Popular culture and societal change
It is neither a bird nor a plane, it’s Jon Clark, son and successor of the famous Superman. The new illustration portrays Clark and his new boyfriend, the hacker Jay Nakamura – the last name already indicates that the chosen one has the advantage of not being a white Westerner, which counts additional points in the politically correct system. We are currently experiencing one of the strongest pushes that modern society has ever seen in the direction of breaking gender taboos. Said that, this is a very delicate subject in which has to be analyzed and broke down into many different layers and perspectives.
In order to understand why this recent push is happening, it is valid to look at how the powerful women’s rights movement took flight since late 1960’s till basically today. Right after the first contraceptive measures were created, it gave autonomy of controlling birth to humanity. That was a huge milestone, it gave women the power of being and feeling free for the first time ever. So, whenever the movement was gaining stronger support, it had to push fiercely, it had to be extreme and literally overflow the cup of man’s ideals in society. And that is precisely what is happening nowadays, the same push seen into the women’s rights movement is happening to the gender equality movement, it just has a different name, a different vehicle as most of the campaigns are performed online now and most important it has a different cause.
It was Tom Taylor, the Australian screenwriter who announced Superman’s son new sexuality in a way that brought up so many repercussions, he left behind the Black Superman that will be filmed with a script by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is best known for books that take a radical approach to the racial issue.
The new Superman, son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, also has a redesigned outfit, with even more polished muscles and questions about his true role as a superhero, but obviously what calls attention is your sexual orientation. Those who don’t like it, let them not buy it, not access it, not see it. This is the easiest answer that can be given to those who react negatively to the changes of which a bi-sexual Superman is one of the most recent results.
Generation Z will be exposed to an unmeasurable number of discussions and polemical subjects across their lives. We as humans are in a very interesting turning point for the race; we are more connected to the internet them ever, technology fast-placidly connects people without the need of meeting in person ever and that is a very interesting, dangerous and futuristic milestone. The crypto universe is stretching realities with it so called “metaverse,” where you can be a different person—literally overstretch reality—and that is extremely abstract and conceptual but it is certainly going to happen much quicker than we think! So, hang tight because this is not the first time, we see important pop culture figures being used to express ideals of a cause important to society, and it certainly won’t be the last.