Mutants Are A Metaphor

A blog chronicling the use of the mutant metaphor in the X-Men comics. Member of the No-Prize Network

[glassgospels]

no offense but im starting to hate all oppression narrative metaphors all of them

i hate mutants being a metaphor for the LGBT+ community. i hate magic being a metaphor for mental illness or literally anything. i hate all of them.

do you know why? there are many reasons. there are still homophobic and transphic fan of mutants, who refuse to recognize the metaphor being there.

i hate magic being a metaphor for mental illness because mages are constantly depicted as giving into their “demons” in the blink of an eye, tht they’re to blame for their oppression for being born dangerous walking weapons.

and mostly i hate it because it introduces this disgusting belief that anyone who supports these metaphors is actually a Good Ally, and anyone who doesn’t is a Bad Ally, even if the people who hate it are part of the group allegedly being represented by these metaphors and they hate them because they are uncomfortable. There is no line drawn bc they can’t fathom that these particular marginalized groups are allowed to decide whether they like these metaphors for themselves, personally. Which they are, btw, you are allowed to want those for yourself if you aren’t forcing it onto others.

The same people who will bash their shields yelling about what good people they are for supporting these awful metaphors will turn around and use slurs and call people who don’t like them oppressors for not wanting the abuse they experience on the daily limited to something like this.

(ftr i have left out mentions of racism bc i do not experience it and isn’t my story to tell, but if you do then you are absolutely encouraged to add onto this post abt it)

[themutantmetaphor]

Logan (2017)

Charles: Why would you want to [drop out of school,] Nate?

Logan: Careful, you're speaking to a man who ran a school for . . . a lotta years, right, Charles?

Charles: Yes, it was a - it was a kind of special needs school.

Logan: Uh-huh. That's a good description.

[cykelops]

i understand people who complain and poke holes into the idea mutants are oppressed while superpowered heroes like say Spider-Man aren’t. it makes no sense, right? the only difference between them is their genetic make up… but that’s it, exactly. that’s the difference. theyre a mutant and mutants are bad. people’s prejudices don’t make sense in real life either. It’s the same difference between how people feel about immigrants of color and how they feel about white immigrants.

that’s my onion

[themutantmetaphor]

[themutantmetaphor]

X-Men Gold #10

“But segregation was considered “sensible” once upon a time. So was interning Japanese-Americans.”

[themutantmetaphor]

X-Men Gold #9

In X-Men Gold, Kitty Pryde fights against “Mutant Deportation Act,” while in the real world, President Trump repeatedly attempts to deport Muslim citizens from the U.S.

[themutantmetaphor]

X-Statix #20

“Of course. But we were wondering if . . . this cure . . . got rid of that other thing, too.”

[themutantmetaphor]

X-Statix #19

A gay mutant (Myles “Vivisector” Alfred) considers curing his mutation.

[lgbtincomics]

Read through an LGBT lens, X-Men are all survivors of their struggles with identity — and it’s usually their post-adolescent identity. They’ve all found strength in their differences. They’ve all found pride in their otherness.

LGBT mutants of the Marvel Universe

[themutantmetaphor]

Uncanny X-Men #98

[themutantmetaphor]

I really like this blog and think it's cool, but I do have one problem with it. Any time metaphors involve Jews, you tag it as religion, even though most Jews are ethnically Jewish. Jewish people are largely targeted due to racist/xenophobic ideas due to ethnic features (large nose, dark and curly hair, etc.). Maybe you should add an ethnicity metaphor. Just a suggestion.

All right, thank you for the suggestion! It might take me some time to change the old tags around, but I’ll work on it. Thanks!

I’m still a little confused about the terminology here - filing Jewish issues under “metaphor: race” wouldn’t be accurate?

[mattholicguilt]

i have more ideas about mutant worldbuilding and they’re all allegoric. ok what about….. non-mutants pressing for person-first language. “you’re not a mutant, you’re a person with a mutation!!” bad organizations that claim to be pro-mutant but are actually pro-“find a cure for being a mutant.” foodies saying gmos and food dyes cause mutations. “i’m gene-blind! i don’t see you as a mutant!”

[dr-archeville]

(tw: rape mention)

Shower Thoughts: one problem with Marvel’s Mutants being used as a metaphor for LGBTQ/MOGAI people (“Have you tried not being a Mutant?”) is that the plans of villainous Mutants to turn non-Mutant humans into Mutants – like Magneto tried in the first X-Men movie, and Apocalypse planned to do in X-Men: Evolution – would be mirroring the “them queers is tryin’ to make our kids into homosexuals” fearmongering, or tropes like Rape and Switch.

[demoiselledefortune]

That it’s… it’s just odd that anybody woud romanticize our situation.

[themutantmetaphor]

Astonishing X-Men #5

[seekingwillow]

They always want to use queer sexuality in these metaphors, when the truth is, the government and populace (and some corporations) feel that they can’t CONTROL mutants, so they’d rather erase them*. And that has far more in common with blackness.or rather anti-blackness and how blackness is seen as a threat now slavery and jim crow 1.0 are over.

Every black man shot by the cops or black woman killed in custody, could translate so easily to visible mutations like feathers or claws for hands or unusual eyes etc. So much; ‘I was scared for my life’ bullshit, I had to shoot.

But I guess it’s hard when the creators are really really white, and the majority of mutant characters pass for white, are white or are given disguises  that SEEM white, to really look at that glaring similarity between mutantphobia and anti-blackness.

At the fact mutants can’t even go live a lift of their own on some island; because that’s just too suspicious and not under control.

And I can’t even get into how BLM or the Black Panthers get treated like Magneto’s crew. But this is an analogy that doesn’t get used now in the modern present, as much as it was hell of misunderstood in the original past.

[*Not taking away from the queer metaphor, but it’s not a ‘on sight’ kind of thing, usually. Or appearance unable to be modified.]

[blacksentai]

1) I hate that a brown lady is the evil mad doctor here. fuck that shit. 2) BLACK PEOPLE CAN’T SHOOT LASERS OUT OF THEIR FUCKING SKULLS The X-Men are a fucking awful metaphor. Every sci fi metaphor is a fucking awful metaphor. If they wanted to the X-men could wipe out entire countries. They have. There is real reason to be afraid of mutants. THERE IS NO REASON TO BE AFRAID OF BLACK PEOPLE. YOU JUST HATE US. That’s it. We don’t have any power anywhere. Black people are underprivileged in countries that are all black, man. White people show up and fuck shit up all the time and then blame it on black people. In America we are being hunted and exterminated and we cannot fight back in any way. We get seen as violent for protecting ourselves. We are used as slave labor in prison. Our children are beaten in schools. We get less medicine when in pain. We get no justice from the justice department. The banks don’t give us loans. And not a single goddamn one of us has the ability to mind control people. Not one of us can lift objects with our minds. We can’t make cards explode. We don’t heal to the point of immortality. We don’t can’t be our own laser light show. We can’t change our appearance at will. X-men has always been the worst race metaphor. Especially since black x-men who aren’t Storm get treated like shit from day 1. And Storm gets shit on quite a bit. She’s just marketable

[themutantmetaphor]

I’d like to say, in Whedon’s defense, that Dr. Kavita Rao (the brown lady in question) isn’t really depicted as evil or mad; just kind of well-intentioned and mislead by the real evil. But I mean, yes, it is kinda shady that the brown woman is being cast as the clueless majority here to our heroes - who, I just noticed, are all white in this incarnation. All straight and able-bodied, too. Awkward. 

As to the rest of it - well said!

[themutantmetaphor]

X-Men: Legacy #223

“I intended to force her to absorb your power. Permanently. To leave you crippled and useless.”

[richardridernova]

You’re a mutant. Like us.

Generation Hope #14 (2012)

[sebastianshaw]

That time Shaw had amnesia and didn’t know he was a mutant and someone explained it to him with Lady Gaga