Lessons in Pride by X-Men's Mystique

Today's Theme Music: Pride
Brought to you by: Arrested Development


Saw X-Men: First Class tonight. I gots a few critiques, but I enjoyed the Mystique story arc. I don't know if this arc exists in the actual comics--Wiki gives the impression she appeared on stage as the ass kicker we know and love in the original film series. 

She even started off with a female lover, though they Marvel wouldn't let Chris Claremont be overt about it. 

Wiki also draws her as the protagonist of her own Evil Stories, as opposed to Magneto's Sidekick. 

But I like what they did with her in the movies, even as sidekick. I loved her complete acceptance of her mutant form, her pride. One of my favorite scenes in the entire series is this one, where Nightcrawler asks her, if she can imitate people then why not look like a regular human all the time? And she says replies: "Because we shouldn't have to."





X-Men First Class shows her journey to becoming that woman. If I'm being picky (and I was) I'd say it wasn't a completely convincing story arc, because like most superhero movies there was too much packed into this one--they could have kept this movie for Prof X and Magneto and saved her for movie #2 because she's completely incidental to the plot. But it wasn't a fail either.

"I'm ashamed of being ugly and blue. I hides."

"I begins to embrace my blue, though I'm kinda ugly."

"I got blue scales and I'm hot!"

 

This trailer gives you a good idea of her storyline:



You can see how Magneto's role is a nice mirror of the same role he played in X2:



The X-Men stories function on several levels...
* Science fiction: What if some humans evolved into a superior species how would we react? 
* Mirror of our discriminations: Civil Rights Movement, the Holocaust, gay rights, and so forth.
* Symbol of our personal alienations: What is normal? Our struggles to fit in (hence the manifestation of the mutation during a stressful moment of adolescence). Our struggles with our differences, and how those differences might be the key to your success, etc.


It's on that third level that I lurv Mystique and Magneto. In the earlier X-Men movies we see Rogue try, and mostly fail to accept herself as she is. Wolverine is so angry, we wonder if he kind of hates himself. Kurt is hurt by human rejection, Storm fears them.

Mystique and Magneto are not afraid, they're not insecure, and they don't hate themselves. I think pop psychology has taught us to believe that people who think well of themselves are deeply scarred or insecure. I hate that. It's like wishful thinking for those of us afraid to claim our own space in the world. 

Yes, it's true for braggarts, for people who pretend to be something they're not. But it's OKAY to be proud of the things you are, of how you were born, of your natural talents, and of what you've accomplished.

Pride also enhances beauty. Okay Mystique doesn't need enhancing but...

 

when you're a short, skinny old fogey...

it's amazing what pride will do for you...

in fiction or reality...

That was a big part of Malcolm X's appeal wasn't it? Ossie Davis called him "our own shining black prince" because he made African-Americans proud to be, to look, black. Hell I feel prouder to Be Myself when I hear him speak, and he's not even talking to me!

"Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to so much so that you don't want to be around each other? No... Before you come asking Mr. Muhammad does he teach hate, you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what God made you." 

Go on and be your own talented self.

"If you're using half your concentration to look normal, then you're only half paying attention to whatever else you're doing. Just pointing out something that could save your life."

- Magneto