Author Topic: X-Men Poster Controversy  (Read 1983 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Ultimate Paragon

  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 8423
  • Gender: Male
  • Tougher than diamonds, stronger than steel

Offline SCarpelan

  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 1084
Re: X-Men Poster Controversy
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2016, 01:17:16 pm »
This kind of imagery that centers on violence against a woman draws from certain old, harmful tropes. It's not just if it's a bad guy doing the violence - it pretty much always is. It's about the female character's role in the narrative.

Someone who doesn't know the characters can't see the context that makes this case different from these tropes. That's why it represents these problematic issues despite not purposefully using them. If this kind of marketing was used in a context where the people being exposed to it were Marvel fans it would be a different matter. When you market something to the general public you need to understand what information they have available to make their interpretations.

Even Then

  • Guest
Re: X-Men Poster Controversy
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2016, 01:23:49 pm »
If people made a new adaptation of Lolita, the image of a man's shadow looming over a child in lingerie and a come-hither pose would still evoke Bad Things even if Humbert Humbert is the bad guy and Lolita's shown from his deluded perspective. If people made a movie where the villain's a white supremacist, the sight of a black guy getting lynched in a movie poster for shock value would still strike some pretty sore spots regardless of the villainousness (villainity?) of the white supremacist. "But he's the bad guy" doesn't erase the contextual and societal bad karma some imagery has. WoTC realized this with their Magic: The Gathering card Triumph of Ferocity after feedback, and so they made alternate art for it in a reprint.

SCarpe probably said it better than I did, but eh, I felt like chiming in.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2016, 01:27:39 pm by Even Then »

Offline Tolpuddle Martyr

  • The Beast
  • *****
  • Posts: 3716
  • Have you got thumbs? SHOW ME YOUR FUCKING THUMBS!
Re: X-Men Poster Controversy
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2016, 01:54:09 am »