There's no distinction. there's nothing internally different in an Asian body. The world saw an an Asian woman when they looked at Betsy and saw a black woman when they looked at Rachel. if you saw Betsy walking down the street you wouldn't think "Hmm i bet that's an upper class British womans mind in that Asian body and if you had seen Rachel before the news coverage with her family you wouldn't think the mom is in BlackFace Really the only distinction is Rachel voluntarily donned another race and became deeply embedded in that culture whereas Betsy was forced to switch and seemed to only embrace kimonos and high kicks
There is a distinction though... in that Rachel was actually white pretending to be black. Psylocke wasn't pretending. She was physically asian. I say this respectfully but if you are not willing the acknowledge the distinction then there is a willing lack of nuance to the conversation. If you live for decades in an asian body... you'll deal with what it means to be discriminated as an asian. The fact that Psylocke "only embraced kimonos and high kicks" leads me to bring up two points:
1.) Orientalism/fetishism on the part of the writers and artists. However, I personally don't put that on the character. I place that criticism on the creative teams who fetishized her outward appearance and lacked the ability to understand the rich story-telling potential about what it means to have a complex racial, ethnic and cultural identity.
2.) There is also a problematic underlying aspect inherent in your point. And that is to be truly asian one must act a certain way or like certain things. An asian who was born and raised by a white family in a white community is no less an asian than someone who was born and raised in Japan. It's just a different asian experience. We as asians have no obligation to act in a certain way in order for others to accept us as being sufficiently asian. There is no "right" way to be asian. The mere fact that we are physically asian qualifies us to be asians.
I've already written a ton about Psylocke and asian identity over the various Psylocke-related threads the past few days... It's too draining to continue doing so lol I just want to go back to being a lurker But if you go back and read some of my posts you will see my explanations about how I have always connected with Psylocke as I am an asian/caucasian mix with a weird ethnic and cultural background. Psylocke's own convoluted identity is relatable to those of us who's identities seem to make people uncomfortable because we cannot be put into neat and tidy little boxes. I just think its funny how people are telling me that I as an asian cannot claim Psylocke as representative of my asian experience.
Probably Jubilee or Karma. Maybe Surge if people remember she exists.
I wore a Jubilee t-shirt (the one where she is posing like the Morton Salt girl) to my local Pride this summer. To say that some people recognized Jubilee on my shirt would be an understatement. I literally lost track of the amount of people that:
- shouted, “Jubilee!!” “Sweet omg is that Jubilee?!” “Awesome Jubilee shirt, heck yeah!!”
- stopped me to give me a high five or hug for the sole reason of having a Jubilee shirt...
- followed me to get a better look and take a picture of my shirt and talk about her as a character.
A similar situation happened at comic con a few years ago. I even was handed free comic books with Jubilee on the cover, or given free Jubilee comic art from the artists...
So yeah, my answer would be an obvious Jubilee. Even though I like Karma, I don’t think I would have had people stop me to talk about the shirt at all. Both are great characters... but Jubilee is much more recognizable.
Awesome! I love when people comment on my comic/movie/TV themed t-shirts (currently rocking a Stranger Things related t-shirt). Whenever I go to comic con, I just buy shirts and talk to a few celebrities. Buying comics are an afterthought, strangely lol. But yeah, Jubes will probably get a push. She and Rogue were my favorites in the 90s FOX cartoon. I took to Jubes because she was a kid like I was at the time.
I initially liked Jubilee for the same reason, but grew to learn more about her through the comics... not long and she became my favorite comic hero
Stranger Things is amazing, btw!
Sounds like an awesome shirt. Jubilee is definitely the most popular Asian character, but ninja-psylocke is probably still sticking around and who get used more will depend, as always, on who's writing...
Awesome! The first time I bought a comic book was during OZT and got to know the comic version of Jubilee when she had just escaped from Bastion and ran into Logan in the desert. It was a heartfelt, touching moment even for someone who only knew of the 90s cartoon.
Agreed!!Stranger Things is amazing, btw!
Jubilee is the obvious answer though I still stan for Karma.
But you couldnt tell Rachel wasnt black tho she lived her life as a black woman there's no real world correlation for Psylockes situation The mind of a British upper class white lady was placed in the body of an Asian superhero with all her memories intact and now she's all Kimonos and katanas reads a bit icky its akin to a Irish girl waking up in the body of a Brown Guys body in the Bronx and being great at basketball wearing baggy clothes and getting gold teeth Rachel believes race is a social construct, she taught African studies at a college and was even the president of her chapters NAACP
Has it been decades for 616 Betsy tho? You dont think Rachel dealt with discrimination as a "black" woman? She has a black husband and 2 black kids which comes with all sorts of difficulties you don't think a person "pretending" and dealing with that deserves more credit than someone who seemingly only takes the stereotypical "highlights" of a culture?
well i agree with you on all this
I don't think i raised an issue or stated that i believe Asians should behave in any certain way. If that's the you got im sorry that's toootally not where i was going
Yeah im not saying it is, its annoying i still have people comment how i "defy" their notions of a black dude and/or a gay guy and/or a southern Im well aware of the cultural obligations society puts on minorities and tend to ignore them
Im not saying you cant not at all. Who am i to stand in.the way of someone's enjoyment of an entertainment outlet i also enjoy.
If Us X-Fans are anything it's passionate!!