Villains and Heroes

Lately I've been thinking about the way fairytales portray heroes and villains. With villains, most of the time it's the wicked witch, the old hag or the evil queen that we're warned to beware of. They're presented as ugly, malicious creatures who are inately immoral. But 'Beauty and the Beast' is one story that turns this tradition on its head. In this fairytale, the beast is the hero and the supposedly most handsome man in the village is the villain. Yet, it is more common to see villains presented in an unflattering light. For example, Cinderella is tormented by what are explicitly stated as ugly step-sisters and Red Riding Hood is set up by a big bad wolf. But in real life, the bad people aren't so easy to spot. Most of them don't look the way you might expect them to. But where have these expectations come from? Why should somebody capable of doing evil have to look like a monster? In our world it doesn't work like that. Like Gaston in 'Beauty and the Beast', the bad people are often the ones who look fairly normal (if there is such a thing). Perhaps, then, fairytales are the main culprit in leading us to grow up believing that evil people look evil.
This isn't only applicable to villains. Most of the heroes in fairytales are also stereotyped. They're usually seen as overly handsome, brave men who save the girl in the name of love. But, in my opinion, that man - the one who rescues the princess from a fire-breathing dragon and still remains flawlessly handsome after being knocked around - he doesn't exist. Real-life heroes are anything but superficial, and they usually have no agenda other than to make the world a better place. Why should good looks be necessary to a heroic act? It shouldn't, and isn't. We learn this from 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', where once again, the villain and hero roles are inverted. The villain is a religious man you would expect to be good, and the hero is a somewhat scary-looking loner you would probably avoid when walking down the street. But guess who ends up saving the day?
I guess what I'm saying is, although some stories redeem others, most of the traditional fairytales have a lot to answer for when it comes to the way we think and how we see the world. As we grow older, naturally we realise that things are not as black and white as these stories suggest they are. In real life nobody is entirely bad or entirely good, and people aren't always what they appear to be. And maybe, in our world, there is no such thing as villains or heroes. Perhaps there is only human nature.