Welcome back to another blog. Today I’m going to be gushing about my waifu. The only waifu that deserves my full attention. The only waifu that is the correct answer to “who is the best waifu.” May the season of love commence.
[C]Also known as “Major,” Motoko is a synthetic, "full-body prosthesis,” augmented-cybernetic human. She is the commander of Public Security Section 9 of the anti-cybercrime law-enforcement division for the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Motoko is known for her skills in deduction, hacking and military tactics. She is fiercely independent and strong willed.
My reasoning for her being the best waifu runs deeper than just looks or power. It’s a very specific connection that I made with her that keeps her at the number one spot. Of corse the other things mentioned are side benefits. But we’re justly talking about how we see ourselves. More specifically, how we see/feel about our bodies. I will also make some comparisons to real life situations as well. So let’s get started shall we.
From a young age Motoko was given full prosthetics. She didn’t consent to this, but the decision was made for her any way. Of corse this was due to the fact that she was one of two survivors of a plane crash. A new body was given to her at each stage of life. She has stated that she never felt that her body was really hers. Motoko does often change out her body, keeping some key features in each one. But no matter how many times she changed, she still didn’t feel right because she never had the choice to change in the first place.
This feeling of not being in the body you’re made for is a real one. This feeling could be for many reason. In my case it’s because of the medical conditions I have and the pills that I was put on for those conditions. The first is my eczema. For those that don’t know, eczema is a topic dermatitis that causes red flaky patches in the skin. Sometimes it can get so bad that the areas will crack, Ooze and bleed. It’s also continuously itchy. I’ve had all of these happen. I would get so self conscious about it that I’d try to hide my skin as much as possible. I used to wear gloves constantly due to my hands cracking, oozing and bleeding. I always remember asking “why me?” The looks I would get from others who didn’t know what was wrong. They looked at me like I had some contagious illness or something. Which I obviously didn’t have.
The next part was the fact of my body weight changing. Without illness and medications having an effect on your weight, it’s always something that’s focused on. Especially when it comes to women. I remember being in grade school and having body Image issues. I can look at a picture of myself and see the skinny child I was, but I remember not feeling that way. I remember seeing my self as 10X bigger/heavier in the mirror than I actually was. I dealt with that for years. Then came puberty. I had developed som medical conditions that made me gain weight. Tack on the medications that I had to take for those conditions and I gain even more weight. That’s just a recipe for disaster. For someone who already saw themselves as big, gaining weight makes things even worse.
These things combined made me feel like I was in the wrong body. Like it wasn’t mine. Now I wasn’t put into a prosthetic body by someone else without consent, but I might as well have. I didn’t ask for the conditions I have to the mind set I gained from it. I just had it. Something out of my control. Just like Mokoto having her prosthetic body was out of her control.
Another aspect of her body swapping, was the fact of being a woman in a man’s world. It’s hard enough in real life, but in the world of Ghost in the shell where you can literally chose everything about your body and change it the problem gets worse. The major was asked why she keeps her female body. She could in fact change it to be male and have more strength and just be overall better. Which brings us to a real world problem. While equality is still making its strides, there is still a general thought that women are weaker than men. That they can’t do everything a man can. They are still looked at as inferior. Which isn’t very good for the mental status.
The major then hacks into his programming and makes him hit himself. She states that she has the smarts and skill to turn things in her favor. That she in fact can best someone no matter what body they may have. While some people will see this as not solving the problem because she is admitting to not being strong, I see differently. Not everything has to be solved with strength. People have their own strengths and weaknesses. Which is what she demonstrated. Mokto showed that she is strong in her own way and that she doesn’t need “a mans body” to be useful.
Dealing with this “you’re weaker/dumber because of gender” mentality is something I have dealt with as well. I remember being in a computer science class and literally being made fun of because I was a woman in a computer science class. “Women can’t do smart things” was pretty much the vibe. Like what the hell? It was 2017 and there were still people who thought that, and this was a college class. Even the teacher acted that way. Like I can understand this stuff too. My brain does work believe it or not. I didn’t end up continuing due to switching my major to something else, but the incident still stuck with me.
The thought of “well if I was a guy..” has crossed my mind way too much in my life. For a number of different reasons. Either because of strength, the way people treat you and even the way you look. While I know men get made fun of or ridiculed for their weight as well, women still seems to get the most hate for it. You can see this in the celebrity world as well. If a woman gains or looses weight it’s all over the news. People make fun of her and are actually rude. Like why should it matter? But it almost seems like a man who gains or looses weight just gets glossed over. A Kpop idol who was on the heavier end of weight was praised for being different, but a woman Kpop idol who gained weight is fat shamed. This male idol also made remarks that women need to be skinny/ a certain weight even though he did not follow the same guidelines he set. How is that fair?
Seeing a character just give a big FU to someone having misogynistic thoughts was fantastic. Showing that she can in fact best someone who focused on strength without lifting a finger was pretty satisfying. It’s showed that yo can in fact do anything as long as you play into your strengths and that just because you’re not a body builder doesn’t mean you can’t win.
Watching this struggle happen through the corse of the anime, without it being the full focus, was inspirational. When we get towards the end we see this circle end. Once she receives her watch, Mokoto finally accepts her body as her own. She even says that she can’t imagine herself any other way and that it suited her the most. She finally accepted herself and thought of her body as her own. And that is a beautiful thing. Just like how me accepting my body came full circle. I too began to have more positive thoughts and became more confident. Of corse it took time and I didn’t receive a watch, I still came to an acceptance.
And this is why Motoko Kusanagi is my waifu. See you in the next one.
Sources: [Wiki|https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoko_Kusanagi]
