apachefirecat

WARNING for abuse and self mutilation!

I have, in part, delayed reviewing this issue because I have been trying very hard to look upon it in a more positive light. Unfortunately, the longer I put it off, the more negative the light becomes, much like my current outlook on where they have Ororo in the comics at this point... Or what they have turned Professor Xavier into, with today's woke culture.

Don't get me wrong. Changes do need to be made from where we were, but I am amongst those who think we may have gone or are going too far. I'm just going to say it here, at the risk of pissing people off and be done with it at last. I rarely post my political views or views on this sort of thing on DW because I know there are many who will not agree with me and who I will piss off. But the older and more mentally well I get, honestly, the less I care who I piss off. To paraphrase what I've told so many of my friends time and again when they've mentioned similar concerns, this is MY journal, and as such, it is filled with MY content and MY views.

I am ALL for accepting the LGBTQ crowd. I myself am bisexual and once thought myself so gay that I often said that I could not even draw a line straight and earnestly thought it was funny. My husband considers himself a pansexual. I have held many arguments in the past and signed thousands of petitions for being pro-LGBTQ. However, I just do not think that a scene with introducing everyone with their genders needs to be included in comics. I know this isn't exactly a kid's title, but STILL I do NOT think that scene was necessary.

What's more is, WHY was it necessary? If one of the new characters could have been identified as something other than how they appear, then maybe, yes, but that was not the case. Kitty herself is bisexual (and THANK GOD! they now actually allow her to claim it, I definitely hope to see more Rachel/Kitty and Illyana/Kitty interactions going forward), but she calls herself a "she" and even she seemed a bit unsettled by the whole conversation. Somebody does NOT have to claim another gender to be able to love differently from what people assume, and for that matter, where does it stop? We have people now adays thinking they're trees, marrying their animals, and undergoing surgery to make themselves look like dragons! And yes, I HAVE read all of these things in news articles over the last couple of years.

Please. NOT in my comics. PLEASE!

I'm sure it doesn't help matters that I was THRILLED to hear that they were releasing a title that was going to star Kitty and Emma, and then I had to wait for MONTHS after my subscription for it to kick in. I signed up, paid for the subscription, like, two months before the title even began, and JUST got my first issue, with #3. Still, I was ESCATIC! Until I actually started trying to read it.

I appreciate the nods to Kitty's past, but WHY do they always insist on putting one of my favorite characters and one of their strongest X-Women, both in skill and in spirit, in a constant cycle? Aren't we readers in enough life cycles as it is?? Another thing I do NOT need in my comics! Kitty went overboard in the fall of Krakoa, and now she's running again from who and what she is. I AM glad to see both Emma and her roommate intently calling her out, and I certainly appreciate the roommate being the first one to be, like, "Huh, YEAH, you ARE helping these young mutants!"

And I DO LOVE the fact that they're in kind of a dance studio as their headquarters, and that Emma's both not listening to Kitty or even pretending to. She's tried sticking her head in the proverbial sand; she KNOWS that isn't what these children need! And if Kitty wasn't SO busy stomping down on herself for the rageful killing spree she went on, she would too! Both of these women have had HARD lives and know firsthand how hard it is to live in a world that, well, as they say, hates and fears them! Add to that, Kitty IS bisexual. AND a Jew. She KNOWS on MANY levels just what this world WILL do to the children who are not helped, no matter what it is about them that might cause them to stick out in this world.

I sincerely hope she comes to her senses soon, but I have to admit I do kind of LOVE Emma in this! She's just plowing straight ahead, not giving the little Kitten's temper tantrum and woe much attention at all and certainly not letting her derail her (or herself) from helping these young'uns. Love the fact that she went straight into getting costumes for them and was so supportive of the codename idea! And thank goodness these costumes are MUCH better than Generation X's were!

I find myself actually being a bit more optimistic now about issue 4 as I write this. I definitely want to see Emma going forward, and it's good to read her so strong and determined with her head in the right space (not grieving over the children she's lost or following Scott too closely!). I just HOPE Kitty gets herself together before too long! And please, let's not bog this down too much in today's dramas and gender confusion/clarity!

And actually, that is EXACTLY the right phrase for how I feel about this whole gender stuff! And I DO have the right to say something about this, because for YEARS I felt I had been born into the wrong body. I can remember, being of sober mind, not drunk or high on anything, but looking at myself in a mirror and wishing I could just carve out that particular piece of anatomy that I felt did NOT belong on my body. My Mother/molester did a real number on me, yes, but here's the thing: FAR too many people, and too many KIDS, are making the same mistakes that I would have made had I had the money/guts to take a blade to myself there. I KNOW people who were striven their whole lives to get sex changes, and then either the changes didn't take right and did permanent damage to their bodies or they came to regret the transition for other reasons. Far too many people -- again, far too many KIDS -- get into these things for the wrong reasons! We do NOT need this in our comics!!

People DO need to be able to change their genders, and be called by the genders they prefer, but at the same time, they need HELP to make sure they are making the right choices for THEM. Far too many of these decisions and desires hail from abuse and suffering, like my own did. Like another good friend of mine did. People need HELP to make SURE they are making the right decisions, and that they ARE of SOUND mind and heart before they change something that they may never be able to make into a way they will actually be happy with their choices!

Again... We just do NOT need this in our comics. PLEASE!