Author Topic: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor  (Read 6370 times)

Offline x-man

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X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« 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.

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.) 

Happiness is the lasting pleasure of the mind grasping the intelligible order of reality.      --Leibniz

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2013, 11:09:59 am »
Hi X-man! I haven't seen the X-men films but in Brokeback Mountain, the code is "not the marrying kind."
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Offline x-man

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2013, 08:09:41 am »
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?
Happiness is the lasting pleasure of the mind grasping the intelligible order of reality.      --Leibniz

Offline serious crayons

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2013, 05:32:21 pm »
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'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?

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.



Offline milomorris

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2013, 06:52:27 pm »
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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Offline oilgun

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2013, 01:14:43 am »
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.

met•a•phor (ˈmɛt əˌfɔr, -fər)

n.
1. the application of a word or phrase to an object or concept it does not literally denote, suggesting comparison to that object or concept, as in "A mighty fortress is our God."
2. something used or regarded as being used to represent something else; symbol:

Offline x-man

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2013, 07:32:01 am »
Thank you, Oilcan for posting the dictionary definition of "metaphor."  It made my point exactly.  I am not suggesting that individual x-characters are gay, but that the phenomenon of being a mutant is like/analogous to/a metaphor for, the phenomenon of being gay.

Like the various <x-man gay> sites you find on the web, I am further suggesting that this is quite deliberate on the part of the screenwriters, the director, and probably everyone else connected to the project.  No, Serious Crayons, I don't think someone tried to slip it in without anyone noticing.  The director of the first two films is Brian Singer, openly gay.  He would stay on in the series as producer and in other roles, and again to direct in a later X-Man film.

Would I have seen this if I had not been forewarned by QasF?  I think so.  In the first film, X-Men, I could not have put the opening scenes of the Nazi concentration camp into context until later, but it is in the very language of the screenplay besides the plot line and bits of cinematic business that show off the mutant-as-gay theme.  This has to be seen in the context of the films--quoting them here would take them out of context and it would not be as obvious as in the films themselves.  I will give one example, however.  In a later X-Men film a mutant is coming out to his friends.  Someone says, "Why didn't you tell us before?"  He replies, "You didn't ask; I didn't tell."

Lastly, straight reviews of the films (google <x-men> without "gay") recognize the films as being about minority groups in general under pressure, but then conclude that the metaphor doesn't really work.  Gay-site reviews conclude that the metaphor works very well--only if you make it mutant as gay.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2013, 10:00:22 am »
Thank you, Oilcan for posting the dictionary definition of "metaphor."  It made my point exactly.  I am not suggesting that individual x-characters are gay, but that the phenomenon of being a mutant is like/analogous to/a metaphor for, the phenomenon of being gay.

Like the various <x-man gay> sites you find on the web, I am further suggesting that this is quite deliberate on the part of the screenwriters, the director, and probably everyone else connected to the project.  No, Serious Crayons, I don't think someone tried to slip it in without anyone noticing.  The director of the first two films is Brian Singer, openly gay.  He would stay on in the series as producer and in other roles, and again to direct in a later X-Man film.

Would I have seen this if I had not been forewarned by QasF?  I think so.  In the first film, X-Men, I could not have put the opening scenes of the Nazi concentration camp into context until later, but it is in the very language of the screenplay besides the plot line and bits of cinematic business that show off the mutant-as-gay theme.  This has to be seen in the context of the films--quoting them here would take them out of context and it would not be as obvious as in the films themselves.  I will give one example, however.  In a later X-Men film a mutant is coming out to his friends.  Someone says, "Why didn't you tell us before?"  He replies, "You didn't ask; I didn't tell."

Lastly, straight reviews of the films (google <x-men> without "gay") recognize the films as being about minority groups in general under pressure, but then conclude that the metaphor doesn't really work.  Gay-site reviews conclude that the metaphor works very well--only if you make it mutant as gay.

Thanks for that explanation, x-man. That's interesting, and, given that background information, convincing.

As a straight person watching the one film (though obviously far from an X-Men X-pert), I thought it was a metaphor for any outsiderish person. But it's true that it doesn't really work with other major outsiderish groups. Members of ethnic minority groups are generally not different from their family members, so they don't feel as isolated (I do know adoptees of different races from their parents who have reported feeling that way, but that's a rarer situation). People with disabilities are different from their families but are, by definition, usually less powerful than the population in general, not more so. (I saw the one where the kid tried to cut off his wings and thought, Why would you do that? Wings would be awesome!) So that leaves gay people who, though they don't have superpowers, are at least not inherently disadvantaged relative to the rest of the population (just disadvantaged by homophobic social structures and attitudes).


Online Jeff Wrangler

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2013, 01:30:01 pm »
So that leaves gay people who, though they don't have superpowers,

We don't need them. We're f-a-a-a-a-bulous!

 ;D  ;)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Luvlylittlewing

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Re: X-Man Mutant as Metaphor
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2013, 06:50:34 pm »
We don't need them. We're f-a-a-a-a-bulous!

 ;D  ;)

 :D