The Drama of Gifted Children Mutants: Wednesday, Jane, and Laura

How Society Mistreats Gifted Mutant Kids and the Need to Embrace Them

“The Powerpuff Mutants! Wednesday, Eleven/Jane, and Laura/X-23.”

“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.”- Alice Miller “Drama of the Gifted Child”

“To provide a safe haven for mutants to learn, grow, and master their abilities, while fostering peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.”- Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters Mission Statement

“Sugar, spice and everything nice/ These were the ingredients chosen/ To create the perfect little girls/ But Professor Utonium accidentally/ Added an extra ingredient to the concoction/ Chemical X/ Thus, The Powerpuff Girls were born/ Using their ultra-super powers/ Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup/ Have dedicated their lives to fighting crime/ And the forcеs of evil!”- The Powerpuff Girls!

Introduction

This article is both a celebration and an information piece on Gifted Children and Mutant Kids. I watch pop culture to keep up with trends and cultural currents shaping our society and collective consciousness. I find it interesting that there has been a surge in shows and content featuring characters I believe are Gifted Children and Mutants. I also recently finished Alice Miller’s classic book The Drama of the Gifted Child, which examines how children who are both extremely intelligent and highly sensitive (more than the average non-Mutant, at least!) are often misunderstood, marginalized, and at times abused by society. In this piece, I will identify how the Gifted Mutants Wednesday Addams, Eleven/Jane from Stranger Things, and Laura/X-23 from the Marvel Universe prove this point.

Wednesday Addams

Wednesday is a Witch (a Sacred Feminine woman of great power, talents, and abilities) and the daughter of Gomez and Moritica Addams. She is extremely smart with an equally disagreeable attitude to go along with it. To be honest, I was initially put off by her standoffish attitude, disagreeableness, and aggressive behavior. Over time, after doing more research on the show and the character to understand why it was so popular, I learned that Wednesday is meant to embody the collective rage of Gifted Children and Mutants who have been abused and oppressed by society for generations.

A big part of Season 1 of Wednesday highlights Wednesday’s relationship with her ancestor Goody Addams. Goody was a Witch who was oppressed and abused by the Tryanncial Father religious zealots of her time. Goody stood up for the other marginalized and oppressed groups of her time, such as the Native Americans and other Witches (Goody belonged to both groups.) Wednesday has her consciousness projected into the past, where she can experience and see both the bravery of Goody and the awful oppression of Witches and Mutants.

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I also realized after watching the show and doing more research on Wednesday that she is extremely sensitive. A big part of her angry, unapproachable persona is (in my opinion) a fear of getting close and being hurt. Wednesday as a Witch is most likely a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), like Jean Grey in the X-Men series. The clip posted below recounts Wednesday’s childhood Emotional Damage after losing her beloved pet scorpion to bullies who hated and feared Gifted Children and Mutants such as herself. Upon further research, I discovered that her pet scorpion also represents that Wednesday is a Scorpio. I am not the most knowledgeable about Astrology, but apparently Scorpio is the perfect sign for Wednesday…

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On Wednesday, we see how ignorance of Gifted Children, Mutants, and “Witches” is often hated due to ignorance based on fear. Even Master Yoda taught that fear is a path to the Dark Side. Societies throughout human history have abused and oppressed Gifted Mutants such as Wednesday due to their fear based on ignorance. Wednesday may come across as aggressive, rude, and disagreeable to an extreme degree. However, this is due not just to her being an HSP Mutant, but to her having a huge heart of Agape Love for fellow Mutants, Gifted Children, and Outcasts herself (like her ancestor, Goody Addams). Her anger and rage are channeled by Wednesday, making her both a protector and a leader for her fellow Gifted Youngsters and Witches. In this way, she is also similar to some of my favorite Anime characters Squall Leonheart and Hiei. Both characters are very rude, aggressive, and guarded…yet beneath their Dark exteriors are hearts full of Agape Love and Highly Sensitive Souls. That is probably why Nobody Liked Paul neither….

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Jane/Eleven

I have already written a couple of other pieces on Jane and on the Netflix hit show Stranger Things, which I will link here and here. For this part, I want to highlight how Jane was simply called Eleven as a child (just as Laura is called X-23.) This highlights the dehumanization of Gifted Children Mutants, who are stripped of their humanity and are only seen for their powers, talents, and gifts. However, Tyrannical Father archetype governments often value only these aspects of Gifted Mutant Kids, such as Jane, as they seek to benefit from these powers for their own selfish ends. We see this perfectly in the Tyrannical Father character in Stranger Things of Papa.

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Alice Miller, in Drama of the Gifted Child, writes at length about how Gifted Children are both marginalized and isolated by society; they are sought after by the very societies that seek to use the Gifts and Talents of Mutants as tools of power and rule. In the families of Gifted Children, they are often both feared and admired by their close ones for their gifts, extreme intelligence, and HSP natures. Sadly, many Gifted Children and Mutants are only valued and acknowledged for their talents, while who they are as people is often overlooked or neglected entirely. Once again, it is very revealing that both Jane and Laura are referred to simply as numbers and code words rather than by their human names. This shows how the prejudice and fear towards Gifted Children Mutants is almost always met with attempts to control them, but never love them with Agape Love.

The sad truth is that societies and tyrannical father governments that raise Gifted Children with hate and fear only create the very “monsters” they sought to avoid. We see this in the character of One/Vecna in Stranger Things. Vecna was born Henry Creel, a Gifted Child Mutant who was an HSP with great powers and talents. Sadly, Henry’s isolation and hatred towards society led him down a sinister and truly dark path, which pushed him to embrace being a monster and a Mutant who used his gifts to destroy the society that hated him so much. This is similar to Magneto in the X-Men series, who was a Gifted Mutant Child who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust. This pushed Magneto to want to destroy Tyrannical Father governments, who sought to harm and abuse Mutants and Gifted Children such as himself. Unfortunately, society still seems to treat Gifted Mutant Children with disdain, fear, and hate. A big part of Mutant Kingdom is to dispel this ignorance and hatred for Mutants, but I will get to that more in the Conclusion section of this article.

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Laura/X-23

Laura was like Jane and was raised in a lab in her childhood. Similar to Jane, she was stripped of her humanity, referred to as a number and code word (X-23), and was a victim of Tyrannical Father governments who sought to control her power for their own selfish motives and ambitions. Laura highlights the same tendency of societies that treat mutants with ignorance and oppression and abuse on the most horrendous scale. Alice Miller highlights this when she says;

“Child abuse is still sanctioned — indeed, held in high regard — in our society as long as it is defined as child-rearing.”

It is truly crazy how Papa and the Government, who experimented on Laura, all truly believed (or at least tried to convince themselves they did) that they were helping Gifted Children like Jane and Laura reach their full potentials and benefit the world through their gifts. Talk about delusion and gaslighting to the extreme!

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The main point that I hope has been made clear by now is this: ignorance is the root cause of the hatred, stigma, and abuse of Gifted Children Mutants. The sad thing is that this attitude only leads to these Special and Gifted Children becoming monsters who hate the society that raised them, feeling isolated, hated, and threatened. This is a common Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Drama we see in the lives of the Gifted Children Mutants of Wednesday, Jane, and Laura. This is why I felt called to make Mutant Kingdom. Like Professor Charles Xavier of the X-Men, I also believe knowledge, understanding, and compassion can lead us closer to a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth for everyone. Including Mutants, who are real-life superpowers…if only we understood them better!

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Conclusion

I want to first share how I myself am a Gifted Child who was raised feeling hatred, fear, and prejudice for my gifts and qualities that my family and larger society still do not understand. In many ways, I do feel isolated and marginalized by those around me to this day, but I have learned to accept the world as it is. This being said, I do believe culture and the collective human consciousness are shifting. I have to thank the West LA community for opening my eyes to a world that could accept Gifted Children Mutants, and bring us to a world where my Vision for Mutant Kingdom could actually be possible!

I do want to clarify that my Vision for Mutant Kingdom is not to use the gifts, powers, and talents of Gifted Children Mutants as a means for my agenda, or any other special gift. I truly believe that if Gifted Children Mutants feel free in Agape to embrace and own their powers, gifts, and their inherent specialness, it is the best (and perhaps only) path toward becoming real-life superheroes! When society raises Gifted Children Mutants (and kids in general) with Agape Love and acceptance for who they truly are, they will naturally desire to give back to and benefit the world around them with their superpowers and gifts. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth for Mutants truly is. The Mutant Kingdom, where all children are raised, loved, and accepted for who they truly are. In this way, we can fill the world with superheroes such as Wednesday, Jane, and Laura! Amen. Peace and Rejoice Always!

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