Gackt and his relationships
Recently there has been some controversy over Gackt's statements about what he wants in a woman and what demands he makes of his girlfriends.This controversy has made me think a lot about his attitudes towards women and so far I have had mixed feelings. After reading the Gackt psychoanalysis page I decided to state my own two cents on the subject of Gackt's views on women.
Some fans have accused Gackt of thinking women are weak or being extremely controlling, but I disagree. Part of this is because of things he has said in past interviews such as in his interview with Koga Miho. A year or more ago Gackt did an interview with female pro golfer Koga Miho, in his magazine column Gackt meets winners. In the interview Koga Miho was very self effacing and unwilling to brag about her ability as a golfer. Gackt on the other hand seemed very convinced of her ability as a golfer and practically spent the whole interview trying to get her to admit that she was a strong willed person.
Gackt Meets Winners : Interview with Koga Miho
http://chikotori.livejournal.com/56235.html#cutid1
"K: Do I really have a strong will? (laugh)
G: Of course. I think that in a competitive world, if your will is not strong you can't make a living, even if you're a female."
"G: By the way, your favourite car is AMG's SL. Isn't that quite a cool car? That isn't the type of car a girl with a weak will drives, is it?
K: (laugh) The car is the one with the strong will. Basically, the world of pro golfers is like a gathering of strong-willed people.
G: Miho-chan is like Krillin in the World Martial Arts Tournament.
K: I feel really weak compared to those around me. I have thoughts like 'Why am I so weak?'
G: Then, those around you must think you're like the Son Gohan who appeared at the World Martial Arts Tournament. You may think yourself weak, but then you send them flying with a single blow."
Despite Koga Miho's self effacing behavior Gackt doesn't seem at all to believe that Koga Miho is at all a weak person. And goes out of his way to compliment her strength. Therefore Gackt can't be completely ignorant of the existence of strong self reliant women.
That being said why is he making such absurd demands on his girlfriends then? He claims that his girlfriends "take on his color". He has said that his girlfriend must ask for him to open the car door for her and wear skirts and dresses. Of course he has also said that he has a "magnum", that he can perform coitus for eight hours, and that he can drink 20 bottles of tequila in one sitting. So it's not like everything Gackt says is entirely unquestionable. Now it would be cherry picking to assume that whatever Gackt says that's unpleasant is automatically false, as well as it would be unreasonable to assume every unpleasant thing he says must therefore be true. Instead I will try to be objective and look at whether his claims about his girl friends "taking on his color" are logically consistent with his practices and things he has said about his relationships in the past.
The first claim I'm analyzing is his recent statement that a girl must ask for him to open the car door for her. This seems strange since in Jihaku he says the exact opposite.
http://darcenciel.livejournal.com/264794.html
"And then, they usually slam the door with a bang! If they do that, privately I swear in my heart, "She's never getting another ride in my car!"
He obviously was not imposing this rule on women back then or else their would be no point in complaining about them slamming the car door. He even says that opening the car door is how he evaluates whether he likes a women or not.
"My father liked high-class cars too. When I was a child, if I slammed the car door, he would make me shut it over and over. Because of this influence, I am sensitive to how people close the car door.
I can tell what kind of personality a person has from the way he or she closes the car door
For example, let's say I'm taking a girl back to her house in my car.
The girl closes the door gently with a click. When she gets out of the car, she says something outside the window. I open the window, and she says "Take care," and waves with a smile.
While thinking, "wow, she's great," I start the car and leave. I make a U-turn and try to return back around to the front of her house, and she is still there waving."
Therefore its inconsistent for him to claim that his girlfriend "must" ask for him to let her out the car as a standard for his evaluation of women, as it contradicts other established standards for how he evaluates women. That said it might be that he doesn't trust any women to leave his car without scratching the door. That he has become so controlling and demanding that he won't allow any risk to his car being scratched at all and as a result has imposed new rules on his girlfriends. Except this makes no sense whatsoever when you consider what he has said in the past. In December 2008 issue of Crea magazine Gackt gets asked:
http://uranus-sama.livejournal.com/895107.html
December 2008 issue of Crea magazine
" Yoshida: How about when you switch it around, do you let women drive while you ride
as a passenger?
Gackt: I love to. I love to sit beside someone else while they drive.
Yoshida: But since driving can be dangerous, dont you get nervous or anything?
Gackt: It's pretty scary (laugh). Whenever I'm riding in someone else's car, my heart
keeps going dokidoki. Not because I'm riding as a passenger, since I can ride with people
I trust. Having that trust is a good feeling. If I cant trust the person driving, I'll say "Move
over, let me drive"."
So Gackt is able to trust a women enough to drive his car with him in the passenger seat ( despite bad driving can result in death ) but he can't trust her to open the car door when she gets out? If thats true then Gackt must have some massive priority issues.
Thats only the beginning of the big glaring inconsistencies in Gackt's claims about his relationships with women. Lets handle the claim that Gackt's women supposedly "take on his color". Gackt says in the
2010 Beat Freak interview
http://amaiakuyume.livejournal.com/175023.html#cutid1
"G: The face is important, but… I'll get tired of a beauty in three days. The reason I think appearances are important is because you can work out from someone's external appearance whether or not they live a half-assed life or not. If they just have a pretty face, I won't go out with them for long. The characteristics of an appealing person is someone with a beautiful way of speaking and conducting oneself, and with a good psychological balance. Even if it's only occasional, I can't be together with a girl who fights. I'm old fashioned from this perspective, I want you to step down. This is just my old fashioned philosophy, but I think the act of "believing in someone and giving them all of yourself" is something that takes more ability than deciding something and doing it for yourself. Aren't there girls who say bad things about their own boyfriend to others? That's just appealing to the idea that even though they chose him. their own eyes were mistaken. Being able to think of someone else's opinions as your own isn't something you get confirmation of with your own eyes. I think a woman who can do that is amazing. Because, men, in the end, are wrapped around girl's fingers, women who can do that are amazing. I think I could stay with a girl like that forever."
According to Gackt his girlfriends aren't allowed to argue with him, that they can't argue with him no matter what, so he must lay down the law whenever a girl starts a fight with him, right? Lets see. Look back in 2009 one year ago when Gackt says.
http://chikotori.livejournal.com/65483.html
Arena 37c February 2009
"Interviewer: Has anyone ever said to you "It's too late for you to say that now"
Gackt: It has happened... I was told that by a girl.There was something I wanted to say but I couldn't convey it. When I said "I said it", it became a round of "I said it", "No, you didn't", "I said it"."
This girl is starting a fight with Gackt and Gackt has already said no arguing with him. That his woman must step down. So he must lay down the law here.
So I apologized and said "In that case, I'm sorry". She said that line, "It's too late for that now!", to me. I said, "Why? I wanted to say it before but I couldn't, so I'm apologizing. I'm sorry."
So he just gave in and apologized like that even though he doesn't think he did anything wrong. But what about women having to "step down"?
"Then she got angry. A lot of things were said, and in the end I said, "In that case, bye-bye!"
So he couldn't handle his girlfriend being angry with him so he just gives up and then breaks up with her. Gackt claims that his women "take on his color". But if he gives up the moment they get angry with him how are they going to take on how can any of this be accomplished? Then again maybe this is just a fluke and he usually gets his way but lets take a look at what he says in the 2005 Rose Prince interview where he talks about how he argues with women.
Rose Prince interview 2005
http://atrandum.livejournal.com/12785.html
"If it comes to that, I would say "I'm leaving." But then she would get mad and say that she's not done talking yet, how can I leave already? I would leave because she's mad, and I don't want to talk to her. She would lash back again, saying that how can I leave when she's mad. Then I'd explain that I'm leaving because she's mad, and when people are mad they would say bad things."
In other words he basically admits that he won't argue with women because they scare him. Gackt appears to be talking outside of both sides of his mouth. On one side he claims himself to be this sort of alpha male who makes all the rules and always gets his way. In practice the opposite is seems to be true though Gackt seems far more intimidated by his girlfriends than they are of him.
"Yoshida: When you're next to someone you can trust, do you really just leave everything
to them?
Gackt: No, I say stuff. "You're braking too slow" or "When you're changing lanes, you
gotta speed up!" and things like that. But women are stubborn (laugh). But once they
think things through, they realize that what I'm saying is right, and they finally consent
with me."
I think this statement here summarizes the nature of Gackt's relationships. Gackt makes demands but he lacks the will to impose them, rather he passively hopes he gets his way in the end. Gackt doesn't seem to like having to give in and being told he is wrong. Though at the same time he isn't willing to assert his dominance either and will fold when things get to intense. It seems to me Gackt is less of the type that imposes his will over women, but rather someone who complains a lot and fumes about not getting his way.