In ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' Valerie is considered exceptionally beautiful and is thoroughly sick of receiving gifts and poems from her admirers. She doesn't mention any of her suitors being more than inappropriately persistent, but she did get the first poem about her beauty when she was ''nine''. Not helping is she was in service to Shelyn, the goddess of love and beauty, which considered them a sort of religious devotion and required her to accept them all with good grace. She left because she snapped, tore up the horrible love poem someone insisted on reading to her, and faced censure for destroying a piece of art. |
| 700 | * ''VideoGame/Persona5'': |
| 701 | ** Ann is a gorgeous woman... who happens to go to a school where the gym teacher is a sexual predator, and the principal enables him. She's very lucky the Phantom Thieves are around to change the guy's heart. |
| 702 | ** Hifumi, the Star confidant, is a very pretty girl who wants to become a professional shogi player. Her mom, on the other hand, wants her to make use of her beauty as a gravure idol, which essentially means she's forcing her daughter to do softcore porn (gravure idols never pose nude, but they do model much skimpier outfits than regular glamour models), despite Hifumi absolutely hating it. |
| 703 | * Fall-From-Grace doesn't actually ''complain'' in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' about all the attention her looks get her -- that would be unladylike. But it's got to ''suck'' being a blazingly-hot demon that normally gets its jollies through seduction and having willingly taken a vow of chastity... |
| 704 | * Maguro Sasaki in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' has this problem since, according to Ringo, he possesses an incredibly handsome face that's only obscured by his bangs. If anyone were to get even a small peek at his full face, they'll be so overwhelmed by his dazzlingly good looks that they'll either pass out or fall madly in love with him. And yes, it even works on males (just ask Klug) and '''FISH''' (as Suketoudara can attest to). He's not very comfortable with it at all (not helping matters is Ringo insisting on testing that trait of his). |
| 705 | * Viola [=DeWynter=] in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' was none too happy being the ''very'' well-endowed comic character, [[NaughtyNun Bloody Canoness]], in the mission to capture Nyte Blayde. Viola's opinion is pretty valid, given that the Bloody Canoness' default outfit has a NavelDeepNeckline that is a lot skimpier than Viola's normal modesty-preserving clothes. |
| 706 | -->'''Viola:''' I feel ridiculous.\ |
| 707 | '''Player Character:''' Really? I think it looks sexy. Slutty... but sexy.\ |
| 708 | '''Viola:''' I didn't get a masters in economics to look like a slut.\ |
| 709 | '''Player Character:''' Isn't it nice to know you can surprise yourself?\ |
| 710 | ''[...]''\ |
| 711 | '''Player Character:''' Not gonna lie, I thought this whole thing was a stunt for Pierce to see your tits, but it's actually working.\ |
| 712 | '''Viola:''' I don't care if it works or not, I'm not making going out like this [[AccidentalPun a habit]].\ |
| 713 | '''Player Character:''' See? You're already making nun jokes. I knew you could get in this.\ |
| 714 | '''Viola:''' I hate you. |
| 715 | * ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': The Sith Warrior's Twi'lek companion Vette and her sister Tivva were enslaved in a mine as children along with their mother. Tivva grew to be beautiful even by Twi'leks' GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe standards, and despite their mother's efforts to conceal this, was eventually sold away as a SexSlave. |
| 716 | * In ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' Leon's beauty was an annoyance to him, but not all that big of a problem, but when it comes to gag omakes and bonus skits, he gets roped into many of Rutee's get rich quick scams because of his beauty and popularity with women [[EvenTheGuysWantHim and some men]] when he just wants to be left alone. |
| 717 | [[/folder]] |
| 718 | |
| 719 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 720 | * Elcia from ''VisualNovel/AreaX'' is sometimes affected by this, as altohugh her beauty helps sometimes, but it's also gotten her unwanted attention, like people propositioning her as a prostitute (when she was 12) and Pedoe wanting to marry her. |
| 721 | * In ''VisualNovel/{{Cupid}}'', both [[spoiler:Rosa]] and [[spoiler:Guilleme]] have led hard lives trying to evading this curse. They have tried to [[spoiler:scar themselves]] to appear less desirable, mundane or invisible. Unfortunately, it isn't beauty that's the problem, but desire itself. One character advised to appear aristocratic or powerful to give people another reason to find them attractive. Otherwise, the curse will confuse most people, pushing them to violence or jealousy. |
| 722 | * ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': |
| 723 | ** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' has [[TheFashionista Junko Enoshima]], who tends to attract guys that are only interested in her looks, which infuriates her. When [[TheHero Makoto Naegi]] is surprisingly perceptive of this, she's impressed and pegs him as an "herbivore man" (that is to say, a passive man) and [[TheMatchmaker promises to hook him up with a "carnivore girl"]] when they get out of Hope's Peak. [[spoiler:Subverted in that, while Junko ''is'' very beautiful... the one who said this to Naegi is not ACTUALLY Junko but her twin sister Mukuro, [[BodyDouble disguised as Junko]], and what she said was a part of her "role". (Or maybe not, according to other sources). In any way, it doesn't matter since everything goes FromBadToWorse.]] [[spoiler:Doubly funny since ''Literature/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavocIf'' and other media reveal Mukuro [[VillainousCrush is in love with Makoto]] -- which puts her interactions with him in the game in an interesting perspective...]] |
| 724 | ** Akane from ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' is quite the AmazonianBeauty, and has been sexually harrassed so much because of it that [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror she just accepts that all men want to molest her]]. |
| 725 | ** Jataro Kemuri in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' wears a mask all the time because he believes he's ugly. In reality, as we find out when he's defeated, he's actually ''beautiful''. His emotionally abusive mother couldn't stand looking at him because his beauty made her feel like she had to ''actually'' care about him, so she forced him to wear a mask so she could go back to ignoring him all the time. |
| 726 | * ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': |
| 727 | ** Gilgamesh's profile in the VisualNovel gives him [[RankInflation Rank A+ ]] charisma. "At this level, it is not so much strength of character, but more like a curse." Given who [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] is, this is probably a true statement. If Ishtar hadn't come on to him, for example, Enkidu probably would have survived longer. And he ''did'' look rather fabulous. |
| 728 | ** And Rider [[spoiler:AKA Medusa]] has her a rather crappy backstory because she was so beautiful as well. She eventually ended up a horrible monster that killed everyone ([[spoiler:Hint:Medusa!]]) that came near her before eventually being killed herself. And in the story, she's possibly the most beautiful character, has a beautiful voice and is bewitching in general, which Shirou finds to be rather unnerving. Especially the eyes. |
| 729 | ** From ''Literature/FateZero'' is Diarmuid ua Duibhne, who, like his mythological counterpart, has women fall in love with him at first glance. [[spoiler:It ends up killing him here, too.]] |
| 730 | *** Lancer's Einzbern Consultation Room spoofs it. According to Irisviel, being the MrFanservice voiced by Creator/HikaruMidorikawa racked up enough "hot guy karma" points to guarantee a Bad End. |
| 731 | ** Saber's natural Charisma rank may "only" be B, but that's still enough to make armies want to follow her and people constantly have gushing internal monologues about her beauty upon meeting her, even if she's about to stab them in the face at the time. However, as someone who has given up her ''humanity'' much less her femininity to be a proper king, treating her as a beautiful girl only tends to make her really confused and uncomfortable until she accepts her love of Shirou, and she is easily flustered by it. It also doesn't help that it may be a factor in why the likes of Caster, Gilgamesh, and Fate/Zero Caster all take an unhealthy interest in possessing her. |
| 732 | ** In both ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'' and ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', Euryale and Stheno were both so beautiful that men regularly tried to abduct them, forcing their sister Medusa to defend them. Unlike Medusa, they were only ageless and had no special powers or fighting skills, meaning they were helpless without her. |
| 733 | * All the love interests in ''VisualNovel/{{Nameless}}'', being dolls [[HumanityEnsues turned into humans,]] are exceedingly handsome/cute/pretty. This attracts a lot of fangirls that they aren't interested in since they're all [[SingleTargetSexuality in love]] with their previous owner, the protagonist. |
| 734 | * In ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'', the bullying that Kotonoha Katsura has gone through ever since middle school is related to her huge chest [[AttractivenessIsolation and her physical beauty]]. Many of the girls around her (like Nanami, Otome, and Otome's GirlPosse) '''hate''' Kotonoha out of envy and bully her, and this only increases after she gets tangled in the LoveTriangle with Makoto and Sekai (who does NOT bully her for it, but happens to be friends with some of said bullies). [[spoiler:It can be a plot point in the game itself: the girls can potentially decide to ''increase the bullying further'' to give Sekai the biggest shot in the LoveTriangle, and if Makoto doesn't put an end to Kotonoha's torment... ''Sekai will pay with her life''.]] |
| 735 | [[/folder]] |
| 736 | |
| 737 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 738 | * This is lampshaded in the Spanish web animation ''WebAnimation/CalicoElectronico''. In the fifth episode, a female burglar, with a Femme Fatale look, tries to steal some jewels and is discovered by Cálico, but instead of fighting her, he flirts with her the whole episode, making her feel frustrated. In other episodes, a section with the characters answering fans questions was introduced. The same burglar was asked to dress like Tifa from ''Final Fantasy VII''. She agreed to appear in the outfit, but then, to her dismay... you can hear the fan jerking off. |
| 739 | -->'''Female Burglar:''' Well... for someone who asked me to be dressed than to be undressed... |
| 740 | * [[spoiler: Angel Dust]] is revealed to be this in episode 4 of WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel. We already got hints when he said everyone wants a piece of him and how he had creepy fan letters. Valentino regularly forces him into porn and forces him into sex with him on the regular. He is considered Valentino's favorite and is surely not bad looking at all. |
| 741 | ** Charlie is very pretty and is flirted with by Valentino very creepily the first time he meets her. |
| 742 | [[/folder]] |
| 743 | |
| 744 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 745 | * ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'''s Seras Victoria occasionally complains about the effects of [[MostCommonSuperPower her rather stunning figure]] in ''Webcomic/AndShineHeavenNow''. Her {{Love Interest|s}} counters that he can enjoy her company and respect her as a person ''and'' appreciate her chest. |
| 746 | * Male Example: This trope is a genuine, life-ruining ''problem'' for Holden of ''[[http://arcana.comicgenesis.com Arcana.]]'' In addition to heightened physical beauty, Holden is also under a magical curse of unknown origin that makes people fall in love with him. But not just some people; ''practically everyone he encounters''. Sounds like a cakewalk, but after having his psycho vampire stalker slaughter his current boyfriend and threaten to kill his brother in order for them to be together, the situation becomes a lot more heartbreaking. There was a reason for that, actually. Turned out Holden was [[spoiler:actually the Harpy prince that was being sought after, he just didn't consciously know it until towards the end of the story. Apparently, Harpies in this world have that particular glamour about them]]. |
| 747 | * ''Webcomic/{{Bastard|2014}}'': Kyun is repeatedly stated to be rather cute but this has only made her the target of two serial killers. |
| 748 | * Minor aversion in ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots''. There was a brief story arc where Jamie started dressing more modestly because she didn't care for all the negative attention her boobs got her; but she was rather taken aback when she discovered that not only had the bulk of what she thought of as otherwise normal interactions had in fact been swung in her favor by the cleavage, even one of her closest friends turns out to have been giving her a "boob discount". She eventually decides that she preferred the way people talked to her when her cleavage was greasing the rails and made peace with the fact that she was going to attract some leers as well. |
| 749 | * Maxima of ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'' is a StatuesqueStunner with golden (it's made of a gold-colored metal) skin. She dislikes it because she feels people look at her as an exotic blowup doll, fueling her strong feminist mindset. Also, she's in the military and her large bust interferes with drawing her sidearm occasionally. |
| 750 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': |
| 751 | ** PrettyBoy Rufioh is frequently frustrated that everyone he knows is in love with him or stalking him. |
| 752 | ** Jake is also subject to this. As he puts it: |
| 753 | --->'''Jake:''' Why does everyone want to kiss me all the time! What did I ever do to deserve this sort of attention! I dont know what you all see in me, I just don't understand it! Can't you see I just want you to LEAVE ME ALONE? CHEESE AND STUPID CRACKERS I AM A MAN NOT A PIECE OF MEAT!!! |
| 754 | * [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] on [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/428 this]] ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' strip with Alice complaining about men looking at her breasts all the time, but refusing to wear more modest clothes because she's so hot it wouldn't make a difference. According to her anyways. |
| 755 | * Played horrifically straight in ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}'': In a flashback of PsychoForHire hitwoman/mob enforcer Valentino's StartOfDarkness, it's shown that she was the daughter of "purged" dissidents in the last days of the USSR. Along with other attractive young girls in the same situation, she is shipped to a secret gulag/training camp operated by party hardliners who want to mold them through TrainingFromHell into assassin-spies to compromise, blackmail or eliminate key individuals to stop the country's slide towards implosion. The grizzled, bearlike old general in charge of the camp mentions while discussing the plot with a co-conspirator that only God can give such a curse as beauty (the reason those girls were chosen in the first place). [[MoralEventHorizon Then, as a part of training, the general brutally and repeatedly rapes the girls, starting with Valentino]]. No wonder she's a sadistic maniac... |
| 756 | * [=DiDi=] of ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' is so attractive that it ruins her sex life. No man she has ever slept with has been able to last more than a few seconds before blowing his load (one didn't even last long enough to ''start having sex with her in the first place'', just seeing her naked was enough). As a result, she has never had an orgasm (though she eventually manages to finally have one). She also hasn't developed proper social skills, since her looks cause everyone to behave strangely around her. |
| 757 | * ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' has a strip where a wish-fulfilling doll makes a girl so beautiful she can't get anyone to sex her up even if she begs and pleads because everyone considers her to be out of their league. Considering the doll was later revealed to be a JerkassGenie, it is likely that the beauty is literally a curse. |
| 758 | * ''Webcomic/RobberXLover'': Dojin was fired from one of his jobs (which also provided him with a place of residence) after his boss' girlfriend broke up with him. He took it out on Dojin because of the attention he was getting from female customers, kicking him out into the street. Afterward, Dojin was reluctant to ask for help at his other job, fearing that he would get women seeking to take advantage of him. |
| 759 | * ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' plays the trope even straighter than Twilight -- a mummy's wrappings are used to counter the curse (rather than to cover the rotting skin) in an obvious fashion. No one must know! |
| 760 | * {{Subverted}} in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive:'' Kharisma considers herself to be a victim of this. While she is attractive, this is really just a sign of her vanity and self-absorption. She gets better...[[ChewToy in a "horrid burn damages on face"]] sort of way. (Oh, and eventually actual CharacterDevelopment.) |
| 761 | * ''Webcomic/StrongFemaleProtagonist'' had a minor biodynamic character whose mutation was that she was a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe who complained about how nobody ever took her seriously because of her looks -- everyone just viewed her as fetish material. Another biodynamic woman, who resembled a humanoid reptile, called it FirstWorldProblems and said that all her problems could be solved with a can of body paint. As the conversation was taking place in a support group for biodynamic women, many of whom had far more extreme mutations than the second woman (including one who was a living liquid), this did not really do the second woman any favors. |
| 762 | * ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'' has a short arc featuring the main character, who's improbably busty and thin, and another character working as a model, who is also improbably thin, lamenting how people can't take them seriously. Since it begins with the main character's friend dismissing the model as ditzy, it does serve as a decent [[AnAesop Aesop]] about not judging someone by how they look. However, the main character blames some self-esteem issues on how she is too ideally shaped, inverting the norm in a way that can be frustrating. |
| 763 | [[/folder]] |
| 764 | |
| 765 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 766 | * ''WebVideo/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorksAbridged'': PlayedForLaughs; ''everyone'' is highly attracted to Saber, many of them to a creepy and unflattering extent (especially Medea, whose primary goal is getting a threesome between them and Soichiro, who himself isn't opposed, Saber's consent be damned). Saber and Shirou have taken to keeping a ''list''. |
| 767 | * ''Website/{{Springhole}}'': [[https://www.springhole.net/writing/write-misfits-loners-and-malcontents.htm#humblebragging-and-wangst A section on wangst]] gives advice on how to pull this off. It compares an examples of a teen model complaining about wearing designer clothes versus one who enters pageants to please her mother and is stressed by having total strangers criticize her for things she can't control. |
| 768 | * ''Website/NotAlwaysWorking'': [[https://notalwaysright.com/being-beautiful-can-be-such-a-burden/292867/ This new hire]] has movie-star good looks, which means that he has to get HR to send all employees an e-mail explicitly stating not to flirt with him as he's in a happy and stable relationship, and he can't socialize at work because if he did, people would get envious of the people he talked to and start fighting. He comments to the OP that he had to leave his previous job because it got too toxic with people fighting over him. |
| 769 | [[/folder]] |
| 770 | |
| 771 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 772 | * Rebecca Stone from ''WebVideo/DemoReel''. There's no MaleGaze on her, but she was sexually abused at a young age, bitterly complains about everyone outside of the main cast treating her like some BrainlessBeauty, and is played by a part-time model who improvised at least half of the "sexism in Hollywood" speech. |
| 773 | * This is the kickoff for the season one plot of ''WebVideo/PrettyDudes''. |
| 774 | * The ''Website/CollegeHumor'' video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DabaEDThc9M "POV: Really Hot Girl"]] [[ZigzaggedTrope zigzags]] the trope. As the title implies, it's from the perspective of an extremely attractive woman named Lexi who is going to see a male friend, Vinny, at a bar. On the one hand, Lexi has traces of being an AlphaBitch, as she's used to not waiting in line or ever having to buy drinks ("Why do I bother bringing a wallet?") when she goes out, so she's not entirely sympathetic. However, as the video progresses, it becomes clear that Lexi genuinely doesn't realize that she's being treated this way because of her looks, especially because she has terrible self-esteem and calls herself ugly constantly. She also has to put up with men acting like obnoxious creeps even when she isn't trying to lead them on; furthermore, she doesn't have any friends because every straight guy she meets wants to sleep with her and every woman is either envious of her appearance or believes she's deliberately trying to steal their boyfriends. And just as Lexi is thinking about how Vinny is the only person who genuinely likes her, he comes bursting in to deliver an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove, and given her frustrated and sad reaction ("Not ''again...''"), it's clear that she's dealt with similar situations many times in the past. |
| 775 | [[/folder]] |
| 776 | |
| 777 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 778 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Played for laughs with Slime Princess's younger sister, Blargatha. The slime people view Blargatha as super hot, but she's not at all [[http://cheezburger.com/7821600000 conventionally attractive.]] |
| 779 | * WesternAnimation/BettyBoop's [[ImpossibleHourglassFigure figure]] and fashion choices (usually a LittleBlackDress) often get her chased by bad guys who are attracted to her. |
| 780 | * In ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'', Cleopatra gets melodramatic about how life is so hard for someone so good looking. |
| 781 | * ZigZaggingTrope on ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}.'' The title character's sister, Quinn, will sometimes complain about how ''hard'' it is to be attractive and popular, despite the obvious glee she gets from having boys fight over her. However, over the course of the series, it becomes clear that she's internalized her role as a BrainlessBeauty to the extent that she really doesn't think that she ''can'' be anything else, though she [[CharacterDevelopment eventually overcomes this]]. |
| 782 | -->'''Quinn:''' I mean, sometimes I'm walking down the hall with [[GirlPosse Sandi, Stacy, and Tiffany]], and suddenly I'm outside of myself, watching, and it's, like, "Who ''are'' these girls? Can't they talk about anything besides guys, and clothes, and cars?" But then, what ''would'' we talk about? You have to be good at something. [...] I figure, being attractive and popular, that's what I'm good at. Maybe it's not that important, but, you know, it's what I can do. ''[nervous laugh]'' |
| 783 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': |
| 784 | ** That episode where Peter has liposuction. He gets into a car crash because he couldn't stop looking at himself in the mirror. |
| 785 | ** In another episode Peter gets contact lenses, which makes his shrewish boss notice his beautiful eyelashes for the first time and she starts to sexually harass him. |
| 786 | * Duchess in ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' is constantly referring to herself as an "absolutely gorgeous piece of art" and the like...despite the fact that she is [[{{Gonk}} the exact opposite of gorgeous]]. She does resemble a Cubist-era Picasso, for what that's worth. A Cubist-era Picasso of the elephant man. |
| 787 | ** Frankie suffers this curse in one episode where 5 guys competed for her affections. |
| 788 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' movie ''Bender's Big Score'', [[BuxomBeautyStandard buxom]] and blonde Dr. Cahill gets annoyed when Fry calls her "Dr. Good n' Sexy''. |
| 789 | * ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': |
| 790 | ** In the Season One episode "Mind Games", Kim and Ron have the following exchange: |
| 791 | --->'''Kim''': You make my life sound like cake.\ |
| 792 | '''Ron''': Let's see. You're smart, athletic, pretty and popular. Sounds pretty cakey to me.\ |
| 793 | '''Kim''': OK, flip mode - Playing video games, watching wrestling, and downing "snackage". It must be brutal being you. |
| 794 | ** The Season Two episode "Grudge Match" featured a scientist who couldn't get her work taken seriously because she looked like a supermodel. She got around it by making a schlubby-looking robot "boyfriend" who [[StealingTheCredit played the scientist role]] while she pretended to be his girlfriend. |
| 795 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ''WesternAnimation/BroomStickBunny'', Witch Hazel explains to the audience that she's "deathly afraid" of getting prettier as she gets older, and it's fully justified at the end of the short: After she gets turned into a [[MsFanservice gorgeous redhead]] after mistakenly drinking a [[MagicPotion beauty elixir]] disguised as tea, she meekly asks the genie in her magic mirror if she's still ugly. When the Genie sees Hazel's [[HotWitch new look]], he bursts out of the mirror and starts chasing her on a MagicCarpet, to her horror. |
| 796 | * Tee Hee Tummy Tums from ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' is the most beautiful man in the world. He just wanted people to appreciate him for his combs, not his beauty so he would put a sack over his head to hide his face. Since the rest of his family has the sacks too, it's possible his wife is the same way and his children. |
| 797 | * Fluttershy, in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipisMagic'' episode "Green Isn't Your Color", becomes a model to help draw attention to Rarity's new dress line. To her displeasure, doing so leads her to develop a huge following where she can't even walk down the street without getting mobbed by scores of admirers and paparazzi. Being a ShrinkingViolet, this is indeed a curse. |
| 798 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''; Princess Penelope explained her love for Krusty because she felt he was the only friend she had when she was 12 since she wasn't popular for being more pretty and friendly than the other girls who in return shunned her. |
| 799 | * 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, and Sonic and Amy both look at him in disbelief when he calls himself attractive. |
| 800 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': |
| 801 | ** Kyle, having seen a list made by the girls in class which ranks him as the ugliest boy, is getting depressed. However, [[ItMakesSenseInContext Abe Lincoln]] explains to him that good looking people tend to have things handed to them in life and once they get to the age where their looks start to fade, they're left with nothing. Less attractive people, on the other hand, work hard to make something of themselves and in the long run, [[MiseryBuildsCharacter they have far more character]]. Kyle takes this lesson to heart when he learns the list was a fake but chooses ''not'' to find out if he was voted one of the attractive kids. |
| 802 | ** Bebe was the first girl to develop breasts (she's nine; they were comically tiny), which made all the boys inexplicably drawn to her until they devolve into acting like cavemen. They finally snap out of it when she comes to school wearing a cardboard box to completely hide her figure. |
| 803 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Squidward getting a door slammed in his face makes him So Handsome, It's a Curse. He likes it at first, but soon tires of all of Bikini Bottom following him around ''everywhere''. Mr. Krabs tries to take advantage of this by charging people to see Squidward, who gets [=SpongeBob=] to slam the door in his face again, ''repeatedly'', to try to get things back to normal. Somehow, it turns him even ''more'' ridiculously handsome and muscled. [[StatusQuoIsGod And, somehow, he gets back to normal at the end]]. |
| 804 | * The ''WesternAnimation/SpicyCity'' episode "Love is A Download" features an extremely attractive woman who has spent her entire life being sexualized and is trapped in an abusive relationship, escaping her life with a modest-looking digital avatar so she can feel more normal. And on a lighter note, the narrator bookends the story with how frustrating it is that her looks make men too intimidated to approach her. |
| 805 | [[/folder]] |
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