The X-men metaphor: is it changing?

[vitruvian]

To the OP: I grew up with the X-men being analogous to minorities. My first comic was a Generaton X. I think it works better that way. But the gay analogy is relevant now since its a hot social issue. But I feel like its following a trend, civil rights shouldn't be en vogue or have to take a back seat to any other civil rights issue.

This is not an unreasonable question to ask. But I think the answer involves a certain context. When X-men began, it was at the very beginning of the civil rights movement when race issues dominated the public concern. Later on, homosexuality became a greater issue. And part of what makes the X-men so compelling is that it works with both. It was set up not just to involve racial issues. It could apply to any kind of minority. It could be race, ethnic group, religious affiliation, etc. It all works the same way. Race is only part of the equation when it comes to the message of X-men. That's why it's still relevant after over 50 years. And so long as we have minority issues (and we always will to some extent), the X-men will continue to be relevant.

I think this is true. More than likely to the extent that Stan and Jack were looking at the X-Men as a metaphor for any real world civil rights struggle, rather than simply cheating on coming up with character origins and taking a page from certain current (to them) science fiction stories such as Stapledon's Odd John, Weinbaum's New Man, and Van Vogt's Slan, all of which had used the trope of a new mutant species that was going to be the evolutionary replacement for mankind (albeit without the variety of powers of Marvel's Homo superior), it was probably an analogy to ethnic and racial prejudice. Even within that context, though, given their own backgrounds and the indistinguishability of most mutants from regular humans (at least with some effort, in the case of Angel), the better parallel would have been with anti-Semitism rather than racism per se.

And even at that, it was never a very apt comparison, due to the whole lack of parental heritage thing. Black people tend to be black people because they have black parents, Jewish people tend to be Jewish based on their parents (mother only at that, if you go by the Orthodox standard), but it was decades of publishing before we first knew for sure about mutants that had mutant parents, so mutants were always by default very different from their (frequently not understanding). So later, post-Stonewall writers noticed that factor and started working in the parallels to homophobia and gay rights in more recent years.

Of course, none of these analogies, including the gay rights one, are ever going to be perfect, at least until there's a real world minority group in which individuals can actually do things like blow stuff up with their eyes or read your mind. But it's good enough to at least build some drama and even some gravitas into some of the stories.

[vitruvian]

"thousands?" what is your source.

For example, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A070PB20140108

Not entirely sure how credible the primary sources on this sort of thing are on the exact numbers, but it does seem to happen at some level in certain parts of the world.


EDIT: Found a better, more nuanced article from a source I have more trust in to be reasonably balanced:

http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyl...eligious-group

[DDD]

I said get rid if the religion's political influence, chee! Not murder. AndAmerica was peacefully taken for Amerindians with backdoor trickery. It could happen again to any country.

[People Of The Earth]

"Peacefully" ?

[DDD]

Most of the land was taken with false treaties and trojan horses iirc from history class. They were backstabbed out of their country.

[Kaiolino]

And THIS is why the X-Men work as a personal metaphor for me.

Discrimination against Christians is at an all time high in the world today. Thousands are murdered every year simply because of their beliefs. While not as severe where I live, we still are verbally attacked and discriminated against if we try to live by our faith instead of by secular values.

The metaphor can apply in many ways and that's how it applies for me.

And how many Christians have murdered or are still murdering "heathens"? They're probably higher than vice-versa.

[Anduinel]

Most of the land was taken with false treaties and trojan horses iirc from history class. They were backstabbed out of their country.

I'm asking this 100% snark free: Which country are you from? Because even for the American educational system, that seems like a stretch.

[Sundowhn]

People like foreigners who move in ready to adapt. And there are many of those. It's the ones who come to a country as invaders that are disliked. That's not discrimination. They are being judged on their actions. It took decades in many countries to get rid of the catholic church. Citizens would be fools to allow more religious nutters in. Borders exist for a reason. And most war thorn countries stand as testimonial that religion does not work.

Does taking my kid to the park or walking around the block count as invading and being a nutter? How about gardening? That's what I was guilty of when the tires on my car were slashed and someone scratched "foreign scum" into the paint. Try explaining the reason for that to a little girl that was then 5 years old. I was also told when applying for a job that I should just "go back wherever I came from".

We've since moved elsewhere in Europe and I'm currently taking an integration and language course(state required). The government here is actively combating discrimination, so it's better, but the experiences among my classmates -- who come from all over the world -- are similar. Bigotry is sadly alive and well. There's most assuredly a place for the X-Men metaphor in all its forms in today's world.

[Andru]

Gay rights are civil rights. The X-Men cover all outsiders. It always had gay connections. Mutant powers manifest at puberty, for example.

For a more direct example try Generation Hope #9: It doesn't get better.

This basically covers it!

[DebkoX]

I think it will always stand as a metaphor for people 'earning' their deserved rights. Gay, Black, White, Trans, whatever it may be, its about people fighting for rights, freedom and equality.

[Tomppa]

Hmm, no I don't think so.
Extremist movements are gaining weight in several countries of Europe - mine included.
And I don't know for the other ones, but in my country, xenophobia/pointing-and-blaming of foreigners is par for the course - even within more traditional parties.
Racism is very much alive, to say it has been mostly eliminated from western world is an excessive exaggeration imo.

Now, on-topic...Well Baron of Faltline pretty much nailed it I think.

Maybe I didn't make it clear enough but I didn't say it was completely eliminated, not by a longshot! What I said is that it is a lot different from what it was few decades ago. There are no longer laws prohibiting black people from marrying white people in US for example. That's all I said. To think that racism has been eliminated would be ridiculous. It's just that things are a lot better now than they were 50 years ago for example when it comes to racial equality. So that's why gay rights conversations have become more prevalent and why mutant metaphor is more often connected to LGBT rights. Because gay people aren't allowed to marry the person they want to marry so they struggle "more" so to speak. And of course others brought up the point that mutants are born to ordinary parents just like gay kids are born to straight parents where it's not possible that black baby would be born to two white parents so that also makes mutant metaphor fit better with gays than ethnic minorities but it's still possible to see pretty much any metaphor you want to see when you read X-Men. X-men work best and reach biggest possible audience if writers are smart and use broader comparisons so that all readers can project their own metaphors.

And when it comes to xenophobia in countries today, believe me, it's happening here just as well. It's part of every society really and I don't even believe that there will be a day when there isn't any racism/xenophobia/homophobia/whatever. People can be ignorant no matter how much you try to educate them and they will always be distrustful of new and different, it's in our nature to categorize and divide people and things into their own groups. So even if we by some chance get past racism and homophobia then we'll just come up with some other group to isolate as a target of our discrimination.

This is true where I live, as well. Foreigners are especially a prime target.

Yes, I think it's happening every where. I don't personally know many immigrants (mostly just people who have one parent who is an immigrant) but from what I've heard there are a lot of pointing of fingers and name calling.

People like foreigners who move in ready to adapt. And there are many of those. It's the ones who come to a country as invaders that are disliked. That's not discrimination.

I THINK I know what you mean by that. If you mean that people who come to a new country should try to adapt to that country's culture instead of that country trying to change its culture to match those immigrants' culture then I think anybody can agree with that. But if I understood your point completely wrong then do correct me.

They are being judged on their actions. It took decades in many countries to get rid of the catholic church. Citizens would be fools to allow more religious nutters in. Borders exist for a reason. And most war thorn countries stand as testimonial that religion does not work.

As an atheist I'm really inclined to say i agree 100%. Religions have been a cause of a lot of pain and suffering through out history. And if someone wants to defend that they've brought some good as well then I'm still going to say that they probably have caused more problems than they've solved. But having said that I have no doubt that people wouldn't have found some other excuses to fight and hate and discriminate, even without religions, "holy wars" just serve as a perfect excuse or motivation to get people to fight.

[vitruvian]

Most of the land was taken with false treaties and trojan horses iirc from history class. They were backstabbed out of their country.

Either you don't (recall correctly), or some teacher may have been selling you a bill of goods, which is known to happen as well. While there was definitely some trickery and unfair business dealings, there was a lot - a whole lot - of out and out warfare and violence involved in the annexation of land by European settlers from native Americans, from the very, very beginning. And even when you can point to instances of trickery like the 'wampum' 'purchase' of Manhattan Island (which was only ever supposed to be a down payment on a lease, not a purchase, really) or treaties that then failed to have their provisions enforced, there was violence through and through; either these 'deals' came about at the end of a period of bloody conflict, or their provisions which were screwing over the native population in one way or another ended up being enforced in a bloody conflict, or both.

[Sutekh]

People like foreigners who move in ready to adapt.

At times like this, I find myself wondering how to say, 'If you won't assimilate and learn to speak our language, go back to Europe' in Cherokee.

As for the metaphor, I don't think the mutant thing was ever a good metaphor for racial, cultural, gender-expression or religious minorities. Mutants, usually at puberty, become a different race than their parents, and even if their parents are mutants, they might not have any points of common experience or cultural heritage or anything like that to share. (For instance, you might have the power to hex people with bad luck, which your magnetism-manipulating dad has zero useful advice for how to deal with, other than to avoid Nazis and concentration camps, which are kind of no-brainers.) In the real world, minorities don't suddenly turn a different race from their families at puberty, and skin color, gender, ethnicity, etc. don't just spontaneously happen. (Awareness of sexuality, or the embracing of a cultural or religious identity might, but that's still not remotely comparable to waking up with blue skin and horns, and a group of self-labeled 'mutants' who mostly *don't* have blue skin or horns, or know crap all about you, your life, your family or your goals and dreams, insisting that you are now one of them, a different *race* than your mom, and need to leave with them.)

It's not even useful or accurate to call them 'mutants,' since a mutant is someone who is different from their parents, and plenty of mutants are actually descended from other mutants (making them, technically, *not* mutants, particularly in the cases where they inherited their parents telepathy/telekinesis or magnetokinesis or whatever).

It's certainly not accurate to call them a 'race,' since most of them are quite different from each other. Even siblings, like Piotr and Ilyanna, or Wanda and Pietro, are pretty much single-person sub-species all unto themselves, and, depending on where they grew up, or whether or not they can 'pass,' individual 'mutants' don't necessarily have anything in common with each other, and, in the aforementioned cases, even less in common with more unique looking folk like Kurt or Marrow.

When words like 'race' and 'mutant' are being misused, let alone words like 'decimation' or 'genocide' (also used inaccurately, to the point of being controversial buzzwords with no actual relevance to the events they label), any discussion on the topic is going to be constantly stumbling over this bad language.

[Shade101]

There is no metaphor any more. The X-Men don't represent anything because the people in charge of story direction don't have much interest in that aspect of the franchise's history.

X-Men is basically about a group of generic, unorganized would-be superheroes that never get around to doing heroic things because they are too busy fighting each other or fighting the Avengers. And Marvel truly thinks they are more compelling this way.

Everything you just said. Basically that's all X-Men is now which is a shame, but is reality.

[sungila]

Gay rights are civil rights. The X-Men cover all outsiders. It always had gay connections. Mutant powers manifest at puberty, for example.

For a more direct example try Generation Hope #9: It doesn't get better.

Perfectly said.
I do appreciate the ideas behind this question. It's important that X-Men keeps striving forward and leading the way along these lines.

I'd love to see more female writers and artists in the X-books.
Also, it'd be great to see more people of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds working for DC and Marvel.

I think it'll get there when WE get there. Nothing seems slower to change than the old standards at the foundations of corporate societal structures.
Maybe it's something that works from the top down, or from the outside in...