Miles Morales. Credit: Marvel
More news on Miles Morales–the new replacement for Spider-Man might be gay as well as being a multiracial, multicultural character. Newsy gives the entire story:
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There is a part of the story that didn’t sit well with me, and that was the part where a writer for Pakistan’s Express Tribune writes that it seems slightly exploitative for Miles to be gay as well as have a multi-ethnic background. I get where he’s coming from with this–just a few years ago, DC Comics had to insist that Batwoman–a character from the ’40s and ’50s who was reimagined to be a lesbian socialite crimefighter–wasn’t a publicity stunt. But at the same time, the argument could be made that having a gay multi-ethnic character isn’t a publicity stunt because there are many gay multi-ethnic people in the world. Just because Miles will have a lot of societal problems to deal with like racism and discrimination doesn’t mean that he is an exploitative character.
The only reason the “exploitative” argument comes up with anything is when something goes against the norm. Sure, sometimes, the argument is valid–always having the one minority girl or guy on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette is exploitative because you know the minorities were only chosen to fill a quota, and vice versa with some of those awful VH1 dating shows that used to come on the air, in which they would have the one white girl or white guy–but sometimes, a character who was organically created to have a multi-ethnic background, have a different sexual orientation, etc. , doesn’t have to be “exploitative.” They might have been created that way to show that all of us are not composed of one race or ethnic group, and that all of us have different sexual orientations that need to be represented fairly in entertainment. The only way Miles Morales could be an exploitative character is if they 1) don’t give him a completely-developed character/only made him say and do stereotypical things and 2) if they never used him in an issue again. I don’t think neither of which will happen in the issues he’ll star in. All I say is for people to give the guy a chance first.
Thanks to Jennifer at Newsy for the video.
