I once got a whole room of guys to laugh when I mentioned the X-men comics are an allegory for persecuted ethnic, religious, sexual, etc minorities. That one is the most clear allegories out of any popular media, and yet people still don't get it. The mutants are clearly oppressed, they're not typical superheroes who are fighting crime out of some intrinsic feeling of superiority. The X-men are organized and militant to defend themselves from discrimination.
The 2000s era X-men movies are even more clear about it, although they squeeze the allegory down so that mutants specifically represent queer people. You've got teenage runaways, unsupportive families, and there's a whole theme of mutants figuring themselves out around the age of puberty. There's a line in the second movie where one mutant's mother asks "Have you tried not being a mutant?" which is a parody of a common conservative line from the time "Have you tried not being gay?" I mentioned all of this and only got one guy on board because I mentioned the director, Bryan Singer, is gay. Then he was able to believe there's gay stuff in the X-men.
I think some people only engage in media because it's comforting lights and sounds they can distract themselves with
Could it also be that typical mindset of “I don’t care about (or even think of) thing unless it affects me personally”? Maybe they simply can’t see why some old cishet white dudes in the 60s would want to represent ethnic/gender/sexual minorities. Empathy on a deeper level, considering the views of others who may have vastly different experiences, and wanting to support them seems damn near impossible for most griller-americans.
You could have also mentioned that Stan Lee has explicitly stated that the X-Men are a civil rights allegory.
But yeah I have no idea how someone could consume the X-Men and not see the obvious.
ETA: FFS in First Class Magneto is explicitly shown to be a Holocaust survivor, and in the climax of the movie Charles drops a "they're just following orders" about the dudes firing missles at them and Magneto says "I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again". How could you POSSIBLY be more explicit.
I once got a whole room of guys to laugh when I mentioned the X-men comics are an allegory for persecuted ethnic, religious, sexual, etc minorities. That one is the most clear allegories out of any popular media, and yet people still don't get it. The mutants are clearly oppressed, they're not typical superheroes who are fighting crime out of some intrinsic feeling of superiority. The X-men are organized and militant to defend themselves from discrimination.
The 2000s era X-men movies are even more clear about it, although they squeeze the allegory down so that mutants specifically represent queer people. You've got teenage runaways, unsupportive families, and there's a whole theme of mutants figuring themselves out around the age of puberty. There's a line in the second movie where one mutant's mother asks "Have you tried not being a mutant?" which is a parody of a common conservative line from the time "Have you tried not being gay?" I mentioned all of this and only got one guy on board because I mentioned the director, Bryan Singer, is gay. Then he was able to believe there's gay stuff in the X-men.
I think some people only engage in media because it's comforting lights and sounds they can distract themselves with
Could it also be that typical mindset of “I don’t care about (or even think of) thing unless it affects me personally”? Maybe they simply can’t see why some old cishet white dudes in the 60s would want to represent ethnic/gender/sexual minorities. Empathy on a deeper level, considering the views of others who may have vastly different experiences, and wanting to support them seems damn near impossible for most griller-americans.
You could have also mentioned that Stan Lee has explicitly stated that the X-Men are a civil rights allegory.
But yeah I have no idea how someone could consume the X-Men and not see the obvious.
ETA: FFS in First Class Magneto is explicitly shown to be a Holocaust survivor, and in the climax of the movie Charles drops a "they're just following orders" about the dudes firing missles at them and Magneto says "I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again". How could you POSSIBLY be more explicit.
And the comics don't shy away from it either.