


the misogyny in the zenin clan is flanderized
people love to selectively pick at naoya’s disposition to extract a trait and use that as a common defining characteristic for the entire clan, what we’re entirely overlooking is how the man despite supposedly encompassing all of the zenin clan’s inner beliefs is disliked by that same clan.
naoya is the only one who has exhibited these traits and his views don’t represent the system, in contrast if we look at ogi and his treatment of maki & mai he takes an issue with their lack of strength, strength is something that’s treasured by the clan and he’s disappointed by how his daughters don’t possess any upholding qualities, he didn’t pre-assume that they would be innately weak because of their sex, they just proved to be weak with time. if women had absolute no standing in the clan his daughters strength wouldn’t have been a decisive factor, even naoya briefly touched on how his daughters lack of talent impeded him.
maki’s mother the submissive and silent woman has a certain presence to others which doesn’t line up with the aforementioned, the notion that she’s at the lowest in the pecking order is challenged by how she’s perceived by others, it isn’t cursed energy because she’s a non-sorcerer, it has to do with her surface level demeanour; someone without a shred of authority or social standing in the clan wouldn’t display the complete opposite.
let’s also not forget how maki intended to become the head of the clan so it was certainly possible for a woman, it was just heavily conditional on her own strengths. for anyone who says “well she didn’t despite coming back stronger” she immediately killed everyone upon awakening and toji who is a man with considerable strength was a bad pick because he can’t fulfil basic jujutsu requirements like exorcising CS, maki is in a similar position where she’s reliant on cursed tools to get the job done.