How much has the X-Men as a reflection of real life minorities changed overtime?

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

People complaining that they dont want theXMen as a metaphor for minorities are a good metaphor for people who don't want to read about minorities. So good job, XBooks.

Most X-Men are gorgeous white people with the athleticism of Olympians and the looks of super models. The reason they're majority white and pretty is so they'll sell comics and merchandise. But because they got their powers the 'wrong way' they also get to be saaaad oppressed minorities who know exactly how it feels to be held down by the man! That way their readers can ignore any criticism lobbed their way by actual black people such as myself, while also explaining how disliking how these billion dollar corporate mascots shield themselves behind actual human suffering means I'm lowkey racist.

Progressives showing their values by purchasing X-comics are as useful to the cause as vegans who shop at whole foods.

[BroHomo]

They also have a habit of treating any kind of restriction on their powers or the use thereof as a terrible curse or government overreach that's a precursor to genocide (which it is, because everything always leads to massacres in these books). There's never any grey area, like requiring mutant criminals to take X-gene cures or putting inhibitors on someone like Iceman or Storm so they don't accidentally end the world on a bad day. The only real exception seems to be Rouge.

That's literally what I said. Every attempt at even reasonable regulation is always masking an attempt at genocide, because the writers apparently don't know what nuance is and seem to think the only way the X-men can be heroes is if the human bad guys are all Hitler

Bro what you are proposing sounds llike the precursor to genocide..because looking tat human history thats how it starts. Regulating/Restrict the actions of dangerous minorities. Name an example where that doesnt end bad for the people under the 'for your own good' regulations.

Most X-Men are gorgeous white people with the athleticism of Olympians and the looks of super models. The reason they're majority white and pretty is so they'll sell comics and merchandise. But because they got their powers the 'wrong way' they also get to be saaaad oppressed minorities who know exactly how it feels to be held down by the man! That way their readers can ignore any criticism lobbed their way by actual black people such as myself, while also explaining how disliking how these billion dollar corporate mascots shield themselves behind actual human suffering means I'm lowkey racist.

I dont think your criticism were ignored cause your black, but they mightve sounded a lil like you Stan Flatscans ???

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

I dont think your criticism were ignored cause your black, but they mightve sounded a lil like you Stan Flatscans ???

Bruh, these cats think they'd be muties if muties were real. They self-loathing.

[Electricmastro]

Stories that tell me that things will never get better and you always lose are not great representation. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be a marginalized group, just that their plight is fictional, and that should be embraced. It's no longer the 60s and you can use actual minority characters (some are X-Men) that can tell a more true to life story about prejudice. My problem is when they try and make the mutant metaphor like the real world. It makes no sense and is often handled poorly.

Makes me realize how often Xavier's dream was handled poorly and neglected to the point of looking stupidly foolish to some, and have this reflected in the series itself by having it look hopeless, dreary, and even downright dystopian.

Looking back, even with the Sentinels being introduced in the 1960s and the angry crowds that formed, Stan Lee's writing very much gave me an impression that definitely feels less dystopian than the feeling later writers have given me, which were likely inspired by dystopian stories such as Days of Future Past. In contrast to the Sentinels and riots, 60s stories also showed non-powered humans being friendly to the X-Men and recognizing that other people feared them, and I feel that mutants like Beast joining the Avengers in the 70s and not really receiving a lot of backlash from crowds added another factor in the complexities in the relations as well. At the very least, I do think there's a difference between:

A. Getting some progress in humans and mutants getting along is hard.

B. Getting some progress in humans and mutants getting along is impossible.

And I also feel that with the aforementioned Days of Future Past, as well as God Loves, Man Kills, the 80s saw human/mutant relations move more to the forefront, but even with all the bad things that happened at that time, there still seemed to be hope and characters didn't seemed to be shamed for having hope in the first place.

The 90s are definitely the era when the antagonism towards mutants really started ramping up, probably starting with X-Tinction Agenda in 1990 and snowballing into the early 2000s with other unfortunate events such as Operation: Zero Tolerance and the Genosha genocide in 2001, as well as extremist religious cults. If it didn't seem impossible already, then depowering most of the mutants in House of M in 2005 surely made it seem as such for many, and left this sort of feeling of the X-Men limping with many wounds ever since, until recently that is.

If Xavier's dream started to feel pointless and foolish to some because of the feeling that humanity is incapable of getting better, impossible to reason with, and is irredeemable, then I myself feel there's a responsibility to be had with the writers that, consciously or not, wrote stories that increased humans' hostility towards mutants, but failed to update Xavier's dream accordingly in response.

It's probably why I'm particularly interested in the direction Hickman is taking. He seemed to take a step back and realize just how bad the hostility against the mutants had gotten, so on his part, a big reason he probably wrote House/Powers was with an intention of updating Xavier's dream in a way that it accordingly addresses the increased hostility that had come before, and that it's not impossible for groups of mutants and humans to live peacefully on the same planet, even if they're far apart from each other.

[The Kid]

Most X-Men are gorgeous white people with the athleticism of Olympians and the looks of super models. The reason they're majority white and pretty is so they'll sell comics and merchandise. But because they got their powers the 'wrong way' they also get to be saaaad oppressed minorities who know exactly how it feels to be held down by the man! That way their readers can ignore any criticism lobbed their way by actual black people such as myself, while also explaining how disliking how these billion dollar corporate mascots shield themselves behind actual human suffering means I'm lowkey racist.

Progressives showing their values by purchasing X-comics are as useful to the cause as vegans who shop at whole foods.

Brilliantly put.

[Electricmastro]

Admirable in the 60s, but no longer necessary. They're their own thing and they don't need to represent minorities. The X-Men aren't a very good representation for all the nuance and ranges that different people go through. They are their own fictional thing and I think that should be the outlook from now on. We have characters to story of real life prejudices and don't need a fictional race to show it. We can now tell authentic stories about prejudice with actual minority characters.

I’m sure there’s a solid argument to be made in regards to how telling stories with non-mutant minorities probably has more potential to be told with less baggage and more nuance at this point, considering Binder’s story basically laying down the foundation of mutant perception and all.

[Agent Z]

Except not really? Like at all? That only makes sense if you go by the entirety of human history. Individual mutants have had higher body counts than entire wars. Comparing the lives lost because of wars and massacres to the lives lost because of even individual mutants and saying they're the same thing actually IS disingenuous.

Jean Grey alone is proof of this.

[Agent Z]

They also have a habit of treating any kind of restriction on their powers or the use thereof as a terrible curse or government overreach that's a precursor to genocide (which it is, because everything always leads to massacres in these books). There's never any grey area, like requiring mutant criminals to take X-gene cures or putting inhibitors on someone like Iceman or Storm so they don't accidentally end the world on a bad day. The only real exception seems to be Rouge.

This will never not be the perfect response to Storm's idiotic line in X3

[Zelena]

They also have a habit of treating any kind of restriction on their powers or the use thereof as a terrible curse or government overreach that's a precursor to genocide (which it is, because everything always leads to massacres in these books). There's never any grey area, like requiring mutant criminals to take X-gene cures or putting inhibitors on someone like Iceman or Storm so they don't accidentally end the world on a bad day. The only real exception seems to be Rouge.

In all fanfictions I read where there is a form of cohabitation between mutants and non-mutants, there are restrictions. It primarily concerns psychics: no telepathic powers in court of justice or in university by example. The cohabitation wasn't perfect and there were often tensions but these restrictions were accepted as the price to pay for cohabitation.
Open conflicts between mutants and non-mutants are rare in fanfictions, these are the interactions and differences of opinions between the protagonists that seem to interest the authors and, I suppose, a too aggressive opponent leaves little room for nuances. So the amateurs authors must make it work… contrary to Marvel authors.
With this in mind, even in a mutant society, I wonder how you can avoid restrictions: a mutant can trust another mutant because he's mutant? In every situation? They are very far from having the same kind of powers that can cancel out…

[BroHomo]

Bruh, these cats think they'd be muties if muties were real. They self-loathing.

Ugh, Dude you're right. lol

[jwatson]

And people don't want the government to regulate their guns either and with the type of weaponry people have access to in the marvel u the average human is far more dangerous than 90% of mutants. If your going to regulate what can be considered weapons no human in the mu should have access to any firearms, chemicals, reed tech, and all human inventions need strict no violence regulations. That way everyone can feel safe.

[tuck frump]

Most X-Men are gorgeous white people with the athleticism of Olympians and the looks of super models. The reason they're majority white and pretty is so they'll sell comics and merchandise. But because they got their powers the 'wrong way' they also get to be saaaad oppressed minorities who know exactly how it feels to be held down by the man! That way their readers can ignore any criticism lobbed their way by actual black people such as myself, while also explaining how disliking how these billion dollar corporate mascots shield themselves behind actual human suffering means I'm lowkey racist.

Progressives showing their values by purchasing X-comics are as useful to the cause as vegans who shop at whole foods.

You lost me at 'purchasing'.

[Zelena]

And people don't want the government to regulate their guns either and with the type of weaponry people have access to in the marvel u the average human is far more dangerous than 90% of mutants. If your going to regulate what can be considered weapons no human in the mu should have access to any firearms, chemicals, reed tech, and all human inventions need strict no violence regulations. That way everyone can feel safe.

USA is not the world.

[jwatson]

USA is not the world.

But that's where these books are produced and where most the important characters are and events happen. So of course it is going to predominantly follow that ideology in a lot of ways just like manga comes from the east

[Zelena]

Bit that's where these books are produced and where most the important characters are and events happen.

Fictional characters in a fictional USA… The limits are the author's beliefs.