Fear of Queer Genetics in X-Men: Days of Future Past

[theHandpuppet]

Slate.com
Fear of Queer Genetics in X-Men: Days of Future Past
By J. Bryan Lowder

It’s essentially impossible not to sense a certain queerness in anything from the X-Men universe; the fictional world’s core quandary of being born with a trait that, once you come out about it, can make you both a maligned freak and a prized resource (gay superpowers abound—just ask Larry Kramer) to the larger society is one with which LGBTQ people are all too familiar.

True to form, Bryan Singer’s rollicking, time-turning new entry to the series, X-Men: Days of Future Past, has its own queer preoccupations. For example, my colleague Dana Stevens identified a classic sublimated same-sex romance in her review: “It isn’t even quite right to say that the movie functions as an allegory about gay culture or gay rights—it’s more of a full-on gay romance, with every other relationship taking a backseat to the stormy lifelong bond that links the destinies of Erik and Charles [Magneto and Professor Xavier].” But watching the film myself, I was struck by a different queer theme, one that is somewhat less heartwarming than the squabbles and ultimate reconciliation of a literal power couple: Fear of queer blood, of the “special” nature of our DNA.

Of course, this is not new territory for the X-Men franchise: The 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand focused on genetic-level “cures” for mutations, resulting in the weaponization of ex-mutant therapy. But in Days of Future Past, the question is not of simply curing difference (by choice or force), but of eradicating it entirely. The villain this time around is Dr. Bolivar Trask (played by a wonderfully smug Peter Dinklage), a coldly brilliant scientist whose work focuses on identifying and exploiting the genetic foundations of mutation so that their possessor can be marked for capture and/or termination. Trask’s research eventually produces the Sentinels, a breed of mutation-sniffing, rapidly adapting super robots whose sole mission of killing any carrier of a mutation—or the potential for it in their offspring—leads to a very bleak future indeed.

For anyone who has thought for more than a few minutes about the ongoing hunt for a “gay gene” or broader genetic basis for homosexuality, this narrative should give pause. While it’s unlikely (though not unimaginable, given events in certain parts of the world) that gay-hunting death machines would be constructed on the basis of such a discovery, it is not at all impossible that parents or, indeed, whole governments, might decide to use the knowledge to abort or otherwise prevent the birth of gay children. And really, isn’t a coolly delivered test result and subsequent “procedure” in some ways more terrifying than a fire-breathing automaton? The AIDS epidemic already wiped out much of a generation of gay men—but the discovery of a gay gene could, if handled carelessly, preclude the possibility of more of any gender....

MORE at http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/05/23/x_men_days_of_future_past_and_the_danger_of_the_gay_gene.html

[Prophet 451]

1. This is hardly the first time that the X-Men has trod on "gay turf"

Stan Lee created the concept of mutation-as-superpower to spare him having to think up new origins for his heroes but, from the beginning, he also made them stand-ins for any oppressed minority. At the time, he was thinking about the civil rights struggle but as the series has matured, mutants have been stand-ins for any oppressed minority you care to name. In the modern books, there are several openly gay mutants (one of whom, Northstar, is married to his partner).

Likewise, the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsher (Magneto) has always been that started out as a love affair, even if not a sexual one. In the Ultimate X-Men reboot, Xavier left his wife to be with Erik. It was that background that Patrick Stewert and Ian McKellen drew on when they decided to play the pair as a bickering married couple in X3 and in "First Class", we saw their meeting, an intellectual romance, a honeymoon and finally, a bitter divorce. Their relationship was clearly one of love, even if not of sex.

In fact, just as Xavier and Lehnsher can be read as stand-ins for Martin Luther King and Malcom X respectively, they can also be read as allegories for the two different ways the gay community could have gone: Peaceful integration or violent rebellion (thankfully, the gay community chose the peaceful path).

And yes, I'm a complete geek.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Really interesting post.

My wife and I are both sci-fi geeks and I once had a modest collection of quirky comics and graphic novels, so you certainly don't have to qualify to me why this backstory is so interesting. I've always thought it was the most fascinating aspect of the X-Men saga.