#like u bring up nonbinary Morrison but not Jewish Sons of Immigrant creators Shuster and Siegel? mkay Tumblr posts

[jesncin]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8UnZtHp4_N/?igsh=MzJwajM5cXd5NDNm

Saw this and immediately thought of your wholesome Superman rework. 🏳️‍⚧️

aaah I'm put in an awkward place when folks send other people's fanart and I...don't like it 😅 like traditionally it's fandom etiquette to just scroll away when you see fanon/fanart you don't like, but when I'm put on the spot like this and have my work directly compared to it...welp.

While it's nice to see more recognition to possible queer readings of marginalized supers, I'm wary of how mainstream queerness has been used to pinkwash adaptations of the more racialized aspects of the character in question. Superman is an allegorical analog for a white-passing Jewish immigrant, but in MAWS those themes are universalized to being just "different". There's a whole episode where Clark's marginalization is likened to that of a gay couple, and how he's forced out of the closet because having boundaries and privacy hurts his friends' feelings. Never once in the show is he likened to immigrants or people of color who experience xenophobia.

I haven't watched X-Men '97, but I do find it troubling that Sunspot- whose very origin involves him experiencing anti-Black violence- has his marginalization likened to just queer struggles. A non-Black actor has yet again been casted to portray him. Just another example of how Sunspot in particular has been gradually getting whitewashed in new takes. It's just with queerness now too.

I think this is why it kind of gets to me when people read my "wholesome" Superman-comic-about-losing-parts-of-yourself-to-xenophobia as a trans allegory. It's like whitewashing via pink kryptonite.