Why Do Bad Guys Always Have Mohawks & Piercings

[ziggy_encaoua]

Last night I was watching Doomsday which is a great homage to the films I loved when I was growing up such as Escape From New York & particularly Mad Max. I really liked Doomsday & Mad Max 2 might very well get into my top ten all time favourite films. But I do have a question as to why it is in dystopian & post apocalyptic films that the bad guys nearly always seem to be the ones with unusual hairstyles, piercings & tattoos. It always appears that as soon as society disintegrates that the priority for people is to get pierced & their hair styled, in such films though there might be pestilence, famine & war there’s always plenty of hair dye & hair clippers handy

I don’t want all this to sound like one of those conspiracy type blogs that get all hung up on the smallest of annoyances as to why there’s some giant conspiracy but I can’t help thinking that there might be a conspiracy when it comes to pop culture & non conformist self expression.

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[r1g0r]

well, zig, that's probably because most of us who have/had piercings or hawks aren't very nice people.

i have the same question/issue, but the easy answer is that it's easy for hollywood to make those people menacing, but not easy to make them sympathetic/intelligent/3d.

sorry, dude!

[Gus]

I still think the clean-cut suave look of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter is infinitely more menacing than any guy with a mohawk. Speak for yourself r1g0r but I know/have known a several guys with hawks as well as goth and punk sub-culture followers who are really nice people. I think your mohawk looks pretty good Ziggy.

But yes you are both right, it's easy for Hollywood to make those people look menacing and they have perpetuated the myth to the point that people expect a guy with lots of piercings or hawk to be a baddy, in the same way as they are conditioned to think a man in a skirt must be gay.

Interesting topic though.

[Since1982]

I think seeing Discovery Channel stories on the Mongols or Hell's Angels motorcycle clubs which do have lots of extreme hairstyles and tons of tats on extremely bad menacing people, most of which supply a large percentage of the illegal drugs in the USA, or movies like "WaterWorld" which has all the bad guys full of tats and mohawks makes lots of people think that anyone with a mohawk and tattoos is a bad guy. The general public probably thinks any man in a skirt is gay too, unless they know one who is obviously not gay like me.

[crfriend]

I suspect the main reason that Hollywood perpetuates such stereotypes is that the practitioners of such styles are a distinct minority and they look different. Note that in lots of venues the stereotype of a man with long hair is still that of "druggie" or "hippie freak".

Fortunately, Hollywood hasn't cottoned on that there are blokes out there who wear skirts, else we might find our ilk being boxed into some inane corner of stereotyped villainy. I think it'd be nice if we could make Hollywood go away.

Bonus points, by the way, to anyone who can state why the motion picture industry settled in the LA area.

[Skirt Chaser]

Was LA picked for year round filming? Though that isn't really specific to that city. I won't put my research skills to use and will instead wait patiently for the answer.

Bad guys are a character type but also they need to stand out. I've always thought the villain gets the best costume in most movies. The good people are often portrayed as "like us" and bad guys "not like us" to help identify with the hero. Of course that does leave the caped, pierced, or otherwise fabulously garmented people walking around looking shady to some viewers. Part of me thinks that is just their fault if they will assume things so don't bother about them but yet we do have an understanding of how we can be perceived in certain clothes. I liked the following bit of wisdom picked up on an episode of the television show "Tim Gunn's Guide To Style", it went something like you can't control how you are perceived but you can control how you present yourself. To me that sums up wearing what you want but know the message it sends.