What You Wear: Mystique, Clothing, and Sexuality

Mystique in original costume
- X-Factor #108 (1994)

A short post to keep things going, this time on how the Marvel Comics villain, Mystique has been portrayed sexually through her clothing throughout her thirty year plus career. 

Kaja Silverman in her essay 'Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse' writes that clothing and dress is an important cultural implement for affixing sexual identity (1986:146), and Mystique’s clothes/costumes support this theory. As a representation of her sexuality, Mystique’s clothes change throughout her career identifying to the reader what to expect (or not) from her sexually. Her first costume in which she was seen from approximately 1977 to 1995, covers her breasts and upper torso tightly, while her groin is covered by a long flowing skirt that is side split to the waist that would hardly hide her genitalia in any situation, and emphasises her breasts as fetish objects.

Mystique as coloured nude
- X-Factor #127 (1996)

As a villain she holds the attributes of the phallic woman (not the least because she can transform into a male) represented by the fact that at any moment her skirt may reveal an actual phallus, which is no doubt an entertaining but horrifying possibility for her heroic foes (and fans). The skulls on her belt are also indicative of the possible horror lurking beneath. At this stage of her career we don't know where her sexual preferences lie. She is sexually ambiguous. Hinted at for many years but finally revealed in X-Men Forever #5 (2001, on the inside front cover), is that Mystique's constant companion, the precognitive mutant, Destiny (aka Irene Adler), is her lover. Therefore she threatens patriarchal culture in the X-Men titles not just as a phallic woman but also although not explicitly stated) as a lesbian.

As a member of the X-Factor team (X-Factor, 1995 to 2003), and therefore coded good, her clothes/costume changes from exhibiting threatening polyphallic qualities to a more feminised, appealing figure. Like many other female heroes, and like much superhero comic art, Mystique is drawn as a coloured nude, expressing a closed, smooth body, that is sexually appealing to males. She becomes, as Jean Baudrillard argues, a phallic effigy, a safe reflection of the masculine rather than an opposition. 

Mystique in leather 
costume-
Mystique #4 (2003)

When Mystique gets her own series (2003-05) her costume consists of a cropped black leather top, pants, gloves, and heavy black boots. Leather is associated with toughness and masculinity as well as erotic connotations suggestive of danger, seduction, and sado-masochism. As Sherrie Inness suggests, wearing masculine clothing is indicative of a woman’s ‘capacity for action and leadership’ (1999:25). Thus leather marks Mystique as active rather than the passivity associated with the feminine. Keeping these associations in mind, leather is implicitly linked to lesbianism, and as such indicate Mystique’s alignment with lesbianism. While she isn't associated with any female lovers (or male for that matter) in the Mystique series, Brian Vaughn (writer) makes quite clear her preference for females by a number of intertextual "queer" references. In Mystique #7, a man in an airport walks past an attractive woman, muttering, ‘Have mercy’ (Vaughn and Ryan, 2003:19). The man happens to be Mystique in a male form. In Mystique #19 she is presented with a pen once used by Oscar Wilde.

Mystique in costume 
similar to her original -
 X-Men #189 (2006)

Mystique keeps her leathered-up look throughout X-Men #172-187, her appearance in X-Men (August 2005) coming after the Mystique series was discontinued (April 2005). In this run of issues Mystique's queerness is still evident albeit twisted. I won't go into the logicalities (or illogicalities) of her strategy, but suffice to say that in X-Men #172 Mystique begins a series of episodes where she tries to seduce Rogue’s boyfriend, Gambit, in an effort to help Gambit and Rogue’s relationship. But she is clearly operating at odds with herself as she remarks to Gambit of having sex with him: ‘The idea repels me as much as it does you’ (Milligan et al, 2005:31). Her sexual preference then is still clearly for women.

In X-Men #189 (2006) she returns to a costume very similar to her original and - apart from a short regress to a costume reminiscent of her X-Factor outfit (with skulls removed) - has remained with it up to the present (October 2010). Though operating in the X-Men and Dark X-Men teams, she is once again clearly a villain. This period is characterised for Mystique by a storyline running through the X-Men titles (the 'Messiah Complex' crossover) involving Destiny and her diaries. Thus what is happening is that her sexuality is subsumed, being made covert as represented by choice of costume.

While there is a storyline where Mystique has a love/hate relationship with Iceman (X-Men and X-Men: Manifest Destiny, 2008-09)  Mystique's actions with Iceman are characterised by the following exchange - 

Iceman:'I let you get close to me once. Touch me. I wish to God I hadn't!' 

Mystique: 'So do I. It's hard to pretend that touch didn't happen. But I'm working on it.' (Carey and Ryan 2009a:5).

Dark X-Men #4 
(2010)

However Mystique's words are ambiguous. They can be attributed either to her not liking Iceman, or her not liking men in general. Of course, it could be both.

In X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5, after a terse exchange where Iceman rejects Mystique's misguided overtures (if they are that), Mystique says, 'You'll love me. I promise you that.' (Carey and Ryan 2009b:7). Again, what it actually means is anybody's guess. To the present there has been no indication of further interest in Iceman by Mystique.

In Dark X-Men #4 (2010) Mystique mentions Irene (Destiny) in trying to make sense of her situation involving Norman Osborn. These references and her costume signal a return to her ambiguous sexual nature - neither explicitly straight or gay. Mystique's relationship with Destiny has always been subtle and unlike characters such as Northstar who famously came out of the closet to reveal his gay sexuality, the same 'coming out' hasn't been afforded Mystique. Neither has she been explicitly positioned as bisexual. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. In fact Mystique's constant changes make her one of the most interesting comic characters in any comic universe. Whether she's gay, bisexual, or straight, doesn't particularly matter unless there's a problem with Mystique being portrayed as such. The question then is - why would that be? If she's bisexual or lesbian, why not make it clear?

For now it seems Mystique is once again an unknown sexual quantity.

Dark X-Men #3 
Cover (2010)

Reference


Carey, M. (w), Ryan, M. (p), and Olazaba, V. (i) (2009a) 'Kill or Cure, Part 4', in X-Men: Manifest Destiny #4 ( Lowe, N. Ed.)(Feb. 2009), New York: Marvel Publishing Inc.


Carey, M. (w), Ryan, M. (p), and Olazaba, V. (i) (2009b) 'Kill or Cure, Part 5',in X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 ( Lowe, N. Ed.)(March. 2009), New York: Marvel Publishing Inc.


Inness, Sherrie. (1999) Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.


Milligan, P. (w), Larroca, S. (p), and Miki, D. & Martinez, A. (i) (2005a) ‘Bizarre Love Triangle: Temptation: Part 2 of 4',  X-Men v1 #172 (Aug. 2005), New York: Marvel Comics.

Silverman, Kaja. (1986) ‘Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse’, in Modleski, T. (ed.) Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.


Vaughn, B. (w), and Ryan, M. (p)(2003)‘Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy, Chapter One of Four’, Mystique v1 #7(Dec. 2003),New York: Marvel Comics.