Divine Pryde

I actually think it’s amusing to think that out of all the heroic X-Women out there, it’s Kitty Pryde who’s practically the most diva like in behaviour. Not that there’s anything wrong with it but I think considering her to be more in-line with a diva than with girls next door proper kind of makes you wonder if her fans are either willingly excusing her behaviour…or perhaps their idea of a girl next door’s a fiery technologically inclined woman.

(If X-Men Evolution’s any indication, if she were a much more normal woman she’d be boring.)

I could be nit-picking but I do remember more than one incident of her repeatedly losing her temper to the point of lashing out violently. And demanding to a fault. I guess in Kitty’s case, it’s not always so much about being overly saccharine (though this gets lost on some) but rather more to do with being incredibly sullen and pissed. It’s a malaise almost impossible to find in Betty Cooper.

If because she’s practically the (near) perfect girl next door in comics in the sense of being an idealised everywoman whilst Kitty’s practically a jaded fan surrogate. Not that Betty’s any less suspicious as she’s shown to be mentally ill in Riverdale. But I think with Kitty, the given characterisation she got is kind of diva-ish.

Easily annoyed when things don’t go well, willingly taking her wrath out on others, demanding what she wants (not that it’s a bad thing) and according to some readers, overly preachy. You know like any pop diva. I suspect her relatability arguably doesn’t just lie with being a fan surrogate but one who’s very contemptuous and pissed off with everybody else.

She even barely bothers to understand people’s intentions, even later on in the stories (as far as I remember) and I think her perpetual malaise with people resonates well with X-Men fans and naturally her enemy’s the very blonde, very posh (and light-clad) Emma Frost. (There’s a recurring gag in American productions where the popular girls are often blonde*.)

I suspect in Kitty Pryde’s case, she’s as if Ally Sheedy’s the girl next door or like in one of Plebcomics’s cartoons on appealing to Internet users a lot. If that’s the case, that might be telling.

*Though not unique to American productions, in Japanese animated productions blondes aren’t necessarily always popular girls (or if male, Chads) as they could be suspicious in other ways (delinquent, bullied victim, loser, outsider, otherworldly, exotic, foreign).

Goth Pixie Dream Girl

I think it’s a subject matter somebody else talked about but one that might have amusing bearings on not only those who do come close to it but also in live action. Maybe not always exactly the case but it does fit well when it comes to characters like Abby Sciutto as well as Willow Rosenberg and Felicity Smoak at some point. Even if it’s not always exactly the case as Kitty Pryde and Donna Troy just happened to like wearing black a lot (though Black Canary dresses more similarly to that of actual Goths*).

But it seems to be the case where dressing in black clothing can be a shorthand for outsider (especially when it comes to beatniks, Goths, BDSM and even hackers). Even if it’s not always the case, it does fit well as to be unconscious. (There’s got to be a reason why not too many X-Men consider Emma Frost to be girl next door material but because she’s way too much of a Valley Girl in a way to be accessible to them.)

It may not always be the case but enough to make a nearly unconscious connection for some.

*A big mystery why almost nobody bothered to Goth her up as she could pull it off real well.

Sort of makes weird sense

I could be cherry-picking when it comes to X-Men media in how and why they portray female characters but upon watching the video clip ‘What is the Goth Rebel Pixie Dream Girl’ it does help shed some light into the way they’re portrayed. Whilst not always, entirely or consistently the case it still explains a lot of things. Something that not too many make the connection even if it does show up.

Wearing black doesn’t make you Gothic but when the X-Men are almost always depicted as outsiders who do wear black from time to time (most of the time in the X-Men films) with Emma Frost and sometimes Mystique (and rarely Storm) being big outliers the connection between them and the Goth subculture feels subliminal enough to portray some as such. Strangely enough, Kitty seems exempt.

Even though of all the X-Women, she and a few others (including her friend Illyana) wear black the most or more often. That Kitty herself’s a tomboy (even if she wore pink at some point) sort of plays into the points the commentator’s making. Naturally her enemy Emma Frost wears white. The one X-Woman that’s got the short end of the stick the most is the pink-clad Psylocke whose racebending was recently undone.

Whilst not always the case as there are some heroic girly girls or blonds like Psylocke, Dazzler, Emma Frost and Mystique at times. But considering Mystique’s initial introduction as someone who wore a white dress, Psylocke a blatant girly girl and Dazzler being a pop star it’s not hard to see that they seem somewhat warier of them to a degree.

Not necessarily or overtly antagonistic but more in the sense of being too feminine for nerd men to appreciate (yet they themselves don’t want butch women for fear of being emasculated). It makes sense when you realise Kitty gets paraded as the Goth tomboy next door (that too’s imprecise as Rogue’s the one who’s made Goth even though Kitty wears black more often).

It also unconsciously makes sense that Jubilee receives a polarising response. Not necessarily any less sexualised or entirely hated (she’s got fans) but when the character they’re more attached to’s moody and dresses in black (almost a stereotypical Goth) that Jubilee’s unconsciously hated also because…she’s a Valley Girl.

Maybe not necessarily always the case and some X-Men fans aren’t into Goths at all but still makes sense given the context as to feel subliminal enough to make the connection between X-Men and Goth with Emma being an outlier when you think about it.

She’s got to be a punching bag

The more I remember the video clip ‘Goth Rebel Dream Girl*’, the more I realise the real reason why Emma and Kitty (or Jean) are portrayed the way they are in the X-Men comics. It’s not always or consistently exactly the case in-canon (which also extends to other adaptations) and wearing black doesn’t make you Gothic.

But considering that the traditional X-Men uniform’s often black and Kitty Pryde’s almost always seen in it (not that she wore any other colour, especially as a civilian but when it comes to superhero outfits, she tends to dress in black), it’s unsurprising that her nemesis Emma Frost’s often seen in white. (The same can be said of Mystique when bad.)

On one hand, it seems neat that the stereotypes of colour white being good and colour black being bad’s reversed in here. On the other hand, it risks turning Emma and Mystique into massive punching bags especially whenever they’re often portrayed in contrast to the others. The biggest punching bag’s got to be Psylocke who for a long time got forcibly transferred to another person’s body until recently.

(Of all the X-Women, she’s arguably the girliest because she wears pink and the butterfly motif thing going on for her.)

The fact that Psylocke longed to be her real self again going so far to wear one of her former outfits and be willing to remake somebody else into her image’s enough to say she really wants it back. It’s been accomplished but in the context of the ‘Goth Rebel Dream Girl’ fetish many Western animation and cape comics fans have (maybe not necessarily all but still), it’s Psylocke who ends up as a whipping girl.

Meanwhile the more tomboyish Kitty Pryde gets pedestalised as the ideal girlfriend for X-Men fans, where it’s not hard to assume a girly girl like Psylocke gets the short end of the stick with Emma Frost being the punching bag. (If because she’s dangerously close to the Valley Girl stereotype in the same sense Kitty’s almost a Goth.)

Again not always the case but it makes you wonder how misogynistic X-Men writers could be. Not that X-writers necessarily hate blondes (Illyana seems beloved enough) and girly girls but it’s not hard that they get the short end of the stick in contrast to the rest.

*terribletimetraveler
3 weeks ago
This was truly a well put together video. I honestly felt like you really found something, the reason why these sexual harassments happen. A fine job mister.

Another one from the comment section

Even more comments taken from this clip:

dark power
dark power
3 weeks ago
I’d argue they exist because in media you deal in stereotypes, the feminine stereotype is fairly unnatractive for the most guys. Yes, guys like their women to be feminine (most of the time, everyone has different ideas of beauty I’m just trying to go off what I see is the average) but guys don’t want feminity and that’s it. How many girls do you see obsessing over He-Man or [Insert Generic Action Testosterone Man Here]. Just like how you don’t really see guys making waifus of Barbie or [Insert Generic Girly Girl Here].

The Goth-Gf stuff is just people saying “I want more to a girl then looks, I want someone who will be like a friend to me”. Who wouldn’t want that? Sadly in the western world most people are pressured societally to just get married to whatever normie is bearable and attractive enough, settling and just dealing with the things they don’t like so they won’t be alone.

Many many factors in this one. Regardless thats my psychoanalytic two cents, call me Freud or whatever. I’ll be snorting cocaine and thinking about incest in the back.

Eleanor Taylor
3 weeks ago
@Moose While I don’t agree with everything in the vid, I think the key difference here is these characters nearly always play into a male fantasy. Goth girls irl aren’t doing to impress boys or be “not like other girls”, but the male writers can only handle either adherence to or rejection of feminity. They want their love interests to reject traditional feminity because they see it as for stupid and boring women, rather than just a choice based off women’s interests. They might even subconsciously believe that all women in real life are like the portrayal of hot, dumb blondes* in the media – and therefore when creating their fantasy, she’s got to be “not like other girls”. But of course, the characters will still all be attractive because while rejecting pink frills is encouraged, some gender expectations remain entrenched. The problem isn’t the aesthetic of these characters, it’s the — reasons behind it.

*This explains the way Emma Frost’s portrayed in contrast to Kitty Pryde.

Something so weirdly intuitive

Even if Kitty Pryde and Donna Troy aren’t made into Goths the way Rogue and Raven got, they do come dangerously close to it in the context of their counterparts and/or enemies. If Kitty Pryde’s like the closet angry Goth with a dragon, then Emma Frost’s the girly girl dressed in white and talks in an annoying way. There are people arguing for the case of Loki being a nerd and Thor as a jock.

But there’s seldom any real argument for Kitty being the nerdy Goth and Emma being a shallow Valley Girl even when it’s much more blatant in a sense. (Just observe their fashion sense and why they’re so opposed to each other.) It’s basically or generally the difference between the nerdy outsider and the normie they don’t trust much (or at least never bother to understand her).

Never mind nerds who’re into manufactured pop music (the weird grey area when you think about it). Or the difference between Donna Troy and Wonder Woman even though it’s much less antagonistic. Both of them are outsiders and whilst both are sexualised, it’s Wonder Woman who’s generally portrayed in a manner that paradoxically doesn’t lend her to ‘waifuism’ the way you get with Donna.

A sort of Marian/Madonna figure if you will. Donna Troy (if you know Italian, it almost means ‘woman of troy’ and she’s even called Troia, which also means slut or female pig) seems worldlier. She’s dated men like Kyle Rayner and Terry Long. Not that Wonder Woman never dated other men either. She did have a fling for Superman before but it didn’t last long.

If between the black-clad Donna and Diana, though both of them do indulge in BDSM Donna seems preferable to be made into a waifu if because she’s the girl next door who enjoys dressing up as a stereotypical dominatrix (same for Kitty Pryde). Wonder Woman’s distinct from Emma Frost in that she’s never intended to be evil or at least dubious though she comes off as weirdly inaccessible out of purity.

Maybe not exactly or always the case though Kitty and Donna have been spotted wearing plunging necklines and cleavages at some point. But if the appeal that some Goth girls have seems to verge on nearly wearing BDSM costumes and especially black tights, the same can be said of Kitty and Donna thanks to the BDSM undertones in the stories they appear in.

Not necessarily unsexualised but they do come closer to the idealised Goth woman stereotype than Emma and Diana ever would.