Professor X and one of his many “sins” an analysis of Charles Xavier’s romantic relationships: Amelia voght
today I’m going to talk about Amelia voght one of Xavier’s ex girlfriends and a character many people chalk up to being a “victim” of his. I’m going to go into her story with him. analyze. and express some pretty strong opinions I have on these two along the way it’s going to be a LONG post. But first TWs for SA/coercion. domestic abuse. Mentions of child abuse. Mentions of alcoholism. mentions of suicidal ideation. And ableism. I’ll put these TWs again when the images pop up I’ll also try my best tell you which image has the content every time but I might miss a few.
in uncanny X-men issue #309 Xavier is coping with the fact that he shut off magnetos mind while battling him. He falls into a deep sleep and there he dreams of Erik. “Erik” as his therapist. in his dream they goes over what’s bugging Charles such as his numerous toxic and unhealthy relationships. he brings up Moira, who dumped him for another human while he was in war. gabby, who before dating her was mentally unwell and dependent on him. And Lilandra because she’s inaccessible. He briefly states he might have an Oedipus complex. More on that in a minute.
before talking about Amelia it’s important to establish that Xavier’s mother was abused by his step father. Abuse Charles not only endured but was also a witness to. And of course he’s asked about his parents abusive relationship in relation to his own relationships and him having a hard time being truly happy for Scott and Jean when they are getting married. Something Xavier is terribly guilty about. TW for domestic abuse in the second image. And mentions of alcoholic abuse.
Xavier is still heavily in denial about his mother not being a perfect victim. even putting himself as the one responsible for taking care of her. “I.. should have been able to do something…anything…to help her.” Xavier clearly thinks himself as responsible for his mothers abuse despite being the one that needed to be protected. It’s no secret that many people who were abused by a parent as a child either become an abuser or date someone like their abuser. Many people date their parents.. “Erik” asks him if there is something that he is ashamed of from his past Charles states “India” after being disabled while trying to stop the villain known as Lucifer he ended up in a hospital in India. This is where he’d meet Amelia. As his nurse. TW for suicidal ideation. Talked about in Panel.
you probably see where this is going.. and while I get creepy old “romance” tropes. Amelia and Xavier’s interaction are not only sinister in a real life sense but I believe it was written to be problematic as well. Carrying on. Xavier states that he desperately wished to “simply cease to exist” he’s the most mentally unwell he’s ever been and Amelia has a very unprofessional attitude joking about being American and even being snarky with her patient “the name is voght. Amelia C. Thanks for asking” she would later make her move on Xavier while he was still her patient and so depressed he was non verbal.
While trying to regain the use of his legs Amelia states that she sees “precious little evidence that any of his smile muscles are working” again, grossly unprofessional. Xavier of course was confused and wondered what he, stranded in India alone. And without the use of his legs can possibly be smiling about? Amelia helps him into his wheelchair and hugs his back and before he can fully get his sentence out she covers the both of them and has some form of s*xual relations with him. TW for SA/Coercion/power imbalance shown below.
Xavier is her patient. there is no way to paint this as a positive start to a relationship he’s alone in a foreign country he’s somewhat suicidal and he’s being pursued by someone who is supposed be taking care of him physically. This can’t be consensual. Xavier is not in the position to be able to consent properly.
“Amelia. Every other woman I’d known it seemed-“needed” me. But she..? She wanted me.” THIS is a big reason as to why Xavier felt so strongly for her because of his before stated possible oedipus complex made him want to “take care” of his partners the way he felt he should have taken care of his mother. But this time he can be taken care of. Amelia didn’t need to be cared for she wanted Xavier. Her patient. and Xavier romanticized this dynamic in his head. they would move in together shortly after Xavier recovered. They wouldn’t know that each other were mutants for a while until Amelia found his notes containing info about cerebro and mutants and.. TW for domestic abuse shown in both images.
Amelia is naturally scared and outraged by her discovery. To her she’s the only mutant she knows about and her boyfriend in her perspective is a human looking for her kind. BUT she is drawn to be very threatening she throws papers at him and hovers over her disabled boyfriend while screaming at him she’s also illogical stating “is this how you “found” me?? How you managed to bump into me the middle of some foreign country?!” He couldn’t possibly have been looking for her when he was the patient in a recent accident being cared for and of course romantically pursued by her. Again, I know why she’s frightened but she attacks him again. domestic abuse TW (image below)
By the looks of it she even punched him all while he tries to talk her down. Is her fear justified? Absolutely. But it’s not right to literally beat your partner out of that fear and anger without giving him the chance to explain himself. That’s abuse. I ask. Would anyone let Charles or any other male character live this down? Or would they be forever labeled as an abuser? Eventually with his telepathy he tells her that he does love her (he’s reassuring her while being attacked) and that he’s a mutant too finally calming her down and what does she say?
She doesn’t apologize for jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst out of him she doesn’t apologize for her physical attack she tells him to hold her. She unjustly put Charles, The man that she’s supposed to love. through something extremely physically and mentally traumatizing and she doesn’t even muster up a “sorry” instead telling him to shut up and letting him apologize as if he was at fault..
In uncanny X-men -1 we see that they continued to live together after that incident at his estate now and the dynamic is…off. She tries to use humor to lighten the mood but instead minimizes his emotions. and he continues not to get her humor.
She openly states that shes a bit fearful of him because of his abilities and that she left her job as a nurse in india to live with him partly because she loves him Partly because she’s fearful and so she can convince him out of his dream for mutant-human peace calling it “nonsense and insane”
They clearly don’t agree with each other and even if they met in a good circumstance it wouldn’t work because she wants him to give up on his dreams and even tells him that. (and of course her tendency to use physical violence before talking) I don’t blame her for her beliefs that mutants should hide but it would be better to not date someone who thinks otherwise. He later had her teleport them to auschwitz Under the correct belief that Erik will show up. She is of course, disgusted by the place. and before getting cut off states she’d understand “going bad” if you went through something like that (I don’t have that panel for some reason)
She briefly tries to reason with Erik but of course it doesn’t work Erik calls her by her name revealing he’s been keeping track of Charles and his relationships which might be mutual because Charles wasn’t shocked by this like Amelia was.
Back to uncanny X-men #309 “Erik” tries to ask Charles what’s really bugging him about his previous relationship with Amelia and how they broke up. Xavier retells the event twice it shows Amelia leaving him because she doesn’t believe in his dream and it’s obvious she’s not going to let it go or be convinced out of it. She leaves peacefully.
Except xavier is lying. He tells it again.
and he lies again. “Erik” asks him what really happened before she left and Xavier tells him that in a moment of panic.. TW for domestic abuse below.
Xavier almost forces her to see his side of things in fear of losing her. this is the only part of the story people tend to show and a lot of people act like this is why she left but in reality it’s much more complicated then that. she was already leaving him. And no, I’m not justifying what Xavier almost did here it’s horrible and thankfully he stopped. but I’m going to get back to it in a minute. (notice her resorting to physical violence again) Charles and “Erik” speak on this more.
It’s obviously something Charles is deeply ashamed of and regrets a great amount and obviously for a good reason. it’s a violation of her rights to her own thoughts. Charles compares it to his step-fathers actions “My actions made me no better then my step-father..using my power to lash out at someone weaker- to take for myself that which someone was unwilling to give.” I’ll get back to this too. Notice how he clearly remembers the slap and still thinks about it. He’s holding his face. He’s able to move on and own up to what happened and he wakes up and supports Jean in her marriage with Scott.
Now. What do I think about the breakup between Charles and Amelia? Well, like I said Charles was a bit of an unreliable narrator obviously everything shown was true but it’s only about his guilt in it. he only acknowledged the things he did that were wrong. He states he’s like his step-father because he was “using his power against someone weaker then him” she was weaker in THAT one specific incident but he fails to acknowledge that Amelia also did the same thing but much more then he ever did and throughout the relationship. She pursued her disabled patient. Someone that is the definition of weaker than her and took what she wanted from him. She seemingly had intercourse with him WHILE in the hospital. There was a power imbalance with her being his nurse. she was the only “good” thing in his life and she used that for her interests.
do i believe that Charles was like his step-father in the instance he used his powers? No. And here’s why. To paint Charles as the aggressor in this relationship is wildly dishonest I’ve already talked about the imbalance and the incident where she literally beat him after finding his notes but let’s talk about why he reacted the way he did because this sorta reaction isn’t really in-character for what we know about him. Xavier stated he fell into a deep depression when Moira left him to the point of having to be brought back to health
So why did he react with such hostility when Amelia tried to leave? Well, Xavier was passively suicidal when Amelia took advantage of him. He was stranded alone no Erik no gabby or Moira and now not even the ability to walk. To him she not only healed him physically but gave him a reason to live and continue pursuing his dreams. She was the only person he had. i believe he had trauma bonded with her. Seeing her leave was like seeing the only person he had abandon him his actions weren’t right but that’s why. He stopped immediately and it wasn’t out of a place of malice or control but fear. It’s not comparable to his step-father taking advantage of a widow for her money beating her. his kid. and Charles. (even experimenting on him but that’s a whole other post) he was evil. He took advantage of a young sad widow that’s being an abuser. Who fits the description of that more than Charles?
oh right.. Amelia does. And I believe it was intentional. Xavier failing to see being assaulted and taken advantage of comes from his need to overcompensate for the fact that his power can easily make him like his step-father. He has to be perfect or he’s his step-father. But he didn’t notice that he was his mother. Look below at this parallel that I think couldn’t have been an accident because it’s by the same artist in the very same issue. Ofc TW for domestic abuse shown in both panels.
The framing is almost exact and guess who’s in his mothers position? Charles. Amelia is drawn as threatening the same way his father is. I’ll go further to say while, yes. Xavier is bald now. he was blonde so even the hair colors match up! Xavier is a blonde like his mother and Amelia is ginger like his step-father she’s by a door frame slapping the person she took advantage of. Just like Xavier’s step-father Kurt marko. Massive TW for most of the rest of this post will speak on ableism. domestic and sexual abuse in Relationships. and there be descriptions (not detailed)
Another thing that can’t be ignored is that Charles is a disabled man and yes. That plays into him being taken advantage of and abused. Don’t believe me? Well. According to an article titled “The links between disability and domestic violence” by Sanctuaryforfamilies.Org “70% percent of disabled people experience abuse and are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted.”
It also details other forms of abuse disabled people go through. Such as:
read the highlighted ones again and think about everything I mentioned about these two.. being SA’d while his disability made it difficult to consent. having a small circle of people to support him after being disabled. He literally only had Amelia with him. Being heavily dependent on her and of course most cases a disabled person is abused by someone they trust like a partner. family member. Or caregiver. In this case it’s a partner and caregiver. The last image is from the article “disability and domestic violence” by safelives.Org.Uk
It’s impossible to ignore how Charles not only being a disabled man. but a recently disabled man that has no one else but his nurse/girlfriend while he was passively suicidal plays into not only the domestic violence he endured but why he acted the way he did when she attempted to leave. She took advantage of him. made him dependent on her. hit him. and then left suddenly. Was Charles really so awful or was it just reactive abuse? Google definition of reactive abuse: “Reactive abuse happens when a victim of abuse reacts to that abuse in a way which could include physical violence or shouting of their own. This isn't because the victim is an abuser, rather that they have been a victim of abuse for such a period that they have themselves lashed out.” Those are my reasons I think they go way beyond bad romance tropes and dated writing.
Also, I think Amelia is a really interesting character with interesting character dynamics and a good look at someone who’s stuck between the morality of Xavier and Magneto. The problem is that SO many people chalk her up to some kind of “victim” of Charles and even romanticize and justify her actions. She’s morally deplorable. especially in her relationship with Charles which is the only thing I covered for now I’ll probably make a part two I hope this analysis was a good read as much as it was a good albeit, heavy. write! And I hope maybe I could have helped shed some light on these heavy topic’s and toxic dynamics too. Thanks for reading!
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