The problems with the ''mutant metaphor''

[LordUltimus]

I'm not sure you understand identity and biology.

Because of their constant ill treatment which are far to numerous to name they adopted the homo superior identity. Simply calling them sapiens makes people think they are simply humans without an X gene as if it isn't important. The homo superior id is making it clear that they are not that but have the x gene.

This difference is there because of their treatment not biology. That does not make this id any less valid

I didn't say one word about them having a different identity than the rest of humanity, I was talking about them saying that they weren't human, and in fact SUPERIOR to humanity.

[Outburstz]

When they are using the word human to refer to things like how their ideologies and ideas will withstand and form a stable society unlike the human ones, or Synch's use of it in the vault, or other uses, I am sorry, but no, that is not just a factual statement, they are emphasizing humanity as something beneath them.

Human= human no x gene
Homo superior= human with x gene

This difference is real because of the ill treatment of one over the other. I am not seeing what is hard to understand here. They are not the same because humans have not treated them the same.

When they talk about being better than humans they are saying they are not going to treat people the same way that humans have treated them.

I didn't say one word about them having a different identity than the rest of humanity, I was talking about them saying that they weren't human, and in fact SUPERIOR to humanity.

Generations of being told they are not human and that they are less then so they choose to accept that they are not human and view it in a positive and will treat people better than how humanity has treated them.

Again it's all nice paper to just say they are human but when they are not treated the same it's not something they can accept.

[Outburstz]

I didn't say one word about them having a different identity than the rest of humanity, I was talking about them saying that they weren't human, and in fact SUPERIOR to humanity.

Generations of being told they are not human and that they are less then so they choose to accept that they are not human and view it in a positive and will treat people better than how humanity has treated them.

Again it's all nice paper to just say they are human but when they are not treated the same it's not something they can accept.

[LordUltimus]

When they talk about being better than humans they are saying they are not going to treat people the same way that humans have treated them.

No, actually. They've said things like suspicion, jealousy, and embarrassment are "human" emotions that they are "above". That has nothing to do with treating anyone in any way.

Generations of being told they are not human and that they are less then so they choose to accept that they are not human and view it in a positive and will treat people better than how humanity has treated them.

Again it's all nice paper to just say they are human but when they are not treated the same it's not something they can accept.

So black people who have been treated for generations as not human should choose to accept that they are not human, are actually above humanity, and will replace it?

[BroHomo]

Generations of being told they are not human and that they are less then so they choose to accept that they are not human and view it in a positive and will treat people better than how humanity has treated them.

Again it's all nice paper to just say they are human but when they are not treated the same it's not something they can accept.

Only difficult thing to understand about this are the readers who take it as the manta of human killing supremacists

[LordUltimus]

Only difficult thing to understand about this are the readers who take it as the manta of human killing supremacists

Because that literally was the mantra of human killing supremacists?

[king81992]

Metaphor is part of the X-men mythos but if x-men=metaphor then how the hell does Mojo fit into that? Besides it's never been a 1 to 1 correspondence. X-men represents real life minorities as much as Spider-man represent the average Joe on the street. Not every teenager/young adult have the looks, smarts, charm and sense of humor of Peter Parker. At the end of the day these are stories with people in colorful costumes punching bad guys. That doesn't mean they can't tell meaningful stories with parallels to real life. But it means it's probably best not to think of them as a literal mirror to real life and that's usually on readers not the books. Or in rare cases you get Kitty with her n-word moments which are on Claremont.

Mojo represents media corruption.

[Outburstz]

No, actually. They've said things like suspicion, jealousy, and embarrassment are "human" emotions that they are "above". That has nothing to do with treating anyone in any way.


So black people who have been treated for generations as not human should choose to accept that they are not human, are actually above humanity, and will replace it?

You walked right into the point and missed it.

Black people choose to embrace the main thing that separated them from the white people that oppressed them which was their skin color. That became their unifying marker even though they came from many tribes.

The X gene is the unifying marker for mutants which they embrace. Homo superior is embracing that difference.

The emotion thing is what I've told you a bunch of times now. They are going to work to treat people better than how they were treated all those emotions can lead to people acting very badly which mutants have felt. And yes mutants can act on those emotions too before you waste your time writing that.

Only difficult thing to understand about this are the readers who take it as the manta of human killing supremacists

Right I don't even know why I responded to this thread I already knew what was waiting xD

[Grunty]

Then say "sapiens". That's what they did in House of M.

Besides, I wouldn't say something like "human and neanderthal", they're both human.

A mutant who gets their powers supressed by one of the dozens or plus ways to cancel their powes (including other mutants being born with the powers to do so) or worse depowered, will in the majority of cases revert to being a regular human (the others usualy result in death as their bodies can't function without unnatural support), including somehow reverting from being living anorganic substances.

No other human related offshot group or humanoid alien species with natural super powers has this degree of weakness to the source of their super powers or "factory reset setting" which they will default to without powers regardless of physical alteration.

For example a mutant who is turned to living stone will always be an altered being, rather than being a natural form of living stone (as some alien or magical species) and if they can somehow reproduce their children will too remain altered beings, always in danger of having their entire physical form endangered by sources that will cancel their X-gene (which somehow still affect a being who has no DNA in their altered form).
That's not much ground to really declare themself something else entirely than human. Especialy collectively as there is no uniform difference between the rest of humanity and mutants, beyond the mentioned fragile super power source.

The percieved grand difference between humans and mutants is an illusion, entirely based around one group having a natural source of super powers and the other requiring an artifical source, but in both cases these super powers are not properly "fixed" in their natural existence that they would be impossible to remove like the Skrull's shape shifting ability.

Mutants are indeed still human to the core. Or as i described it a while ago. Human+1 (or +6 in case of Omegas).

For added irony the idea of replacing the term "wise" (sapiens) with "better" (superior) when trying to create a taximonal seperation between normal humans and mutants, essentialy confirms that unpowered humans are still the baseline by which the mutants would be defined, instead of having a term that describes their own quality.

[Saithor]

[LordUltimus]

You walked right into the point and missed it.

Black people choose to embrace the main thing that separated them from the white people that oppressed them which was their skin color. That became their unifying marker even though they came from many tribes.

The X gene is the unifying marker for mutants which they embrace. Homo superior is embracing that difference.

And this makes them inherently superior to humans how? You haven't explained that.

The emotion thing is what I've told you a bunch of times now. They are going to work to treat people better than how they were treated all those emotions can lead to people acting very badly which mutants have felt. And yes mutants can act on those emotions too before you waste your time writing that.

No, you didn't say one word about the emotion thing. And it's very clear that they're not supposed to act on those emotions, what are you talking about?

[LordUltimus]

[marhawkman]

They do need to do better on this front. I feel like Hickman exacerbated this problem, as 90% of the characters he drew focus on this era were basically white.

Magneto, Xavier, Moira, Mystique, Destiny, Sinister, Emma Frost. The only POC you could consider he elevated was Apocalypse but he got shuffled off in the first phase of Krakoa.

Also am I the only one who found Hickman's choices in Omega's and QC members concerning?

For the Omegas, like half of them were already established and are fine, but Hickman seemed to add a good amount on his own including Magneto, Proteus, Monarch, Exodus and Storm. Just because you are a powerful mutant or reality warper does not mean you need to be an omega. Anyway the optics of having the "strongest" mutants only include three women and like one POC... did he not see a problem with this?

The Quiet Council is slightly better with it's balance of women, especially later on, but for POC it's still horrible. Where is the representation of mutants from different nations outside of anglo-saxon countries? Seriously, I get who the comic book audience is directed toward but this is the X-Men. Do better.

I guess you could argue "why should that matter?" if POC or women are not omegas or QC members but these seats are the most visible positions of power on Krakoa. It's never read well that a group that has a metaphor associated with minorities has their group represented by a vast majority of white people in terms of decisions-making and control. And I always assumed other countries had their own leaders and hubs of mutants of power, which could have been cool to introduce onto Krakoa but nope, same old same old.

Oh, I honestly think the X-editors just forgot Exodus was French. The lineup has a lot of varied looks in the people. Also... if you actually look at ethnicity... some are actually Middle Eastern.,,, sort of.... And Mystique's actual ethnicity is unknown last I heard... but....

Realistically, it's about out-of-universe prominence of characters. They're characters who've been in the books for decades.

[bat39]

No, actually. They've said things like suspicion, jealousy, and embarrassment are "human" emotions that they are "above". That has nothing to do with treating anyone in any way.

So black people who have been treated for generations as not human should choose to accept that they are not human, are actually above humanity, and will replace it?

I think this statement again highlights the limits of the mutant metaphor. The ''homo superior'' aspect of mutants is a valid part of the X-men franchise and has been since its inception. But it doesn't work well with the metaphor of mutants as minorities and oppressed people. And that's fine, if we accept the fact that the ''mutant metaphor'' is just one interpretation of the franchise, but not the dominant one or the only one like a lot of people believe.

[BroHomo]

I think this statement again highlights the limits of the mutant metaphor. The ''homo superior'' aspect of mutants is a valid part of the X-men franchise and has been since its inception. But it doesn't work well with the metaphor of mutants as minorities and oppressed people.

Im not sure how...it's a StrawMan
Some may interpret this as being extremely frustrated and afraid minorities might somehow think they're equal or b-b-better than their previous stations in life

[And that's fine, if we accept the fact that the ''mutant metaphor'' is just one interpretation of the franchise, but not the dominant one or the only one like a lot of people believe.

Why this need to control the interpretation?

And this makes them inherently superior to humans how? You haven't explained that.

Bruh it seems the only people proclaiming Mutants as Superior to humans are you qnxa few folks in this thread lol