She brought out the lesbian in me.
Posted on 11/03/2011 9:47:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The X-Men movie series, based on the comic books of the same name, is well-known for its unusual cast of gifted mutants and for its extraordinary special effects. What is not as widely known about the X-Men is the fact that the movies, along with the comic books, draw many clear parallels between the mutants and the gay and lesbian community. It is an open secret that the most recent movie in the series, “X-Men First Class,” which serves as the prequel for the other films, is especially overt in presenting these parallels.
Zach Stenz, one of the First Class screenwriters, explained on a Facebook comment posted in June: “I helped write the movie, and can tell you the gay rights / post-holocaust Jewish-identity / civil rights allegory stuff was put in there on purpose. Joss Wheldon designed the whole ‘Cure’s storyline in the comic books specifically as a gay allegory, and Bryan Singer wove his own feelings of outsiderdom as a gay man into the movie series. The whole ‘Have you ever tried NOT being a mutant’ coming out scene in X2 [released in 2003] is even particularly subtle, while it is effective.”
Who exactly is Bryan Singer? He is the openly gay producer, director, and/or writer of X-Men, X2, and X-Men First Class, and a reviewer on the Fridae website (“Empowering Gay Asia”) noted that Singer stated in an interview on BBC “that ‘mutant’ was a stand-in for ‘gay.’” Those are the words of Singer, not my own.
The reviewer, named Helmi, explained , “X-Men is supposed to be the superhero series that secretly took gay issues into massive mainstream territory. Since the comic appeared in the 60s, pop-culture critics have drawn parallels between the mutants’ struggle to gain wider acceptance for being genetically ‘different,’ and the gay community's struggle for acceptance and recognition.”
Singer cast some famously gay actors in key roles, most notably Sir Ian McKellen, who said at the Cannes Film Festival shortly before the release of X-Men 3: “As a gay man, some people think that it ought to be cured and made normal again, and I find it as offensive as someone saying that they have a cure for the color of their skin. This particular story was close to my heart; it has an important message to young people who may for one reason or another be disaffected with society because society points at their differences and says that they're inferior to the rest of us.”
Writing in 2006 in RelevantMagazine.com about “X-Men: The Last Stand,” ex-gay author Chad Thompson noted, “I saw the movie and discovered that almost every scene in it somehow parallels the struggle to integrate gay and lesbian people into society.”
He was not exaggerating when he said, “almost every scene.” Another viewer of X-Men 3 commented to me, “As I watched the film, the connections and similarities were startling. You could have made the X-Men gay and the script would have worked perfectly.”
Thompson explains, “In a world where some are born ‘normal’ and others are born with genetic mutations that give them superpowers, those without the mutations decide to formulate a serum that can normalize the mutants. Most of the mutants argue that they don’t need a cure, asserting that their mutations are innate to their identities, but still some who aren’t happy with their mutations embrace the chance to change.”
In X-Men: First Class, Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy concocts a serum that will hide his mutation (seen in his feet) without removing his powers, only to discover that the serum actually accelerates his mutation, turning him into a powerful beast. In other words, therapy designed to turn a homosexual into a heterosexual will not work. Instead, it will result in a stronger homosexual identity.
In light of the whole theme of X-Men: The Last Stand, this message is certainly intended.
In perhaps the movie’s most obvious example of “mutant as a stand-in for gay,” when Hank McCoy is first revealed to be a mutant, he is questioned by his coworkers as to why he hadn’t reveal his true identity before. He replies, “You didn’t ask, I didn’t tell.” Gays in the military under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell couldn’t have said it better.
Alyssa Rosenberg, writing on the ThinkProgress.org website, called X-Men First Class “a great gay rights metaphor,” noting that already in X2, “Iceman’s visit to his parents took the form of a coming-out sequence, complete with confusion and rejection by a sibling. In First Class, those comparisons are even more explicit.”
Explicit is hardly an overstatement, as the mutants proclaim themselves to be out and proud towards the end of the flick. It appears that subtlety is no longer needed.
But this should come as no surprise. After all, Elizabeth Taylor famously said, “If it weren’t for gays, honey, there wouldn’t be a Hollywood.”
RE: “If it weren’t for gays, honey, there wouldn’t be a Hollywood.”
And if there were no Hollywood... what then?
XMen First Class was probably the gayest superhero mivie ever. I was pretty sure Xavier and Magneto were dating midway through the film.
The nice thing about movies or literature is that you can read into them what you want.
Bryan Singer may say that the mutants are gay, but you can call them Christian.
The government has, at least lately, wanted to keep track of homosexuals, but they certainly want to keep tabs on those Christians.
She brought out the lesbian in me.
Sorry I do not get the gay angle.....I do not care if my neighbor is gay, as long as he keeps his perversion behind his front door, as oppossed to a mutant walking though my wall
Bryan Singer, the director of the films, is himself openly homosexual, as are the actors Ian McKellan, and Alan Cummings. However, the only part of the film that I found possibly relating to homosexuality was the cheesy quote from Bobby’s(Iceman) mom, in which she asks him about “not being a mutant.” If I was a dad of some mutant kid, I would be primarily concerned about one thing: my kid is at risk of becoming vain or even arrogant with the possibility of finding celebrity status for his special power. If not about homosexuality, I felt that this quote was a little over the cheese meter for the second film, but then again, the overall film was still entertaining.
Either way, I see the whole X-men series as a blanket representation of just about everything in a person’s identity that was disliked or hated in American history. Nightcrawler (race and Catholicism), Xavier(Professor and either an Atheist or Agnostic, as well as a symbolic representation of MLK, Jr.) Magneto (Jewish, and a symbolic representation of Malcolm X).
Other references include the need to register potentially dangerous individuals, which probably related in the early 1960s to McCarthyism and the search for communists in America, or perhaps the need to register potentially dangerous gun owners, or other people who come across as potentially dangerous for what they own or can do.
Coming to the X-Men, I agree, they built it up, but didn’t deliver a fitting conclusion to the series.
I did, however, enjoy Thor and Captain America, more, as both were a fresh new take on characters not so heavily touched in film, as well as good directors chosen for the jobs, respectively. Hopefully Josh Whoedon of the Firefly Series can deliver on the Avengers in 2012. Having some bias for Firefly, however, don’t take my word for it. As for Spider-Man, they are completely remaking the series from the bottom up in 2012, making a Spider-Man that fits in to the rest of their Marvel Universe Continuity.
Spiderman needs to be redone by Marvel Studios and not Universal. I enjoyed the characters in Captain America, but you know what ruined it for me? Political correctness. You can’t fight the Nazis anymore, all military units must be multicultural (despite the fact that units were segregated in WW2) not that I have anything against other races, I’m Latino, but the non historical attitude bugs me. Thor was good, Hulk, the Ed Norton version was good, and Iron Man was awesome! Mainly because RDJ is more conservative than most movie stars and Iron Man feels very capitalistic and pro defense to me. Jmo.
I didn’t think “Superman Returns” was bad. As a sequel to the first 2 Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner Superman films it was fine and certainly much better than either “Superman III” or “Superman IV”. However, I’ve never seen any of the X-Men films and now probably never will.
Makes sense. Hollywood’s a narcissistic playground.
lets make movies without homosexuals and see how that works...
Disney owns Marvel so I expect more family friendly (homosexual is not family friendly) scripting of the super hero movies.
so the human who falls into radioactive waste or is bitten by a radioactive spider is “recruited”?
Disney owns Marvel so I expect more family friendly (homosexual is not family friendly) scripting of the super hero movies.
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This could be true, but it also means we’ll get lots of PC bull, like not being able to fight the Nazis in a Captain America film, jmo.
my understanding was that red skull was always the enemy of captain america.
comic book countries were always part of the continuty (ie madeupistan)
It is painfully clear homosexuals do not really know how to write stories for a normal audience. homosexuals have to dump they poop on the plotline.
I’ve seen all the X-Men dvd’s and I never once thought of any underlying homosexual theme.......
my understanding was that red skull was always the enemy of captain america.
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Agreed. Red Skull has always been the enemy of Cap, but Stan Lee made him a Nazi in the comics and Adolf Hitler’s right hand man. The fact that Disney thought this was too insensitive (for fear of a backlash with international audiences, also hence the title The First Avenger so movie theaters in other countries could dump Captain America if they wanted to, and only one did South Korea) to put in the movie kind of frosts me a little bit. But I think the actor who played Red Skull did an awesome job, ditto Chris Evans as cap.
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comic book countries were always part of the continuty (ie madeupistan)
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Yep, correct on all counts
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It is painfully clear homosexuals do not really know how to write stories for a normal audience. homosexuals have to dump they poop on the plotline.
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Nailed it. One time I was drinking with my friend and he said that he heard that the X Men represented the civil rights movement. You had one group that wanted to live with the other and another group who wanted nothing to do with the other. Magneto = Malcolm X Professor X = MLK. I don’t think this is true, but there are many ways to interpret X Men. IMO the homosexual movement did nothing to inspire it’s origins.
consider this plot hole.
if there is a cure to having super powers, then there is a way to activate/create super powers via a drug.
why wasn’t magneto spreading that drug to everyone? The first movie tried somethign like that but it made no sense.
if magneto simply said i have a safe drug to give you super powers then there would be a line. no nuclear waste required.
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