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Claremont’s work has received much attention for introducing androgynous female characters to comics in the early 1980s. Less-discussed, however, is the fact that a lot of those gender-queer characters were realigned with existing gender norms by the late 1980s. #xmen 1/7
Storm, the centerpiece of this discussion, was introduced as a hyperfeminine character, then famously rendered gender-deviant with her punk look in the early 80s. But in the Fall of the Mutants, she grows her hair back and resumes a highly feminized portrayal thereafter. 2/7
Similarly, the first Phoenix was highly effeminate, where Rachel Summers, the 2nd Phoenix host (introduced in the early 80s), was again gender-deviant, while Madelyne Pryor, the 3rd Phoenix host (as revealed in the late 80s), went back to highly femme. 3/7
Even Kitty Pryde goes through a gender-deviant period in the early 80s, with a shorter hair-cut and ninja aesthetic (earned in the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine Mini), before reverting after the Mutant Massacre. 4/7
Rogue’s transition, however, might be the most jarring. In the hands of JRJR and then Silvestri, she effectively grows a foot in length, reconfigures her entire body and sheds all the androgynous traits she was introduced with to become a gender-conforming comics sex symbol. 5/7
So what happened? Did Claremont change his aims? Did editorial step in? One theory is that the Silvestri/Lee era in particular ushered in a style of illustration that homogenized body types into essentially a binary: one male body and one female. Nothing inbetween. 6/7
Whatever the case, the refeminization of the X-Women after a surge of gender-queer portrayals in the early 1980s needs to be kept in mind, if only as a footnote in situations where Claremont is given credit for queering the depiction of gender in comics. 7/7
