#strength in difference

[samaelqayin]

[self-conscious-selfie]

Queer and Proud - it truly is an honour, above all else, to be a part of this big, beautiful community built upon Love. Happy Pride 2019! 

I have chosen this as my final post for this project as it serves as a form of diverse representation, particularly through potential embodiment and identity performance. In December 2018, Marvel Studios released Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a new take on our traditional idea of “Spider-Man” as Peter Parker. In this remodel, team Spider-Verse is instead made up of five members, each of which is a unique and varied version of the hero “with great responsibility” in their own respective worlds/realms. 

The team is comprised of Miles Morales / Spider-Man: An intelligent yet rebellious teenager of African-American and Puerto Rican, Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man: Miles's reluctant mentor who is intended to be an amalgamation of all pop culture Spider-Man adaptations and interpretations, Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman: A dimension-displaced counterpart of Gwen Stacy with spider-like abilities, who takes up the alias of "Gwanda" while at Miles' school, Peter Porker / Spider-Ham: An alternate funny animal version of Spider-Man from an anthropomorphic universe, who was once a spider, bitten by a radioactive pig, Peni Parker / SP//dr: A young Japanese-American girl from an alternative anime-like universe who co-pilots a biomechanicalsuit with a radioactive spider that she shares a telepathic link with, and finally [pause to catch breath], Peter Parker / Spider-Man Noir: A dark and monochromatic alternate version of Peter Parker from a 1930s universe. - Thanks to Wikipedia for the run-down.

The film’s takeaway (at least from my experience) exemplified strength in difference as each hero has a particular strength that adds to their ultimate triumph. Each are strong individuals who come from wildly different backgrounds, all capable of equally important contributions to their collective fight to save humanity, under the same banner.  

If only this lens could be applied to much more in the world... a queer lens of sorts, that celebrates strength in difference and fights against divisive rhetoric and regimes.