Genji's Male Dominance

            While reading this piece of literature, I become very sickened in the way that Genji used women to satisfy his need for dominance. I spent some time watching the R. Kelly documentary tapes this past summer and Genji’s actions show many similarities to R. Kelly’s actions with women. If R. Kelly’s story is not familiar to you, it is a very long and uncomfortable story. R. Kelly is a famous musical artist that was known for having interest in younger women or underage women. Younger women interested him because of their innocence and his ability to control them easier than a mature adult. R. Kelly would hold these girls in his house, and they would not be allowed to even go to the bathroom without asking him first. Theorists who have been following him believe that he controls these girls until they become almost like a pet to him. The documentary is very interesting and definitely a must watch if you enjoy investigative shows.

If you haven’t caught onto where I’m going with Genji, let me explain. Genji showed interest in more innocent or childlike women. The story validates that when it says, “Something childlike in her fright brought a smile to his lips” (p. 1483). Genji is intrigued in the innocence and we could even say the vulnerability of this woman to be influenced by him. Genji was a married man and so was R. Kelly, but it seems like this infidelity was acceptable for Genji compared to the negative traits it has today. We discussed how common it was for married and powerful men to have affairs with multiple other women. These women threw themselves at Genji because he is who he is. This is a parallel to R. Kelly’s story because the same happened for him. These younger girls or naive young women would throw themselves at him because of his money and fame. A lot of the time R. Kelly would promise musical opportunities to these women and that would make them even more inclined to stick with him. The “player” personality of Genji is something that we often find in wealthy and powerful people today. Although Genji is not at the extreme level as R. Kelly, it is hard not to see the similar tendencies these men had with taking full advantage of who they were.

What were your opinions on Genji and his lovers? Did you think that he was a good lover or a toxic lover?

To Relate or to not relate.. That is all up to you.

Through my journey into reading The Tain, I found multiple situations in the story that were so similar to the previous stories read in this class that I couldn't help but to bring them all to your attention. It is always a fun little joy of mine to find things while reading that relate to another piece of literature or related to something in real life. Especially when they are such different pieces of work, like these.

To begin, the scene in which Ailill sends a "fool" to trick the opposing warriors into thinking it was him was unbelievably similar to Achilles's story with the death of Patroclus. I found myself with my mouth wide open at how funny it was to see the parallel to the stories. Of course these two scenes did have important differences though. For example, Patroclus stole Achilles's armor without him knowing and the fool was forced to dress up in the disguise by Ailill. Along with that, although they both died in the end, Patroclus successfully passed as Achilles and was killed because he was thought to be Achilles. The fool was killed because the plan failed and they knew that Ailill was trying to pull a fast one on them. Better luck next time Ailill.


Another parallel that I found from The Tain was with Inanna's Decent to the Underworld. In Inanna's story, we go through a long description of the stages Inanna took in order to enter the underworld. We followed her through every gate and watched her take off another piece of clothing or accessory. I see two scenes in The Tain that reminded me of that through description of Inanna's undressing. For example, we read a long and thorough section just devoted to Cuchulainn getting dressed for his battle. We know that Inanna's undressing was symbolic and important, that makes me wonder how important this preparation for battle was? The other scene that reminded me of Inanna was the death of Etarcomol. The author found it important to point out every little part of his death. First he cut off his clothes, then hair, then right in half. I think what makes me want to relate both these scenes back to Inanna is the attention to the small details. It makes me, and probably some of you, feel the need to pay attention because it seems so important.

My question for all of you would be, have you found anything in the story that can be related to another piece of writing you have ever read? Can you agree with my ideas or disagree?