Content Warning for: gore/violence, Naruto spoilers
As we know by now, gender-related issues (especially misogyny) affect the entire world, not just our society, and with that it is important to note that there are of course going to be many similarities in how toxic masculinity, for example, manifests itself in multiple cultures. In watching one of my favorite shows (Naruto: Shippūden), I have noticed several cultural similarities between misogyny in Japan and the United States.
Today I am going to focus on one of my favorite characters from the show, a young man named Uchiha Itachi. The reason I choose to focus on him is because he grew up in an environment that (to me) screams patriarchal ideals and put pressure on him to uphold "traditional" masculine roles. The Uchiha clan makes up the police force of Itachi's village, and his father is the chief. He was born into an elite clan known for its exceptional fighting skills and overall power, and he himself was considered among the most gifted of the members in his lifetime.
Throughout the show, it is referenced (sometimes explicitly, sometimes subtlely) that Itachi does not understand why gender-based assumptions are placed on him, and that he wishes to uphold his own ideals as a persxn rather than as "a man". Many expectations are placed on him, like that he is supposed to contribute to "protecting" his family (what men are supposed to do; what boys are raised to do). Since being a good fighter is seen as more manly/more acceptable for males, and Itachi is blessed with skills to the level that he is referred to constantly as either a "genius" or a "prodigy", generally masculine characteristics are often either assumed of him or otherwise expected from him, despite his personal distance from such notions. It appeared to me from throughout the entire show that Itachi never understood gender roles/expectations; he just saw people as people.
It was imposed upon him from the time he was a child that he, a male, must protect his family through use of physical force, so he dedicated his life to honing his fighting skills in order to follow the path he was allowed to take. This was in order to both keep his loved ones safe and do his due diligence as the police chief's eldest son. Truth be told, he never wanted to fight in the first place, but the rigidity of the system ruled by toxic masculinity surrounding him left him with no choice.
By the time he was 13, he had learned a great deal about the world and about love, and his love had grown to be shared with his entire village, rather than just his family. As he grew, however, his family planned to stage a (what would definitely be violent) coup d'etat in order to gain power in their village. Because his father was leading this "revolution", Itachi was expected to serve as his right-hand man, because that was his duty as a son and as a man of the Uchiha clan. Caught between his village and his family, he was forced to make a choice as to which side of the carnage he would be on. Manipulated by these gender norms (which, to me, seem reminiscent of male gender norms I've seen my whole life in the U.S.), his options were to either help commit violence on a mass scale against an innocent village with whom he shared his heart, or turn on his own family and shed their blood instead. Essentially, it was a choice between turning on his family or help to start a war which would result in far more casualties (of people who were innocent as opposed to the Uchiha, who were seeking blood to gain power).
The fact that masculinity put him in this place to begin with, that any of this was expected of him, that masculinity's desire for power (especially through physical violence) was responsible for so much bloodshed is something that rings universal to me. Though this is fictional and though this is a Japanese show, this reads to me as a global issue. The template is toxic masculinity and the ink used to fill that template in is the blood, sweat, and tears of people masculinity claims as its victims.
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