Ridiculous Study of the Week 2: Dermatology and Movies

The dermatologists are ready to play ball.  After years of convincing people that ANY sunshine is evil, and subsequently causing an epidemic in low vitamin D, they are back at it again.  This time they are armed with a study concluding that:

Dermatologic findings of the all-time top 10 American villains are used in film to highlight the dichotomy of good and evil, which may foster a tendency toward prejudice in our society directed at those with skin disease.

Yes, you read that right.  JAMA Dermatology actually published a study where “dermatologic findings for film heroes and villains in mainstream media were identified and compared quantitatively using a χ2 test with α < .05, as well as qualitatively.”  Forget Watson and Crick.  Forget Jonas Salk.  This group found that “six (60%) of the all-time top 10 American film villains have dermatologic findings, including cosmetically significant alopecia (30%), periorbital hyperpigmentation (30%), deep rhytides on the face (20%), multiple facial scars (20%), verruca vulgaris on the face (20%), and rhinophyma (10%). The top 10 villains have a higher incidence of significant dermatologic findings than the top 10 heroes (60% vs 0%; P = .03).”

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I guess when you make so much money you have to find a way to distract people from being too critical?  How? First up, throw the evil sun at them.  If that fails then you create a new prejudice. All we need now is a law to stop any movie from depicting someone who is “integumentary challenged”.  (I made that term up.  Do you like it?)

Before anyone thinks I am too insensitive let me summarize my thoughts on this:

  1. Humans are not perfect and we all have our blemishes.
  2. We all don’t need a personal dermatologist to see us to fix every blemish.
  3. ALL sun is not evil.
  4. This study is ridiculous.
  5. Dermatologist make too much money.
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