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I posted in the tags below my latest post phrase “transgender-“coded” character (socialised as man)” referring to Yashiro. And the moment I wrote it I felt that something is off (and kept overthinking it) but I wasn’t able to grasp it cause we use this phrase, right? There “shouldn’t” be any problem with that, right? But I kept thinking about it and I asked myself a very obvious question - was Yashiro really socialised as a man? Was he really raised and socialised according to gender norms on men and masculinity? And similarly obvious answer to that was - no, he wasn’t. He has always been an observer even to gender.
His whole life was about being treated as unintelligible (according to Riggs and Treharne’s theory of minority stress) and he’s also a perfect example of being an abject in Kristeva’s understanding of this term. He’s a subject (he’s human and should belong to himself) but at the same time an object - object that can be watched, used, treated with repulsion and contempt but because of this in-between existence - subject and object - the he as an abject can be desired, treated with curiosity, but still as an interesting phenomenon, anomaly, a display unit rather than a full-fledged human-being. The examples of groups treated as abjects are women, homosexual people and in general other discriminated groups. When we look at Y he’s at the same time a homosexual man but also he’s “not enough of a man” even without his homosexuality (actually bisexuality which is even “worse”; I’m also aware that those aspects can’t be really separated but for the sake of argument let’s treat them as such) he’s gender is a whole other conversation but while analysing him as a transgender women, we see how this only amplifies everything stated before.
But let’s get back to gender roles. Starting from his childhood, well it’s hard to talk about gender roles while talking about sexual abuse, but comments from his stepfather says a lot about social understanding of violence and its victims. He was raped cause “he was a girl” suggesting that, according to his stepfather’s reasoning, it wouldn’t have happened if he was a boy. We know nothing about other aspects of his childhood but it seems highly unlikely that he was taught and treated “as a boy” (understood as a form of upbringing that strengthens your sense of self-agency, that you have the right to *insert anything* and everything else we taught boys in patriarchal cultures).
During his high school he made himself an observer. He wasn’t part of any group, he didn’t socialise with “other boys” and the only interaction we see between him and the boys is while they mock and insult him. The object of these insults is also very important cause it’s linked to his sexuality, to his body (which is what he sells in their opinion)and he’s reduced to that and defined through that. Also his reaction seems to be important. What he “should” have done according to gender roles was showing aggression, deny “accusations” or act according to any other form of “masculine reaction”. But he’s reaction is a very interesting one and can be analysed through many different lenses but for this post I’m gonna stick with gender roles and abjection. By kissing the boy and grabbing his genitalia he at the same time grabbed him and dragged him to the space others have seen Y in. At the same time he was a subject, active party of interaction - he dragged a person who has (probably) always been treated as a subject from a position of an observer of an abject to the position of being observed in an interaction with the abject, so it presents a question of who is who, who observes who, who is a subject, a full person, and who is not - but at the same time Yashiro stayed in the same position, he amplified others’ contempt towards him, he cemented his position as an abject. Of course he was doomed from the start in this interaction but the action and resilience matters. At the same time a question about the nature of his reaction remains. It was a form of protest, an attempt to be intelligible but it was a form of sexual harassment nevertheless. How does that plays with gender roles? Was he an oppressor, a victim who was just fighting for oneself, both? Was he a “man” in this interaction or a “woman”?
And there’s Kageyama and oooh boy. I would love to say that he was different but as many others have already said - he wasn’t. Their relationship was based on pity towards Yashiro as a victim and his body. Actually without his body Kage wouldn’t even cross the line of being just “slightly better than the rest” random boy from Y class. That was Yashiro’s body that changed everything and Kage’s reaction to that was just pure objectification. Y’s body was a true piece on display. They hadn’t even been talking. To some extent yeah Kage acknowledged that the lack of judgment from Y was something he appreciated but isn’t it interesting that through staying silent Y remained in the position of an abject, the interesting object, but at the same time he could keep the scraps of the relationship. But the moment he decided to start talking, decided to tell something about himself as a person, a subject, and about his life, Kage decided to stop touching him and “started acting as some kind of a friend”. And we could look at it as something morally upright, but let’s be honest - Kage knew. He knew Yashiro was a survivor of abuse. Many instances of abuse. But Y was supposed to stay silent to keep the status quo. But he didn’t. What was left was pity but the abjection hasn’t stopped. You to see what I’m trying to say about gender roles here, right?
And then we have yakuza and ooooh. Many people have already written great analyses on Y, yakuza and gender norms, this so I’m not gonna repeat them. I can just comment on the moment he caught Misumi’s attention. It was his foot. You understand me, right? And then the whole cycle of abuse, being forced to join, not having any real choice, lack of ambition as not-fitting-for-the-yakuza-trait and everything else. Doumeki also perceived him through his beauty. Yeah, he saw more, but at the same time he didn’t and Y, even as a boss, wasn’t really in control. And then everything what is going on after the time skip but @nanayashi-agenda has written amazing commentaries on that (and on gender roles, Y position in the yakuza and everything actually) so, once again, I don’t want to repeat others (even though I’m well aware that without his posts I wouldn’t have been able to write this, so thank you).
So yeah, it was supposed to be short. And I don’t even know how to sum this up. Maybe that you could technically see this only as a homophobia but - was it really only that? Cause Y, his gender, his expression, the way he was treated, seems much more complex. Also he doesn’t WANT to be part of male-centred patriarchal organisation (I would even say that in this kind of world). It’s not about the need to be “a man” in a society and surroundings which just don’t let him, that’s not the case. He had always wanted to just be a subject with the real freedom of choices In his life. And once again - you get what I mean, right?
Side note: I’m aware that the Kristeva’s theory is much more complex, but I decided to stay on a basic level of that. Also I’m aware that this kind of understanding of socialisation to specific gender is simplified too cause actually many instances of people’s reaction to Y is because he was perceived as a man so the standards were according to that. What I wanted to say is that the gender assigned at birth doesn’t have to carry over one’s treatment during their earlier life and that it’s much more complex issue.