X-People
Me: Like, for example, why is it X-Men? [Sweetie being currently in the middle of reading an X-Men comic in bed.] Not that I know a lot about X-Men, apart from having watched the cartoon when I was a kid, and the first movie. But there are definitely female characters. There's the one with the black and white hair-- Storm.
Sweetie: The creator is actually surprisingly feminist. I mean, there are strong female characters, but--
Me: So why didn't they make it X-People?
Sweetie: Well, if they made it X-People now, it might not be recognizable as part of the X-Men franchise. So I can see how they would say that, from a marketing standpoint.
Me: Or because male is always the default choice in our culture.
Sweetie: I never thought of that.
Me: It's always fun to do the switch test, to see if there's a bad gender stereotype you wouldn't have thought of. You said there were four male X-Men and one woman.
Sweetie: Yes.
Me: Could you see them being called X-Women, and the group being four women and one man?
Sweetie: Not really.
Me: Exactly. And you are an enlightened, educated man. Imagine how many other people have never thought of that before.
4 comments:
Excellent point. I actually hadn't thought of it that way either.
It's so bizarre. My first thought was wow, you're right, Sarah. And then second, how could I never have thought of that. I think part of it, as I hypothesized to Sarah (in the part of the conversation that didn't make the cut) is that the "X-Men" in the comic lexicon has become a proper noun, like "Avengers," or "Fantastic Four," and so it doesn't even occur to you any more that the title is a genderized term. Which of course makes Sarah's point all the more poignant. And after she said it, it was so weird to read those same strong female characters proudly espousing to be an "X-Man" because of the heroic ideals that represented.
I'm a huge fan of the X-Men going back many years, mostly because they stretched a lot of other boundaries that other comics weren't willing to. And it boggles me how someone who is usually conscious of and critical of genderized language totally missed this one.
But because I can hear in my head already the counter-point from the casual male fan, "who cares, it's just the title, it doesn't mean they're sexist," etc., it's such a hard battle. Because they just don't get it. Yet the language says it all: to qualify for the team, you have to fall under the male banner, i.e., meet the mettle of the male norm. Sarah's point of the reversal test is perfect to use in conversations with such people. For example, at one point (years ago) there were two X-Men teams, "gold" and "blue" I believe. If instead there had been "X-Men" (let's say 4 men and 1 woman) and "X-Women" (4 women and 1 man) teams, would those people really believe it wouldn't make a difference? And an even more apt question: would they who say that the titular words don't matter mind being the sole man on the X-Women? Somehow, I envision much squirming, indicating only that Sarah is right, and that the words do matter.
Much food for thought. Thanks, Sarah.
You know the one guy who was on the X-Women team would totally be the gay guy too.
LOL funny. SO GAY!!
(/SARCASM)
^^LOL!
But, wait, I'm a little confused. What about Jean Grey, Mystique, and Rogue? They're all women. Aren't they considered a part of the team? (Well, not Mystique, because she fights for the other side.)
Have you seen the second and third movies? Jean Grey is pretty much the main character of the third one.
I never read the original comics, but considering that the comics were created in (I think) the 60's, there's not much mystery to why they chose X-Men as the title.
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