Wandering through from a friend's page, although I'm going to friend you on LJ and here if that's ok?
Relevant topics he perhaps should have understood more about: how life is if you can't pass; how it is if you aren't wealthy; how long it will take to convince humans to live together and what it will take to do so
I just wrote a post about why I think this movie needed to expand upon Charles becoming paralyzed at the end because I think it could be essential to how he goes from the Charles Xavier in this movie to Prof X later on, man who can empathize with a rock and seems to understand that humans could easily turn on mutants but some won't and others can be taught not to. I think it's intentional that XM:FC Charles is shown as being completely unaware of how his white, straight-assumed, rich man's privilege defines how he views the world. His mutation is easily hidden and so he can "pass" so easily he seems to view himself as more a human with gifts than mutant. He doesn't understand what it is to be Other. I think the movie should have added on maybe 5 more minutes as Charles learns from his wheelchair what it's like to be an Other in an able-bodied world. He obviously realized his mistake with Mystique (whose journey was very well shown I thought), and he saw to his shock how the humans reacted with immediate hostility to the mutants after they saved their lives. At the end, Charles got his assumptions shaken up about several things, but I honestly think it's learning to be an Other that is that final transition to Prof X. Maybe that's for the sequel? I hope so, but I'm not completely sure the writers/directors quite understand that so much of what he did, so many mistakes were from his position of unconscious privilege.
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Date: 2011-06-12 11:39 pm (UTC)Relevant topics he perhaps should have understood more about: how life is if you can't pass; how it is if you aren't wealthy; how long it will take to convince humans to live together and what it will take to do so
I just wrote a post about why I think this movie needed to expand upon Charles becoming paralyzed at the end because I think it could be essential to how he goes from the Charles Xavier in this movie to Prof X later on, man who can empathize with a rock and seems to understand that humans could easily turn on mutants but some won't and others can be taught not to. I think it's intentional that XM:FC Charles is shown as being completely unaware of how his white, straight-assumed, rich man's privilege defines how he views the world. His mutation is easily hidden and so he can "pass" so easily he seems to view himself as more a human with gifts than mutant. He doesn't understand what it is to be Other. I think the movie should have added on maybe 5 more minutes as Charles learns from his wheelchair what it's like to be an Other in an able-bodied world. He obviously realized his mistake with Mystique (whose journey was very well shown I thought), and he saw to his shock how the humans reacted with immediate hostility to the mutants after they saved their lives. At the end, Charles got his assumptions shaken up about several things, but I honestly think it's learning to be an Other that is that final transition to Prof X. Maybe that's for the sequel? I hope so, but I'm not completely sure the writers/directors quite understand that so much of what he did, so many mistakes were from his position of unconscious privilege.