#bowa

Beauty, truth, trust, and love are all double-edged swords within society.

To be hero x's representation surrounding the power that beauty brings is incredibly nuanced in multiple regards and is heavily influenced by certain societal pressures such as gender normativity.

From what we have currently witnessed, 6 of the top 10 heroes and 1 former top 10 hero have been given a label related to their beauty in some way, shape, or form.

Throughout these examples, we can see how beauty has either helped the hero in gaining more or has made them lose, and this is due to different variables.

Yang cheng is described as "handsome," and we see this presented as something in his favour as his looks are used as a way to uplift him while making a diss at the original E-soul. The handsome description used for Yang cheng promotes the new E-soul image as someone who is both good-looking and trustworthy by the people, someone who can do the job and also serve as good eye candy for the fans. There is an aspect of this that can be categorised as pretty privilege as all of the original E-soul experience and service for the people is being dismissed and replaced by a newer, prettier, and much more active actor than him. Another aspect of this is also dehumanising towards both E-soul's as they're summed up to only their looks and what they can offer to the people. This is also dehumanising due to the fact that both E-soul's could both be replaced and the people wouldn't care as long as they have someone pretty to fill the role and neither will MG.

Furthermore, there is a tragic irony to yang cheng being described as handsome and being deemed as the better E-soul without the mask just for him to cover that up in the end and become E-soul with us really never seeing ayang cheng's true face again after his fight with the original E-soul. While Yang cheng's beauty is what elevated him past the original E-soul, it is something that is also lost as he loses himself, becoming a puppet under Rock.

Ghostblade is another character that, for the most part, benefits from being called cute. Similarly, to yang cheng, his fans and believers market him as beautiful and give him the power to become the silent killer that he now is trapping him in his role, but what he currently embraces as a good opportunity to get away from his family and live the peaceful and quiet life he has always wanted. Ghostblade is also a character that I would describe as having beauty privilege as he seems to be quite unapproachable and not very friendly, yet people still approach him and try and talk to him due to his looks while not particularly disapproving of his actions due to his good looks. He and yang cheng both seem to be just there as eye candy with people only really caring for them when it comes to that aspect of them just being there on screen and looking pretty nothing more nothing less. This is further emphasised with ghostblade as no one tries to understand who he really is or ask him about anything, just assuming that what they're going to do will be approved by him such as taking photos of him or even assuming things like what his intentions were by stalking nuonuo.

I also think it's quite ironic how it was his believers those who looked at him and viewed him as eye candy that were the ones that were responsible for taking his voice and honestly just being indirectly responsible for his communication skills becoming worse. As much as both ghostblade and yang cheng do gain from their beauty and beauty privilege, they also lose things due to said beauty.

Bowa is also described as a beauty, with her power also being acknowledged by her fans. However, even with all that beauty, she still ends up being disposed of after losing her title of X and completely dropping out of the top 10. Bowa's description and the fact that she lives and works in a very mysoginistic society seems to highlight that compared to her male counterparts, she is expected and required to be perfect and it is something that she must uphold. Essentially, Bowa can't just have beauty or just have the power to be acknowledged. No, bowa needs to have both so that people just look at her, and she needs to have the perfect mixture for people to take her seriously and for her to reach the X title. Compared to yang cheng and Wang yi, Bowa's beauty doesn't seem to give her the same advantages as them neither do we see the privilege that she gets due to her beauty.

Queen and bowa need to be perfect to be taken seriously by hero society, and this shows the misogyny present in that society and when both are beaten by X they're power and previous achievements are completely undermined by those around them. Instead, Bowa and Queen have comedians hyperfocusing on their looks and what they could bring to the table via their looks instead of their power. The comedian goes to describe how he expected a sexy cat fight between bowa and Queen just for it to be a CEO drama. It seems that in tbhx for women society can't view beauty and power as two things that can coexist with one another unless it's the perfect mix such as we see in Bowa's case but any moment Bowa loses some power society can't wait but to hyperfocus on her beauty objectifying both her and Queen in the process. While it can be argued that all the heroes that have had believers comment about their beauty have been objectified to a degree, Bowa and Queen's objectification has societal layers and how difficult it becomes for them to really gain trust in a society that refuses to see them less than their bodies and beauty.

Loli faces a similar problem to Queen and Bowa with their being a focus on her being cute and how this has heavily affected her life. For many in tbhx, they seem to believe that if a woman is cute, then she can't be powerful, and if she is powerful, she can't be cute. Loli's cuteness seems to make many believe that she is vulnerable and weak, making many worry over her and not take her seriously. We see that even her parents underestimate Loli until she forcefully makes them believe otherwise as she makes her own suit and becomes a hero. Compared to Bowa and Queen, Loli actively takes her own appearance into her own hands, and we see the ongoing conflict where she also temporality believes that she must pick between being beautiful being powerful just for her to find a medium between those two with her being able to keep her long pink hair that she has expressed that she likes and being intimidating with her suit that gives her immeasurable strength. Furthermore, Loli having a suit that is made of a metal that is completely immune to both trust and fear essentially means that she has found her own way escaping societal expectations and pressured as she can finally be who she wants to be and after the incident she finally gets taken seriously by her own father and gets opportunities to pursue the career path she wants to head towards. Compared to everyone else, Loli is the only one who manages to escape the duality of beauty and find a way to be herself, with her being taken seriously and being cute at the same time, she even takes those who underestimate her to her advantage.

Compared to the other female characters, lucky cyan doesn't seem to have the same problem. While lucky cyan is described as cute by little Johnny, this acknowledgement occurs as an add-on to her achievements and skills. Unlike Loli, who struggles with people acknowledging her achievements when it comes to her strength and power due to her beauty, lucky cyan doesn't seem to have this problem. Little Johnny first acknowledges her singing abilities and compliments her due to her talent while later acknowledging her beauty and the fact that she has the face to be an idol. A part of me does think that little Johnny may have framed his compliment in such a manner due to his own experiences when it came to hero society as well and how many saw him as just cute and not particularly powerful.

Whereas ghostblade and yang cheng both seem to be seen as capable, powerful, and beautiful little Johnny faces similar consequences as the female characters (specifically Loli), with his power being constantly undermined by those around him. Furthermore, it doesn't help that Little Johnny is also marketed to he cute and ends up playing more of a PR role being there as a hero face instead of actually fighting so there isn't much on him when it comes to his fighting abilities due to FOMO marketing him to sell plushies and promote things within his hero theme such as wildlife protection. FOMO seems to have done the opposite when it came to Loli due to almost all of her advertisements emphasising the fact that she is both cute and a warrior to be feared.

(maybe not from the character you expect)