Can the Xmen still be a metaphor for discrimination when pretty much all theirs

[Lucyinthesky]

I agree the problem of victim complex can become an issue in fact that was why I disliked some of the themes of decimation because that stage lasted way too long and it seemed like the only thing the X-men could do was survive and help others survive but at the same time they were threated by the rest of the marvel universe as if they were the problem, especially during the Inhumans vs X-men crossover. This didn´t allow for a nuanced story because you either supported the main MU or the X-men and that rift still has not been dealt with.

What I personally like about Dawn of X is that this seems like the first time the X-men were not just reacting to the events around them but actually acting on changing the events to do something new and good for themselves. The only thing missing is what Grunty said, I would like to see them back as active superheros in general for humans, mutants, inhumans,cosmic species, etc. I think that would be the best of both worlds.

[Huntsman Spider]

There are folks who view black people as threats for just existing.

In Texas a little girl was MURDERED by a white male for having Lesbian mothers.

How many white women have tried to use the police as judge, jury and executioner for a black person? Be it bird watching, sitting at Starbucks, doing homework, going to school, walking home, going to work, minding kids or just EXISTING?

If you have a world with mutants- anyone want to take bets on who gets the most police calls?

Trayvon Martin walking home or Glob walking home?

Pretty much what I was trying to say about approaching the X-Men from a viewpoint of intersectionality. To reiterate, the mutant metaphor can be and sometimes is mishandled because the most prominent mutant characters are largely straight, gender-conforming, white, wealthy (or at least middle class), and/or male, who would otherwise be more socially privileged or advantaged if not for their mutant genomes. For one example, a mutant born of African descent and thus spending most of their formative years before the manifestation of their mutant powers as a black person would more than likely have been a target of prejudice, discrimination, and overt hostility to their very existence long before becoming a potential living weapon of mass destruction, so that should engender a somewhat different take on or perception of the mutant struggle with regards to the struggles of real-world marginalized groups.

I agree the problem of victim complex can become an issue in fact that was why I disliked some of the themes of decimation because that stage lasted way too long and it seemed like the only thing the X-men could do was survive and help others survive but at the same time they were threated by the rest of the marvel universe as if they were the problem, especially during the Inhumans vs X-men crossover. This didn´t allow for a nuanced story because you either supported the main MU or the X-men and that rift still has not been dealt with.

What I personally like about Dawn of X is that this seems like the first time the X-men were not just reacting to the events around them but actually acting on changing the events to do something new and good for themselves. The only thing missing is what Grunty said, I would like to see them back as active superheros in general for humans, mutants, inhumans,cosmic species, etc. I think that would be the best of both worlds.

Especially on the bolded, since in the period before Dawn of X and after Avengers Vs. X-Men, there were some writers pushing a narrative that blamed the X-Men and mutants as a whole for their own persecution because they didn't try hard enough to accommodate and ease humanity's fears.

[Omega Alpha]

Moira X did say she was trying to mold both of them so they would build Krakoa but so far they obviously are still them unless it´s shown they were mind controlled or something like Cap was at the beggining of the Iluminati series.

Moira can't control them...but her diary in P10 shows her being to blame for Onslaught, as a side effect of her trying to break Xavier.

[Hizashi]

I have to agree, the mutant metaphor as much as it can be a usefull narrative tool to point towards real world issues involving minorities, falls appart pretty quickly once it's examined too much. Simply because the super natural aspects often contradicts and harms comparision to the real world when examined too closely.

If a person is practicaly born as living weapon, they should by real life standards be registered the same way a weapon owned by a person and it's holder is, to resolve crimes performed with it or determine what ever the holder posses any danger to society.
But since it's a person in a super natural world, where a person can be a living weapon, they suddently get added to a metaphor for real life minorities at which point it's automatically bad to register a person just for how they are born.
So does that mean anyone who is against stronger gun laws in their country is now part of the mutant metaphor too?

And as said, the same applies to how the these purely fictional super powers can be a curse to some and blessing to others. The person born as living weapon is suddently supposed to be proud of it and not desire not to be a living weapon. Because they are again thrown into a metaphor related to real life minorities which often got forced to give up their identity for conformity.
Does that mean someone who suffers from deep depression is supposed to give up medication and risk suicidal urges, just because they should be proud of what they are?

One of the major problems here is that the mutant metaphor's entire foundation is a super hero comic, which results in so many outlandish and super natural elements, combined with over the top and bombastic characters, being placed on top of it, that there is very little room for the necessary grey shading the minority topic requires without losing track of what the comics are meant to represent.

Super heros. People who stand for near impossible to uphold in the real world, but desired by the readers, ideals and virtues, which they keep fighting for against caricature like stand ins for the worst elements of humanity through history and fantasy and of course anything that the elder gods called "the writers" are throwing at them.

Yes mutants in the marvel universe are often presented as victims of hate groups, evil organizations, megalomanic super villains and super natural entities, but mutants are also the source of hate groups, evil organizations, megalomanic villains and super natural entities themself, who both make normal humans and innocent mutants their victims.

The fundamental role of the X-men is to protect the good humans from evil mutants, good mutants from evil humans and good mutants from evil mutants. Because they life in a world of caricatures and over the top normality. But in the end the reader is meant to see them as idealized figures protecting representation of themselves in this fictional world.

After all the reader has the unqiue position where they can identity themself with the mutant heros, innocent civilian mutants but also the normal humans too (and even the more virtues villains). Because everyone can desire to be a hero with awesome powers, identity with people harmed or hated for something they had no hand in and also being just a normal human being themself (and even sympathize with people who did wrong for an understandable reason).

But over the years, especialy the last two decades, the writing has often pushed the mutants collectively more into the primary victim by humans actions role, while seemingly disregarding the human victims and fear that their loss would create in the normal human population. Because of a black and white presented race conflict metaphor, which when pushed too much would require a ton of grey shading.

But grey shading is both hard to do in a black and white morality world and come under critic by people too focused on the minority metaphor.
Not to forget that victimhood is powerfull draw, because many like to feel themself as being wronged, but not that they themself might have been an agressors at times too.

At the same time the standard for displaying the normal humans, which again the reader should identity with too, has settled largely at either ungratefullness and downright hostility towards mutants and their heros. Though this being something that has plagued a lot of modern super hero comics. Essentialy giving the impression that the reader should not identity with the normal anymore.

So the more the mutant metaphor has become pushed to the forefront as the central element of the x-men comics, over the super hero aspects, the more the X-men comics seemed to have suffered from having no clear direction anymore, besides increasing the victim role.
And this is one reason i'm really not a fan of Dawn of X. Because it all seems to be based on this elevation of the victim role of mutants above all else, which contradicts the super hero nature these comics should be based on.
Because super heros are not supposed to falter, give up on their ideals and join force with their super villains on a permant basis. They endure, survive and keep on going with their virtues intact.

Spiderman is not giving up despite the media slamming him, crime never stopping, his civilian life always hanging on a shoe string and his villains always comming back. Captain America won't give up his virtues of what america should be, regardless of how much the government and politicians screw up. Iron Man is not going to conquer the world with his super technology, just because he feels smarter than everyone else. Thor won't just party all day and ignore humanity because they are so weak.
Superman is not abandoning Earth to start a new better Cryptonian civilization because humanity can't stop creating crime and conflict. Batman won't put Gotham to the flames, regardless of how much it's full of crimes and super villains. Wonderwoman is not permanetly returning to her island of amazones because man keep doing bad stuff. Aquaman won't just flood the surface world and wipe out humanity for how much they destroy the ocean.
While these circumstances have on occasion occured, they were never permanent because the basis for these characters contradicts these singular storylines.

Because they are super heros, impossible by real life standards icons of virtues and heroic qualities, who never stop fighting regardless of what the evil elder gods called The Writers are throwing at them in a never ending cycle. Because that's their role.

For the same reason the X-men should not give up hope in co-existince between their people and the rest of humanity (i will never accept the mutant vs. human distinction, because fundamentaly mutants were and are humans just with natural super powers), the believe in good that exist in humanity as a collective and not see themself as above any normal person just because they themself have super powers.
Because they are supposed to be heros. People the readers identity with while also identifying with those they protect. "Nobless Oblige" should not be the mentality of the X-men as a whole, but just of a few of their (many) flawed individuals.

With Dawn of X, Hickman broke several unspoken taboos that exist in super hero comics for a reason. He gave the X-men technology that is actively changing the world, he makes them use their powers to just casualy come back from the dead and he has them react to the consequences of the longtime continuity of their comic existence.
If all super hero comics would do that the Fantastic Four and Iron Man would be in a corperate warfare trying to upstage one another with technologies which would rapidly turn humanity into the Warhammer 40k Empire of Man. Every hero would be like the punisher, in an asylum, trying to take over the world to better it or seeking refuge somewhere in a more peacefull world.
But they aren't. Because of the rules to keep these comics in a permanent status quo, that can only bend but not break in how the heros act, all in order to sustain this fantasy world.

And it's for that reason that the whole Dawn of X status quo appears to me like it's is allready doomed to fail as anything lasting. Because the breaking of the taboos can't last for long.
The main enjoyment i have following this current status quo is the guessing game on what will ultimately doom it, where the button for the self destruction will be and who will ultimately press it. But that's not what these comics should do. They should make someone think that every new sunrise they fought for brings them closer to a better tomorrow. But the tomorrow these characters are currently heading for is unachiavable with their current goal and even contradicts the metaphor that has lead writers to bring them on this path. It all just looks like another missery pile in the making for me.

Allright. Sorry for this massive opinion piece. I do hope everyone who enjoys the current status quo will find the satisfaction in it, regardless of how it will end and what will come after, regardless of how i feel about it.

This is a fantastic post, you raised many great points. The X-Men shouldn't be a 1:1 metaphor for minority discrimination.

I absolutely think there's a place for a book with the X-Men as straight-up superheroes as the hook.

I do see the argument that mutants could be used for a gun rights narrative, pro and con.

[BroHomo]

There are folks who view black people as threats for just existing.

In Texas a little girl was MURDERED by a white male for having Lesbian mothers.

How many white women have tried to use the police as judge, jury and executioner for a black person? Be it bird watching, sitting at Starbucks, doing homework, going to school, walking home, going to work, minding kids or just EXISTING?

If you have a world with mutants- anyone want to take bets on who gets the most police calls?

Trayvon Martin walking home or Glob walking home?

Glob?

But YAS your post was good

Spiderman is not giving up despite the media slamming him, crime never stopping, his civilian life always hanging on a shoe string and his villains always comming back. Captain America won't give up his virtues of what america should be, regardless of how much the government and politicians screw up. Iron Man is not going to conquer the world with his super technology, just because he feels smarter than everyone else. Thor won't just party all day and ignore humanity because they are so weak.
Superman is not abandoning Earth to start a new better Cryptonian civilization because humanity can't stop creating crime and conflict. Batman won't put Gotham to the flames, regardless of how much it's full of crimes and super villains. Wonderwoman is not permanetly returning to her island of amazones because man keep doing bad stuff. Aquaman won't just flood the surface world and wipe out humanity for how much they destroy the ocean.

All those Heroes are adults who CHOSE to do what they do. Mutants just like minorities are usually into a world thats already stacked against them. The Mutant kid walking home from school on a backwoods road in some rural AF town definitely ain't tryna virtue signal by living there just tryna survive. And that's who KraKoa is ultimately for the innocent folks that drafted into a war cause of their genetic. So it's cute using these examples but even Spider-Man has Peter Parker, Batman has Bruce Wayne....ALLL SECRET IDENTITIES proving even these guys need a break from their superhero duty...Must be nice to be able to shed your hero identity+Its baggage, even fort short periods of time. But Mutants don't have that privilege to shed their identity It's right there on their Double Helix

For the same reason the X-men should not give up hope in co-existince between their people and the rest of humanity (i will never accept the mutant vs. human distinction, because fundamentaly mutants were and are humans just with natural super powers), the believe in good that exist in humanity as a collective and not see themself as above any normal person just because they themself have super powers.
Because they are supposed to be heros. People the readers identity with while also identifying with those they protect. "Nobless Oblige" should not be the mentality of the X-men as a whole, but just of a few of their (many) flawed individuals..

lol ok.
By the By did you purposefully use strictly white heroes? Comes across as ano example of people tryna tell minorities how to live

[kurenai24]

No the X-Men can not continue to be a metaphor for discrimination, even some of it's fans in this very thread are trying to distance the franchise away from the metaphors it continuously apes by coming up with lame excuses that sound pedestrian and not well thought out and in fact ignorant.

Also where is a mod to delete some comments, as always when a subject like this is brought up, we have people going off topic.

The trope of “fantastic racism” is inherently racist and will always create conflicts within the narrative and the fan base because the more you think about specific characters the more it breaks down. I think Angel is a great example of this. The son of millionaire who suddenly grows giant white wings that let him fly. His father would be on the 700 club telling people how god turned his son into an angel and if anyone had the gall to say it was from some “genetic disorder” he just say they are jealous. In the comic his father was so ashamed of angels wings he tried to have them cut off. It’s just not honest to the reality of the X-men which would be in 2020 nobody would even agree that all there powers actually came from being mutants

Yeah but if you need to express the struggle BLM by having a literal white analog, your story is inherently broken. BLM is about “black lives matter” you can’t just have a white guy with an allergy to sun(which is FACT what is wrong with cyclops! 24hrs in the dark he has no laser eyes!) and say that is about black lives. It means you don’t want to really talk about BLM Just pretend to. It’s why wolverine talks about the struggle of minorities but bishop never does. Marvel knows who is buying their books and it’s kinda sad

Have you ever thought maybe they should be a 1:1 metaphor? That the X-men should be a cast of ONLY minorities lgtbq and other characters so that when they say the world fears and hates them it’s a 100% accurate statement? Or this that to “woke” for you and you won’t like the books anyone unless there are pretty white people as the leads?

Gigantor, you are one of the very very very very few people speaking facts everybody else is talking opinions.

The X-Men are nothing but the over-glorified trope of using white people to talk about oppression.

I am tired of white characters being given the opportunity to do so, as the meme goes, can you come up with something else.

Most of the time the minority metaphor just seems like a thing fans and writer like to bring of to make x-men seem more culturally relevant and important than it actually is.

Exactly, the X-Men are not as deep they try to pass it off so I wish they would stop trying and stop aping actual oppression for the mediocre storytelling that goes on in these books.

Again I will say that Humans can't tell Mutants and Superhumans apart.

No they can not tell them apart. And for all the reasons that it makes sense why the ideas of mutants is something to fear or resent,nI don't remember this ever being addressed.

There's a level of suspension of disbelief, but all the work shouldn't be on the readers shoulders.

[Striderblack01]

Metaphor.

"A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract."

The mutant metaphor is just literary device to get us, the audience, engaged with the X-Men stories. It's just a tool that some authors use to tell us stories about prejudice, so that we can relate.
It can be used well, or poorly, and it's application can be vague or specific. And like all metaphors, it's not perfect, it has limits, and it will break down upon extended examination.
All the world is not literally a stage, and politics isn't anything like a house of cards.

What people seem to be discussing now is the in-universe situation of the mutant race, and the modern direction of the X-books in the last 20 years.
Those things are related to the mutant metaphor, but they're not the same.

We've had some great stories in the last 20 years, and we've also had a lot of terrible ones.
We've even had an extended time period when Marvel was somewhat deliberately sandbagging the X-books (not with literal sandbags).

And if that's what we're really discussing:

---

The X-Men have never been your standard superheroes.

The FF are about science fiction and family.
Spider-Man is about guilt and the pains and failures of becoming a responsible adult.
Thor is about action fantasy and The Avengers are about bombastic super heroics.

Regular Super heroes are about preserving the status quo, because the status quo is "good".
It's about decent people going to work and not getting robbed. Or preventing some supervillain from forcibly taking over and usurping our democracy.

But the X-Men started out protecting a world that hates and fears them.
They were a paramilitary group started by Charles Xavier to engage in super heroics, and in so doing, stem a budding war between mutants and humans.

The mutants' status quo is not "good", and never really has been. It's been terrible.
So, while the X-Men do prevent mutant supervillains from taking over, and they do save the world, their goals were always more than just stopping burglaries.
What they've always wanted was change. And the standard, run-of-the-mill super heroics wasn't providing it.

Instead, what we saw was the status quo for mutants get massively worse.
So, that original goal of inspiring people to not be complete monsters to mutants kinda, sorta, failed miserably.
And, quite frankly, it's high time that we all stopped pretending that it ever had a chance of succeeding.
That kind of "credit-to-your-race" thinking is as outdated as it is ineffective.

No.

If you want change, if you want your people to be safe, you need to do more than save the world.
Peaceful coexistence will always be the dream.
But acknowledging when it's not possible, and taking steps to build a safe haven, not only ensures the survival of your people, but the dream as well.
After all, you can't peacefully coexist with humanity if you are dead.
But if you survive, then there's hope for tomorrow.

I understand that politics can be exhausting and cynical.
I understand the need to go back to simpler times and just tell simple stories about beating up the bad guys.
It's a welcome reprieve from the unwieldly complex and the depressing.

But the X-Men have always been about more.
It's what makes them unique.

[Lucyinthesky]

Moira can't control them...but her diary in P10 shows her being to blame for Onslaught, as a side effect of her trying to break Xavier.

She can´t but this doesn´t mean she didn´t try and one way to do that is by keeping some information for herself but I agree she seemed to complain the fact they were too stuborn to listen to her on everything and that seems to be the case still even with Krakoa. They agreed to keep off ressurecting precognitive mutants but also told her this was not going on forever and the X-men needed to know the truth about her so they are mostly working together as a compromise.

[BroHomo]

metaphor.

"a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract."

the mutant metaphor is just literary device to get us, the audience, engaged with the x-men stories. It's just a tool that some authors use to tell us stories about prejudice, so that we can relate.
It can be used well, or poorly, and it's application can be vague or specific. And like all metaphors, it's not perfect, it has limits, and it will break down upon extended examination.
All the world is not literally a stage, and politics isn't anything like a house of cards.

What people seem to be discussing now is the in-universe situation of the mutant race, and the modern direction of the x-books in the last 20 years.
Those things are related to the mutant metaphor, but they're not the same.

We've had some great stories in the last 20 years, and we've also had a lot of terrible ones.
We've even had an extended time period when marvel was somewhat deliberately sandbagging the x-books (not with literal sandbags).

And if that's what we're really discussing:

---

the x-men have never been your standard superheroes.

the ff are about science fiction and family.
Spider-man is about guilt and the pains and failures of becoming a responsible adult.
Thor is about action fantasy and the avengers are about bombastic super heroics.

regular super heroes are about preserving the status quo, because the status quo is "good".
It's about decent people going to work and not getting robbed. Or preventing some supervillain from forcibly taking over and usurping our democracy.

But the x-men started out protecting a world that hates and fears them.
They were a paramilitary group started by charles xavier to engage in super heroics, and in so doing, stem a budding war between mutants and humans.

the mutants' status quo is not "good", and never really has been. It's been terrible.
So, while the x-men do prevent mutant supervillains from taking over, and they do save the world, their goals were always more than just stopping burglaries.
What they've always wanted was change. And the standard, run-of-the-mill super heroics wasn't providing it.

Instead, what we saw was the status quo for mutants get massively worse.
so, that original goal of inspiring people to not be complete monsters to mutants kinda, sorta, failed miserably.
And, quite frankly, it's high time that we all stopped pretending that it ever had a chance of succeeding.
That kind of "credit-to-your-race" thinking is as outdated as it is ineffective.

no.

if you want change, if you want your people to be safe, you need to do more than save the world.
Peaceful coexistence will always be the dream.
But acknowledging when it's not possible, and taking steps to build a safe haven, not only ensures the survival of your people, but the dream as well.
After all, you can't peacefully coexist with humanity if you are dead.
But if you survive, then there's hope for tomorrow.

I understand that politics can be exhausting and cynical.
I understand the need to go back to simpler times and just tell simple stories about beating up the bad guys.
It's a welcome reprieve from the unwieldly complex and the depressing.

but the x-men have always been about more.
it's what makes them unique.

beautiful!

[Steel Inquisitor]

There's two kinds of nations- the ones that are all about geopolitical domination, and the ones that are not, because they don't have enough power to do so.

And for both Xavier and Magneto, geopolitical domination is ultimately a tool to avoid genocide. Moira showed them what happened if they don't.

Krakao - being a nation who is engaged in geopolitical domination.

Magneto's done this all his life, only his main plans for this was by brute force to conquer the world, and he's done this as the leader of Genosha. The problem ins't them doing that to prevent their own genocide, it's about whether these tactics are ok for anyone to use. The fact Moira X coming up with the idea didn't make it any less questionable. Moira X is a mystery, even. She's not the old Moira we used to know.

...and Geopolitical domination doesn't have to be achieved through active warfare. Going by XM 04, they intend to dominate economically...not through violence and death.

Geopolitical domination is done though various methods, not simply military might. And Krkaoa is ok getting into wars and taking over nations. Krakoas's government is very ok with giving absolute power to people who have done all that is the recent past, too. Gorgon's a monster who barely had any charactisation besides "evil" and "murder" for years. They're very ok with letting him be a high profile bodyguard for the Quiet Council and generally not caring what he does. When he got into an argument with Viper he nearly choked her to death because she was too honest with him being a psychopath. Krkaoa isn't a pacifist nation, they kill each other for kicks.

[Grunty]

(...)
The X-Men have never been your standard superheroes.

(...)

But the X-Men have always been about more.
It's what makes them unique.

All well put.
But the problem with all this in my opinion remains that the X-men live in a world that is chained and enslaved to mirroring our reality. Which means only our reality can change something permanently in the Marvel Universe, including for the X-men. An unbreakable status quo they can never escape because they are super heros in a super hero universe based around always mirroring modern day reality, just with super natural elements.

And since the X-men have been tied to minority struggles so much, which sadly don't seem to get resolved globaly anytime soon, they will also never gain a complete victory on that field for decades to come as far as we can see at the moment.
Which is also made worse by representing a purely fictional minority, which can only achieve their goals if their fictional universe evolves. But it can't do that because it's chained to mirroring reality so much.
To present a more cynical scenario. Even if all minority struggles at the moment somehow become resolved in a Star Trek fashion, the X-men comics might still keep on going with showing mutants being oppressed, hunted, hated, etc., because their fictional minority status will allow these writers to use them as representation of a hypothetical struggle that could exist in their world. Changing from reflecting current struggles, to highlighting potential ones.

If the X-men lived in their own universe that is not part of a world meant to continue releasing the same kind of stories over and over, because of a seemingly never ending demand for such stories and being in the hand of changing elder gods dictating everything to remain the same as our reality, while making their lives hell, they would have a chance to achieve their goal.

If not chained to mirroring our reality but allowed to have their own reality using ours as start basis, the world of the X-men could by now look like that of My Hero Academia. Where the randomly powered humans have become the standard and the global society adapted to it. Changing the struggle of the heros from changing the world to preserving it.

But again. They can't. Because they are trapped in this format.

Just like how Wakanda will never turn Africa into a continent full of advanced post-industrial nations with an enlightend population that can change the course of the world to a brighter future. But can be shown at bettering it on a smaller scale that doesn't contradict the real world too much.

Which makes changing the X-men views, their goals, their methods so radically as it's done in Dawn of X appear so futile in my opinion.

My opinion piece was not about wanting the X-men to do standard super hero activity as Spiderman and co. all the time, but just that i wish writers would make their struggle more hopefull again after the last 20 years of missery pie being fed to them. (It was also about the how the metaphor would need grey scaled presentation but can't do that because of the super hero nature, but that's not the point at the moment).
Because as much as the mutant metaphor can represents the struggle of minorities in reality, it's also a purely fictional one with factors that don't reflect reality at all.
So the writers are in the position where they can make said struggle more hopefull than that of real life minorities at the moment. Give hope. Make their struggle feel worth it. Because even if they are slaves to the status quo, it can still be bend into another direction than the previous 20 years.
Which is what i was trying to say when comparing them to other super heros who remain hopefull and keep their indentities and personalities.

But Dawn of X is not doing that. Because it's still moving in the same misserable direction, just with even more force now. But since the status quo is an unbreakable rubber band it will eventualy snap back, just much harder than previously.

Because the super island they are now hunkering down on and from where they are looking down on the normal human societies and nations around them, will not last. Not only because their status quo and pop culture image is not about hunkering down on a super island. But also because they have been used as metaphor for various minorities which are not all on a magic island but part of the global community and spread around it.
The mutants as minority metaphor are part of the big tribe that is humanity, so promoting seperation can't be the answer, because it makes the world less.

Hence why i feel Dawn of X is not a hopefull and promising direction for the X-men, but a continuation of the mess of missery added to them over the previous 20 years. If nothing actual hopefull will come out of it, what will be achieved with this temporary status?

It's another wild ride, that's for sure. So i don't see anything wrong with enjoying it while it lasts. But for me it's just the same ride all over again and i'm going to only watch it from the sideline.

[Devaishwarya]

The stories over the many years would indicate the X-Men mythos are most certainly not "chained and enslaved" (very apropos choice of wording) to mirroring our reality.
Apart from the sometimes foray into actual discrimination themes for an arc or mini-event, and a relevant mention here and there, How many stories told by Lee, Wein, Claremont et al right up to HiX-Man actually mirrored our real world?

Answer...Very, very few in comparison to the many stories over the decades dealing with Space Aliens and War, Demons and Magic, Omnipotent beings wanting to conquer the earth.

[Hizashi]

No the X-Men can not continue to be a metaphor for discrimination, even some of it's fans in this very thread are trying to distance the franchise away from the metaphors it continuously apes by coming up with lame excuses that sound pedestrian and not well thought out and in fact ignorant.

In what way are they ignorant? It seems we're all in agreement that the X-Men can/should be more than a 1:1 metaphor for discrimination. Or are you arguing that they should be only one thing?

Gigantor, you are one of the very very very very few people speaking facts everybody else is talking opinions.

The X-Men are nothing but the over-glorified trope of using white people to talk about oppression.

I am tired of white characters being given the opportunity to do so, as the meme goes, can you come up with something else.

So then the characters should do something else.

Exactly, the X-Men are not as deep they try to pass it off so I wish they would stop trying and stop aping actual oppression for the mediocre storytelling that goes on in these books.

There's nothing wrong with taking relevant metaphors and making an attempt to incorporate them into a book - although clearly there needs to be more thought put into it.

No they can not tell them apart. And for all the reasons that it makes sense why the ideas of mutants is something to fear or resent,nI don't remember this ever being addressed.

There's a level of suspension of disbelief, but all the work shouldn't be on the readers shoulders.

Well, other than the obvious appearance types, anyone with abilities or powers who isn't a superhero, is underage, or basically is just a civilian is probably gonna be accused of being a mutant - and odds are they probably are. Other than that, yeah it's not exactly clear how it works, but that's just the soft edge of the X-books that can be explored more.

[skyvolt2000]

By the By did you purposefully use strictly white heroes? Comes across as ano example of people tryna tell minorities how to live

Rage in Sam Wilson's Cap America says HI.
Rocket Racer in Spider-Man say HI.
Prodigy before he was found by New Mutants say HI.
Monica says hi and she SAVED some racists.

Minority heroes can't hide their skin color.

Imagine the react if Cyborg went to the Michigan capital to protect the governor from those guys who waltz in there demanding the state be open so they can get hair cuts?

Let Luke Cage show up to a protest (not to protest but to help keep the peace) how fast does he get drilled with bullets versus Hawkeye?

Let folks find out Spider-Man Junior is a black kid-how fast do you suddenly see a mass attack of black boys? And YES this story has happened before-it was in Tim Drake's book where white black haired boys were being killed in an attempt to find Robin.

The double standards of reaction would be in full effect.

[Kingdom X]

All well put.
But the problem with all this in my opinion remains that the X-men live in a world that is chained and enslaved to mirroring our reality. Which means only our reality can change something permanently in the Marvel Universe, including for the X-men. An unbreakable status quo they can never escape because they are super heros in a super hero universe based around always mirroring modern day reality, just with super natural elements.

And since the X-men have been tied to minority struggles so much, which sadly don't seem to get resolved globaly anytime soon, they will also never gain a complete victory on that field for decades to come as far as we can see at the moment.
Which is also made worse by representing a purely fictional minority, which can only achieve their goals if their fictional universe evolves. But it can't do that because it's chained to mirroring reality so much.
To present a more cynical scenario. Even if all minority struggles at the moment somehow become resolved in a Star Trek fashion, the X-men comics might still keep on going with showing mutants being oppressed, hunted, hated, etc., because their fictional minority status will allow these writers to use them as representation of a hypothetical struggle that could exist in their world. Changing from reflecting current struggles, to highlighting potential ones.

If the X-men lived in their own universe that is not part of a world meant to continue releasing the same kind of stories over and over, because of a seemingly never ending demand for such stories and being in the hand of changing elder gods dictating everything to remain the same as our reality, while making their lives hell, they would have a chance to achieve their goal.

If not chained to mirroring our reality but allowed to have their own reality using ours as start basis, the world of the X-men could by now look like that of My Hero Academia. Where the randomly powered humans have become the standard and the global society adapted to it. Changing the struggle of the heros from changing the world to preserving it.

But again. They can't. Because they are trapped in this format.

I think you bring up the great point that the X-Men cannot ever reach their natural conclusion which would bring the minority metaphor full circle.

This blog post brings up the fact that if the X-Men are willing to challenge and overthrow the Genoshan government for oppressing mutants, then why aren't they able to do the same with the United States government? https://www.houseofx.org/blog/welcome-to-genosha

As part of the ongoing Marvel universe the X-Men will never be able to fully integrate OR overthrow oppressive systems, thus they're trapped in this endless cycle that doesn't allow the minority metaphor to go any deeper or gain some sort of resolution.