In almost every mutation society, there are elements of racial relations as they are reflected in our own society. With plots largely following the treatment of mutated humans, films and franchises like X-Men (Singer 2000), Marvel, and even Japanese anime, humans with mutations are simultaneously desired, idolized, and marginalized. While multi-limbed, acid spewing, or even half vampireness are not nearly perceivable futures in our society, the idea of “otherness,” passing, and marginalization are and the presence in sci-fi films exemplify the complexity of these issues.
In the film Blade (Norrington 1998), Dr. Karen Jenson, a hematologist, is thrown into the world of vampires after surviving an attack at the hospital where she works. It is then when she meets Blade, a half vampire, half human whose mission in life is to avenge the death of his mother who died at childbirth due to a vampire attack. As expressed in Nishime’s work, The Mulatto Cyborg, Blade exists in ambiguity, strange to both vampires and humans, Blade “cannot access the coherent identity promised by an embrace of the real.., he cobbles together the fragmentary self required of life in the imaginary” (45). From the first instance that Dr. Jenson meets Blade, she is aware he is not human, adorned head to toe in black clothing, Blade sticks out like a sore thumb as he walks down the stark white hallway of the hospital.
Simultaneously, Blade equally does not blend in within the vampire society. In the opening scene of the film, audiences watch as a group of seemingly normal party goers dance in a secret backroom club. Suddenly, the sprinklers in the room turn on and all the patrons scream in delight, blood raining from the ceiling. As a human is nearly eaten, out comes Blade, causing the party goers to whisper and hiss, they immediately recognize him as a threat. Here, Blade is also an outcast, he is not welcomed in either world. However, as audiences soon learn, his existence is desirable.
Later in the film, Frost’s views of Blade are made clear. Blade is desirable to the vampire, as Frost puts it, Blade has “all of our strengths, none of our weaknesses.” Blade can live among humans as a “day walker.” Though this may not seem like an outward connection to racial relationships, it is clear how while mutations are thought to be abominations in some instances, such as how the “pure” blood vampires see the turned vampires, they are desired all the same, like Blade. For much of history, neurodivergence, race, and other marginalized identities have been deemed as undesirable until there is a moment of exceptionalism.
In films such as Get Out (Peele 2017), these racist ideologies drive upper class white elders to assume Black bodies, believing they will be “cooler, more athletic” and other harmful racial stereotypes, taking what they think to be all the good, none of the bad. Exceptionalism allows these marginalized groups to “enter the discourse without changing it” in that we can acknowledge the importance of these marginalized people in history or society while simultaneously retaining the belief that they are inferior (Tucker 384). In many ways, this ideology reflects Frost, who believes all vampires are superior to the “cattle” which are the humans, though he believes Blade is superior to the regular vampires, despite his connection to said cattle.
Following Blade in the superhero world, X-Men (2000) highlights the dichotomy of mutation. The children who are born with powers are exiled, abused, and in some cases, even murdered or enslaved for the benefit of others. Throughout the franchise, the X-Men are seen often discussing the issues that mutated people experience, who are expected to be soldiers if nothing else. Their mutations are disgusting, dangerous, or abominations unless they are useful to regular humans.
All of these societies experience hierarchies, in which the “groupings tend to be hierarchical, with each group’s members experiencing distinctive harms and benefits by virtue of their group’s position in the hierarchy” (Jones 1). In almost all of these mutation societies, those who pass among the normal are practically always superior to those who do not. In the X-Men, this is clear through the difference between Charles’ and Raven’s experiences. While Charles could exist among humans undetected, Raven must mask her true form in order to live peacefully. Later in the series, this difference causes much of the tension between the pair. Charles believes that regular humans can accept mutants because of his experiences, but Raven has lived practically in hiding, as have many mutants who have exterior or outward mutations. As for Blade, Blade is seen as superior because he can pass among humans.
Hierarchies such as these already exist in our society, where the closer you are to whiteness, the more privilege you have. In recent years, the idea of “white passing” directly aligns to the mutation society in both Blade and X-Men. It is not what you truly are what matters, but how you are perceived by the general public. People who “exist” as white people or “exist” as humans are often undetected, living normal lives compared to their more overt counterparts.
In both films, race is not an overt issue as it is in our world. In its place, there are hierarchies of supernatural proportions. In many ways, these films make audiences aware of the complexity of marginalization and racism while on the surface, they are nothing but fantastical sci-fi superhero movies.
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Citations: Blade. Dir. Stephen Norrington. Marvel Enterprises, 1998. Get Out. Dir. Jordan Peele. QC Entertainment, 2017. Jones, Holly & Jones, Nicholaos (2017). Race as Technology: From Posthuman Cyborg to Human Industry. Ilha Do Desterro 70 (2):39-51. Nishime, LeiLani. “The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future.” Cinema Journal, vol. 44, no. 2, [University of Texas Press, Society for Cinema & Media Studies], 2005, pp. 34–49, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661093. Sherrie Tucker. Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. X-Men. Dir. Bryan Singer. Marvel Enterprises, 2000. X-Men: First Class. Dir. Matthew Vaughn. Marvel Entertainment, 2011.
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