Hi, I saw your repost of @i-heart-hxh and wanted to ask you a question of why you consider the zoldycks patriarchal in nature. Someone here pointed out that while the ones with the most authority in the family are indeed men (silva, zeno, killua who is a boy who is the heir, etc.) they aren't explicitly sexist in nature because means they would hate any sort of non gender conformity. They allow kalluto to dress in feminine clothing, illumi to have his pseudo sexual alliances with hisoka, and the alluka misgendering seems to come more out of fear of her then explicit transphobia (still not okay though, obviously). Of course, this is assuming that gender norms are the same in hxh verse/Japan (I think the wiki says that japanese boys used to dress like kalluto did?) or that the zoldycks are just androcentric but not necessarily sexist/homophobic. Sorry for the wordy post, just wanted to see your pov.
Hi thanks for asking !!!!
I'm not sure how organized this will be because I have a lot of thoughts. First I want to talk about how Kikyo is treated.
Here we can hear Kikyo's thoughts on it herself—"No one ever asks me first!" The context is that Zeno is releasing Killua from his cell, and she's lamenting that he just does it without her permission. This is of course because Zeno ranks above her. But the way she says it—"ever"—implies this is a reoccurring problem, that her views or opinions (maybe just on parenting, maybe in general) are frequently dismissed or minimized.
There is also the case that Milluki is deliberately made a mama's boy in order to make his character more comical, or to degrade him in the eyes of the audience.
This attitude toward Kikyo seems pretty pervasive to me as well. The butlers don't seem to think too highly of her—I showed this panel ^ in my response. At the very least, Tsubone doesn't seem to be fond and considers her lesser than Silva or Zeno, probably in regards to composure and conduct.
This exchange also colors my perception of Kikyo's place in the family. Viz translates it a little differently than the 2011 anime, which I watched first. I went back to grab the raws for it and double check, as is responsible when there's a translation discrepancy like that.
This is how Viz translates it:
Now in the 2011 anime, Silva is a lot more vulgar—or harsh, I suppose—to Kikyo. I recall he tells her to shut her trap, or to stop whining, or something similar. That is actually the more accurate translation.
This is the extracted raw text:
Silva: しばらく好きにさせとけよ
Kikyo: だめよ何言ってるの (next bubble ->) キルが立派な後継者になれるかどうか今が一番大切な時期なのよ
Silva: わかってるじゃねーか (next bubble ->) じゃあつべこべ言わず黙ってろ
It's the final bubble which conveys that vulgarity.
DeepL's translation gives: "Then shut the fuck up and keep your mouth shut," and when both speech bubbles are conjoined, it gives "You know what I'm talking about, so why don't you shut the fuck up?"
QuillBot's results are pretty similar: "You get it, so stop whining and just be quiet."
What a way to speak to your wife, huh? Killua's little mental chart in the Election Arc shows that he seems to think they love each other, but Killua is also an unreliable narrator when it comes to his family's dynamics. In fact, Killua himself also reflects this attitude—he's very dismissive of her. He openly threatens Kikyo on multiple occasions and calls her annoying, etc. He also canonically has behavioral problems around older women who hold authority over him. This is probably learned behavior, mirroring the way other people treat his mother. It just sort of adds to the idea that she's not very well respected.
Now, maybe this is just because Kikyo married in. Maybe if Silva had a sister or something, she would be treated better. All we can do is speculate on that, but everything with Kikyo is canon.
When it comes to the issue of gender nonconformity, it's way more vague and up in the air. I think I see it differently than many people. We don't know much about Kalluto, but he's introduced as joined at the hip with Kikyo, and Killua seems to think they love each other. Though as we've established, he's not the best source.
However, he is practically the only source just because we see so little of Kalluto.
My interpretation is that Kikyo dresses up Kalluto in clothes she likes herself, or at least heavily influences his style, because they are so close. It may be because Kikyo has such little respect, that she clings onto Kalluto, her youngest. If that wasn't the case, Kalluto might dress differently.
I went to search the HxH fandom wiki for something similar to what you said and found this in the trivia section: "The furisode was born in the mid-1500s as a garment for both male and female children of middle- and upper-class families. Only around the 20th century did it become a strictly feminine type of kimono, although gender differences existed before that. Therefore, Kalluto's choice of clothing could be in keeping with his mother's tastes since she was introduced wearing a very outdated (by real-world standards) bustle gown. / How the obi (sash) is worn can depend on the wearer's sex where wearing around waist is done by males, while wearing underneath the breasts is done by females."
There's no citation so I did a cursory google search, and this information seems to come from the wikipedia page on the furisode, which elaborates: "According to one 17th century text, boys could wear furisode until their 18th year, or until they went through their coming-of-age ceremony, which usually occurred in late adolescence. Girls were supposed to cease wearing the furisode upon marriage, or upon reaching their 20th year.[4] Initially, furisode did not differ noticeably between the sexes, but fabric designs started to become more gendered in the 19th century.[5] In the 20th century, furisode became restricted to women and girls only, as part of the increasing gender-specificity of children's clothing that developed in the wake of Western influence.[6]".
So in the case of the Zoldyck family, I do believe that Kalluto's is moreso a case of tradition, rather than gender nonconformity. But that's not to say this is the only interpretation. I think it's reasonable to conclude Kalluto dresses like that himself, considering he continues to do so once joining the Phantom Troupe. Again, all we can do is speculate.
I admit my conclusions on Illumi are similar, we just don't have enough information. Based off what I know and can remember, I'm not even sure if the Zoldycks are aware he's technically engaged to Hisoka, though I could definitely be wrong (because Hisoka hired him, right?). I also fail to see how their relationship would be a problem before that engagement—I never got homoromantic vibes between them beforehand. I know people do ship them. It just goes over my head I suppose.
As it pertains to Alluka, it's very hard to say whether Nanika is the cause for their transphobia because Nanika is effectively the vehicle that creates an allegory for transness in the first place. We can't exactly ask, "If Alluka didn't have Nanika but was still trans, would the Zoldycks accept her?" because, again, Nanika is the way the Togashi has decided to deal with these themes. Nanika is the transness and within the allegory, the Zoldycks (minus Killua) are transphobes. It's also worth it to point out that Illumi uses 「弟おとうと 」 (otouto—younger brother) when referring to Alluka, which doesn't seem to me to be a result of fear the way the English pronoun "it" might be. More info on gendered terms in reference to Alluka in this google doc.
Finally, the values of the Zoldyck family in of themselves are sexist. They clearly value physical strength, obedience, and disparage empathy/compassion. Killua is considered "weak-minded" "moody" or "erratic" (depending on your translation of 「でも暗殺者としては失格だよムラッ気があってさ 」) for his kindness and rejection of his hierarchical power in favor of his desire for connection.
These are not inherently female traits and I'm not trying to say they are, but within sexist society, they are perceived as feminine, meaning women are devalued and men are ridiculed for displaying them. Women in the Zoldyck family are given respect and power in regards to their proximity to traditional masculinity—strength, loyalty, maybe whether they are blood-related to the current head of House—and obedience to the family. In my eyes there's clearly a misogyny problem here.
I do believe that if a woman happened to be the strongest of the Zoldycks, she would be head of House. I've previously said in a genderbend scenario with Killua as a cis girl, I believe she'd still be heir. But I also believe she'd have more familial expectations in regards to dress and conduct—not too masculine because that's queer, but not too feminine or else that's weak. Maybe patriarchal was too strong of a word because it implies there's some rule that the male father is always on top, regardless of strength. But you see what I'm saying, right?
Hopefully this clarifies my stance :3
