Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 41 – Mutant Dating and Popularity (Patreon)

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Dear Ms. Jessica,

1. What is the dating scene like for mutants? (or) Is it difficult for mutants to find relationships?

2. Is there a 'mort popular' type of mutant? Has the media or general consensus amongst people led to a particular type of mutant (like multi-limb, modular, animal-like, etc.) being more popular than others?

Well the dating scene for mutants is a lot like the dating scene for humans. There are specialized mutant dating apps, and dating services, and speed dating events if you really want to find another mutant as your partner, but really there’s nothing stopping a mutant from loving a non-mutant or vice versa. Sure, you might encounter people with prejudices against mutant kind but you can find people with prejudices against anything. That’s just sort of the risk of the dating game. So no, I wouldn’t say it’s difficult for mutants to find relationships. It’s just like anything else.

As far as popularity goes, the media likes to highlight mutants with multiple limbs. I have them myself, and if you’d trust the media you’d think it’s the most common type of mutation, but it’s not. The main reason behind this is that multiple limbs are, well, understandable. Humans have two legs and two arms. The idea of a human with more legs and more arms is pretty easy to wrap your head around. You don’t really need to re-think how the body works or change your clothing or living situation all that much. It’s a type of mutation that is recognizably mutant, while still being comfortable enough for mainstream audiences to digest. In that way, multi-limbs has become sort of the iconic mutation of the media.

That’s why you get people like E.T. Girlfriend going on talk shows and being highlighted as “EXTREME MUTATIONS!” Yes, while she may be a level 4 mutant, it wouldn’t be fair to call her more extreme, scientifically, than any other level 4 mutant, or really any other mutant in general. We all mutate by the same biological process. While yes, there are things about her body that science doesn’t quite understand, the only thing that makes her more “extreme” is that her body feels weirder to non-mutated people. However, there’s fundamentally not much of a difference between her, me, you, or any other “poster child” mutant with multiple limbs. We are all just people.

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com