Akechi & Misogyny

i think while talking about how Akechi perpetuates misogynistic systematic values by being in the role that he is that it’s important to also note that his entire revenge plan existing is for avenging his sex worker mother being thrown away by Shido. Two things can be and are true.

i bring this up not to excuse him but to make a point that him, once again, being a contradiction is every single trait about him. his every value is hypocritical at some point. surprisingly i think its forgotten a lot that he has so many of the same values and beliefs as joker, hence their “very similar yet very different” relationship. he wouldn’t be as raging and violent as he is if he didn’t think society was trash; if he wasn’t angry about said systematic issues, these ones Shido encompasses, that caused his mother’s fate.

through his rage of the society he hates he ends up upholding the exact things he hates about it, and gaining behavior from the wicked men he’s surrounded by. which i believe he’s mostly aware of, but has the mindset of “it will all be worth it in the end,” so as much as his wrong behavior and sins pile up, he’s okay with it as long as the revenge takes place in the end; which makes him complicit.

I don’t agree that he’s a raging misogynist. I think he has learned misogynistic sayings and maybe behavior (such as: “foolish woman,” or his interaction with makoto) that it’s his job to unlearn. He does not wish and never did wish to be the type of scum he hates.

I think it’s doing his character a disservice not to recognize that he has this hatred for the wrongs of society which include the mistreatment of women especially those in sex work, as well as a hatred for many other wrongs of society just like the phantom thieves. What he didn’t agree with was their methods and their sense of “justice.” He has a “it’s all rotten, burn it down to the ground” mindset when Joker and the phantom thieves have a “It’s sickening, and we can/want to change it to make society better” mindset.

Akechi’s fault in this is, intentional or not, is grouping together the oppressed and the oppressors in his “trash society” as all rotten, going the selfish route of his revenge to make a statement on his and his mother’s particular injustice, and doing as much sin and horrid behavior as it takes to do so. As much as he hates the systematic issues, he is also so blind-sighted that he cannot spare the empathy.

tldr; it’s both true he’s upholding misogynistic issues and has learned misogynistic behavior, as well that he hates these misogynistic values with a burning passion and only has fond feelings for his mother and what she had to do.