Originally Posted by
LadyP
By FAR.
Not only did they have Clark chicken out, but they ended up doing more harm to his character than good in order to push the status quo. They had him appearing insecure to an almost pathetic extent. His obsession to assimilate as if he were only human led him to not pursue a relationship with the one woman who truly and absolutely understood him because she could also empathize. The one woman whom we saw over and over again that he was truly vulnerable with and was able to trust implicitly, more so than the wife who is supposedly “his be all and end all.” 😒
The current status quo as far as I am concerned, has had the taint of Clark’s obsession to assimilate as a human and be “normal”, whatever that means. It’s a reflection of his desire to pretend to just be Clark Kent, while ignoring the rest of himself. As a child of immigrant parents myself, who at one point had to grapple with varying cultural identities because in one crowd I was seen as one thing and in a different crowd as another, that whole “Clark is who I am” in order to pretend to just be human, while ignoring the legacy and heritage his biological parents basically sacrificed their life’s blood to ensure he was able to retain along with given a chance to live, leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It is a turn off that along with being diminishing is also insulting. Many who have experienced the reality of being in a society that attempts to waterdown or erase aspects of a person’s cultural identity that differs with the dominant culture can attest to the reality of how problematic assimilating at the cost of ones heritage and identity can be. There is no problem in adapting to a new environment, it is a necessity of life and necessary for growth. However it differs greatly from assimilation. History and present racial and ethnic conflicts continue to show us over and over again the detrimental effects of prejudice against cultural and racial differences. Presently in the U.S, we are still reeling from yet another mass shooting which stemmed from prejudice. For Superman, a character that was once symbolic of the ultimate immigrant story, a defender of all, a character who did not use to shun his Kryptonian heritage, to be a character who is now shown as being so insecure in who he is, that he seeks validity and acceptance from a human love interest in order to feel human or “normal” is problematic for me. He has shunned, as well as recently castigated the one woman, Diana, who saw him for all of who he was and called him by the name given to him by his birth parents - that was reflective of his identity and heritage. But no, we are expected to accept it as romantic when he denies Kal-El, so he can be Clark Kent with the other female. No thanks. 🙄
Diana used to call Clark, Clark, Superman, and Kal based on the environment and situation. I found that significant. In a way it was acknowledging at different instances he was more one than the other, but it also showed that she saw all these parts.