image via GStyleMag
The X-Men series of films and comics is set around the central theme that the X-Men are striving for humanity to accept them as human. The first film struggles with X-Men registration whilst the most recent film portrays them fighting against extinction. Fortunately it's not a question that needs answering in today's world.
But of course, it already has. And incredibly according to the US Government, X-Men are "inhuman creatures", lacking "human qualities".
image via TheEaglesNest
"Land of the free, home of the human. Everyone else GTFO."
In the late 1990s, a pair of trade lawyers, Sherry Singer and Indie Singh, noticed an interesting loophole in the laws regarding US tariffs on imports. While "dolls" were taxed at 12%, generic "toys" were taxed at a lesser rate of 6.8%. With dollar signs in their eyes, the two lawyers (presumably never having read about the actual X-men story) set out to declare the X-men dolls being imported as "toys" rather than "dolls".
In order to do so, they had to prove that the X-men toys being brought into the country did not have human qualities.
image via TheMashable
"We'll start with these inhuman abs."
The case bounced around in trade courts for several years with differing opinions. One time they decided they were human, one time they decided they weren't, one time they decided that Steel Mutants and the Silver Samurai were human but the rest weren't because fuck them?
This went on until it finally reached the United States Court of International Trade where it was decided that mutants lacked human qualities, and could be taxed as toys rather than dolls, exemplifying the fact that humanity is more terrible than you think.
image via AllstateSign
The real-life villain of the X-men
But hey, at the same time, they also declared Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and numerous other superheroes to be non-human as well. Yay for equality!
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