yeah, I'm gay and I do understand why people say x-men and gays have a lot in common. but the truth is, the x-men have a lot in common with everyone. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT PEOPLE! Anyone can relate to the X-Men. Everyone at some point in there life has wondered, why don't I look like the popular kids, or why is my hair this crazy orange, or my skin darker then someone, or my skin be more pale then others. Stan Lee was trying to teach the world something by pointing out the possible in the impossible. If people really did start to show signs of super powers (not possible sadly) most would either be scared, jealous, or turn right to hate. Its nature. ENTER X-MEN:1963 in the beginning the X-Men where made up of mostly white, rich, males, except for Jean. The demographic being young white males. This in turn gave Lee the chance he wanted, to show everyone that even if you are Caucasian you are still a minority some way or another. ENTER: The rest. Storm, Thunderbird, Sunfire, Nightcralwer, etc, all different races, sexes and religions working together for one common goal. The themes the X-Men have normally always mirrored were whatever civil rights movement was going on or huge world affair. Legacy Virus= The Aids Virus for example. Neverland Camp= Nazi Germany, Prop X= Prop 8, which is my favorite.
Another thing X-Men helped pioneer was integrating tolerance, but without the common person even realizing it. The way they did this was give the coolest powers to the most multiracial characters. Storm being a perfect example: First appearing in 1975 this African female was gifted with the power that every kid chooses first on the play ground. Right there Marvel has already blurred the line. Children who normally wouldn't are now either excepting, idolizing, or playing Storm at recesses because her power makes her more likable. Then lets not forget now much diversity New Mutants brought us, from Dani Moonstar a red skinned Indian, to Sunspot a Brazilian playboy. The new mutants where created to help clean house with any forgotten minority. Fast forward to 2000s, right after 911 many Muslim women where met with hate crimes just for waring their burkas in public. Marvel then created one of the coolest mutants, Dust, gifted with these awesome powers, always wearing her burka, and never shown as a terrorist.... you get to see her side of the story... understand why she does the things she does and why she continues to do them. We live in a world where church and state are kept separate, so sadly we have to learn lessons of tolerance in comic books. But thanks to Marvel and characters like Storm, Dust, Northstar, and the New Mutants we now have a better understanding of tolerance then ever before.
PS: Characters like Trask, Creed, and Gyrich are perfect examples of learning tolerance towards bigoted assholes. Lets face it, people like that do exist.
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