Because of your most recent post about how awful of a start Emma and Scott have, it has made me remember my biggest Scott Summers hot take.
I feel like a lot of people who dislike Scott for a lot of his bungles in relationships would be kinder if he were a woman, whereas a lot of his current bro fans more viscerally hateful.
And I say this maybe because I've seen one too many people say things like, "Madelyne Pryor should be able to legally kill Scott Summers", and I know it's a joke, but it really rubs me the wrong way. This isn't me saying that he did anything right for Maddie, and even though I personally hate that time because a lot of it was editorial meddling, I do think that it feels in line with his childhood anyways, and I think those types of people would be kinder or at least understand why he was so shitty if they took into account the fact that basically Scott's entire life has been grooming plan after grooming plan.
Mr Sinister was obsessed with him and orchestrated his entire life basically, then Jack O'Diamonds was physically and emotionally abusive and made Scott do crime for him under threat of punishment, and then Charles comes in and—while there's debates of if superheroes are child soldiers—he was still given far too much responsibility when he was already an abused child. I think all of this would make someone more emotionally stunted and do bad things; like dating the spitting image of your dead ex, not being able to truly settle into civilian life or be a good partner to someone who is one, etc. Maybe I'm also more lenient of this time because even though he didn't know, Maddie was a clone made by his biggest and arguably most fucked up abuser (who is already weirdly obsessed with his genetics) to have a baby with.
Maddie gets the shortest end of the stick here, and I will never blame her for her actions or reactions during or after this time (mostly. there is that one time she apparently took on Emma's telepathic form to have mind sex with Scott??? Don't quote me on that), but I will argue that Scott in this situation is also revictimized all over again in such a gross fashion and I feel that the real villain of this situation is and will always be Mr. Sinister.
Same with the Emma stuff, if Scott was a woman I think more people in general would not see it as just cheating and treat it more as SA and sexual harassment perpetrated by a therapist against a patient.
Of course, arguably if Scott was a woman more than a few of his current fans would then think that all those situations are cheating or beyond fucked and etc, etc. but that's because so often if a female does anything they are scrutinized even more, especially in relationships.
This is all to say, I feel like if people were to take into account a character's past, and honestly high-key could extend our sympathy more to all genders, and analyzed things from a more psychological perspective of characters we'd gain a deeper understanding of their situations and maybe be more empathetic of them. You don't technically have to, because they're not real, but I feel like more people should do this.
Anyways this is long and rambly, and you don't have to respond to it, but I feel with a hot take like that some explanation of it is needed.
Please keep rambling, honestly I love replying to these kinds of discussions. The only times I don’t respond are when people are disrespectful; other than that, I might take a while, but I do reply.
I agree with you that fandom behavior, whether from fans or haters, would change if Scott were a woman (what would her name even be? Maybe Scarlett?), and in my opinion there would be a much bigger emphasis on the abuse Scott has suffered, whether sexual, physical, or emotional.
And like you said, there would definitely be a portion of the fandom that would be kinder or more empathetic toward her story, but if fandom has taught me anything, it’s that it doesn’t matter if something is explicitly shown or directly stated to be abuse, there will still be people who prefer to blame the victim. And that becomes even more true when the victim is a woman. One example of this is that even a year ago you could still find people who genuinely hated Carol Danvers for being SA’d and sincerely believed she had “asked for it”.
Objectively speaking, women have always been judged more harshly, and I feel like if Scott were a woman, she would receive that same treatment too. But this is a topic that really needs a deeper analysis because there are so many angles to examine, though I lean more toward your perspective (I’m being optimistic here).
When it comes to Maddie, I have mixed feelings. I don’t really have a solid opinion on her because I usually fluctuate between feeling terrible for her, since she was put in a situation where none of it was her fault, yet she’s the one who suffered the most, and feeling disgusted by what Marvel did to her by turning her into the Green Goblin (I’ll probably explain this in more detail in another post because I have a LOT to say about how they handled her character).
Empathy is a quality we should use more often, but sadly we don’t. There are so many characters who would be deeply loved if we, as comic readers, actually put ourselves in their place or tried to understand their situation.
As for Scott’s childhood… it’s something that causes me a lot of pain and sadness because he was a child who desperately needed a good parental figure, and after the accident, all he got were genuinely awful adults who took advantage of him in different ways. And yes, I absolutely include Charles in that because he was fully aware of everything Scott had gone through, and even so, he still placed the pressure of being the leader of the X-Men on him, not to mention the fact that Scott was the one carrying Xavier’s legacy.
Sorry for rambling, and I’m really sorry if this doesn’t make much sense. I think I’ll have to make separate posts for each point because I have so much to say.
PS: Nathaniel Essex is the worst. He is genuinely horrific and disgusting.
