The Gay X-Men

rusmeister

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I think that part of our journey toward becoming " wise as serpents" is to learn to recognize when values - morals - contrary to our faith, our worldview are being so subtly impressed upon us.

After having watched the latest X-Men movie, I feel that something I have noticed for some time needs to be expressed.

Some of us know the tremendous value that stories and fairy tales have in expressing truths - or what we believe to be true - in a disguised form, making the acceptance of those ideas more palatable. C.S. Lewis expressed it as "getting past the watchful dragons", and the effect is to get ideas across to minds hostile to the naked ideas when caught out in the open. Both the imaginary worlds of Narnia and Middle Earth certainly do get across deeply Christian ideas in a format that even people hostile to faith can enjoy.

Sometimes, the attempt does not work. Philip Pullman's fantasy series fails for it's excessive obviousness, it's "preachiness" in attempting to ape the techniques, used successfully by Lewis and Tolkien, to promote atheist ideas.

But the X-Men DOES work - only it does so in the sense of successfully communicating false ideas - for it is popular entertainment in the superhero genre that does carry the modern attitudes towards "sexual orientation" and "gender" (what our grandparents called simply our "sex") which actively promote the idea that there IS no normal or abnormal, but only "alternative norms". Much is made of the X-Men being different and needing to "accept who they are". In the latest film, X-Men: First Class, it becomes more blatant: "Mutant, and proud", and harping on the need to accept and embrace " who you are" (something true enough when it really IS who you are), echoing the slogans and sentiments of the gay lobby. And so even a person otherwise committed to traditional Christian faith, or at least "traditional values" - which really are Christian in origin - rejecting the modern attitude towards homosexual desire and action, is nevertheless subtly influenced in favor of tolerance of the views promoted by the gay lobby, that what they desire is a natural and normal outcome of who they are, defining themselves by their desires. The false analogy of fantastic "natural characteristics" of the person to the sexual desires experienced by people is thus successfully brought past the watchful dragons of common sense, where the naked idea still is, for now, rejected by most people. It becomes part of the onslaught begun in public education, controlled by a tiny minority of radicals, and continued here in the media against the common sense and traditional morality always held across space and time.

In this brave new world, there is to be no "normal"; or more accurately, every person will provide their own definition of the norm. We're supposed to look at Raven in all her blue scaly "glory" and sympathize with Magneto when he says he prefers her that way. Likewise with "the Beast" and so on. Abnormal preferences are to become the new norm. Raven is supposed to disdain her desire to be beautiful as if that were the abnormal thing.

I'm not saying that the movies are bad and wicked. I AM saying that they express the attitude at the heart of the support for "gay rights", and it behooves us to recognize when that attitude is being championed, even in entertainment.
 

jckstraw72

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X-Men started in 1963 -- I wonder if this was an agenda from way back then, or if it just conveniently fits in ... man, i used to love the X-Men comic books, havent read them in years though
 
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Monica child of God 1

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Raven doesn't have blue scaly skin. You're thinking of Mystique.

When I watch x-men, I mostly think about race and racism.

I also think about people with learning disabilities because that is what my son sees in x-men. The mutants have to turn what makes them different into an asset and even an advantage. People with learning disabilities have to do the same. The same brain "abnormality" that causes one to jumble letters can actually enhance ones ability to visualize and design or solve problems. LD kids are born with these differences; struggle with them; often have to overcome "persecution" from peers and teachers who don't unsterstand them; hopefully find a Professor X who can help them channel their frustration and hone their talents; and eventually accept who they are and make a contribution to society.

M.
 
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rusmeister

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Hi Monica,
Yes, I know that the idea of something that makes a person radically different can be turned to advantage; I am simply not speaking to that. That a person can be a Jew, or black, and that this is a normal human condition, not abnormal, is self-evident. I am speaking to something else - the false analogy drawn from that truth to justify abomination; it is part and parcel of the whole effort to cast homosexual desire as a completely normal feeling; that genuine abnormalities are to be treated as completely
normal. Now it is rather blatant when (I believe it was Raven) says "Mutant - and proud!", which is taken directly from the LGBT playbook. Maybe you honestly can't see that, in which case there is not much we can productively say to each other.
But if you DO see that, then that's mainly what I'm trying to say in it's simplest form.
 
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rusmeister

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That is what it was about. It got hijacked in more recent years, particularly since Sir Ian played Magneto in the first movies.

Historically, yes. And "hijacking" is a good word that sums up the perversion of taking a genuinely good idea and turning it to self-justifying purposes.
 
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cobweb

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Honestly, we ignore the gay connotations here. I have noticed it more as I have watched the movies, but it wasn't the first thing that we associated with the mutant/human struggle.

My 12 year old likes the stories because he identifies with them as "differently abled". Some things are harder for the mutants to do, but as a trade-off they have special abilities that other people don't have. People don't always understand them. Sometimes they accidentally hurt people. Sometimes people are mean to them, but the good ones still try to help people anyway.

That is the way he sees himself. Mutant and proud. ^_^
 
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Monica child of God 1

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Honestly, we ignore the gay connotations here. I have noticed it more as I have watched the movies, but it wasn't the first thing that we associated with the mutant/human struggle.

My 12 year old likes the stories because he identifies with them as "differently abled". Some things are harder for the mutants to do, but as a trade-off they have special abilities that other people don't have. People don't always understand them. Sometimes they accidentally hurt people. Sometimes people are mean to them, but the good ones still try to help people anyway.

That is the way he sees himself. Mutant and proud. ^_^

Same here with my son. It's actually quite profound to witness the evolution from fear that you're different to acceptance and then to appreciation of your inherent differences.

M.
 
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Kreikkalainen

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Stupid question: are we such a mean society that we need a silly cartoon to teach us to love and help people with disabilities?

Second stupid question: is a disability, or the lack of a disability, or anything else for that matter, supposed to be a source of "pride"? Is the underlying assumption that if you don't feel "proud for who you are", then something's wrong with you?

If the answers to the above are yes and yes, then I see these as problems in and of themselves, before even we go into the discussion of homosexual connotations.

Then again, I am talking at theoretical level, I am sure you ladies being mothers see things everyday that I see never, so I'm not necessarily right :).
 
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cobweb

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Same here with my son. It's actually quite profound to witness the evolution from fear that you're different to acceptance and then to appreciation of your inherent differences.

M.

Yep. It is actually something that I have tried very hard to encourage over the years. Would he trade being "normal" for his encyclopedia-like knowledge of subjects that interest him? I asked him once. He said "no".

God made him this way. Some things may be more difficult, but he is awesome in his own way.
 
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cobweb

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Stupid question: are we such a mean society that we need a silly cartoon to teach us to love and help people with disabilities?

Second stupid question: is a disability, or the lack of a disability, or anything else for that matter, supposed to be a source of "pride"? Is the underlying assumption that if you don't feel "proud for who you are", then something's wrong with you?

If the answers to the above are yes and yes, then I see these as problems in and of themselves, before even we go into the discussion of homosexual connotations.

Then again, I am talking at theoretical level, I am sure you ladies being mothers see things everyday that I see never, so I'm not necessarily right :).


Actually, yes. The local kids taunt "r*****" (sorry swear filter caught it) when they pass our house. One of them stole his bike last year. A group of boys knocked him to the ground and made him eat sand while calling him a "re****ed freak". Teenagers at the zoo followed him around mocking the way he walks. I've even heard grown adults say nasty things.

You have to remember that as recently as 50 years ago autistic kids were regularly institutionalized.

People are mean. A few years ago he had to go to the hospital because he was threatening suicide.
 
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rusmeister

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I've already addressed the fact that there is legitimacy in finding strength in weakness. I have no problem with that. The thing I am speaking to is the false application to modern forms of insanity. The talk of a person with a problem finding a positive side to the problem (autism, etc) is irrelevant to that. As the OP, I'm drawing attention to the illegitimate application of the idea and how that can subtly influence us. Endless repetition of an idea is primitive but effective in getting it inside our minds.

And Kreik had a good point on pride - no, Kreik, on that you are not wrong. Don't need to be shy about it! :)
 
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-Kyriaki-

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I'm a fan of Raven/Mystique despite the fact that she's technically a 'bad guy' - I'm technically a mutant (I have a genetic disease that is not traceable in my family history) which means I quite literally have scales from head to toe. I actually look a lot like her, but with muuuuuch longer hair. On the other hand, I'm not blue, and I can't shapeshift. I suppose I can't have it all :p
 
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Monica child of God 1

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Stupid question: are we such a mean society that we need a silly cartoon to teach us to love and help people with disabilities?

There is power in narrative and in images. That is why the Bible is full of stories and our churches are full of pictures. That is why when Jesus wanted to explain something, He told a story. We understand ourselves best through symbols and stories. That doesn't make people in our society stupid.

Second stupid question: is a disability, or the lack of a disability, or anything else for that matter, supposed to be a source of "pride"? Is the underlying assumption that if you don't feel "proud for who you are", then something's wrong with you?

Notice that the word I used my post above is appreciation. Pride has mixed connotations. But as we can appreciate our crosses and count it all joy, we can appreciate our differences that bring us suffering and yet enhance our lives.

M.
 
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