#summerfrost

commission 🎍 art by Jiecai

Happy New Year to the Scemma nation!

I comissioned this art on the impression of reading New X-Men. I intend it to be both grotesque and heartwarming.

So, am I the only one who interprets the beginning of Emma and Scott’s relationship (aka the “cheating”) as an allegory or example of the SA that people with mental health issues have historically experienced at the hands of their doctors?

And to be clear, I’m NOT saying that all doctors do or did this, but it is something that has unfortunately happened, is probably still happening somewhere in the world, and has a disturbingly high chance of continuing to happen in the future.

With that said, let me explain why my brain interprets their “relationship” this way.

We have to remember that Scott was in an extremely fragile mental state at the time. He was not mentally well or stable after everything that happened with Apocalypse. That’s why he turns to Emma for help, making her essentially his therapist/psychologist (call it whatever you want). At that point, they become doctor and patient.

So far, fine. But this is where it starts feeling like an allegory for SA to me, because Emma begins taking advantage of Scott to the point where she literally “transforms” into Jean in order to make it easier for Scott to mentally sleep with her (that’s where that infamous panel comes from the one where Jean finds Scott in bed with “another” version of herself that was actually Emma).

And once again: Scott was NOT in his right mind. He was a man actively seeking psychological help, so any consent involved was questionable at best. Not to mention how horrifying the power dynamic and ethical implications are when a doctor sleeps with their CURRENT patient.

And I especially want to emphasize the power imbalance here, because Emma held all the power in that situation. She was fully aware and conscious of what was happening, to the point that she even enjoyed Jean catching them.

I know a lot of people are going to deny this, dismiss it, or insult me over it, either because they like the ship or because they like Emma, but honestly, I don’t care. I just needed to get this thought out of my head because it wouldn’t leave me alone. Besides, I think it would be good if people started realizing that X-Men comics contain quite a few situations similar to this one, but they’re usually ignored or reduced to “ship drama” jokes instead.

Emma and Scott fanfic wip, plus a bunch of others under my profile for a different series