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X-Man Mutant as Metaphor

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x-man:
Am I the last gay person in the world to have learned that in the X-Men films "mutant" is a metaphor for gay?

I had never seen the films, but a comment in Queer as Folk alerted me this, so I googled "x-men gay" and there it was.  Later that day I caught X-Men on television and was delighted to find that it was true.  As an opener it related treatment of gays in society to that of Jews in Nazi Germany, and then went on to explore the whole issue of gay people in the world.  Some of it was fun, even campy, but much was grim.  Anyway, I quickly realized that I was watching a completely different movie than what a straight person would be seeing.

I bought the X-Men Trilogy DVDs, and was pleased to see that the mutant-as-gay theme was continued.  In the second, X2, there is a coming-out-to-parents scene which must be very familiar to gay teens  In the third, The Last Stand, there is a horrifying scene of a mutant boy cutting off his wings in an attempt to deny his mutant nature--blood all over.

If I am not the last person to know about all this, I urge you to check them out.  (It is obvious why I chose "x-man" as my website log-in name.) 

Front-Ranger:
Hi X-man! I haven't seen the X-men films but in Brokeback Mountain, the code is "not the marrying kind."

x-man:
Two questions:
1.  Does anyone know of other recent movies or TV shows with gay sub-texts?  I checked out Teen Wolf as Google suggests, but didn't see much.  Psych is funny--a sort of even campier version of Starsky & Hutch.  One expects the two cops' sergeant to order them to butch it up.

2.  About "not the marrying kind" being a code in BBM:  Frost-Ranger, is this a Colorado/Wyoming expression for homosexuality?  If not I have to wonder if it really is a code.  When Cassie asks this she is having sex with Ennis and knows he was married with 2 children.  And, would she be likely to ask this of Ennis' own daughter?  What do you think?

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: x-man on August 20, 2013, 10:52:57 am ---Am I the last gay person in the world to have learned that in the X-Men films "mutant" is a metaphor for gay?

I had never seen the films, but a comment in Queer as Folk alerted me this, so I googled "x-men gay" and there it was.  Later that day I caught X-Men on television and was delighted to find that it was true.  As an opener it related treatment of gays in society to that of Jews in Nazi Germany, and then went on to explore the whole issue of gay people in the world.  Some of it was fun, even campy, but much was grim.  Anyway, I quickly realized that I was watching a completely different movie than what a straight person would be seeing.
--- End quote ---

I'm curious: Would this have been as obvious to you if you'd seen the film without previously having heard the comment on QaF? And also, do you feel like a gay person involved in the filmmaking -- the screenwriter, maybe -- slipped this metaphor in without anyone of the straight people -- director, actors, whoever -- noticing, or do you feel like everyone involved in the film knew of, and intended to convey, this metaphor?

I saw at least one of those movies (X2, I think), and did not necessarily think mutant=gay, so I agree that straight people, at least this straight person, probably see it differently. I did think mutant=person with some trait that makes them a misunderstood outsider in mainstream life. And that of course includes gay people.


--- Quote ---2.  About "not the marrying kind" being a code in BBM:  Frost-Ranger, is this a Colorado/Wyoming expression for homosexuality?  If not I have to wonder if it really is a code.  When Cassie asks this she is having sex with Ennis and knows he was married with 2 children.  And, would she be likely to ask this of Ennis' own daughter?  What do you think?
--- End quote ---

I can't answer for Front-Ranger, obviously, but I think this is an example of irony in the film. Similar to Lureen's remark that "husbands never dance with their wives." Neither Alma Jr. nor Cassie nor Lureen necessarily are knowingly talking about sexual orientation. But the audience, of course, can read the remarks that way, whether the characters are aware of it or not.

milomorris:
But there is no content in any of the films to suggest that the all of the mutants are sexual minorities. As a matter of fact, in at least one of the movies (I cannot remember which) there is a bit of a romance between Wolverine and on of the female mutants at the Institute.

There are some X-men mutants who are written as sexual minorities, but not all of them are.

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