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pouralaura · 4 days ago

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your majima gender post is making me crazy. do you think it's unreasonable to say that majima attaches himself to men that are nice to women/take care of them, like saejima w yasuko and kiryu w haruka? makoto and lee too

hello anon thank u for this ask that i am definitely going to turn into a whole essay <3 im insane btw and this is going to be extremely long and get offtopic at times so be warned (the gender post in question btw, i'll be building on ideas from it)

majima ABSOLUTELY attaches himself to men who have established themselves as being respectful towards and protective of women, and saejima, kiryu and lee are really good examples as you've noted (we can include katsuya here as well), though kiryu didn't have haruka yet by the time majima attached himself to him. but a not insignificant chunk of majima everywhere revolves around majima gauging kiryu's attitude towards women (i'm thinking of the dvd shop, poledancing and goromi substories) so we can say it's something majima *specifically* places value in when deciding who to associate himself with.

on that note, i wanted to point out that this is especially prominent in yakuza 0 with lee and why it matters

it's sagawa who first puts forward the idea that it's easier to kill someone who's going around hurting women, but he knows majima well enough by now, and majima absolutely sees it that way.

when majima talks to one of the girls that work for lee, he finds out everything sagawa told him was bullshit

then he convinces himself it doesn't matter -- but note that he feels the *need* to convince himself. he's actively working against his own moral compass here, and talking himself into going through with killing him, BECAUSE he's feeling hesitation. this to me is highlighted even further when he actually goes to hogushi kaikan to kill him

he literally has to give himself a pep talk and again, convince himself this is worth it, he has no reason to hesitate, he *has* to do this. and EVEN after that. look at what he tells lee just before their fight

he's STILL trying to justify this somehow, he's clinging to whatever possibility there is of this guy not being a saint so he can feel justified in killing him. and none of this, NONE of this is a coincidence -- it's not a coincidence that majima's hesitation around killing someone is brought about because of their tendency to help vulnerable women, it's not a coincidence that his idea of "justifying" this to himself involves this guy "roping phone girls into doing *weird* research" for him (taking advantage of women), and it's not a coincidence that his mark is initially presented as a man and it later turns out to be a woman. which! even THEN majima is ready to kill her until the Last moment, even after saving her from a bunch of guys that tried to kidnap her, even after he watched her be dragged out of hogushi haikan kicking and screaming and asking for help. more on this later*

but here's why i don't think it was arbitrary. if sagawa had said, "this guy, makimura makoto, your mark, is an ex chinese mafia hitman and he's killed countless people, he's a terrible person" that wouldn't have... resonated with majima at all. or any yakuza for that matter. why? because taking advantage of women is worse than killing people? well, it probably IS to these people. at least to those of them that actually care about honor and have principles. it's "dishonorable" to take advantage of women, and honor is a BIG deal for yakuza. but the fact that the yakuza is a deeply patriarchal organization is not irrelevant here. "honor" is directly tied to agency. your capacity to act honorably depends entirely on your capacity to act freely. because it's about what you CHOOSE to do. this is why "acting honorably" is synonymous with "being a man". women don't even enter the equation here.

and if sagawa had said that, it would not have fazed majima. because it's a man's world -- because men killing each other, hurting each other, fucking each other over, taking what they own by force, are all done as part of a rivalry, a competition, a game they are willing and EQUAL players in. and this means, to them, that they are all consenting players whether they like it or not. as long as they are able to act freely, as long as they have agency. "honor" is something afforded to "players" in this game. women are exempt from the burden of having to act honorably, but only because they are denied agency. in turn, any harm done to them reflects badly on men, but men hurting each other is seen as just business as usual.

so as far as majima understands it, men have *agency* in this world -- their world. and majima's whole worldview is fundamentally misogynistic in the sense that it doesn't acknowledge women as having real agency. makoto is THE best example of this. all those times majima and lee conspired about what to do for her, about her, in her name, to protect her, to get her somewhere, etc. without once asking her what SHE wants to do and HOW she wants to do it is the best example of this. and it's truly unrelenting. like there are Moments where he respects her. but ultimately majima never learns. until the LAST MOMENT. WHERE HE LITERALLY. PICKS OUT A HUSBAND FOR HER. MY GOD. kiryu and sera are the only people in that game that treat makoto like a real human being with agency. lee and majima, they see girls as precious things to protect, but "things" regardless -- it's why majima still considered killing her after all that. a thing is a thing, it's yours (or someone else's) to decide what to do with. he is completely and utterly blind to her humanity, the fact that she has an internal experience of the world, has her own wants and needs and preferences, and that it Matters. more on this later, too*

but the thing is, majima's worldview being misogynistic is like... it's a matter of just accepting things at face value. majima doesn't negotiate with facts. he doesn't negotiate with reality. he doesn't try to change it or argue with it unless he has incredibly specific personal motivation to do so, and it's always on an individual level. so when majima, a person living in this world, looks around himself and tries to *understand* the world so he can survive in it, and sees that women are afforded less privilege and agency by the power structures that shape human society, he doesn't hesitate to accept this state of affairs. trying to fight it on a structural level would only make *his* life harder, and he doesn't believe in *causes*. so he can only help women on the individual level. but again, he sees that as something akin to charity.

if you asked him, he'd say it doesn't take a genius to figure out women have it harder in this life -- but note how this is admitting that it's less desirable to BE a woman. and this is where we get to the real crux of the issue: being a woman is majima's absolute worst nightmare. because to him, it's synonymous with being denied agency. and majima has PERSONALLY suffered from this way, way too much. AND he has been "othered" by men his whole life. his relative lack of social power compared to men, his inability to benefit from his status as a "man" in society due to him not being fully recognized as such for one reason or another (as i've talked about in the previous post) IS the reason for this anxiety. majima is disproportionately afraid of "being a woman" BECAUSE he's been treated similarly BY men. so he has to work twice as hard to retain his foothold in "manhood" -- a status that affords him agency. (again, i highly recommend this article)

the fact that makoto, a character that parallels majima 1:1 on everything, is a woman is also not a coincidence. majima looks at her and sees a version of himself that:

has lost sight in *both* eyes

is unable to repress her fear and betray herself like he has learned to do (aka ruled by her emotions)

is physically not strong and lacks the technique/skill to fight and DEFEND herself

is denied agency by society at large

is unable to be completely self-reliant due to these factors

in other words, majima's very own worst nightmare. these are literally majima's checklist of, like, his own scariest vulnerabilities according to him. makoto represents everything he's afraid of. my friend @rumbleredee articulated it beautifully once: he doesn't want to be anything like the men who hurt makoto but he also doesn't want to be anything like makoto. at the same time, makoto is both everything majima has ever wished he could be and everything he is terrified of being. that is to say: himself. makoto is a version of majima that he has done and is willing to do Anything to avoid becoming, and she's real, right there, in the flesh.

and the fact that she's a woman is! VERY! interesting!

*now, to address those previous points. majima is blind to makoto's pain because he has to be, because he has learned to be, and it's not just makoto. it's all women. but he cannot completely close his heart off to them either. but why? WHY even try? it's because. and i realize this is fully insanity territory im entering here but. it's because it disgusts him. makoto is hard to Look At because she is a mirror. and the things about majima that cause him to relate to women so strongly -- those things have always been a disadvantage for majima in his life. because majima *also* feels unsafe around men. and majima *also* wants protection. majima also has to work harder to gain their respect. majima is also objectified. majima is also Never Going To Be One Of Them. majima is also terrified of being at their mercy.

so he sees himself in makoto. he sees himself in women. and the part of majima that relates to them has been shown exactly ZERO amount of compassion or understanding. definitely not growing up, not by society at large, and MOST CERTAINLY not by himself. i touched on this in this post before, but majima loathes fear, *and* men who let it rule them. but this is projection. it's because he's had to repress his own so strongly. i also have my suspicions that his obsession with Really Big Men has to do with his insecurities about being scrawny and physically weak ("you are what i've always wished i could be") but that's for another post. but my point is, majima is ashamed of these things about himself. he is not kind to himself about them. he thinks that if there's trauma he can't move on from, trauma from being abused by men, it's a skill issue.

ok. i'm bringing out the big guns for this post. here's the single most impactful piece of writing i've ever read about majima, from expert in seduction by dictionarywrites (which happens to be my favorite yakuza fic)

it's about permission. it's about giving himself permission to be these things, to Want to be these things. to be worth protecting and treating kindly. it's about shame. and as long as he cannot do that, he also cannot look at makoto too long or too hard, cannot bear her pain, cannot empathize with her, cannot AFFORD to. because of what it will force him to confront about himself.

now, you might be wondering why the hell i talked about all this when your question very straightforward in what it's asking. i've been meaning to make a post about this for a while now, and i think it adds an interesting dimension to what you were talking about.

yes, majima attaches himself to men who are protective of women. but majima has a *problem* with men. and it's not just a problem with "bad" men, or men who hurt or take advantage of women. majima specifically has a bone to pick with *good* men. or at least, men he perceives to be good. i mentioned this at the start, too, but part of his test of kiryu's character aims to discern how he treats women. but the fact that he's testing kiryu at all is remarkable to me. why? why are you TESTING men? why are you testing *good* men, specifically? the literal main reason majima decided to turn kiryu into his personal pet project was because kiryu expressed some idealistic notions about ethics.

i think his lack of trust in men is not unrelated to... literally any of this. why is your first instinct, when you see a man say something you think is morally correct, to push him until he breaks to "prove" it's all talk? to expose the lie? you WANT him to be true. it's about trying to prove to *himself* that it's possible. because deep down, he wants to believe it. he wants to believe he can trust men. that "good ones" exist.

so the fact that he attaches himself to men who treat women well is like. yes. but even that isn't enough. there's still a whole TRIAL he has to subject them to. before he can *really* trust them. he's constantly TESTING them. he is specifically DIFFICULT to men who do NOT deserve it. because the rest are already instant write-offs to majima. and the fact that he makes himself difficult On Purpose. the way he treats saejima in pirates. GOOD lord. WHY are you constantly TRYING to DRIVE GOOD MEN AWAY. (i know why. and now you do too. if youre also insane. welcome to hell)

all of this. all of this is so inextricably tied to the fact that majima is hellbent on denying the things about himself that make him feel alienated from men and manhood in general. because he cannot afford to lose his status, lose power when it's already precarious. there is this constant, ongoing conflict within him because on one hand he is surrounded by men he is on friendly terms with, and at the same time he is feeling hurt and betrayed by them at his core, which he is NOT allowed to acknowledge. because if he acknowledged that, if he decided to do something about it, to stop Betraying himself in this way, he would have to leave the yakuza. and he can't afford to do that.

#this is exactly it i think

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pouralaura · 6 days ago

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ive been thinking about how majima relates to the men around him and mad dog, and the thoughts need to go somewhere. yes, this is going to be about Gender. (content warning for discussion of sexual violence)

let's look at majima's role in the tojo. he is their attack dog, heavy hitter, and wild card. his reputation precedes him. he is literally called "shimano's mad dog", and he embraces the role and plays into it. what this does, in effect, is make people fear him *and* want to control him. they want to "leash" him. majima's entire existence is a challenge, that's how he carries himself, and that's how people perceive him. "tame me if you can" is the unspoken dare he throws out into every room he walks into.

as such, holding majima's "leash" is an extraordinary status symbol in the tojo. either by having majima respect you enough to willingly bow to you, or being strong enough to force him to do it regardless -- and i would actually argue there is no difference between those things as far as the clan is concerned. because majima only "respects" or "willingly bows to" strong men who can beat him in a fight anyway, as he loves to remind everyone (even though it's not entirely true)

he is so powerful and respected that his backing of a new chairman can sway the opinion of the majority of the clan. this is why kiryu asked him to support daigo as the new chairman, because no one took daigo seriously at the time. he hadn't earned the clan's respect yet. and what finally changes that? majima publicly losing to him in a fight.

but majima is in a really interesting position here, because while everyone wants to own and control him, that's exactly where his power *comes* from. he relies on his status as a wild animal that everyone wants to tame to *remain* in power. if people stopped wanting to control him, if he stopped being the "mad dog", he would also lose his power and authority. he relies on having people who want to "leash" him to avoid *being* leashed. he is a commodity, and his market value is at its highest when he is in demand. the higher his value, the fewer people can "afford" him -- afford holding his leash. this is simple economics to majima.

why *this* strategy, though? i think it's because majima understands something about his position relative to men, socially, that makes this the an effective way of navigating power relations for him. that is to say, he understands that his relative lack of power compared to them is *non-negotiable*. whatever it is about him that results in men treating him the way they do, he *cannot* change it. he knows this like he knows 2+2=4. he is not "one of the boys". and he might not understand the reason, but he's intimately familiar with the consequences: he will be used as a tool to further their ends, and have his agency and boundaries violated in the process.

so what he's doing is *willingly* becoming a tool to regain control over the situation via mad dog, just like he did with lord of the night. he has nothing to lose by doing so, because he's already being treated this way -- he's just trying to turn this into an advantage. he has no intention of letting anyone actually own him, hold his leash, so he becomes one of the highest ranking officers in one of the most powerful yakuza organizations. and as such, the only way his agency can be taken away from him is if someone outsmarts or physically overpowers him. for someone in majima's position, that is very difficult to do, and mad dog is HOW he achieves this.

i've talked about majima and sexual violence before, but i think the most relevant examples of it in yakuza 3, in this scene:

i highly recommend watching the whole scene, because the screenshots don't really do it justice, but look at the way his personal space is being invaded. look at the way his physical boundaries are being so *deliberately* violated. look at how fucking CREEPY hamazaki is, leaning in to whisper in his ear, dragging his hand across his shoulder as he leaves. it's genuinely uncomfortable to watch. the threat of physical violence is explicit: "just do it, or your head's the one that'll roll." the sexual harassment however is subtler, more sinister, and harder to prove, but felt just as strongly, both by the audience and majima. and majima does not so much as flinch. he barely even blinks. majima, the MAD DOG OF SHIMANO, the guy who is "too much for the tojo to handle", is just letting this happen. because he is forced to.

this scene is insane to me because it shows us that THIS is what's at stake for majima if he loses power. THIS is what he understands as a fundamental part of his reality -- that if he ever loses his power over other men, they will not just take his assets or kill him -- they will violate his body. majima has to become hard to kill to fulfill his obligation to saejima, but even harder to *manipulate* if he wants to protect his bodily autonomy.

but men specifically enjoy asserting their authority over majima, and he is consistently a target of their sadism. because they perceive him to be in constant *rejection* of their authority over him, so they want to "put him back in his place". this is the "challenge" i mentioned at the beginning. and his response is basically, "you cannot *have* me in a way that matters -- even if you violate my body, you cannot have my respect." because that's literally all majima has to bargain with. it's "you can force yourself on me, but i will never willingly bow to your authority." it's about pride, dignity, freedom of choice. these are the things that matter most to majima. if he can't choose what happens to him, he can choose how he feels about it -- and that *has* to matter. because without that, he has nothing.

i think this is not unrelated to the fact that majima is seen as an "other" by the men around him. but i won't go into that in this post. what i want to point out here is that, in trying to prevent this -- prevent being forced to bow to authorities he doesn't recognize -- majima is constantly *inviting* the violence that leads to it.

in trying to turn his status as an object (a tool, a weapon, something to be "owned" and controlled and used) into an advantage, he is constantly inviting people to try and leash him, as *part* of his strategy. and sometimes! it happens! it's an incredibly high-risk-high-reward gamble. but majima understands, and more importantly *accepts*, without any ifs, ands, or buts, that there is nothing he can do to become immune to this kind of violence. if there was, he would've done it decades ago. so he has to account for its possibility every step of the way -- whether consciously or not. and i think this is one of the most fundamental things that characterizes majima's relationship to men. his dynamic with men, men as a gender class, *revolves* around the fact that majima assumes men want to hurt him, that they are going to do it if he lets them, and that it's going to have a sexual element. it's *built* on this anxiety, which he is refusing to acknowledge.

the mad dog persona is, once again, both a solution and a cage for majima. while it enables him to navigate his social environment freely -- with more freedom than he would be able to without mad dog -- it also requires him to treat the men around him as enemies and not comrades. he feels he is uniquely vulnerable to harm in some way, but in trying to combat this, he is the first one to reinforce this vulnerability by acknowledging there is something to combat in the first place, and taking precautions. all the while denying any of this motivates or shapes his behavior in any way, because he cannot acknowledge his own victimhood.

and *he* is the one who feels alienated from men before they even have the chance to "other" him. he rejects them before they can reject him, and rejects himself on their behalf before they can. because he knows it's coming regardless. majima cannot and will never "fit in" with men, because how can you fit in with people you cannot tell apart from your abusers?

to sum up, "mad dog" is his solution to all of these things combined. he is setting himself up as an object AND as an unpredictable, unknowable, "uncanny" being. all of which are things that men *already* see him as. at the same time, he's making himself *valuable* to men (invaluable even, as shimano certainly seemed to think) as part of his survival strategy. he has to remain "in demand" as an instrument, a weapon, an object, to remain in power. he has to turn himself into a coveted status symbol. but it only cements his status as an outsider. but it's no big deal to majima, because to him, that's already a given.

his "strategy" here in navigating this power structure is one you would expect to see from people who are NOT in power. this is the narrative of a character who lives among men but is not seen as one of them, and is prevented from fully climbing the gender class ladder to truly *be" one of them. a character who does not benefit from the same privileges other men do, and is trying to leverage that fact to his advantage with the only means he perceives as available to him. which could mean nothing.

TLDR majima is the tojo's trophy wife. goodnight

(if you find this subject interesting, i would highly recommend this article about gender classes, or the longer updated version if you want to go more in depth. also recommend this article on the difference between objectification and dehumanization which addresses a few key concepts that are relevant to this post)

#anyway #throwing myself directly off of a bridge this is so good

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