Men like blue, women like pink — an analysis of Jax at Zooble’s funeral
It took me a while to understand what the Jax-Gangle scene after Zooble’s abstraction meant, probably more than it should’ve to be honest, but while I was rewatching the episode today, it finally clicked for me.
This is Jax doubling down on performative masculinity.
Men who struggle with masculinity often try to compensate for their perceived lack of it by trying to perform masculinity as a way to prove to their peers that they can excel at it just as much as them, if not better.
A refusal to show genuine emotions
Oppression of minorities as a way to show superiority
Jax performs all of these.
He shows up to the funeral wearing a maid outfit, not as an expression of his gender identity, but instead as a way to make fun of Zooble and gender non-conformity in general. Not unlike a cis man making an attack helicopter joke to make fun of trans and, specifically, non-binary people.
He hides himself behind irony and distasteful jokes as a way to avoid sincerity and vulnerability.
He targets Gangle specifically not only because, out of everyone in the circus, she’s the one less likely to fight back — and men who have insecurity issues often resort to bullying as a way to feel better about themselves — but because she is also the most conventionally feminine, according to traits conservative society defines as feminine traits.
Gangle is shy, speaks lowly, sensitive, easily scared, considered meek and is physically weak, all traits that, when found in a man, are considered weaknesses that should be destroyed because of their ties to femininity.
It is also possible that Jax used to have multiple of these traits, which is what his mother would call him “less of a man” for, and, if that’s the case, Gangle could also have become a target due to projection on his part.
Jax also objectifies and outright harasses Gangle, coming onto her strongly in a way that is both embarrassing and humiliating for her, as well as invading her personal space.
A reminder that aggressiveness does not necessarily correlate to violence, but overall encompasses hostility. And we know Jax isn’t known to shy away from being hostile to Gangle.
While it is possible that Jax has feelings for Gangle, that is not the reason he flirts with her in that scene. In standards of masculinity, women are objects: something to show off as a trophy and proof that you have conquered your place in the world as a man. They are not people. When Jax flirts with Gangle and outright harasses her, he does so as a way to prove his masculinity.
We also cannot overlook this as a reflection of Jax avoiding his transness.
Note that Gangle is wearing her plastic mask during that scene. She is essentially doing the same thing Jax is: performing. And since he is projecting, he can pick on her and try to unmask her because he lacks the self-awareness to realize he is also pretending to be something he isn’t.
It is not a coincidence that maid Jax is the one who makes misogynistic comments, says homophobic slurs, uses gender expression as a way to mock and harasses women. He is the embodiment of Jax’s performative and toxic masculinity, of him trying to show he is something he is not.
It is also not a coincidence that this happens in the scenario where Zooble dies.
Zooble identifies as non-binary. They are neither man nor woman. Someone who clings strongly to the boxes men and women are supposed to fit into can’t comprehend something that exists outside of it. Zooble is an active threat to Jax’s perceived reality, his black and white world of men wear blue and women wear pink, men wear ties and women wear bows.
Once Zooble dies, the only threat to his black and white worldview is removed. The status quo is reinforced. Nothing outside of the binary can exist and if it does, it’s an anomaly that must, and eventually will, be destroyed.
Except he is also an anomaly. He is not who he is supposed to be, and wether he acknowledges it or not, he knows it’s true.
So if he wants to survive in this world of black and white, he needs to cement his place in it.
Men like blue. Women like pink. And anything that refuses to conform dies.
