Alone amidst X-men: Rogue, sexuality, and mental illness

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine the ways in which the character of Rogue has been defined by her sexuality and mind-body relationship; by her psychological struggle to accept that she is unable to express or explore her sexuality without harm to others, and the consequences of that expression. Her inability to touch another person without absorbing their memories and persona is reflected in a constant narrative focus on frustrated sexuality. I examine post-Freudian critique of hysteria as a diagnosis used to stigmatise and control women who do not conform to the passive sexual and social roles expected of them. Rogue’s central struggle is one for control- of her deviant mutant body, of her sexuality and of her mind-body relationship. She can be seen as a hysteric through Foucault’s proposition that hysteria exists as a label for female sexual agency; created to control that agency through the structures of patriarchal, medical power. Rogue illustrates a dichotomy between different approaches to the treatment of mental health and its relationship to female sexuality: that of passive acquiescence to paternalistic medical structures; and that of active self-care, self-knowledge and self-acceptance.