#fully worldbuilding a societal mechanism as context for one primary scene

[threewaysdivided]

Martian Bigotry in Deathly Weapons

Have a thought-exercise I did while ruminating on some YJS1 lore-implications for a couple of M’gann scenes in my Deathly Weapons fanfic.  (You don’t need to know this for the story BTW, it’s just a background worldbuilding thing I sometimes do to help ground characters/ systems/ conversations in a consistent internal context.)  This one turned up some interesting ideas so I figured I’d share it.

Two quick things first:

Content warning: this meta is going to deal with prejudice and bigotry. Fictional prejudice toward made-up aliens but there may be parallels to real-life racism, ableism, queerphobia etc. so if this is a potentially upsetting topic for you then please take care.

I recognise that canon has made a decision, but given that I strongly disagree with most of the writing decisions made post Season 1 I have elected to ignore 99% of it.  Yes, I am aware of all 3 sequels. No we are not doing that. This is an active choice, don’t make me tap the sign.  We shall be heading down an alternate path, to hopefully find something that is compelling in a different way.

Let’s go.

The complexity of White Martians in Young Justice

Where other DC Comics stories frequently present Green and White Martians as distinct species/sub-species that cohabit Mars (either explicitly or by implication of their visual design) Young Justice creates complexities by framing them as the same race/species, with White Martians being a minority group within the Green Martian majority.  

This is presented very explicitly in how the issue is introduced during the episode Targets; during a classroom discussion where Conner questions the conflict between North and South Rhelasia, noting that “they’re all humans - I mean, Rhelasians”, M’gann reveals to him telepathically that “It’s the same on Mars.  The White Martian minority are treated as second-class citizens by the Green majority.” This framing directly positions the White Martian situation on Mars as closely analogous to racism on Earth.

Other implications within Season 1 and its tie-in companion comics support this reading.  While M’gann did lie to J’onn about her ethnicity - and the series does note that J’onn probably missed this on account of having 300 nieces/nephews that he’s not especially close to -  the series never actively refutes their blood relation (compared to Green Arrow and Artemis, whose relationship is revealed very early to be a cover story).  Since J’onn is biologically Green, this implies the existence of mixed-colour families; or possibly that White Martianism is some form of mutation (similar to albinism).

M’gann’s own characterisation is also deeply rooted in her experience with Martian anti-White bigotry. M’gann’s attachment to the Hello Megan! TV show, her strong desire to please others/be accepted and her extreme panic at the idea of people learning her status (to the point that it becomes something she is willing to harm her teammates to conceal and is eventually blackmailed over) are all intrinsically linked to her experiences as a White Martian growing up among the Green on Mars.  In some ways, M’gann’s personal narrative across Season 1 is about finding acceptance in a new community after leaving a place of oppression, with the potential set-up for further development about reclaiming identity after a lifetime of enduring prejudice.

All of this combines to make Young Justice’s presentation of White Martians markedly more complex and delicate to handle than many other iterations.  While there can be questionable elements/ implications/ coding present in a story having a designated “pure evil” species (such as Tolkien’s Orcs) or “mostly evil” sub-species who live in separate communities/ societies (see some versions of Drow or Dark Elves) these can also be accepted as a simple conceit of the fiction.  Meanwhile, Young Justice overtly frames its White Martians as a discriminated racial minority within a majority that they are socially integrated with.  The nature of this framing also positions White Martians as near-entirely sympathetic; at no point during Season 1 (or the tie-in comics) do any of the characters explain why White Martians are regarded so poorly, nor do we see any indication that White Martians pose a potential risk or threat that would reasonably warrant differential treatment*.  By implication, the Martian culture of Young Justice is one of systemic prejudice towards a seemingly undeserving minority -  strongly analogous to racial discrimination in humans - in which all Martians (even sympathetic ones like J’onn) are at least somewhat complicit.

As a result of this, any commentary Young Justice tries to make on the nature and/or validity of Martian anti-White prejudice has the potential to become a comment on the nature and/or validity of real-life prejudice.  It also means that any attempts to retcon White Martians to be inherently dangerous/ threatening/ predatory in order to excuse or justify the discrimination/ oppression could accidentally resonate with and implicitly validate real-life discriminatory rhetoric that villainises minorities.

*While M’gann is noted as an exceptionally powerful telepath, the problem is framed as her raw lack of experience/ training rather than an innate volatility. Her Season 1 personality is not inherently manipulative/ malicious (although she occasionally struggles to grasp human boundary standards), nor does she show a lack of capacity for compassion/ empathy/ respect. Most of her negative moments in Season 1 can be reasonably attributed to accident, misunderstanding or an act of desperation rooted in her understandable - if irrational - fear of being “outed” and ostracised.

Other details from canon

Skin Colour on Mars The companion comics (Volume 1, authors: Art Baltazar and Mike Norton) note that there are three colours of Martian; Green being predominant, with smaller numbers of White and Red.  

M’gann’s “true White Martian form” does not have any noticeably significant anatomical differences to the true form of Green Martian (B’arzz O’oom shown in S2), aside from colouration. The use of purplish viscera-adjacent colouring on parts of M’gann’s true form, combined with vein lines, suggest that blood and tissues are more visible through the skin of White Martians - something that aligns more to a form of Albinism than an opaque white pigment being produced in place of green.

It’s also worth noting that this base skin colour does not seem to affect a Martian’s ability to present as other colours, since M’gann is able to convincingly mask as Green for most of the season, fooling not only humans but also seemingly her Green Martian uncle.  (Contrast Beast Boy in multiple incarnations, whose skin/hair colour is always green no matter what form he shifts into).

The Primary Experience of Anti-White Bigotry In Targets M’gann describes White Martian’s as being treated as “second-class citizens”, directly comparing to tensions between human racial/national/ethnic groups.  The companion comic also notes that “some [on Mars] do not see White Martians as equal” and that “the treatment of White Martians especially was horrible”.

Specifically, M’gann cites an experience of “constant rejection” and being afraid that the Team would never accept her if they knew “what [she] truly was” as the reasons for concealing her status.  In Image she mentions that her attachment to the Hello Megan! TV show was partially the product of having a lonely childhood.

This suggests that the day-to-day experience of anti-White racism is less one of active violence and more of persistent shunning, ostracization, isolation and general social rejection.

Extra-textual elaborations While not explored within the original canon, extra-textual information suggests that at least some members of the original production team intended for M’gann to be one of two White Martian children in a large mixed family of a White father and Green mother, with J’onn being her maternal uncle. 

Extra textual statements also mention that there is supposedly no colour-spectrum in the offspring of mixed parents - children are always one colour or the other with no correlation between shade and “percentage heritage”.

Discrimination is mentioned to be purely based on individual colouration.  While Red Martians only appear as a passing note in the companion comic (simply mentioning that they exist), extra-textual statements suggest that they were intended to be a Royal/ Noble class.

Unreliable narrators A complexity of understanding the situation on Mars is that M’gann is an actively unreliable narrator on the subject since she spends most of the Season pretending to be a Green Martian from a purely Green family.  As a result it is unclear when M’gann is speaking honestly about her own experiences but in an indirect manner, when she is describing the treatment of White Martians semi-honestly but in-character as a “liberal-minded Green Martian”, when she is saying something about Mars because it reflects what she thinks a Green Martian would say even though it conflicts with her own opinion, and when she is engaging in active deception to hide her status.

Within the companion comic, M’gann claims to have 12 sisters - a statement repeated within the show - and 17 brothers, but their colours are never referenced since at this point M’gann is still pretending that her family is “pure Green”.  Within the comic several direct lies are also present; all Martians (M’gann included) are presented as having the humanoid forms that she and J’onn preferentially take on Earth, M’gann claims to have always had a great relationship with J’onn, and claims to have won her protégé-ship via a rigorous contest.  (It’s also worth noting that Wally is an overtly unreliable narrator in this comic; telling a very glorified and rosy version of his origin, in direct contrast to the much less positive story the panels are showing).

Alien Biology Makes Things Complicated

The ubiquity of shapeshifting and telepathy among Martians of all colours introduce some significant differences from any real-life models of prejudice.

Cosmetic Discrimination and Status When Everyone Can Shapeshift Prejudices are often attached to the fact that certain physical traits are inherent and cannot be changed (or at least cannot be changed without borderline-prohibitive levels of effort, expense and/or medical intervention).  Similarly, status-based classism is usually rooted in the status symbol being a limited resource whose access can be gatekept to/by the “superior” classes - and which usually falls out of favour/ becomes derided once that resource becomes widely accessible to “common people” (e.g. use of imported spices in English cooking).

However, with shapeshifting being a ubiquitous ability among Martians, day-to-day skin colour is neither a fixed trait, nor a limited resource.  It also doesn’t seem like there is any significant cost or limitation to holding a shapeshifted form since M’gann and J’onn consistently hold non-native forms even when alone (with M’gann remaining shapeshifted as “Miss Martian” even when unconscious) and never express any concern about hitting a limit that would cause them to revert back.  Nothing would prevent any Martian from cosmetically presenting as any of the other colours; indeed Martians could do away with the tri-colour system entirely by presenting across the spectrum of all colours their shapeshifting is capable of.

This suggests that 1) there is some form of social convention/ pressure that leads Martians to preferentially present as their birth colour and 2) there is some metaphysical significance assigned to birth-colour that persists regardless of later cosmetic colour shifts.

The Other Among the Population Prejudice is also a result of othering; an “us vs them” mindset that treats other demographics as fundamentally different/ foreign to or on some level less human than one’s own group, despite the fact that - beneath small superficial differences - all human beings are fundamentally homoousian (of the same substance). Part of dismantling prejudice is the recognition that all other people are as real and human as oneself, and therefore equally deserving of autonomy and respect.

Since Martians are telepathic and communicate mind-to-mind, and the three demographics are societally integrated (rather than separated into pure-colour communities) it might be expected that any discrimination based solely on superficial skin colour would quickly be overcome by the recognition that members of all three colour-groups are the same in mind.  It’s also worth noting that the two minorities are seemingly treated very differently - Red being privileged where White are disparaged - rather than being seen as equally threatening to the Green majority.

While it is possible that Martians’ longevity and mental interconnectedness is allowing a historical prejudice to perpetuate through the community, this may also suggest that there are some slight but significant differences between the three colours (at a population level if not an individual one) that lend just enough legitimacy to these biases for them to persist unquestioned. 

Identifying Base Colour When Everyone Can Shapeshift Martians seem to have some ability to identify each other mentally; shape-shifting for play is apparently a common game that is seen as harmless since the other Martians can identify the person regardless of the physical guise they take.

It is unclear if this unique “mental signature” automatically conveys the Martian’s birth colour.  The fact that the three colours are treated as different classes differently suggests that there is some mechanism by which colour is tracked within the community - otherwise White Martians could simply mask as Green to avoid discrimination, and both White and Green Martians might attempt to present as Red to gain preferential treatment.  

However M’gann also seems to believe that she has successfully lied to J’onn about her colouring, as one of her fear-visions features him turning on her and saying that she must return to Mars now that he knows the truth.  While it is never confirmed whether J’onn actually knew M’gann’s status from the start and was simply waiting for her to tell him (similar to when Conner found out in Bialya), this does suggest that the possibility of Martians concealing their birth-colour from others on an individual level is at least plausible enough for M’gann to believe it into her mid/late teens.

How Anti-White Bigotry Manifests in Deathly Weapons

Headcanon time. Let’s see what we can build with these pieces and parameters:

Mechanisms of Martian Birth-Colour In the DW-verse, Martian birth-colour is determined by genes carried on the same genetic locus as some secondary mutations governing telepathic and magical affinity.  While colour inheritance doesn’t follow classic Mendelian dominant-recessive patterns (based on the ratio of Green to White Martians in M’gann’s family) the Green trait dominates to a large degree, and the Red trait also dominates over the White trait.

This shared locus does not mean that colours and abilities are 100% correlated - having one trait does not guarantee having the other - but it means that there is a higher statistical likelihood of traits appearing together.  (Similar to how Coeliacs disease and Type 1 Diabetes act as increased risk factors for each other).

In this case, White and Red carriers are more likely to have a stronger connection to the source of Martians’ telepathic/ magical abilities (in fact it’s more likely that Green colouring is co-located with a mild power dampening factor that is absent from the Locus in the other two).  However the genes that code Red birth-colour co-locate with secondary factors that make the power easier to control.  Meanwhile the White Locus has a higher likelihood of lacking all three factors; colour, dampener and stabiliser.

Under this system, both Red-born and White-born Martian populations are proportionally more powerful than Green-born Martians.  However among powerful White Martians there is a higher proportion of individuals with a less stable handle on those powers.

White Martians are not necessarily more dangerous or less moral, they just need more accommodation in the form of training and support when learning to manage their powers.   But placed under the same stress conditions an untrained Red Martian is more likely to present as a natural prodigy, where an untrained White Martian may seem destructive, volatile or preternaturally unlucky.

This provides the shred of legitimacy from which the rest of pro-Red, anti-White Martian prejudice is built.

The Narrative of Bigotry Birth colour was assigned metaphysical value loosely derived from the power issue above; Green being seen as normal, Red as a sign of favour/ blessing and White as an ill-omen/ curse.  This started off in early Martian society (prior to a proper understanding of inheritance, heredity, genetics or disability) and evolved into a set of ingrained systemic biases.  

Over time, moral qualities began to be attached to colouring; White in particular being seen as inherently lacking in moral fibre.  White Martians also came to be viewed as intellectually inferior; being perceived as too stupid and/or lazy to properly control themselves, rather than recognising that White Martians are disproportionately likely to be struggling with a challenging burden of power-management.

As Martian powers are tied to their emotional and mental state, this creates a vicious cycle. Rather than being properly accommodated and given techniques to manage their higher power burden, White Martians are left under-supported while being treated in a way that increases agitation, anxiety and distress - i.e. conditions likely to trigger disruptive power malfunction in any Martian.  Effectively White Martians are set up to fail, and instances of failure are taken as evidence to support the prejudiced narrative and justify further oppression, priming the cycle to continue.

(Ironically, Red Martians - who are disproportionately likely to inherit a combination of manageable and stable powerfulness - are the ones with the most access to resources and support.  The privileged become more privileged, the oppressed become more oppressed; again, vicious cycles.)

Treatment of White Martians in Deathly Weapons

General Attitude Anti-White bigotry largely manifests as a combination of contempt, condescension, disgust and shunning.  White Martians are stereotyped as inherently less moral and intelligent, so even more-benign treatment tends to be condescending in an “it’s not your fault you’re inferior” or an “I didn’t realise someone like you could do that” fashion.  There are some who see White Martians as having naturally malicious/ manipulative personalities.

Beyond being seen as inferior, White Martians are considered undesirable to be around; specifically as potentially dangerous, disruptive and/or unlucky to be in the presence of rather than bringing bad things only upon themselves.  This is partially rooted in the small number of real instances where a White Martian with more volatile telepathic/magical abilities lost control around others but this risk has become massively overinflated within the narrative of prejudice.  What is in actuality only a low chance for a small number of White Martians under specific circumstances ends up being treated as a near-inevitability of associating with any White Martian for an extended period (with “well you got lucky” being a common dismissal when this doesn’t happen).  As a result, White Martians are tolerated but typically excluded, shunned or ignored unless it is necessary to interact with them.  (This also contributes to White Martians being less well-socialised than the other colours on the whole, which folds back into perceptions of them as underdeveloped, strange and socially undesirable.)

All Martians are socialised into anti-White bigotry, something made more pervasive by the shared telepathic existence.  Since Anti-whiteness is so normalised, even tolerant partners/ parents/ children of White Martians may not initially recognise some of their own opinions and behaviours as anti-White microaggressions.  Even direct Green relatives of White Martians frequently fail to truly appreciate how relentlessly passively hostile Martian society is to White Martians, and how mentally exhausting it can be for White Martians to simply exist in that space.

Exploitation White Martians become an easy scapegoat for problems in Martian society.  By framing issues as a “White Martian problem” or focusing on real or perceived issues specifically to do with White Martians, Green and Red Martians are able to maintain an inflated sense of goodness and complacency (i.e. “there’s not a systemic problem in Martian society, it’s just a White Martian problem.”)  In some cases, White Martians are scapegoated in more overt ways; being accused of instigating bad behaviour in groups of other children when young, and easily blamed when items are lost or stolen.  (Something that some Green Martian children knowingly take advantage of.)

This makes White Martians more exploitable as a resource to the other colours.  Since White Martian suffering is somewhat normalised/ trivialised, there are fewer qualms about making them do tedious, unpleasant or dangerous menial tasks.  A more pernicious side is in threat management (either from predatory animals, elemental danger or the rare cases of violent internal conflict); the perception of White Martians as both societally low-value and “volatile loose cannons” making them doubly at risk of being used as a sort of high-power cannon-fodder first-wave in physical threat containment. (If they eliminate the problem, they spare the Red and Green Martians an inconvenience... and if they die well, it’s not that big of a loss).

There is also an insidious side in how Red Martians are incentivised to maintain this structure. Red Martians are, at a population level, disproportionately biologically privileged; making it easier for them to obtain positions of religious, economic and political power.  However, a White Martian who was properly accommodated and trained has not only the potential for the same raw power level but also possibly even greater control due to the mastery required to handle the tendency toward more volatile abilities.   A well-adjusted, well-trained White Martian potentially represents a political threat in how they not only disprove stereotypes but implicitly challenge the moral correctness of the current system, and draw attention to Red privilege.  As a result, Red and Green Martians can feel uneasy with/ threatened by the idea of White Martians as socially equal, and are unconsciously incentivised to keep White Martians under-supported, unaccommodated and oppressed in order to keep this threat from arising.

An interesting thought: This could have potentially thorny implications if M’gann were ever to return from Earth as an openly White Martian Hero trained and sponsored by a Green Martian Hero.

Identification of White Martians in DW

Beyond cosmetic appearance, birth colour does not inherently change the feeling of a Martian’s mind in the DW-verse.  While another Martian can uncover one’s colour if given permission to explore memories/ connect intimately with one’s mind, two Martians meeting alone for the first time would initially have to trust each other’s outward presentation.

White Martians are regularly clocked within the community they grew up in because the memory of their early years and the bias against/ association of their mind with their birth skin colour pervades the collective consciousness. In the DW-verse Martian children have only limited control over their shapeshifting until around age 4 in Martian years (12 Earth years).  This means most Martian children present as their birth colour during early childhood, long enough for an automatic association to become set in the minds of the people around them.

Even if a White Martian begins to mask and present as Green later in life, this collective awareness makes it extremely difficult to “pass” in their home communities.  Even well-intentioned family members can accidentally “out” White Martians with a misplaced or unintended thought.  On top of this, anti-White prejudice and the not-uncommon belief that White Martians are more malicious/ manipulative by nature means that attempting to pass as Green is often interpreted in the most bad-faith way possible (rather than simply an attempt to avoid being singled out and mistreated) and can result in a more overtly hostile rejection if caught. As a result, the majority of Martians simply choose to present as their birth colour in day-to-day life.

A White Martian could successfully pass as Green and live undetected if they chose to travel a long way from their birthplace and start anew - however this would mean entirely cutting ties with all friends, family and community members who knew them as White (a difficult and lonely prospect due to the deep mental intimacy of the family unit) and leave them vulnerable and without protection/ support should they be discovered so far from home.  Again, the perception of White Martians as potentially manipulative means that individuals and groups of notably smaller number than a standard Martian family unit tend to be regarded with some level of suspicion when they first arrive in a new community.

Linking back to canon This is how M’gann managed to initially fool J’onn, since they were separated from their community by the time he caught her aboard his ship and he didn’t know his extended family well enough to be able to immediately distinguish which of his 300-odd nieces and nephews were what colours.  However it is very possible that he did eventually realise that she was White prior to her telling the Team, and simply chose not to say anything until she did as a gesture of trust.

How White Martians Respond to Their Treatment

All Martians are socialised into anti-White bigotry in a way that is much stronger and more pervasive/ hard-to-escape due to Martian telepathy and the collective consciousness. Anti-Whiteness as an attitude pervades the communal mind-space as a persistent undercurrent in all aspects of life and language.

White Martians are more likely to recognise anti-White rhetoric but also tend to struggle with internalised anti-Whiteness more than human minorities struggle with internalised self-prejudices, due to constantly sharing a direct mental space with other Martians who both hold anti-White attitudes and who perceive them through the lens of anti-White prejudice and bigoted narratives; something that persistently reinforces those beliefs on both a conscious and unconscious level. (If 80% of people around you openly perceive you to be inherently lesser/ undesirable/ a monster, at what point do you start to believe it yourself?)

Responses from White Martians generalise into 4 major types:

Defeated Resignation: Many White Martians have somewhat unhappily made peace with their lot and resigned themselves to a life of keeping their head down, finding solace within their family unit.  These White Martians often have a “you need to accept that this is the way that it will be” mindset - they acknowledge the status quo as unfair but advocate for eking out what personal contentment they can find.

On some level many of these Martians have internalised the rhetoric that this is as much as they deserve and all they can aspire to.

Model Citizen: A smaller sister-group, these White Martians believe that by being the best representatives of their demographic that they can (well-behaved, polite, socially useful, nonconfrontational) they can carve a quiet path to respect, acceptance and equality.

As parents, these White Martians are mostly likely to put well-intentioned pressure on any White children to perform model behaviours as well.

While optimistic, in reality mostly this just upholds the status quo.

Benevolent Political Challenger:  A small number of  White Martians recognise the system as unfair and respond by bucking that system through intentionally presenting with Red or atypical colouring at all times; some going so far as to shift their anatomy and physical form to create non-Martian silhouettes.  #BeAubergineFuckTheSystem This is physically and telepathically harmless behaviour aimed to passively challenge and confront other Martians about the necessity of colour-classism.  These are the White Martians who are the most likely to also be actively agitating for societal change.

This is often successful in discomfiting Red/Green (and sometimes other, more passive, White) Martians but the decision to live in a permanently shapeshifted form - outside of play or camouflage - is also frequently dismissed/ derided as immature or simply attention-seeking.  

To live this way is an unapologetic political statement but it exposes them to a degree of danger as doing so can often mark one out as a White Martian and thus make them a target (something which in turn draws annoyance from Green Martians who occasionally choose to use colour display for costuming or self-expression).

Some White Martians find the idea of this lifestyle exhausting as they simply want acceptance and equality without being a public spectacle.

Resentful/ Angry Rebel: There is a small but vocal proportion of White Martians who openly resent the system and their Green community/ family members.  This is also expressing a desire for change but more in a way that releases feelings of societal impotence and powerlessness.

In some cases this manifests as being openly hostile toward and willing to start arguments with the other colours at the barest provocation.

Sometimes this anger is also directed at other White Martians if they are seen to be being too complicit or compliant instead of advocating for change.  (Angry Rebels hate Model Citizens.)

For a small number of individuals this turns into deliberately embracing and playing into the worst stereotypes in a kind of “is what you want?” challenge.  This is very much a case of “cutting off your nose to spite your face” since the main result is that they become examples used by Red and Green Martians to confirm and reinforce anti-White narratives.

Another small minority respond by doing whatever they like with no regard for others. This can vary from more harmless “any attention is better than no attention” class-clown misbehaviour to more actively hostile “if everything you do is doing to be wrong anyway then you might as well do whatever you damn well want” justification for callousness or cruelty.  Again this is mostly unproductive as it serves to reinforce stereotypes.

Treatment of Mixed-Colour Pairings/Families in DW

Most Martians tend to take a partner (or partners) of the same colour, but mixed-colour pairings of all combinations have been observed.  As colour discrimination happens on an individual level, Martians are rarely mistreated for their selection of partners, and Green/ Red children of mixed pairings are considered to have risen above their “lesser” parent in being blessed/ escaping a curse.

Sidenote: Martian gender and queerness in Deathly Weapons As there isn’t much physical dimorphism between female and male Martians, shapeshifting is ubiquitous and telepathy/telekinesis/magic are neither gendered nor physical, Martian society is quite egalitarian about gender.  While there may be some separation of roles around reproductive function and gendering of minor ceremonial behaviours, Martian physicality and powers are very equalising, and little status is attached to biological sex. Given how many children a breeding pair of Martians has on average, their longevity, that shapeshifting is a universal ability and that everyone has psychic powers, Martian culture is very accepting of various attractions and sexualities (both to different genders and even sometimes to other species, although the latter is uncommon simply because the general Martian populace lives mostly underground and doesn’t see many interplanetary visitors).  Long-term Martian attraction is based on psychological compatibility moreso than physical form, which tends to preclude any concerns or biases about physiology. The egalitarian approach to gender/ gender roles, low dimorphism between the base-forms of each sex and the ubiquity of shapeshifting also means that concepts like transgenderism probably aren’t very present in the Martian consciousness.  In order to not be incapacitated by their own shapeshifting, Martian biology is likely immune to experiencing dysphoria/ dysmorphia in the way humans conceive it, and minor shapeshifting to alleviate physical discomfort - whether environmental or medical - is considered very normal.  (Although Martians may experience psychological distress if a specific form has associated trauma, and Martians who have spent extended periods shapeshifted into one particular form may experience a period of discomfort as they reacclimatise to inhabiting now less-familiar shapes.) Yes, the tolerance of Martian Society towards shapeshifting outside of masking birth skin colour is a hypocritical and irrational double-standard.  Bigotry is like that.

Social status and colour-breeding tend to be the biggest factors in the social reception of pairings.

Of all the colours, Red Martians are the ones most likely to strongly practice “true breeding” in order to retain and pass on the perceived blessing of Red colouration within families. (This means that Red Martians - especially Red Martian aristocracy - are more susceptible to becoming inbred by human standards, especially when you consider how large Martian extended families are.)

Green-Red Green-Red is probably the rarest pairing since Green colouration predominates in the offspring of these unions.  While not openly disdained it is frequently met with a degree of initial confusion towards the Red Martian - especially from other Red Martians.  Often the Green Martian in a Red-Green pair is regarded as being in some way exceptional enough to persuade a Red Martian to “dilute their blessing”.

Green-White Due to the widespread and massive disdain towards White Martians, Green-White pairings are viewed as somewhat eccentric.  Only a very liberal-minded Green Martian would consider a White Martian for a mate. The Green partner in a Green-White pairing is often seen as being very magnanimous, or even a naïve bleeding-heart.  Others may view the Green partner as being brave or strong enough to have overcome/ tamed the “dangerous” or “cursed” nature of their White partner.  (It’s also sometimes derided as a fetish thing; the stereotype of White Martians as “brutish” being a source of many unkind jibes.)  The White partners in Green-White couples are often Model Citizen types, and are typically ignored in social settings in favour of interacting with their spouse(s).

Since the Green trait heavily predominates the White trait in the offspring of these unions, there is a somewhat insidious mindset in particularly intolerant Martians that Green-White coupling is actually preferable to White-White coupling since it will “breed the White out” of the population.  This mindset is vile enough that it is rarely openly voiced… but the thing with telepathy is that it’s not hard to know what people are really thinking.

Red-White Red-White pairings are considered taboo/ scandalous and are frequently publicly denied while being one of those dirty secrets that happens more often than people think.  While some Red-White relationships are sincere, there are a lot of social and political power dynamics at play.  In many cases it’s more of a tryst, with the White Martian being akin to a concubine more than an equal partner.  While there are rare cases where this is a true courtly-love situation and the arrangement is the result of the Red Martian wanting to be with the White Martian but unable to publicly claim them as a partner due to social/ political repercussions, often it is more the case that the Red Martian is simply enjoying the thrill of a broken taboo.  If a Red-White tryst is discovered, the tendency of White Martians to be scapegoated usually directs most of the consequences onto them.

Since the Red trait is dominant over the White trait, there can also be an insidious level of colour-breeding strategy at play.  Given no suitable Red partners, a secret White partner will produce a higher proportion of Red offspring than taking a Green partner.  It is not unheard of for a White child to “spontaneously” be born to a “True Red” couple, and very quickly smuggled away to the White parent’s extended family before the truth gets out (if they’re lucky).  White children of Red-White couples are some of the worst-treated individuals.

M’gann’s Personal Experience

Beyond just her experience as a White Martian, M’gann’s behaviour and dialogue indicate that she may have had a more isolating experience than is typical for her demographic.

M’gann never mentions her family in any kind of positive/fond context, and barely mentions them at all - even in situations where family comes up for other characters in front of her.  Of all the main members of the Season 1 team, we know the least about M’gann’s family (even compared to genomorph Conner, canonical orphan Dick and latecomer Zatanna).  While some of this may be a biproduct of her attempting to conceal her colouring, not even innocuous anecdotes are shared.  This suggests that M’gann does not feel particularly connected to her family and/or may not feel that her experiences of family are comparable to the others.

M’gann feeling unusually disconnected/ distanced from her family aligns to readings of a few other details.  Despite purportedly having 29 Siblings M’gann cites her childhood as being lonely.  Even assuming that Martian sibling dynamics are markedly different from Human siblings, one would expect a large family to provide some sense of community.  One potential reading of her “I always wanted a sister” line in Infiltrator (followed by quickly tacking on that she has 12 on Mars) is that M’gann never felt like she had a sisterly dynamic with her siblings.

M’gann’s true backstory also seems to support this.  Apparently she ran away from home without telling her family or leaving a message. Beyond simply not talking about her family, we never see any signs of M’gann expressing concern or regret over how they might be feeling, nor does she seem to particularly miss them.  We also do not see any indications that they have attempted to contact each other, even via J’onn.  While she may simply have wanted to avoid a fuss/ attempts to stop her, it also suggests that M’gann believed no-one would miss her/ notice her departure, and that there was no-one/ nothing on Mars she considered worth staying for.

Deathly Weapons’ take on M’gann

The M’gann of the DW-verse is one of two White children to a Green mother and White father.  In total there are 30 children in her family, of which M’gann is a younger-middle child, with a slightly older White brother.  In Deathly Weapons, her brother is Micha'kel and her father is Dal'en (named for two background White Martians in the wider DC comics).

M’gann’s family dynamic is not one of abuse or intentional neglect but it is one of absence around her. Her family is on the larger side by Martian standards, and her parents’ attention is often occupied by dealing with her younger siblings.  Her older siblings, meanwhile, are all Green save for Micha'kel, and their achievements and milestones often overshadow her.  M’gann sits somewhere within the realm of the “forgotten child”, existing quietly on the fringes of her family.

Like a lot of Green Martians, M’gann’s Green siblings have been somewhat shielded from understanding by their own privilege.  While they are liberal-minded, they don’t necessarily realise how passively exhausting it is to be a White Martian or how many barriers it places socially.  There were times where some of her siblings invited her to tag along to things but then didn’t seem to realise how quickly M’gann would slip into being ignored or subtly mistreated by other people - until eventually M’gann withdrew from going at all.  Being Green frees her siblings to live their own lives and, while M’gann doesn’t feel she can resent them for it (most of the time), it does make her feel lonely to watch.

M’gann has a complicated relationship with her father and brother.  Dal'en leans towards being a mix of Resigned and Model Citizen about his own White status; he has found contentment with where he is, he is happy to let their mother be the face of the family, and - while he recognises that the system is unfair and has sympathy for his children - his advice is mostly about making peace with your position and being grateful for what you have rather than risk losing it by pushing for more.  While M’gann can somewhat appreciate where he’s coming from, she also finds it frustrating/ upsetting to not have a strong advocate in her corner.  Micha'kel, meanwhile, is slightly older than M’gann and responds to his treatment and the system by being more of an Angry Rebel.  He is vocally critical of Dal’en’s attitude and will pursue arguments to challenge his father and siblings about allowing their treatment.  Micha’kel’s “problem child” behaviours further divert the family’s attention away from M’gann, and she does not enjoy being roped into these arguments as an example.  M’gann and Micha’kel have very little in common as people or in terms of interests; when they were younger M’gann had hoped that they would have a closer sibling bond due to their shared colouring, but on some level she recognises that being related is the only thing that meaningfully connects them.

M’gann sits at an odd point between her father and brother’s mentalities.  She is too dissatisfied to take Dal’en’s advice but she finds the idea of actively confronting the system to be exhausting.  She tried something similar to Micha’kel for a year - being more assertive and confrontational in trying to make others acknowledge and include her - but mostly found herself left tired, frustrated and having experienced more firm rejection.  Where Dal’en has made peace with unhappiness and Micha’kel is always angry, M’gann just wants to be herself.

This is made more pronounced by M’gann’s own personality and interests.  The disconnect from her family caused M’gann to withdraw slightly into escapism - specifically into Hello Megan! because of the simple stories, cheerful tone and easy resolution of problems, as well as the similarity in their names (and the fantasy of being well-liked and paid attention to).  Where most Martians find Earth TV enjoyable as a passing curiosity, M’gann has made it into more of a hobby than others. It’s rather easy to read M’gann as the Martian equivalent of an otaku; she is defined by her relationship with a piece of media from another culture, eventually moving to live as part of that culture while adopting a persona based on that media.  That combination of being a White Martian with a niche interest made it more difficult to find community; not many other White Martian’s shared that interest with her, and her status as a White Martian meant she was frequently denied entry into Green Martian groups/clubs.

M’gann’s own family are patient but perhaps a little patronizing about her hobby.  While they are supportive of her enjoying something she likes (especially since it lets her amuse herself in a non-destructive way), they don’t really understand why this throw-away piece of Earth entertainment is so important to her.  (There is a bit of wilful obtuseness going on - no-one really wants to confront the possibility that their own dynamic is contributing to it by unintentionally hurting their daughter/sister).  Dal’en’s more Model Citizen mindset is something of a hindrance in this situation as well; he has a well-meaning (and somewhat legitimate) concern that M’gann’s niche interests won’t translate into something societally productive and could be a barrier to connecting with others, but even with telepathy it’s hard to communicate that in a way that doesn’t come across as being critical and/or pessimistic about one of the few things M’gann finds unambiguously joyful. While his relationship with M’gann is less fraught than with Micha’kel, Dal’en can’t really step out of his own mindset and coping strategies enough to connect with her in the way she needs.

Because of all this, as a child M’gann had a tendency to be somewhat clingy and overenthusiastic in her desire to please people who showed her positive attention, inadvertently pushing potential friends away by grating on their boundaries.

M’gann may have tried to mask as Green a few times in attempt to be accepted, but would have been quickly revealed and chased away - one of the reasons why rejection is such a source of pain for her.  She might have had a better chance at making it work by befriending a Green child from a recently-moved-in family that arrived at the outskirts of her own community (just far enough out for the communities collective mindset to not immediately reveal her status) but it would have been unlikely to last.  There would have been low change that a random rebellious Green child would share her main interests and a high chance that M’gaan would end up silently enduring a fair amount of judgmentalism and casual anti-Whiteness in their language and jokes in order to “fit in”.  A relationship based on such a fundamental lie could never sincerely sustain itself in that state, and the question of whether the “friend” rejected her because they didn’t like M’gann’s actual personality or if it was because they had started to suspect her status as a White Martian would always hang over the failed attempts.

M’gann’s decision to stow away with J’onn to Earth was based both on feeling like there wasn’t (and might never be) a place for her on Mars, and a belief that Earth would be a simpler, kinder and happier place based on what TV had shown her.