Another one of the more famous representations of ostracism in the X-Men universe is in the graphic novel X-Men: Days of Future Past (1981) written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by John Byrne, which is a collection of the Uncanny X-men #138-143 and X-Men Annual #4. The novel deals with an alternate future set in 2013, one in which an anti-mutant human is elected president in 1984 and installs the Mutant Control Act, which allowed the United States government to create robot sentinels designed to exterminate all mutants of the world. The X-Man of 1981 are warned of this threat by Kate Pryde, who had her conciseness sent back in time. In 2013, almost all of the surviving mutants live in mutant concentration camps. Pryde had spent her entire …show more content…
This representation is seen more largely in the films than in the comics themselves. Bryan Singer has been involved (with the exception of X-Men: The Last Stand ) in all of the X-Men films in some capacity, whether that be as the director, producer, or writer. Singer is a member of the LGBTQ community and identifies himself as a homosexual. Up until recently, since it’s inception, the LGBTQ community has been marginalized by a large percentage of the public, so much so that anti-LGBTQ organizations exists. In Singer’s adaptation of the X-Men onto the big screen, we can see an allegory for this representation in a number of ways. For example in X2 (2003), the scene in which Bobby Drake (Iceman) reveals to his parents that he is a mutant is extremely similar to that of a teenager revealing to his or her parents that they are gay. Drake’s mother asks him if he could stop being a mutant. In 2003, there was a common misconception that Homosexuality was a choice and if a person didn’t want to be one he or she could choose not to. This idea was clearly represented during this scene in the film. Even in the film Singer is not involved with, X-Men: The Last Stand, this idea of homophobia can seen in the form of the “cure” for mutants that the American government supports. In the film, Worthington Labs announces that they have created an injection that …show more content…
This warning comes in the form of the Brotherhood of Mutants, which is a team of comprised of mutants that believe mutants to be superior to humans. The team’s first appearance was in The X-Men #4 (1964) under the leadership of Magneto. Upon his first appearance, little is known about his backstory, but in Classic X-Men #12 (1987) it is revealed that Magneto not only ostracized for being a mutant, but he was also a holocaust survivor who witnessed the death of his parents. Being a member of two marginalized groups, Magneto’s faith in humanity was lost and in his eyes, the only way to restore hope to the world would be to make mutants the dominant species of the
Famed actor Oscar Isaac once said, “Humans are mutants, everything's a mutant - things that evolve.” This quote relates to that of the mutants in the X-Men and the Chrysalids for it reflects the way these mutants think and act. In the world of the X-Men and the Chrysalids, society treated mutants with no respect and called them words like “freak” since they were different. Individuals who continuously say things like this cannot comprehend the struggle that these brave mutants face in their lives every day. Making assumptions like these would only tighten the struggle that mutants have with the humans and may cause a war. With the capability of exhibiting morality, the society can look at the vigorous values that are held by the people of the X-Men, the values held by the people in the Chrysalids and the differences in these values.
I reached many other people since last week, some of them did not show much interest in doing the interview when they heard it was about homosexual representation analysis; the other people were unable to do the interview because the lack of time or other reasons. Anyway, diverse interviewees were picked to convey a considerably fair research for the attitudes toward the homosexual representation in the show Glee. These three chosen interview subjects not only vary in race (Both my boss and my roommate are Asian-American and my friend’s sister Lily is Caucasian) but also in gender (My boss is male and the other two are female). Because the main focus of the show Glee is about daily life of a group of high school students who attend their school glee club, the audience’s age range is unavoidably narrow. Despite the fact
The film, La Mission, demonstrates examples of just that with its protagonist, Che Rivera, not accepting the circumstance that his son is gay. You see, Che Rivera is a very “macho” man with a reputation to protect, and for some reason, he anticipated his gay son would destroy that “macho” picture. Che rejected the reality and pretended differently and his son was forced to hide his true self. When he began to come out, he experienced shame from his own father and victimization from others in the neighborhood. Towards the end, Che forced his son to a choice: ‘you are either straight and leaving with me, or you will never see me again.’ His son chose to be himself and it ruined their relationship as father and son. His father was the one who built those walls and it lead him to, as Curti said “dissatisfaction and frustration.” Eventually he got over his differences and sought out his son to make up. (La
This is exemplified in another game produced by Nintendo in their instalments to the Animal Crossing series. The feminine giraffe character, Gracie is a celebrity fashion designer who occasionally communicates to the player. In the Japanese titles of the game series, Gracie is labelled as a male yet in the western version of the game, they have the same game model, yet they are labelled as a female. This illustrates how through translation, ‘deviant’ themes such as transsexuality and/or being transgender is changed to “please the western audience”. Through the preceding examples of Birdo and Gracie, it is clear to see the fact characters who identify as LGBT are being hidden by game companies to attempt to appeal to the mainstream audience, in doing so stripping away any sense of relatability queer individuals have to these characters. This is supported in a quote from my questionnaire that I conducted, a respondent stated that they “don’t see enough games with gender neutral or non-binary characters.” In addition to that, 100% of non-binary respondents to my questionnaire stated that they are not pleased with the way their genden identity is represented in video games. Due to the underrepresentation of non-binary and gender queer characters in video games, individuals
As Fritsch et al. states, “even as ‘queer’ became an established identity in the LGBTQ rainbow acronym, it also worked against the normalization of gender and sexuality by challenging the presumption of a two-gender system” (336). A majority of the queer community had/have conflicting thoughts about whether the term queer must be used as a way to distinguish or rather alienate oneself with from binary system. Many of the people within the community don’t like to separate themselves, believing that by doing so will push them further away from society when in reality this will result in losing their loved ones and friends. Others argued that by doing so they break apart the binary structure and in order everyone in a sense is queer; there is no set standard for what normal is. Moreover, people believe that with trying to embrace and embody the term queer, there will be negative emotions and actions made towards them which puts them at an even higher risk of being victimized. Being in the center staged of the whole movement not only brings conflict but it can in the long run off put people from overall trying to identify with the queer movement or the term queer
Ostracism in and of itself is a condition no human wants to experience but compounded with disrespect and abuse, it describes the condition of the African Americans prior to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth , and Fifteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment supposedly outlawed slavery; however, whites still found ways around the law in order to keep blacks below them. The Fourteenth Amendment granted blacks citizenship, but they were still denied basic rights. The Fifteenth Amendment granted blacks the right to vote; however, most blacks were incapable of voting due to specific obstacles. Jim Crow Laws were an extreme obstacle in the integration of African Americans. Hate Groups were another attempt to restrain blacks from integrating into society. Although the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were designed to provide freedom for the slaves, they were still denied their freedom by specific obstacles.
However there have been a variety of critiques regarding the media’s portrayal of same-sex couples and gay marriage. People who go solely off the media’s depiction of gay and lesbians could have a skewed view of what they are actually like. This could be detrimental for youth who are developing their ideas of what homosexuals are actually like and this is their only source of information on it. This leads to stereotyping different types of gay people. Also for young people, the media depiction of gay people has led to the idea that this is “cool” and treat their homosexual friends differently.
Specifically, the media likes to depict homosexual males as the “gay best friend”, ad female homosexuals as dykes. A perfect example of this can be found in the characters of Damian and Janis from the movie, Mean Girls. When the main character, Cady, moves back to the states, she makes friends with Damian and Janis. Damian has a higher pitched voice and talks like a high school diva. He tells Cady what to wear and how to attract her crush, and even lends her a pink shirt when she doesn’t have one.
I think we should think of homophobia of a system social control. By having homophobia exist, we’re giving people an excuse to hate people for no apparent reason. Homophobia creates myths and stereotypes about people that are in turn picked up by the media and then distributed to the general public.
Towbin. M. A. et al. (2008). Images of gender, race, age, and sexual orientation in Disney
In the 1990's there has been what is called a "normalized movement"(Warner 41). This so-called movement has permeated into all aspects of the Gay and Lesbian movement's agenda. It has become increasingly clear in the realms of the media such as television, movies and magazines. The major objective for the proponents of this movement is to make the homosexual seem "normal." This would be done by not focusing on the sexual nature of the homosexual. Since their sexual behavior is considered deviant by society, any outward expression of it will be looked down upon. So, it has been the goal of some leaders of the movement as well as those who control the media outlets to separate the identity and sexuality of the homosexual as far as possible.
Homosexuality was also seen as a mental disorder up until the year 1973 in which it was officially removed from the list of mental disorders from the American Psychological Association. Andra Gault discusses in ‘The Hypocrisy of Hollywood: How the People in Hollywood Hurt the Causes They Try to Champion’, the varying attitudes towards homosexuality. Also discussing the subject of being considered gay because of how one acts that is “Not considered normal for that gender”.
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
On television, I watched characters such as Marco del Rossi and Paige Michalchuk on the Canadian teen-drama Degrassi. These were the first positive experiences I had of what gay culture was like. Of what I saw, I did not feel like I fit into that lifestyle/group. On the other hand, the movie The Matthew Shepard Story shared the violent side of homosexuality’s history in the retelling of Matthew Shepard’s murder.
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Adam Sharpiro, Megan Schultz, Christina Roush, Cassandra Schofar, Emily Shilling, Tawnia Simpson, Natalie Sampiller. Portrayal of Homosexuality in Media. 26 March 2014 http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom103fall2004/gp16.pdf>. Huegel, Kelly.