X-Men 3 - thematic ties to homosexuality ***Spoiler Alert***

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

Anyone else see this movie yet?

Honestly, the entire time I was watching it, I couldn't help but make serious parallels in the theme of the movie to that of homosexuality. How being a mutant is genetic, how some sought out (and found) a cure for it, how the mutants had to make the choice of whether there was any reason to be "cured"... I could see that entire scenario play out for the gay community. You know, minus the parts where gay people can move the Golden Gate Bridge and all. To my knowledge, they still can't do that one.

Anyway, anyone else got a take?

[Debi]

1. Haven't seen the film but just read an editorial on this same subject

So you must be a genius! :think:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Really? Do you have a link?

I'd be really interested to read that!

[Debi]

7. Sadly, no

I'm pretty certain I was at a coffe shop when I read it so it could have been from one of a number of papers. :shrug:

However, you're still a genius!!

[democracyindanger]

2. The New Yorker agrees in their review.

Other critics have brought it up since the first movie.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. I hadn't really seen that before

Makes sense though. Well, I guess I'm not alone! I feel dumb for making a post about an apparently unoriginal idea now though... :evilfrown:

[democracyindanger]

8. Every idea is original as long

as you believe it is. Hell, I still think that as a 5th grader in 1980 I coined the term 'web' to describe a computer network when I wrote a science fiction story. And the hold three fingers up and telling somebody to 'read between the lines'? My work. 1st grade.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. Yeah, I know what you mean.

I still feel silly. I'm sure others think I've just tried to pawn this off as my own, even though I hadn't read anyone elses. :-(

[Dukkha]

3. not to mention Magneto leads the revolt

played by gay actor Ian McKellen

"No one ever talks about extermination. They just do it. And you go on with your lives, ignoring the signs around you. And then one day, when the air is still and the night is fallen, they come for you. Only then do you realize that while you're talking about organizing and committees, the extermination has already begun. Make no mistake, my brothers, they will draw first blood. They will force their cure upon us. There is only one question you must answer: Who will you stand with?"

[Nothing Without Hope]

6. Yes, the ties are there, but to me there is a crucial difference.

In the movie, as you say, the mutant state is said to be GENETIC, and though it is called a "disease" that can be "cured," this is different from what the anti-gay bigots in this country say about homosexuality. The whole basis of their persecution approach is that being gay is a free choice, NOT genetic (as we know it to be), and that gay people are just being evil and perverse for freely choosing their "disgusting, perverse and evil" orientation. All the "re-education" campaigns and much of the publicity work of the bigots is based on this idea of gay people having made an evil choice that can be reversed at any time. Work of the devil, right?

This difference - viewing the different state as being a perverse and deliberately made choice versus being inborn and natural - is a profound one. So yes, there are some echoes of the homosexuality issue, especially in scenes showing the embarrassment and disgust of even some parents for their children, let alone government, and also in the use of the issue as a political tool. But under it all, the difference between perceived choice and genetics is profound, IMO.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. Here's the thing

Let's say the gay community is finally proven right once and for all - that there IS no choice and that it IS genetic. Then the movie is dead on. And for all we know, that's a very valid scenario. So I don't think it's too far off.

[Deja Q]

11. It's not about choice. Who goes around begging to be hurt?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

12. No one.

That's one of the points brought up in the movie. If there was a cure for homosexuality, would you use it? Would you feel there's anything to be "cured" of in the first place? What would you do in the face of those who would "enforce" a cure?

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. Yes, exactly. The movie STARTS with the premise that the difference

is genetic, and all sorts of difficult confrontations come from that. In real life, the worst bigots and gay-bashers believe that their victims have made a free choice and that choice is evil and somehow so contagious that it threatens them. And also, there is the basic enjoyment by bullies puffing themselves up by ganging up and victimizing a minority. The worst parts of human nature, stoked by calculating hypocritical religous leaders and politicians for their own gain.

If homosexuality WERE "curable," you can bet that there would be pressure and even violence to force "cures," as in the movie. The subplot of the father pressuring his mutant son to undergo the "cure" rings true.

(SPOILER ALERT FOR THE NEXT BIT)

I feel that the least believable part of the movie plot is the way the goverment is suddenly all buddy-buddy with the mutants at the end. The fear and hatred run much too deep for such a facile resolution.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. I agree with that last part

That makes no sense at all.

[xchrom]

18. do you really think in 2006 -- they believe their own hype?

cause i sure as fuck don't.

[Cannikin]

15. Nobody has mentioned the gay director that helmed the first 2

[Placebo]

16. I had no idea he was gay!

So cool. :)

[Cannikin]

19. and kinda cute!

[Placebo]

17. That was running through my mind through the whole movie.

It had me thinking about a potential future if they identified a "gay gene" and when parents can start designing their kids before they're born. Picking the hair colour, eye colour, etc...

I mean. How many parents would leave their kids sexual orientation up to chance?

How many gay people would change if they could?

[Cannikin]

20. Here's a link about xmen and gays

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12956661 /