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Information
Gender: Cisgender female
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality: African-American; African descent; American
Profession: Informal nurse/chores for the Trench Rats
Brief Profile
She was a rat, probably a darker brown color though the specifics are uncertain.
Mam Rat was a character from an early version of the Trench Rats storyline, dating roughly to the late 1980s/early 1990s. She never appeared in any written works, but was briefly mentioned in the earliest known extant written version of the story, so she was still considered canon circa 1990. She was never given an official name, only her nickname.
At the time of Mam's creation, I knew very little about Nazi Germany, and the series had a rather more slapstick/comedic tone; I had likely heard of the Holocaust yet was largely ignorant of the details (it was not taught about in early school, I remember watching a TV movie about it only later, in a high school history class), and so this did not play a role in the earliest versions of the series. Mam began to be relegated to the background shortly after when the series began to take a more serious tone, and had disappeared completely by the time of the 2002 reboot. By then she no longer fit into the storyline, so I now consider her a "retired" character.
Another detail which helps roughly estimate Mam's creation date is the fact that her existence is so highly problematic. Mam was loosely inspired by (though not based on) the character of Mammy (portrayed by Hattie McDaniel) from Gone With The Wind; the class was made to watch this film twice when I was in elementary school, and there was only one teacher I had for two years--Miss Jellison, in 4th and 5th grades--so Mam's creation date was after 1986-8. I don't know what prompted me to create a character in the 1930s/40s inspired by a Civil War/Reconstruction-era character; all I can think of is I admired Mammy's caring nature (and sass) and felt it applied to a female servant-type character among the Trench Rats. As you can see, there's an unintentional yet distinct racist aspect to this--why must a servant-type character be Black, or why must a Black character be a servant? I suffered various issues with racial stereotypes as the then-existing Trench Rat characters who I know were intended to be Black, Red Rat and Purple Rat, were equally problematic: Purple was a sullen troublemaker while Red spoke with what, in other writing of mine, I would have called a "Jive" accent. They were also rather marginal characters who were never significantly developed. None of this was done out of any sense of malice or superiority; rather, it was mostly ignorance and lack of exposure to Black culture and experience, something that's still an issue for me. (I deal with this now by usually avoiding writing Black characters.) There's an additional possible sexist element--why must the servant be a woman?--though, given the time period, this makes more sense. (Sexism is HIGHLY rampant in the current story.)
I pictured Mam as being stout and bosomy, likely having darker brown fur (most of the Black, Roma/Sinti, and Jewish characters in the current story have tan/brown fur--this is intentional, take note of the black-and-tan Adelina lamenting that she resembles her (Jewish) mother and not her fawn-and-tan (Aryan) father), and wearing a long dress, apron, and kerchief on her head--much like Mammy. Frankly, I think I find that more racist than her being a servant. Were her character to still exist today, I would give her a definite revamp, though I'm unsure how, as it was kind of iffy as to whether Mam was actually a Trench Rat herself--making her military--or if she was simply some sort of auxiliary. The Trench Rats are a racially integrated battalion, though the Rats of European descent vastly outnumber the rest; but female members have always been rather sketchy. For a time even Anna Julian and Lyndsey Skye were not quite considered Trench Rats, though now, canonically they are. In the original existing text of The Trench Rats, it's implied that Mam is an official Trench Rat (she's described as "somewhat like a nursemaid to the refugees' children"), though later this is refuted by Turquoise: "...We had a female Trench Rat [Anna Julian]... And I don't mean like Mam either. She was just like us--only more like Burgundy. She never did any real fighting but was more into Burgundy's line of work." So I have to take that to mean that Mam wasn't technically a Trench Rat, which means she could have even been a civilian. That would leave more room for revamping her character, but she was rather too stereotypical for my comfort. There's also the fact that certain other characters have assumed some of Mam's roles. Primary among them would most likely be Helena Urbach, who temporarily serves in a similar role while taking refuge in Trench Rat Headquarters.
Mam was a well-intentioned character but no longer fits--I have no reason for an American civilian to be stationed in HQ, especially given the Rats' rather secretive nature regarding such--and I just think it's in the story's best interests, especially given the theme, to minimize racial stereotypes as much as possible. Mam as she existed back then is not a character I could write convincingly or inoffensively.
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