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What makes X-Men so gay?

Matt Baume

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Thanks to Manta Sleep for sponsoring this video! Use code MATTNAP10 to get 10% off a Manta Sleep mask: https://tinyurl.com/42us5ab4

From the earliest issues, the X-men comics used subtle subtext to comment on the way society treats outcasts. But when it came time to make a movie in the early 2000s, filmmakers set a seemingly impossible goal — to make a direct comparison to gay rights, to tell a story about what happens when the government targets minorities, and to ask the question: In the face of bigotry, is it better to respond with compromise, like Professor X? Or with violence, like Magneto? This is the story of the original X-Men films, the twenty-year struggle to make them, and why they are so very gay.

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Thanks to Emma from ‪@mediaprocessingchannel‬ for the edit on this video!

20 Comments

@jesusbrito5165 1 year ago

My favorite scene from X2 is when Nightcrawler asks Mystique why she doesn't just look normal all the time. And she just says "because we shouldn't have to".

@williamgeorge2580 1 year ago

I remember "Have you tried not being a mutant?" in X2 got a massive laugh in the theater. Even back then the coming out discussion was well known.

@VanAkita 1 year ago

The one scene in the Last Stand that stuck to my teen gay brain back then was when Warren majestically opened his angel wings and broke free from the surgical bed his father forced him to to have the "cure".
Everyone looked at him in fear, while the audience saw his beauty.
And then his father:
"Warren. It's a better life... It's what we all want"
"No, it's what YOU want!"
And he flies off for the first time in his life.

@transroadwarrior3485 1 year ago

When these two films came out I was in a conversion therapy facility. My classmates and I found such solace and representation in these characters and storylines.

@WillScarlet16 1 year ago

I'll never forget how satisfied I was that Hugh Jackman's next big break after the first X-Men movies was playing a gay man in a Broadway musical - and winning a Tony no less! The more homophobic guys in my school were so horrified it looked like their world had ended. "What's happening to all the real men?!"

@jordanmainzinger5275 1 year ago

The brother of iceman is funny: "Bruh...My older Brother has fucking superpowers? That shits wack. I'm going to call the cops."

@methecat776 1 year ago

one of my favorite scenes from the first movie is when rogue and wolverine meet in the bar, and singer makes a point to show both of them subtly checking each other out in a way that always seemed very coded to me. it’s always reminded me of gay people checking each other out in public and knowing ‘oh, youre like me’ without being able to say anything. i think it’s one of the best subtle moments in the film.

@UsagiOhkami 1 year ago

As a queer AND neurodivergent person, my lifelong obsession with X-Men makes more and more sense with every passing year.

@mikemaples3289 1 year ago

im not gay but as a kid that rode the short bus to special ed i could relate to the xmen

@ThunderbackOG 1 year ago

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are just Iconic Shakespearean heroes.

Every chance they see to honestly express compassion for the marginalized through their work, they care so much to make it happen.

@AutiDon 1 year ago (edited)

Is it the fact that one of their most hateable and evil villains is a psychopathic bigoted televangelist?

@bort6459 1 year ago

The X-Men are a fantastic example of how civil rights are human rights. It's a little sad that some people need to see it through "mutants" for it to click, but it remains a testament to the awesome power of fiction that cartoon heroes can help the unseen find acceptance and community.

@ActForLife 1 year ago

Only upon a recent rewatch of X2 did I pick up a (possible) Trans allegory with the character of Jason. In the physical world, Jason is bound physically, unable to speak, gendered as Stryker’s “son” (even by Xavier)… but in the illusions placed in the Professor’s mind, Jason is presented as a little girl. She speaks, is comforted, walks hand in hand with Xavier, free in all the ways Jason is not. Jason could have chosen to present as a little boy, but didn’t. I just found it interesting that Stryker says “my son is dead”, and dehumanized Jason by the label of only a number, but she is fully herself and loved in her illusions.
Intentional or not, I found it beautiful and very sad.

@Neverfate 1 year ago

I'm a diehard X-Men fan since I got my first comic in 1990. It's always baffling how the subtext is lost on so many readers. Anyway I'm always reminded of a gold standard tweet from Twitter (pre fascism take over) from PinkRangerLyra the read "Venom is an example of a villain who evolved into a hero because he was popular with readers and writers decided to rehabilitate him. By contrast, Magneto evolved into a hero because every decade since Reagan it's harder and harder to pretend he's wrong," Fantastic video. Thank you.

@Ryanmanification 1 year ago

In X3: the last stand, Rouge said "Is it true? Is there a cure?" And Storm said: "No, there is no cure. Because there’s nothing wrong with you" and that line felt so powerful
I see X-men as an example of what happening right now. Bunch of misfits that are been shunned by the society, even by their loved ones, and found family in each other

@Jiminy-do-999 1 year ago

31:00 Okay but the Navy trying desperately for years to find this one mysterious Dorothy who's friends with all the gays is deeply hilarious.

@KuroTavi2553 11 months ago

"They made X-Men WOKE!!"
Literally X-Men:

@terrenced7742 1 year ago

My favorite casting story is from Patrick Stewart. He'd been at Fox discussing a different project and was asked to talk to a Producer (pretty sure it was Schuler-Donner) before he left. She didn't say anything when he walked in, but there was an X-Men comic with Professor X on the cover sitting on her desk. He looked at it and said, "What am I doing on the cover of that comic book?" And she responded with "Exactly!" She then went on to pitch the movie to him.

@MyPisceanNature 1 year ago

My aunt died a couple of weeks ago. She was a lesbian teenager in the 1980s and probably saw more of her friends die abandoned by their families than I can possibly imagine. I was actually surprised to find out she had still been alive because I hadn't heard from her since 2019. My mother took the opportunity to take a shot at the entire other side of my family and acted surprised when I took offense.

@BozeDoesGodsWork 1 year ago

Just had a big argument with another comic nerd about the new upcoming X-Men series. He claims that they’re gonna make it “too woke”. Which I freaking laughed at hysterically. This video just explained everything I said to his ignorant ass.