Was the controversy with Akira Yoshida the cause of Betsy Braddock’s reversion?

[JDC001]

We all know that the usual parties have been complaining about racial stereotypes, sexual objectifiication, cultural appropriation, ethnic tokenism, political correctness, etcetera for the longest time , but nothing happened at all. At most , they suddenly changed BB’s costume from a leotard to a jumpsuit (which didn’t last too long either). What happened in 2018 to cause this to finally happen at last? The only thing I can think of is You-Know-Who became Editor-In-Chief. And now we all know what was the “skeleton in the closet”, so to speak. So, put this and that Together, did that serve as the tipping-point to make BB White again?

[Psyknight]

I think it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

[yogaflame]

Whatever the reason, it was long overdue!

[Harpsikord]

I have a baaaaaad feeling about this thread.

But also, no, I don't think so.

[KurtW95]

No clue. Maybe. Personally, I found the outrage over CB’s old pen name to be moronic and overblown (especially since he seems to really be into Japanese culture and iIRC, has a Japanese wife), but it could’ve had something to do with it. Though I welcome the change anyway because I’m not a fan of race changes as a general rule and always thought the Psylocke body swap was stupid.

[Psyknight]

While the jumpsuit didn’t last, the absence of a leotard did. Every costume after had pants, except one Astral Plane costume, which was an armored dress.

[ExodusCloak]

Psylocke was meant to return to her original body in Claremonts X-treme X-Men but editorial felt commerically she had more value in the Asian body in terms of recognizability.

I think it may have played a part however fans and writers like Willow Wilson have been quite vocal on the the issue for years now. I'd imagine they eventually listened.

[WallStreeter]

The editor in chief impersonated a Japanese writer and wrote martial arts stories. How stereotypical. I think there's a good chance Marvel felt that the way Psylocke had become Asian was a horrible stereotype. A woman doesn't have to turn Asian to be a martial artist. They could have just had her undergo training.

Psylocke as Asian though could have worked, had they developed Kwannon's backstory and not just made her an Asian stereotype (ninja). Since it was Elizabeth's mind in Kwannon's body, they could show Kwannon's past, shown Psylocke's issues with Kwannon's family (their daughter's body is alive but someone else is occupying it) and shown Elizabeth's struggle with guilt and other ramifications.

Marvel can push characters always meant to be Asian like Armor and Karma.

[crimsontt]

We know that writters attempt this before and it seems that the marvel offices has always denied. I personality don’t think that the body swap was a racist plot per say, but yes some writters do a terrible job in her characterization, portraying Psylocke as a cheap trope. So in this days of so much enlightening on social/ racial topics, and both Marvel and Disney embracing diversity as a core value, the most correct thing to the x-editor in chief, who has been in the center of a polemic regarding cultural appropriation, would be to end the psylocke controversy.

[KurtW95]

The editor in chief impersonated a Japanese writer and wrote martial arts stories.

And non-martial arts stories like “Thor: Son of Asgard.”

A woman doesn't have to turn Asian to be a martial artist. They could have just had her undergo training.

Or a man. Which is why the demands to make Danny Rand Asian were so ludicrous.

Marvel can push characters always meant to be Asian like Armor and Karma.

Or Jubilee. Arguably Marvel’s most popular Asian character, thanks to X-Men: TAS.

[Dthirds3]

I think the gimmick got old and it was just time to change her back

[Psyknight]

I’ve been saying for awhile that this was inevitable. The more I immersed myself in X-men fandom the more clear it became that Asian Psylocke is polarizing and she will never not be polarizing. It didn’t matter how much the writing for her improved, or how many non thong costumes she wore, or how the artists stopped zooming in on her butt. There was always a faction of people who didn’t care and just wouldn’t give her a chance. To them, Psylocke just being in that body was wrong, offensive, etc. and that tainted anything done with her. It was only a matter of time before Marvel was like, why bother? Why bother trying to make improvements to the character if only half of their audience was going to care? I believe this gradually become more clear to them the more social media became a thing and made it easier to access fan opinions.

Granted the internet is an echo chamber that can make things seem like a bigger deal than they are, but that and talking to fans at comic con is all they’ve got to go on. There’s no real Cerebro they can use to read all our minds.

[Anduinel]

Nah. It was just the next thing to do with this character that would have any real story impact. Psylocke has been drifting with this vague murder-junkie personality for a bit, and there's really only so many stories writers can wring out of that. Swapping her back to her original body (if that's indeed what's happening) just gives them a relatively fresh plot point to work with.

[PrezValentine]

Doubt it. This topic only came back here for real when the spoiler cover came out and the only people I see mentioning it outside are on 4chan, jokingly calling CB the Shogun or just a weeb. It's probably just something to justify MiM's existence as a book or something Zub pitched and got done somehow.

[WebLurker]

I don't know, at this point I think that Psylocke being Asian (whether the comics idea that her mind was put in an Asian woman's body or just that she "aways" was, like most adaptations have it) is too engrained in the character to remove.