The Multi-Layered Facets of Societal and Self Acceptance– Giant Size X-Men (1975) #1, “Deadly Genesis!”
To begin, I wish to propose a question: does society enact standards in which “norms” are created, or are these “norms” subconsciously manifested into society by its own inhabitants? In simpler words, do the masses create normality, or do we subconsciously manifest it? In a way, both are true. Society cannot have such standards without the people within said society believing those standards to be just, but humanity is too complex for it to be so simple. Rather, the human psyche tends to rattle on and on about what it is to be “normal,” even when the individual themself is certain in their being.
I want to bring forth the example of Kurt Wagner, the Nightcrawler, from early X-Men comics. He’s a mutant with the looks of a blue, devilish beast, the ability to disappear into sulfur smoke and ash and reappear milliseconds later in a completely different position. His powers are less of what I’m focused on, though the science would be intriguing to explore. No, I’m more focused on his intense opening dialogues in Giant Size X-Men (1975) #1, “Deadly Genesis!”
Kurt is the first new X-Man the audience is introduced to, but not pleasantly. During his opening scene, Kurt is being headhunted, his death a common desire amongst the non-mutants of Winzeldorf, Germany. The people want him dead because he is a beast unlike them, a beast they do not know.
Kurt himself is rightfully enraged by their violence, claiming that “it is they who are the monsters — they with their mindless prejudices.” Most of modern society would agree with Kurt’s frustrated outcries, disgusted by the way the people of Winzeldorf are treating him for merely appearing different. This disgust is led by the understanding that this is fiction, but for the people of Winzeldorf, this is reality.
But, I return to my question. I mentioned how society’s standards could be manifested by the psyche of the masses. In this case, I believe this to be true for the people of Winzeldorf. Led by ignorance (and obvious hatred), they choose to violently expunge Kurt from their town rather than try to understand his side. They write him off as a beast without considering the man he is within.
Kurt is clearly fine with being perceived as a monster, his rage boiling over into complete acceptance over such a fact. He performs terrifying, inhuman feats like scaling buildings and howling into the night, creating himself to be more of a monster than the people could have expected. They wish to burn him. They wish to send him back to Hell, where they suppose he came, to burn for all eternity.
Nearly accepting his fate after leaping into the murderous mob, Charles Xavier, the brains behind each X-Men operation, halts the people before the deed is done. When prompted to join Charles to a mutant school, Kurt only cares for one thing:
Almost like a young boy, peeking over his shoulder, meek in the face of someone with authority. Power. Hope. An opportunity.
“Can you help me be normal?”
And yet, mere moments before, bashing and slashing to and fro within the mob, Kurt was ready to die as the beast they perceived him to be. So, why? Why now does he wish for “normal?” To be “normal?”
Because Charles has now claimed the role of society, the people of Winzeldorf frozen in the flaming background. The one voice of reason is Charles’ alone, so Kurt is listening. My question is prompted again: was Kurt’s monster label purely manifested because he subconsciously accepted it to be so? Yes, even with a group of people out for his head, he didn’t try to fight the allegations they threw his way. He clutched to them steadfastly and cynically wrote these people off as hateful, violent things. But he became the same.
Now, with Charles, he has a sparkle of humanity, a glimmer of hope, a taste of “normal.”
But Charles cannot give it, and perhaps Kurt does not even want it. Perhaps he doesn’t even know what his “normal” entails. Though that is the whole point I’m trying to get at.
Societal standards are often a point of interest when discussing the current media climate. The standards pushed onto each individual from society to society often dictates exactly how everyone looks, acts, speaks, and thinks. They dictate how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves. Are these panels with Kurt any different? Aren’t they just the same thing we have all seen before? An individual being thrust into the spotlight of standards the masses have created?
I believe it to be more complex than that. I believe that the anxieties of each individual on what the potential standards of society are dictate the standards of society themselves. It’s clear to see that Kurt looks different from the rest of the people in Winzeldorf, which likely caused a spark within one person, say, the first person to spot him, that he was a creature not of Earth, but of Hell. This sentiment likely spread from each new sighting of him. And, once they all realized they thought the same thoughts about Kurt, they massed together in an unrelenting force to squash the one singular outlier from their majority rule manifestation.
This, I argue, is how it always goes. Society as a whole doesn’t just one day decide that something is wrong or right and then continues to enforce such an ideal. These ideas are sparked from moments of confusion, misunderstanding, fear, and anxiety, an inner self confidence that has been shattered to pieces by past “non normal” things. So, we conform.
This is what Kurt’s character shows. It shows the effects of the human psyche on society and how, when introduced to a new society, that psyche changes and then grows to affect that new society. It’s a symbiotic relationship, at best, but it all is birthed from within each individual’s own mind.
To answer the question I posed conclusively, we as individuals manifest what standards society applies to the generally accepted “normal.” In different societies, this “normal” changes because the people have changed. Kurt was a monster with the Winzeldorf people, but Kurt was a man with Charles. Individuals affect the societal standard, the widespread acceptance (or non acceptance) we have for one another, and, in turn, society affects the individual.
In the end, this can not be solved. It’s impossible to destroy the inner anxieties of every person and to dismantle their view of what “normal” should be. What I propose instead is simple, far simpler than the question posed at the beginning: let us all accept each other and see each other as fellow human beings, as that is what we all are. We share the same blood, the same organs, the same necessities. We share the same aspirations, the same hopes, the same dreams, the same will to live, to breathe, to love. Let us accept each other because, then, we shall accept ourselves.
-Null
No comments:
Post a Comment