The Claremont Run is known for being highly sexual in nature, but the most prominent specific sexual symbol within it is that of BDSM, defined as a variety of practices involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and others. 1/9 #xmen #bdsm

The obvious examples here are the Hellfire Club and Goblin Queen, but the thread is more pervasive, with figures like Zaladane, Selene, Dracula, Loki, and Dark Phoenix all mingling violent domination/humiliation with sexual symbolism to a degree that transcends comics norms. 2/9

Additionally, Storm’s costume has been described by scholars such as Richard Reynolds as the most “fetishistic" of any Marvel or DC character. This might be accidental, though, as it was based on a “disco diva” design by Cockrum, so there's a different context. 3/9 @MutantElement

We do have precedent here. Wonder Woman’s creator (William Marston) has openly acknowledged his deliberate incorporation of BDSM symbols into that character, and several academic texts as well as one (apparently bad) movie have been created on the subject. 4/9 #wonderwoman

There’s also the complication of CCA era comics, which frequently use things like being tied up or captured as ways to present relatively non-violent conflict. Thus applying a sexual interpretation to something like that can be iffy at times. 5/9

Nonetheless, Claremont clearly has a pattern of applying symbols of sexuality (nudity, symbolic arousal) to scenes involving humiliation, dominance, bondage or discipline (though of course sexualized imagery is a trade of most all comics illustrators). 6/9

What makes Claremont’s use of BDSM unique, is the extent to which dominance and humiliation define the author’s relationship to his characters, weaving their way into everything from the advancement of the plot to even the narrative captions at times. 7/9

How that style of writing intersects with BDSM symbols is complicated, as is the analysis of these symbols at all, for fear of moralizing, kink-shaming, or any other overstep of my areas of expertise. 8/9

After struggling a lot with this thread, I’m landing on the following: there is clearly a recurrent pattern of BDSM symbolism in C’s run, and that sexual symbolism might be very important to the run’s success, appealing to individual or collective sexual subconsciousness. 9/9