Day 194: Spider-Man: Brand New Day and How I Unmasked

To me, this was a queer film. Peter is going through these changes and he wants to suppress them, even as it proves harmful to himselfHe limits himself, drowns this other part of his identity and does what he thinks is expected of him. Eliminate this poisonous part of yourself, that at first seems bad and evil, when it’s truly just a scare at first. It’s a change, a bad one at that to him. His natural thought process is block it off and bam, all good. It is what society has taught him, that these “scary” new things must be corrected.

Then, Peter needs it. He is injured, desperate and forced to make a choice. It’s sink or swim, choose to continue drowning this part of yourself or embrace it and begin living your life as your true self. He chooses to be proud, and he overcomes hurdles of greatness. Spider-Man embraces his changes, protects another special person like him and emerges from the darkness prideful. Frank, my stand in for a parental figure who initially reacts badly to their child’s coming out, shoots him and he regrets his actions.

It’s a story of acceptance, changing and loving these new parts of you.

People say anyone can wear the mask, I decided to take mine off for a moment

To tell you the truth, it was simple in the end. Aunt May spoke to Jean about being special, so special that people would do horrible, horrible things to you. I am special, and so I listened. And she said that I was beautiful, that we are beautiful and that is something important to me. I cried and I held onto that, the whole ride home and because of this film I was able to show my sisters my beauty for the first time. Her words gave me the strength to go through with it. I just needed some help from your friendly neighbor Spider-Aunt.

So, to anyone reading this, facing these issues of hiding your true self, your time will come too. Our beauty is universal and I urge you to hold onto the beauty within you. Please. We all have our first brand new day, I hope yours can come soon. Take this film and understand that we cannot do this alone. We’re all our own Spider people, and we all need our own Neds, MJs and Aunt Mays.