#cw phrenology

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

This is a meta on Our Flag Means Death episode 5: The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well, Sir Godfrey Thornrose, The scene where he calls Ed a donkey, and so called "race science."

It has come to my attention that some of you apparently do not know what a phrenologist is.

*a note: I'm going to for the purposes of this assume that the guy played by Jeff Lorch is sir Godfrey Thornrose, I do not know this for certain but in my opinion even if he is not Thornrose the same principles still apply to him for reasons I will discuss in this meta.

So lets recap the scenes I want to touch on. At the beginning of episode 5 Stede is teaching Ed how to identify rich people cutlery like they're Barney Thompson and Vivian Ward in pretty woman. Stede bitches at Thornrose for not having enough spoons for Stede's liking. Thornrose responds "My apologies, I hadn't imagined we'd be hosting your kind."

Ed responds "My kind, what kind"

to which Godfrey responds "A rich donkey is still a donkey."

Ed then proceeds to scream at him and then orders Fang to skin him with a snail fork before throwing him overboard. To which Fang presumably responds by either skinning him with a normal skinning implement or forgoing the skinning step and just throwing him overboard, because who tf has time to skin a man with a snail fork.

I've seen some dogshit takes on this scene. I've seen it treated as evidence that Ed is exceptionally violent or abusive or has mood swings or anger issues or whatever bullshit. And I... Do Not Agree. You'll see why.

The next scene I want us to have in our back pocket is the first couple scenes with Gabriel and Antionette. When Gabriel and Antionette introduce themselves to Ed and Stede they reveal that Sir Godfrey Thornrose is a quote "Master Phrenologist." Stede is then expected to study Antionette's head. When he does he introduces his fake craft as "Phrenology, which is the study of the human head." He then takes a wild guess as to Antionette's heritage based on her skull lumps.

Content warning for like real old school racism ahead.

The reason Stede goes for the heritage is because Phrenology is a pseudoscience closely linked to other contemporary race science of the time. It was the idea that bumps on your head, thought to be caused by the pressure of the brain, could be used to identify your personality traits.

Phrenology gets really fucking racist, really fucking fast. Phrenology was used as proof that the white race was superior to other races, and as a justification for slavery and eugenics. Eugenics is the idea that you can improve society through breeding out "bad genes", which is almost universally popular among all types of racists, but the Nazis were big fans of it and there's a direct through line between the race scientists in the 1700s who were into phrenology and modern hate groups and neo nazis. I wanted to use an image here as an example of racist phrenology texts, but it's rough and I don't want to make a cut so I'm just going to link to the wordpress anthropology article I found the picture in, it's sourced and an alright place to start if you're into further reading.

With this information, I would like to use another example, that is relevant to the ethnicities in contention. A French physician who attracted huge crowds with his phrenology lectures, François-Joseph-Victor Broussais, once claimed that Maori people (as well as indigenous Australians) could never become civilized since he claimed they had no cerebral organ for producing great artists.

This is the context in which we need to understand the exchange between Ed and the French captain. I've seen some people claim it's about class and not about race, but Thornrose acknowledges Ed's wealth when he says a rich donkey is still a donkey. It doesn't matter to a man like Thornrose what Ed does or how rich he is or how well he can learn his fucking forks, he's still akin to an animal in this skull molesting freak's racist little mind. If a phrenologist, or even someone who's rubbing elbows with a phrenologist, calls a man of color a donkey they're clearly saying he's an uncivilized animal based on the shape of his face. That's how racists operate.

And Sir Godfrey Thornrose is not just any old racist, he's a racist spreading his ideology to other people, convincing them that people like Ed are inferior, that people like him should be subjugated by white people. He is clocking in for his shift at the racism factory creating more racists.

So basically what I'm saying is Ed should skin him, no quarter for genocidal maniacs. Basically I can tell you're either racist sympathetic or talking out of your ass if you think French captain was fucked up. It was antifascist direct action and I don't want to hear another word about it. I personally believe the only thing you can't come back from is death in terms of being a better person. I also believe that there are situations in which killing someone is more or less fine and you're never gonna catch me feeling bad for a fucking phrenologist when he compares an indigenous pirate to an animal and the pirate responds by doing what pirates do.

Killing Godfrey was based.

[humanjeff]

oh boy

bonus - the only good reply:

[atundratoadstool]

I know you've listed the character ages already, but what about physical descriptions? I remember Van Helsing being described as having red hair and blue eyes and I know Lucy's a blonde, but that's it.

Stoker is both frequently very spartan in his physical descriptions of characters and obsessively interested in detailing their facial features owing to his zealous belief in the thoroughly racist science of physiognomy. Here's a breakdown of what we know in the text plus some notes on how these features possibly operate in relation to Stoker's views, experiences, and research:

[CW: Spoilers and a fair number of mentions of Stoker's inescapable racism/antisemitism under the cut.]

Jonathan Harker: Jonathan is barely described but in possession of hair that turns white over the course of the novel. He possibly has a beard or a lot of stubble following the unfortunate yeeting of his shaving mirror. Like many of Bram Stoker's hunky lawyer protagonists, he's more often describing characters than being described by them.

Mina Harker: She is described by Seward as "attractive," "sweet-faced," and "dainty looking." She also has eyes that blaze like "pole stars," which is a very common description in Stoker's greater body of work (See: Stephen Norman in The Man and Teuta Vissarion in Lady of the Shroud) and match with his rapturous descriptions of real world actress Geneviève Ward. While it isn't as common a denotation of willfulness and determination as aquiline noses, it's generally used to indicate female characters who are very hardcore and may obtain a gun. Her skin is light enough for the red mark she obtains to be clearly visible upon it, although I will note that Mimi Salton from Lair of the White Worm is both undeniably a Mina 2.0 and mixed race/darker skinned, which might be worth considering in the realm of headcanon given how frequently Stoker just recycles characters and their physical attributes.

Lucy Westerna: She's pretty, and her weight and appearance definitely fluctuates over the course of her illness. Her hair is laid out in "sunny ripples" while she's alive. She becomes a "dark-haired woman" while undead. This frustrates many many critics and commentators. It's been proposed that the "sunny ripples" just refers to the gloss on her dark hair. It's been proposed the blondeness/darkness hair is an indicator of her innate goodness/evilness... like Smurfette (which has--again--some Stoker-typical racist implications). The most obvious Doylist explanation is that Stoker cannot track characters' hair color much as he cannot track all his dates.

Jack Seward: Strong jaw. Nice forehead. Immense lunatic asylum. He's also mentioned as being thin in comparison to Renfield and Lucy thinks he's handsome (although obviously not as desirable as Arthur).

Arthur Holmwood: His hair is curly. He is tall. He is also a hottie, as attested to by Lucy and by Jack (who finds him very manly as he kills his vampire fiancee).

Quincey P. Morris: I haven't recalled or been able to look up any major descriptors. He apparently carries himself like a "moral Viking" (as Jack attests in the midst of commenting on yet another friend's manliness). I went into some detail as to how he reads in terms of race here and how it might mesh with Lucy's comparison of him to Othello.

Abraham Van Helsing: After the Count, he's the most thoroughly described character in terms of physiognomy, and that physiognomy... is more or less the spitting image of Bram Stoker as he describes himself (...you know, Abraham "Bram" Stoker, who has the same first name as this super genius great-at-everything character). He's got sensitive nostrils, big forehead bumps, a nice jaw, a big mouth, a strong build, and red hair. I wrote a comparison between him and Stoker here. I will also note that the forehead bumps are a phrenological feature denoting creativity and that Jonathan remarks that he apparently has eyebrows incompatible with self doubt.

R. M. Renfield: He appears to be swoler than Seward even if his swoleness is to no avail against Dracula.

Dracula: There is a lot to unpack with Dracula. He has an aquiline nose, which is one of the absolutely most significant recurring features in Stoker's greater corpus (See: The Judge from "The Judge's House"; Solomon Mendoza from The Watter's Mou; Don Bernadino from The Mystery of the Sea; Joy Ogilvie from Lady Athlyne; and Edgar Caswall from The Lair of the White Worm), and this trait was shared by his boss and Idol Henry Irving. It undoubtedly has physiongomic significance to Stoker, who seems to use it to denote command and leadership, although it is worth noting that Cesare Lombroso mentions aquiline noses as a feature of murderers and that many critics have pointed out its potential connections to Stoker's antisemitism (and specifically the suspicion regarding Jewish immigrants in the wake of the Jack the Ripper killings). Dracula additionally has a "domed forehead," which can paradoxically be associated in physiognomy with both high intellect and mental feebleness. His sharp teeth are a trait Stoker associates with "a militant instinct" (Lombroso, again, connects them with murderers) and are described in much the same way he describes Alfred Lord Tennyson and Sir Richard Burton's teeth, although he took notes from Sabine Baring-Gould's Book of Were-wolves in which sharp teeth are a werewolf trait. We also have pretty explicit evidence that Dracula's unibrow, pointy nails, and hairy palms are also from Baring-Gould. Overall, Dracula seems to be a real hodgepodge of physiognomic traits that seem to haunt Stoker's work, racist criminological theory, and actual folklore.

[sokkagatekeeper]

Hey uh this might be a weird question (and cw for eugenics and racism mentions, feel free to discard this ask if you don't want to engage with those topics) but i saw an old post of yours abt the antrophologist guy who measured aangs skull. And like. That was always so INCREDIBLY jarring to me. I'm swedish and here those things are p exclusively known as a symbol of eugenics (specifically the "racial hygiene" aspect of eugenics, including things like forced sterilisation of indigenous people) Like, in school history books, the eugenics section is p much always illustrated w pictures of sami (indigenous) pp being forced to have their skulls measured. And idk if those devices are less known in america? If they have different associations? Or at least not the same symbolic value/immediate eugenics association? Because i WANT to believe that they didn't actually intentionally throw in an eugenics symbol like that. Especially for a character that's supposed to be somewhat sympathetic. Avatar might handle some heavy topics but this was just thrown in there so flippantly, I was legitimately shocked the first time i saw it. Idk it's just insane that i've never seen anyone talk about it, so surely that association might not be as prevalent in other countries or something?? Right???? Or how have people just brushed over this???? What the fuck actually

oh i mean i've definitely seen discussion of this in the fandom before, if mostly somewhat flippant references to how bad that was. yes, phrenology has been used as a tool of racist oppression in far more places than just sweden. it's possible that it's less known in other places, but i'm american and was able to recognize it. my inclination is to believe that the scene with professor zei measuring aang's skull was written thoughtlessly, by someone who had seen references to skull-measuring at some point but didn't actually know what it implied. it's possible that they were trying to subtly imply something about zei (maybe that he cares more about knowledge for knowledge's sake than about how that knowledge is applied and who it harms). that would also go along with the fact that he refers to aang as a "living relic"—a truly insanely offensive thing to say to him—and really does seem to think of him as an object of study rather than a person. he then, of course, ends up being buried in the library, because of the very fact that he values "knowledge" in the abstract without caring about being able to accomplish anything material with it. but again, this may be too generous of a reading; even if this is what the writers were going for, i still think it's pretty distasteful to show a skull-measuring scene completely out-of-the-blue like that in a children's show without properly addressing it. like you said, atla handles heavy topics, but this really only works if the audience recognizes the device for what it is and what real-world history it has, which many of the children for whom the show is intended would not.

[cocogrrrl]

rendezvous

Chapter 3: Rough Starts

the story kicks off as kyle and yn get a drink while the black stones also brews a fun idea in the process

wc: 2328 cws: drinking (very light), mentions of rehab and drugs (brief) check the series master list here! previous chapter

All eyes were on Kyle that very moment—including YN’s. Kenny was right; she did seem like she was about to head out. He needed to act fast. 

All the attention garnered on Kyle made him rather uneasy, though. ‘Your name is Brad Plum. Kind of like Brad Pitt, but, like, the pits of plums.’ Kyle mentally told himself, reminding himself what he was here for.

He’ll be playing as Brad Plum, an overconfident, almost annoying man who’s a coward. He is a hiring manager for some food company, an awful one at that. He’s too caught up in his own business to be listening to others. He has no girlfriend, no pets, nothing. He invests his time in something stupid, like phrenology. He acts tough when really he’s a coward inside. In short, he’s kind of a fucking disappointment. Yeah, that’s who Brad Plum will be.

Is there anything good about Brad Plum? Yeah! He’s not hateful of others for something they can’t control, but that’s the bare minimum for humans. I guess you could call him shrewd to some extent. He definitely has confidence, to say the least. He’s a proud but a full of shit man. That’s kind of funny.

That was just to let the reader know who he’ll play, though. Kyle wasted absolutely no time standing and thinking. He made his way to YN with a confident stride. Luckily, the door slam had caught her attention as well, so her eyes were fixated on him. The longer time went on, the less people started to care about Kyle's existence. Thank god as well.

He took a deep breath in before he met eyes with her, a smug grin on his face. “You think I can buy you a drink, pretty?”

YN seemed taken aback, to say the least, but she seemed to be intrigued by Brad’s outwardness. Score. “Huh, well, why not?” She chuckled, getting back in her seat.

The two girls accompanying her, Red and Bebe, seemed entertained by Brad as well. She quickly turned to them, most likely asking if it was okay if she were to spend time here. They seemed to nod in reply, Bebe and Red quickly moving a few seats away from YN, giving Brad space to sit beside YN—which he took gladly.

“So, what’s your name?” He asked.

“I’m YN,” she said, leaning her upper body weight on the counter with her arms tucked under her chest, her head leaning to the side as she looked at Brad. “What’s your name?”

“Brad Plum.” He started to rethink the identity he took upon. It sounded like shit.

“You don’t look like a Brad or a Plum.” She replied, a small giggle following after.

“I know. I get that a lot. It’s what my parents picked, though.”

“Really? Where’d they get the name from?”

“My mom loves Brad Pitt.” Mom being Kyle. Well, he didn’t love Brad Pitt, he just loved him in Fight Club, Inglorious Bastards, and even Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Did you know Brad Pitt was Metro Man from Megamind? Kyle knew. He kinda liked Brad Pitt.

“Mhm.” She hummed.

The air felt stale. Brad's dry and seemingly disinterested replies, even if he was the one who asked YN for a drink, seemed to be failing. Maybe the overly self-assured and cold personality he’s putting up won’t get him so far. He should be a lot nicer.

“Sorry. This is getting awkward.” He shook his head, laughing at himself to relieve some awkwardness that had risen. ”What do you want?” He said, head nodding to the assortment of drinks presented before them.

“Hmm, I think I’ll just get a Riesling.”

“Really?” He raised a brow.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s very light.” In Kyle’s honest opinion, he thought that she’d go for something a little more strong—like a marsala or some vodka. 

“I’ve had some to drink already, and I gotta do something later. Can’t waste your offer on something completely boring.”

“Yeah?” He asked, not quite getting where she was heading at.

“Like, I can’t just go for some water, you know?. Although I’d be fine with it, I don’t think it’s worth the confidence you mustered up earlier. Everyone was looking at you, and I’d hate it if the person I asked out just wanted water after all the effort I gave.”

A surprised look was on Kyle’s face. Huh. He didn’t think that the city-infamous YN would be so considerate. Was this the right guy? I mean, she sure sounded like her, but the YN he’s taking down is the underbelly of the crime scene here. “How thoughtful of you.”

“Of course.” She said, giving him a polite smile.

The drinks would come later, though, since it seemed like Brad and YN were quickly caught in a string of conversations back-to-back. She seemed already very interested in him, to his luck. Perhaps she was just being nice to him as well, feeling some pity for a guy who got stoned by the harsh eyes of many people when he set foot in the bar.

Whatever the reason may be, it seemed like things were going well for him. From Drew Barrymore to airline food to the best dog breed, it seemed like their first 15 minutes together never had too many awkward silences.

“Personally, I’m more of a miniature dog lover, but we can always agree to disagree.” YN sighed defeatedly, raising her hands up.

Brad had just made an argument as to why golden retrievers were far better than Shih Tzus, even if Kyle didn’t really have much of a strong love for goldies. He was much more of a Borzoi type of guy. I mean, their long noses really sell it for him.

“Yeah? Shih Tzus are always just two things: a show dog or an Asian family’s common household pet.” Brad spat back.

“Well, golden retrievers are the white-picket fence of dogs! At least I’m not that boring.” You pouted, crossing your arms.

Out of nowhere, Bebe walked up to YN and gave her a tap on the back. Her attention was quickly diverted to hers. They exchanged a few words—none that Kyle could make out, unfortunately–—but YN turned back soon after.

“Hey, I’m just gonna go to the bathroom for a bit, okay? You go order our drinks while I’m at it.” She said, already getting up from her seat.

Brad aptly nodded. “Oh, sure.” Well, it’s not like he had much of a choice anyway.

You headed to the restroom with Bebe and Red, much to Kyle’s confusion. Why were you going there as a pack? Maybe it’s just a girl thing, he thought.

⋆｡˚ ✧ ˚ ༘ ⋆｡˚

Snickers and giggles filled the empty restroom as you went inside with the girls.

“Okay, so what do we think of the guy?” Red started.

“Hmm, I think he’s cute.” You hummed, looking in the mirror as pulled out your lip gloss to touch it up. 

In all honesty, you didn’t think that much of Brad yet. You thought he was kind of dorky, which you found adorable. He was also a bit too self-assured for your liking as well, but he was cute nonetheless.

“I’m pretty sure he’s a fucking narc, though,” Bebe said with a visible pout you caught by the corner of your eye, resting her back on the surface of the sinks.

“Huh? How do you know?” You asked, looking at the blonde through the mirror as you raised a brow.

“Remember Stan? The guy I met at rehab a few months ago and sold molly to?”

“Yeah?”

“I got close to him at one point, and he said that his best friend was the one who pushed him to go there. He told me he was a cop, then he showed me a pic of the guy. He looks exactly like that Brad guy you’re talking to.”

“Shit.” You said, clicking your tongue.

“Dude. I think he’s undercover. You know, he’s probably trying to get some dirt on us.” Bebe noted.

You sighed, shaking your head in disappointment. You thought you were gonna have some fun tonight. “Yeah.”

“Well, he definitely did his research well since he went for you, YN,” Red said.

“What do you mean?” You hummed

“You’re the only one in our group who’s single.”

“I guess you do make a point.” You chuckled, putting your lipstick back in your purse. Bebe was with Clyde, and Red was with Heidi, but most likely Brad was taking a lucky guess going for you. It’s best to strike at the head, right?

“Are you gonna ghost him, YN?” Bebe asked, raising a brow as you.

“No,” you answered as an idea started to form in your head. “Bebe, try to get in contact with Stan if you can. Red, Heidi grew up here, right?” They both nodded, sharing a slightly confused look. “I want you guys to look further into this ‘Brad’ guy we’re dealing with. I want to have some leverage as well.

“I think we should play around with him, see how far he’s willing to go get that dirt. You know, just for shits and giggles.” If you were going to end up getting arrested in the end, you might as well have fun while you’re at it.

Yet this seemed like a weird position to put him in. I mean, a few girls dragging a guy somewhere? If you played your cards right, you might be able to convince Brad to come. At the same time, though, what if the guy you got was wrong? You hoped what Bebe said was right.

If your guesses were correct, you were going to have to go the long route with Brad. Make him think that he's gonna have you by the end of tonight, when really you're gonna fake a "hard-to-get" thing that you know he'll never get.

Red already got on her phone texting her girlfriend whilst Bebe shared a devious grin with you. “We should bring him with us tonight,” She said with a giggle.

“You think he’ll come?” Red asked, cautiousness lacing her face.

“If he’s desperate enough, maybe. ” You smiled. 

⋆｡˚ ✧ ˚ ༘ ⋆｡˚

 After a while, Kyle finally catches YN exiting the restroom with the two girls, who made their way back to where they were earlier.

“Hey, Brad,” she greeted, taking her seat. Kyle noted the more cleaned-up look on her face. She must’ve retouched her makeup while in the bathroom. He wondered why. Maybe because she must’ve taken a liking to him already? Well, he’d hope so. “Sorry for taking so long. Girl things.” She said with a laugh.

“Don’t sweat it.” He gave her a reassuring smile, passing her the riesling she ordered.

“Thank you,” she nodded, taking the drink in hand. “Cheers?” She asked, raising the glass.

“Cheers,” Brad reaffirmed, clinking his glass of whiskey on the rocks with her glass of wine.

“So, uh, Brad,” he answered you with a hum. “What do you do for a living?”

“Huh?” He was taken aback by the randomness of the question.

“Sorry, I’m just trying to break the ice.” She laughed, placing a hand on top of his as her thumb rubbed on the back of his hand.

He was not drunk enough for this. “It’s totally fine. I’m a hiring manager.”

“Really? For what company?”

“Oh, Whole Foods Market.” He said, Whole Foods was the first company that came to his mind. It’s probably not like she was going to fact-check him anyway. ”What do you do?”

“I’m a storage facility worker or was. Recently got blown off.”

“That sucks.” He said, giving her a sympathetic frown. “Where’d you get money since then?”

“Comission side gigs.” 

“Huh?”

“I’m an artist.” Not quite the answer he was expecting.

He expected that she was going to say that she was on the streets dealing whatever substances she had, but maybe she was going to hide it from him for now. I mean, that’s why undercover missions take a while so that you can wait to slowly break the target.

“Yeah? Could you show me some of your art?”

“My phone’s almost dead, so I can’t show it.” What a convenient excuse. “Maybe some other time? I’d love to showcase it.”

“I’d love to see it as well.” He gave her a grin, placing his hand on top of hers.

“Thanks.” You caught a faint smile tugging at the end of her lips. “Say, Brad,”

“Mhm?”

“The girls and I have some business to tend to—if you know what I mean.” She said, dragging a finger on his forearm, a smug look on her face. “Do you wanna come with us?”

Had he already hit a gold mine? No, a diamond mine? As a first-time undercover cop, he felt incredibly lucky. Many of his higher-ups had told him how difficult it was to have their guys break and let them in. This had to be a joke. There was no way she was already inviting him to go commit some atrocities and shit with him. 

Be it a joke or not, it was best to take up the offer than not. If he gets in some deep shit already, then good for him. If not, at least he’s already building rapport with the three.

But what would this mean in a context if he weren't undercover? Shit, was he going to be brought to some weird orgy?

“Are you sure? I mean, I really hope I’m not interrupting anything.” He said worriedly, hoping it wasn't actually the latter.

“Don’t worry,” she smiled, the finger on his arm finding itself to now be her hand cupping his cheek. He held back everything to not blush. He couldn’t let physical affection break him like this. “We’d love to have you with us.”

“Sure, then.”

“Really?”

“Just so I could spend more time with a pretty face like you.” He smiled, hooking his finger under her chin.

next chapter.

[bookshelfdreams]

Ok, let's try this: Middle-European skull, 58 cm circumference, high forehead, not very promiment temple indentations, rather flat cheekbones, brow curves drooping outward. Go!

ok first of all, I appreciate the detail, but I would much rather see for myself. The energy you're sending is blasting through my walls I have no problem envisioning your skull exactly as it is. The facial bones aren't all that important. I'll have to do a little bit of psychokinesis, but I assume you're okay with being touched. My hands can be a little cold, please try not to flinch. Concentrate and hold very still as you're reading this.

Your temples are indeed a bit dented, the left one a tad more than the right and a little oval, but right off the bat I'm noticing a certain bumpiness to your sutura sagitalis. You sometimes find it difficult to speak to strangers, don't you? Especially in professional settings, or situations where you feel like you might get judged. Your occipital bone is very well-rounded, one of the nicest I have ever felt, it lays in the hand beautifully. This means you're really in touch with your subconscious mind. It's the mark of artists. Your temple dents also speak to this; your thinking is more creative than mathematical, you can get lost in the details easily, but here, this ridge right above your ear: for someone with such dents you're actually quite organized.

Oh and here, a bump on your parietal: there's a health issue you should deal with.

If you want to learn more I can make you a special offer to one of my online seminars. They're normally 3000€ per person but if you book today, it'll only cost you 1499,99€!

[monstercollection]

This is another moment where Stoker is using phrenology in the description of his characters.

Phrenology is the study of a person’s features to determine things about their character.

It was a pseudoscience that was (and certain aspects of it still are) used to prop up racist and eugenicist ideas. Non-European features were believed to correspond to corrupt character and low intelligence. Dracula’s description (hairy, high bridged nose, shape of his forehead etc.) correspond to the features that indicate an inferior person.

Phrenology also involves the mapping out of the subject’s head, including it’s bumps and ridges, it’s size and the distance between certain parts. This is why Mina describes all of the bumps on his head and the distance behind his ears and all of that. I couldn’t tell you exactly what they mean because this is something I don’t have more than surface knowledge about, but it would’ve had significance to Stoker and his readers at the time.

Mina describes Van Helsing is described as having a “good-sized” nose, and goes into detail down to the nostrils. Folks have already talked a lot about the anti-semitism in how Dracula is described. In contrast, Stoker makes sure to highlight Van Helsing’s very Western European features. For him, having those features are “proof” of a superior intelligence and a kind, trustworthy demeanor.

For Stoker, these things were not a matter of unconscious biases. As someone who bought into phrenology and eugenics, these features were unquestionable scientific proof of a person’s character to him.

I think Stoker’s intention with having Mina describe these things is that we see she is observant, a good judge of character, and someone who is familiar with the latest “scientific ideas” pertaining to psychology, medicine etc. It also signals that she is especially good at protecting her virtue because she would therefor know how to recognize an interloper like Dracula who represents the infiltration of England by inferior, less-than-human foreigners.

There's describing a character's appearance, and then there's-

Whatever the hell this is?

Ma'am nobody is gonna construct a 3D model of his forehead-ridges in their mind

[atundratoadstool]

How do you think the story would play out if Mr. Hawkins never got that attack of gout and was the one who went to Castle Dracula?

[CW: General spoilers]

There's so little in the text as it stands about Peter Hawkins that it's hard to predict what would have happened. Stoker clearly seems to have contemplated making Hawkins (or some version of the character) have a bigger role in the text, however. I've seen other posts circulating that draw attention to the fact that the Hawkins of the notes originally agreed to sent the Count a clerk who did not speak German, which one might read as giving the character some sense of complicity in what eventually befalls Jonathan, and I recall that I saw one headcanon pre-DD that Hawkins' decision to make Jonathan his heir is informed by some feeling of guilt--justified or unjustified. If you take the notes as a means to read Hawkins a character perhaps a little more willing to ignore some potential red flags with a client somebody else is dealing with (and as somebody who's already been corresponding with the Count and might have a better feel for him), you might be able to envision a different trajectory were the characters swapped. I can see Hawkins, given this characterization, being a little less naive at the onset and a little less willing to defy the Count once things get hairy--somebody a little more likely to adhere to professional distance and make more excuses for the unfolding horrors of the castle as misunderstandings or bad dreams.

This is all an extraction, however, from a page or two of Stoker's abominable scribbling, and another direction in which I think you might be able to take those scribbles is an observation that Hawkins' earlier name was Abraham Aaronson. Virtually every character Stoker writes has some element of himself (Mina's brain/heart division, Seward's workaholic nature, Jonathan's legal training), and I feel that it probably signifies something that Hawkins originally had Stoker's first name... particularly given that the text as completed contains a character named Abraham who also has Stoker's physical attributes down to the phrenological forehead bumps (Van Helsing). If we read Hawkins as yet another Stoker self insert, I think you can end up with a really fascinating story in which the guy being menaced and gaslit by Count "looks very similar to Henry Irving" Dracula is much closer to Stoker's age and position in the world. I can't say what direction, precisely, that would go, but you could suddenly have a text that is a lot more overtly and painfully biographical.

Lastly, if one wants the author firmly dead and to undertake readings that remain only within the confines of the text, I think that Peter Hawkins is a figure--like many of Dracula's parental figures--whose primary skill is dropping dead very suddenly. I think a very boring but very realistic Watsonian option is that he arrives at Castle Dracula and suddenly drops dead, leaving the Count with less cooking to do as he completes his real estate transaction.