ysabetwordsmith | Different Kinds of Strength

This quote, from this article, made me drop my brain. Spoilers for X-Men: Days of Future Past.

"But there’s also been no outcry at Kitty’s absence from the meat of the action because no one misses a character they hardly know."

What. The actual. FUCK?

Kitty Pryde saved the whole world, human and mutant alike. She did this by sending Wolverine's mind to the past. She sent him decades back, when her previous efforts were a few days to a week, maybe a month at most. That is beyond exhausting; it is life-threatening. And then she kept doing that after Wolverine unconsciously stabbed her, while she was bleeding to death and crying from the pain. We know she was bleeding out because Bobby explicitly remarked that she was losing too much blood.

In my mind, this is heroism equivalent to Tony Stark carrying a nuke through the wormhole. Kitty knew she was dying; they all did; it was their last stand and their last chance. She did her job anyway. And this is somehow not enough for people? What did you want to see her do, fire a machine gun with her magic snatch?

Fuck that noise. There's more than one way to be a hero and Kitty was IT in that movie.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

the article within about the first two paragraphs. It /seriously/ annoyed me, and not merely for the reasons you list above.

The /tone/ of the article comes off as downright pompous. Snotty. "I know better than everyone else how THIS topic should be handled."

Turns me right off.

You make an excellent point about her sacrificing herself, but it wasn't "BIG" and dramatic. It was quiet and dramatic, sad, frightening, emotional... I think the open display of emotion is what made the other -- I can't type the word 'writer' or 'author' without a full-body shudder-- /person/ may have been dismissive of.

I mean, Tony Stark saved the world in a MANLY way. A flicker of emotion, then just "get the job done". Sure, he was presumably banged up inside the suit, but he wasn't bleeding from deep puncture wounds and trying to hang on to the person he considered a mentor for what, /twenty years/?

Kitty Pryde is not Tony Stark, but somehow the expectation was that she would save the world /in the same way/ that he did? Meanwhile, what about the efforts of the other X-Men? Not even worth mentioning because someone has an I-hate-Kitty-Pryde rant disguised as "disappointment" in the movie portrayal?

My dad had an expression about opinions and ... noses, yah, that'll work... everybody's got one.

Everyone's got one and most of them smell. :)

--Jessica

Exactly!

Wow, yeah, that is painfully stupid and myopic on their part.

It's just so exemplary of how quiet sacrifice is never rewarded. Which is horrific, because that really is heroism: doing your duty for the sake of the work and not the fanfare.

>> It's just so exemplary of how quiet sacrifice is never rewarded. <<

That's true too. I'd be happy to write more examples of that.

"Not the Absence of Fear" has a close parallel with Clement hanging onto healing energy even though the injury at hand is way past his current ability to fix.

"Valor's Widow" deals with a different kind of quiet sacrifice, although she does get a lot of respect from it.

I've got one poem, "The Ones They Leave Behind," about a boy watching his sister leave with a paladin. He's part of the support crew who keeps the crops growing and the livestock fed while somebody else goes off to save the world. Because if it weren't for people like him, they'd have nothing to come home to.

>> Which is horrific, because that really is heroism: doing your duty for the sake of the work and not the fanfare. <<

Agreed.

Thanks for the links! :)

I was just thinking, it's hard to write about such things because it usually is the "behind the scenes" people that we don't always think of. But there's plenty of people to write about on the homefronts if we just put our minds to it.

WTF says it all. The author of that article completely missed the point. If it weren't for Kitty then all would have been lost before it had even started. How did that get missed? I think I'm going to have to take a second trip to the movies this afternoon to support Kitty and her quiet badassery.

Edited 2014-05-29 15:06 (UTC)

>> If it weren't for Kitty then all would have been lost before it had even started. How did that get missed? <<

I think because people take a narrow-minded view of "strong female character" and indeed a narrow view of strength itself. Strength is an ability to accomplish work, and it comes in many forms, physical and mental. Most forms of women's strength are not respected; in order to earn respect, women have to act like men. I resent that.

>> I think I'm going to have to take a second trip to the movies this afternoon to support Kitty and her quiet badassery. <<

*happydance*

Yeah, when we re-watch this on DVD, I'm definitely planning to pay more attention to Kitty's role. I suspect I'll notice more clues about her condition when I'm actively looking for them.

Women are just support systems--even if long-term support is required--for the real efforts made by men, who are the only real people.

"You didn't build that by yourself."

If the world cannot be saved without a woman's contribution, then the woman saved the world.

And wow, we're right back to how the male members of a team get the Nobel and the female members get squat.

Fuck that, Kitty Pryde deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for saving the world. Whole team does, and that includes Magneto, wouldn't that piss off everyone.

Nuh-uh, women's part is just passive and they're just doing their duty. Real heroism is going above and beyond and that's what men do.

I don't even know why the film was about Wolverine when it was Kitty Pryde who saved the world. Nothing he did would have been possible without her. And I've seen references from other places that in the comic books it *was* Kitty Pryde who time-traveled back to change the outcome (I can't verify that, I haven't read the comic books).

>> And I've seen references from other places that in the comic books it *was* Kitty Pryde who time-traveled back to change the outcome <<

That would have been a LOT harder, because Wolverine has more leverage and his physical powers were really useful.

*chuckle* Wolverine got to play in Easy mode. Kitty would've been playing in Expert.

I didn't so much get "Kitty's not a hero" from that article. I got more of an, "if they'd managed to give one of the main players in one of the X-Men's biggest plotlines ever something to do in her previous 3 appearances in the series other than steal Rogue's boyfriend, maybe they'd have been able to make her the main character instead of a big damn hero who dies early," vibe.

--Jessica

AMEN! Preach it!

Different Kinds of Strength

Had clicked off--

Re: Had clicked off--

Re: Had clicked off--

no subject

Yes...

Re: Yes...

no subject

Well...

no subject

Well...

Re: Well...

Re: Well...

I haven't seen the movie yet, but...

no subject