“Mankind has always feared what it doesn’t understand”(X-Men). One of the highest grossing film franchises of all time, the X-Men series is about mutants (humans that have mutated a fantastic ability) that the rest of society fears and hates. Some mutants want to live in peace and harmony with the humans, while others believe peace is an illusion and they should be ruling society with their abilities. This argument continues throughout the series, mimicking events like the holocaust, civil rights movement, gay rights movement, and women empowerment. The X-Men movie franchise is innovative when it comes to portraying women and other minorities as powerful with their complex and multidimensional storylines and not as tokens with minimal backstory.
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The subjects were second graders and their attitudes towards gender, race, and social status while doing a class play reenacting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men. The children were given almost complete control over their play and the findings were very interesting. One male and female were given the role as director to the play, meaning they would write the story and cast the roles, and they would each direct two plays: One for TMNT and the other for X-Men. TMNT and X-Men were popular amongst the children and had similar plots with different ways of execution, which is why they were chosen for the study. In Sammy's production (the male director), the X-men were gender-balanced: there were 4 girls and 5 boys of which were racially integrated. Moreover, of the two bad guys, one was a girl and one a boy. Opposed to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as the girls were not given a written part in Sammy's story; they were essentially extras. He concentrated on organizing for the display of physical power; he introduced the characters and set up the fight scene by having the bad guys invade the good guys' territory. All three girls that were cast in Sammy’s play complained about having nothing to do. Also, in TMNT, there was only one named female character, April, and she was objectified as a trophy and was referred as a “babe” and “a real fox”. The …show more content…
TMNT had no strong female characters. This led Sammy to focus on the boys, and since there were no African Americans or Hispanic characters in the movie, the boys that were chosen were mostly white. The minorities in the classroom had no character to relate to, so they were mostly left out. When one of the African American girls wanted to be April, a white woman, a boy in the class said, “April had to be white” (Dyson). Excluding people of a darker color and XY chromosomes starts at a young age, and if children are exposed to movies that portray this, then that is likely what they will do in their own life. In X-Men, however, there are multiple strong female leads that do not just get saved by the male characters. It was racially and sexually inclusive, and the girls of the class felt important and powerful. With movies like X-Men, children can grow up with the notion that females are strong in their own right, and do not need a man to save them. The X-Men movie franchise’s specialty is having strong female leads with a complex and multidimensional storyline. Movies such as X-Men: Apocalypse (Kinberg Apocalypse) actually revolves around two powerful female leads, Jean Grey and Mystique, who destroys the thought-to-be most powerful male mutant on
The subjects were second graders and their attitudes towards gender, race, and social status while doing a class play reenacting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men. The children were given almost complete control over their play and the findings were very interesting. One male and female were given the role as director to the play, meaning they would write the story and cast the roles, and they would each direct two plays: One for TMNT and the other for X-Men. TMNT and X-Men were popular amongst the children and had similar plots with different ways of execution, which is why they were chosen for the study. In Sammy's production (the male director), the X-men were gender-balanced: there were 4 girls and 5 boys of which were racially integrated. Moreover, of the two bad guys, one was a girl and one a boy. Opposed to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as the girls were not given a written part in Sammy's story; they were essentially extras. He concentrated on organizing for the display of physical power; he introduced the characters and set up the fight scene by having the bad guys invade the good guys' territory. All three girls that were cast in Sammy’s play complained about having nothing to do. Also, in TMNT, there was only one named female character, April, and she was objectified as a trophy and was referred as a “babe” and “a real fox”. The …show more content…
TMNT had no strong female characters. This led Sammy to focus on the boys, and since there were no African Americans or Hispanic characters in the movie, the boys that were chosen were mostly white. The minorities in the classroom had no character to relate to, so they were mostly left out. When one of the African American girls wanted to be April, a white woman, a boy in the class said, “April had to be white” (Dyson). Excluding people of a darker color and XY chromosomes starts at a young age, and if children are exposed to movies that portray this, then that is likely what they will do in their own life. In X-Men, however, there are multiple strong female leads that do not just get saved by the male characters. It was racially and sexually inclusive, and the girls of the class felt important and powerful. With movies like X-Men, children can grow up with the notion that females are strong in their own right, and do not need a man to save them. The X-Men movie franchise’s specialty is having strong female leads with a complex and multidimensional storyline. Movies such as X-Men: Apocalypse (Kinberg Apocalypse) actually revolves around two powerful female leads, Jean Grey and Mystique, who destroys the thought-to-be most powerful male mutant on