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cimoreneThese were thoughts I was having that didn't really fit on Twitter. I was all baffled and frustrated until I remembered I have a blog specifically for longer thoughts.
Anyway, this post is not a review, and not spoilery, because I haven't actually seen the new X movie (I don't watch Holocaust stuff; it's a thing), and that's not really my point anyway. But this morning I read the much-linked E! online movie review, Magneto and Professor X Had Sex at the Movies This Summer—Did You See It?. (That is a review. And it is spoilery.)
Basically the review contends that:
I think she's right about the movie and its intentionality. She's also probably right that Xavier's "idealistic" position aligns with wanting to live in the closet, although obviously not exactly since he doesn't want to explicitly keep the X-men's powers a secret, while Erik's cape and helmet do certainly argue for her comparison to drag.
The thing is, the movie's set in the 1960s, when closeting was a not-unreasonable life choice, but it's speaking to today's civil rights struggle. And today the argument that out and proud would be harmful tothe gay agenda our cause is a bit ludicrous.
I've seen state after state legalize gay marriage in the last 10 years; I'm out and I've gotten gay married in the state where my mom spent ½ her childhood. In a world where polling shows more than half of Americans support gay marriage and nobody but the Pentagon and McCain supports Don't Ask Don't Tell, the administration has just gone to bat against DOMA, and it was Republicans who pushed through New York's new gender-neutral marriage laws, the idea that we need to sit down and shut up and put away our Rupaul's Drag Race and our pride parades and prove we're just like them to get equality is not just obsolete; it's offensive. And Professor X is nothing but one giant tone argument.
So today Magneto's out-and-proud looks a lot more reasonable than Charles's quiet collaboration (admittedly 'kill them all' never looks reasonable, but 'full equality now or fuck you' probably shouldn't really be equated to 'kill them all'). Today, it's the Charleses in the Finnish government who were willing to sit down and coalitionize with the Christian Democrats at the price of promising no new rights for gay people who have dirty hands and I hope guilty consciences. They're the ones I couldn't see my conscience clear to working with or living with, not the Eriks who throw glitter on Newt Gingrich at book signings.
Which rather makes me even less sympathetic to Charles's position than I already was thanks to a) his enormous privilege, b) his douchiness, c) his moral flexibility combined with sanctimoniousness, and d) the fact that in the past movies Magneto's position was always the one aligned with observable reality and events.
Anyway, this post is not a review, and not spoilery, because I haven't actually seen the new X movie (I don't watch Holocaust stuff; it's a thing), and that's not really my point anyway. But this morning I read the much-linked E! online movie review, Magneto and Professor X Had Sex at the Movies This Summer—Did You See It?. (That is a review. And it is spoilery.)
Basically the review contends that:
- X-men has always been an allegory for American race relations and civil rights, with Xavier representing Martin Luther King, Jr and Magneto representing Malcolm X (not going into a debate, but suffice to say I'd include the Black Panthers on Magneto's side of the allegory); and
- the new movie deliberately shifts the allegory to the struggle for gay rights instead.
I think she's right about the movie and its intentionality. She's also probably right that Xavier's "idealistic" position aligns with wanting to live in the closet, although obviously not exactly since he doesn't want to explicitly keep the X-men's powers a secret, while Erik's cape and helmet do certainly argue for her comparison to drag.
The thing is, the movie's set in the 1960s, when closeting was a not-unreasonable life choice, but it's speaking to today's civil rights struggle. And today the argument that out and proud would be harmful to
I've seen state after state legalize gay marriage in the last 10 years; I'm out and I've gotten gay married in the state where my mom spent ½ her childhood. In a world where polling shows more than half of Americans support gay marriage and nobody but the Pentagon and McCain supports Don't Ask Don't Tell, the administration has just gone to bat against DOMA, and it was Republicans who pushed through New York's new gender-neutral marriage laws, the idea that we need to sit down and shut up and put away our Rupaul's Drag Race and our pride parades and prove we're just like them to get equality is not just obsolete; it's offensive. And Professor X is nothing but one giant tone argument.
So today Magneto's out-and-proud looks a lot more reasonable than Charles's quiet collaboration (admittedly 'kill them all' never looks reasonable, but 'full equality now or fuck you' probably shouldn't really be equated to 'kill them all'). Today, it's the Charleses in the Finnish government who were willing to sit down and coalitionize with the Christian Democrats at the price of promising no new rights for gay people who have dirty hands and I hope guilty consciences. They're the ones I couldn't see my conscience clear to working with or living with, not the Eriks who throw glitter on Newt Gingrich at book signings.
Which rather makes me even less sympathetic to Charles's position than I already was thanks to a) his enormous privilege, b) his douchiness, c) his moral flexibility combined with sanctimoniousness, and d) the fact that in the past movies Magneto's position was always the one aligned with observable reality and events.
