Crossed Wires: Mis-performed Infatuation vs. True Perversion
So, I was looking through the Thriller Bark arc and got to Sanji’s fight.
Now oddly, as a young woman, Sanji never super bothered me here. Not sure why really. I saw his words as unacceptable but him as ultimately harmless.
But I can see where this section causes a lot of people an issue with his character (an issue I feel he is steadily maturing out of).
I’m going to try to explain how I see both Sanji and the situation.
Now, this entire situation reminded me of a quote from Bioshock where Andrew Ryan says “…the pervert who prowls the streets, looking for a victim he can ravish for his grotesque amusement.”
It was the “ a victim he can ravish for his grotesque amusement “ part that really spoke to me. It made me notice something strange about the variations of perversion in this battle. And I came to the odd conclusion that where Sanji has perverted or deviant thoughts, Absalom is the only true pervert of the two.
Now, before you rush to denounce me, let me explain.
Nami is the object of Sanji’s infatuation as well as Absalom’s obsession. Both love her body but Sanji also loves Nami because she is Nami.
Nami is just an object to Absalom. An object of beauty, but still just an object. Something for him to freely look at, touch, and own.
Absalom cares not what Nami wants or thinks. His desires alone are all that matter.
Now, switch over to Sanji!
Despite Nami being beautiful, she is not an object of beauty to him. No, she is a treasure.
And you need to take into mind what “treasure” means in the One Piece universe and specifically what “treasure” means to a Strawhat.
To a Strawhat, a treasure is something or someone more precious than words can describe, priceless and perfect, and worth dying over because it means all these things.
You can see that this is how Sanji feels about Nami from the beginning of the battle.
You notice how Sanji says “your knight”? Like always, Sanji puts himself in a submissive position to Nami. A knight is someone that serves and protects someone above them in either status or position.
He makes it clear that he belongs to her. Whereas Absalom makes it clear that he feels he owns Nami.
True perverts exert power and dominance of some level because it is all about them and their sexual needs. This is what Absalom does constantly.
Sanji does not. Sanji actually never puts himself in a position of power over any of the Strawhats or their friends.
He always puts their safety and worth far above himself. You see this all throughout the battle.
He never once gets mad about being attacked. He only gets mad that Nami was almost injured because of said attack.
He is protective of not only her body but also her purity.
He’s upset that Absalom may have done something awful, not because Sanji sees Nami as his to claim but rather because it would be an injustice and violation to Nami herself.
This is not to say that Sanji is perfect. He very much is a little deviant slut.
But despite this, he still holds to the fact that any injury or harm of any kind to Nami is unforgivable.
This actually leads into something interesting about Sanji’s personality and showcasing how he’s a clear victim of child abuse of some kind (Which we now all know was severe physical, verbal, and emotional abuse as well as neglect.)
It took me a while to see it but as a whole Sanji has no sense of self-worth and his only confidence is in his cooking (This confidence is most likely due to how much work Zeff put into Sanji). The rest of his personality is a volatile mix of defiance and bravado.
He protects women not because they’re weak and need to be protected but rather because he’s strong and has the ability to do so. He constantly praises Nami and Robin on how cunning or strong they are. He never feels emasculated by them (most likely due to the fact that when he was little, women protected and cared for him as best they could). That may even be why he protects them now because he’s finally strong enough to repay his debt and give thanks for the help he received from the women in his life.
But I’m getting off-topic. Back to Sanji’s self-worth. He has none, always putting others before himself, and this is especially seen when he’s protecting a woman.
How much Nami, in her entirety, means to Sanji is shown in how much damage he takes in order to keep her from getting hurt. He couldn’t care less about himself because he really doesn’t care at all at this point. All that matters to him is Nami.
He protects her until the combat not only threatens harm to her but something as simple as her outfit as well.
I am feeling some symbolism here.
Yes, he literally doesn’t want to stain her with his blood but he also thinks so lowly of himself that he doesn’t want to stain her with any of himself.
Which could explain why he never officially makes a move despite his obvious infatuation with her.
Sanji would rather admire her from afar than forcing her to be stuck with someone like him.
Which all leads into Sanji’s deviant thinking with peeping. Because peeping is so far his only offense towards women. He never claims women to be below him, he never initiates touch with women and doesn’t really claim to make any women his. He’d like to be theirs but doesn’t see them as his.
This all makes me think that he peeps because he feels he’ll never be good enough to actually be with a woman romantically or physically.
He has a bad case of infatuation on a mass scale. But due to child abuse at a very young development age, he appears to be stunted both emotionally and sexually. Leaving him with a sense of sexual immaturity where he doesn’t know how to properly act on feelings of desire or need, knowing only enough to realize it’s wrong to physically act on anything he feels.
So, how I see this battle, and other events of Sanji’s deviant thinking, is that Sanji is not so much perverted as mis-performing when it comes to his infatuation.
But, that’s just how I see it.
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