I’ve become
fascinated with the world of @setepenre-set‘s “Temptress” and “Temptress
(Roxanne)”, specifically the implications of the events of the
story. Like, what kind of society authorizes a government agency to
treat someone like Roxanne this way?Interesting! One point I’d argue …
oooh you guys both bring up such interesting points! I can tell you some of the background stuff I had in mind when I was writing Temptress. (and which I’ve been thinking of possibly including in some other fic.)
People with superpowers–I’ve been calling them ‘Metahumans’–have historically been treated with suspicion and fear and prejudice by non-powered members of society, and getting civil rights for Metahumans has been a big societal issue for quite some time.
Metahumans are classified as ‘threats to society’–level three is the lowest, the ‘low threat’ category, level two is ‘moderate threat’, and level one is ‘severe threat’. Your category level depends on your power type, how strong your powers are, and your social/criminal history.
In the Temptress universe, Megamind, even as a hero, is a Level Two threat–even though he doesn’t actually have a ‘superpower’, his non-human appearance, extremely high intelligence, and criminal history led them to categorize him that way. Minion, who is also visibly non-human, is a Level Three, the ‘low threat’ category. Megamind consciously tried to keep Minion’s threat level low by claiming Minion was always just following his orders, that the planning of any crimes or destructive events had always been Megamind’s alone, etc.
Wayne should obviously be a Level One, since his powers are so strong, but his squeaky-clean record, the fact that he started working as Metro City’s Defender as a teenager, and some very heavy-handed bribery on the part of the Scott family ensured he’s only classified as a Level Three.
The bureaucracy in charge of the classification of Metahumans is a pretty large one, and the lab that took Roxanne is one of the worst offshoots–technically a lot of what went on in that lab was actually illegal, but people are paranoid enough about high-powered Metahumans that a fair portion of society is willing to look the other way as regards human rights violations concerning Metahumans.
Due to society’s widespread negative treatment of Metahumans, and the fact that the government classifies them automatically as ‘threats to society’, quite a lot of Metahumans become villains or supervillains. Which is why superheroes and city Defenders are such a big thing.
Superheroes and Defenders are treated a bit like famous athletes who are also people of color–hero worship and praise, but also that undercurrent of prejudice. And of course other prejudices–racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, classism, etc.–intersect with the prejudice against Metahumans.
Wayne passes for an upper class white human male, so Metro Man escapes much of the other prejudices, while Megamind has to deal with xenophobia and classism, and Roxanne gets hit with a massive amount of misogyny.
The fact that her powers work a bit like mind control and are largely sexual attraction based makes the intersection of misogyny and anti-metahuman prejudice especially bad–her ‘non-human-ness’ is inextricably linked to her ‘incorrect’ performance of what misogyny deems ‘appropriate’ femininity–she is, to them, basically the personification of what they’d call a Bad Woman: a (bisexual) woman who uses her Supernatural Sexual Wiles to lure men (and even women!) away from the Path of Righteousness.
This puts her in an especially vulnerable position, as regards the way the lab treats her–as I said, that particular branch is one of the worst, and they knew that they could get away with treating her especially badly–she was a teenage girl whose family was neither wealthy nor powerful, who had a reputation for being ‘strange’ and ‘antisocial’, and who had very strong, very ‘scary’ / ‘morally questionable’ powers.
Society is slowly improving in its treatment of Metahumans; Metro City is really at the forefront of this social change. Metro Man was their poster child for a Perfect Metahuman, which helped a bit–and then Megamind became a full Defender and moved into the spotlight–Megamind, who is visibly non-human, and who has a criminal record, but who the people of Metro City were forced to accept, as he was the only one who had a chance against the Temptress’ powers.
And as Megamind spent more time in the spotlight, the people of Metro City got to know him better, and came to accept him more–so the stage was set for the Temptress to reform. The city’s acceptance of Megamind’s rehabilitation made its acceptance of Roxanne possible.
In the Code: Safeword universe, Megamind tells Roxanne that her plan to reform him is going to be a very big deal, not just to Metro City, but everywhere.
In the Temptress universe, Roxanne’s reformation from supervillain to superhero is every bit as big a deal.
setepenre-set 