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he is wounded by Leonidas' spear late in the film, he reacts, well, like a girl, shocked, hurt, likely to start crying any moment and covering up the wound as if from embarrassment. To be fair, he's a "god-king" so, his reaction to being hurt could come from him believing his own hype and being truly astonished at being harmed, but, still, there's nothing to recommend Xerxes as a manly man, nothing at all.

Eugenics in "300": Beauty is Good, Ugly is Treacherous

So, "300" seems to promote white people over dark skinned people, ignore the historical role of homosexuality in Spartan society and actually go so far as depict homosexuality as bad, by showing the chief baddie, Xerxes, as an effeminate. What does all this say about the way America views all these issues? In fact, what does "300" have to say about being beaufitul in America here in the 21st Century? To watch "300" is to see beauty as something very white, and something very fit. If you ain't white and you ain't fit, you're not only beautiful, but you're likely to be bad and treacherous as well.

Ephialtes, the deformed hunchback who betrays the Spartans to the Persians, is not an attractive person to look at. Hideously deformed and carrying a grotesquely huge hump on his back, he's lacking a face that even a mother could love. When he tries to sign up to fight with the Spartans, he's rejected because he is unable to lift a shield high enough to be useful in the Spartans phalanx formation. Never mind, that, in the movie at least, we don't see the Spartans using the phalanx for more than a few minutes of screen time in total, Ephialtes is of no use to our group of 300, waxed, bare chested hunks on the grounds that he is amazingly ugly all by itself. To be good, to be one who fights for truth and beauty, you have to be chiseled, hot, hunky, have great teeth, amazing abs, and a waxed bod. Anything less, well, you're a bad guy. In fact, the bad guys are so ugly (and presumably so self-conscious of their ugliness) that they go around covered up, rarely showing off their bodies at all. Spartans? Cloak, sandals and briefs are the Spartan uniform du juor, allowing them to strut their sexy manselves on the battlefield and intimidate the enemy psychologically by making the enemy feel bad bout how ugly they are.

Spartans historically killed their young if they felt that they were sickly, deformed, or anything less than perfect. The Spartans, in "300", are depicted as protecting the way of life we long for, a way of

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