LGBT Dragon Ball Fanbase Experiences and Talk

[Basaku]

DB didn't make me discover anything, I already knew, but obviously all the muscules in the series had an appeal

I was crushing on Vegeta hard

[Big Green The Yoshi]

If you want to join a liberal DBZ forum, go to DBZF... LOL.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Meh. I dont want to go to a liberal place. That's also another reason, I dont want to go to Tumblr or a tumblr like place those suck.

[gipset]

I'm straight but my oblivious-ass had no idea how much women and LGBT like DB for the hunks until recently

[Cure Dragon 255]

Dont worry,until recently I didnt really bought that people watched stuff for that sort of reason. Welcome!

[Kanassa]

I was crushing on Vegeta hard

No crushes on Piccolo?

[ecrockedboston]

I was crushing on Vegeta hard

No crushes on Piccolo?

I'm straight, but I dreamed of replacing Gohan in having a trainer/mentor relationship with Piccolo when I was a kid, for what ever that's worth.

[Dr. Casey]

I guess this means that Yamcha played a special role in the original Dragon Ball, since he's the only attractive male protagonist for the first 80 episodes. (Krillin can definitely be considered attractive when he grows up, but as a 13 year old, ah...) Then comes Tenshinhan in the 22nd Budokai, and by the time of the 23rd there's no shortage of good-looking guys with Piccolo and Adult Goku joining the fray.

[Doctor.]

Gotta say I don't really see a purpose for this thread either. It reads like a chatroom, which is, well, something Kanzenshuu is against.

[Basaku]

I was crushing on Vegeta hard

No crushes on Piccolo?

Does he have a tail and enjoys getting naked during monoglues to Goku about Saiyan history? No!

[ecrockedboston]

Here's a question... I've seen in other threads where people express the desire to add gay characters and relationships to the Dragon Ball franchise. What do you think that could add? Dragon Ball has never focused very much on romance, and where it does, it's always been pretty shallow. The way I see it, if DB were to start adding homosexuals, it would appear shoehorned at best, and patronizing at worst. Personally, I don't care to see sexuality addressed, hetero or otherwise.

[Gaffer Tape]

Here's a question... I've seen in other threads where people express the desire to add gay characters and relationships to the Dragon Ball franchise. What do you think that could add? Dragon Ball has never focused very much on romance, and where it does, it's always been pretty shallow. The way I see it, if DB were to start adding homosexuals, it would appear shoehorned at best, and patronizing at worst. Personally, I don't care to see sexuality addressed, hetero or otherwise.

But heterosexual relationships, desires, and urges ARE addressed in Dragon Ball, all the time: Goku and Chichi, Blooma and Yamucha, Blooma and Vegeta, Lunch and Tenshinhan, Gohan and Videl, Oolong and Kame'Sennin with anything with a vagina. Yes, it's shallow, but it's ever-present, often crucial to the plot, and yet they certainly don't seem shoehorned in. After all, the entire story of Dragon Ball is set in motion by a teenage girl's heterosexual desires.

I freely admit I'm no fan of tokenism, and sometimes it's all too easy for an inclusion of an under-represented group to feel that way instead of the organic outgrowth it needs to be in order to be successful. But it's hard for me to accept an argument against homosexual relationships with the justification that Dragon Ball doesn't need any sexuality at all. Because it's there. And using that reasoning often belies the true reason for hesitation: that they perceive heterosexual relationships as the norm and all else as a jarring deviation at best. It's an unconscious bias that allows people to look at a smorgasbord of heterosexuality examples and not even notice them but perceive any incursion of other sexualities as something that is jarring and can't be ignored.

Unless, of course, I'm misreading your statement, and you are expressing a wish that Dragon Ball literally hadn't addressed sexuality at all, including all of the heterosexual examples it has included over the years.

[Zephyr]

Honestly, if they revealed Ten and Chaozu to harbor mutual romantic feelings, it wouldn't come across as random or forced to me.

[Doctor.]

Honestly, if they revealed Ten and Chaozu to harbor mutual romantic feelings, it wouldn't come across as random or forced to me.

Chaozu, yes. I've always interpreted Tenshinhan as asexual, just extremely attached to Chaozu.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Here's a question... I've seen in other threads where people express the desire to add gay characters and relationships to the Dragon Ball franchise. What do you think that could add? Dragon Ball has never focused very much on romance, and where it does, it's always been pretty shallow. The way I see it, if DB were to start adding homosexuals, it would appear shoehorned at best, and patronizing at worst. Personally, I don't care to see sexuality addressed, hetero or otherwise.

But heterosexual relationships, desires, and urges ARE addressed in Dragon Ball, all the time: Goku and Chichi, Blooma and Yamucha, Blooma and Vegeta, Lunch and Tenshinhan, Gohan and Videl, Oolong and Kame'Sennin with anything with a vagina. Yes, it's shallow, but it's ever-present, and yet they certainly don't seem shoehorned in. I freely admit I'm no fan of tokenism, and sometimes it's all too easy for an inclusion of an under-represented group to feel that way instead of the organic outgrowth it needs to be in order to be successful. But it's hard for me to accept an argument against homosexual relationships with the justification that Dragon Ball doesn't need any sexuality at all. Because it's there.

I agree with your general statement, although perhaps what some people feel (& unfortunately, I feel they're right) is that homosexual relationships are much more of an outlier & that the audience wouldn't have found it funny as easily as they would a "straight" relationship. Although I do think that an author like Toriyama might be interested in such a thing. It is definitely a bit disappointing that there aren't more of them, especially thrown around as casually as DB relationships tend to be. As for tokenism...speaking as someone from Muslim background (non-religious, although I generally try to be empathetic & respectful of what people believe)...it rather bugs me when people gloss over things like headscarves, which are so patriarchal, & praise Muslims despite us having so many faults. I get that people want to highlight the good things & be invitational/welcoming - that's the only way we'll learn to evolve & integrate with others, as we so woefully have been lacking in doing - I really do...but I can't help but be bugged with white feminist women wearing headscarves - again, I appreciate the sentiment, but I really like several talking points are going way over their head. Trump & his supporters are promoting xenophobia, sure, but that doesn't mean that "everyone else" is correct solely because of that.

[floofychan333]

I'm straight, but I'm supportive of anyone here who's gay, trans, bi, or whatever else. Also, I'm always willing to support people who bring up controversial topics involving social issues and Dragon Ball's flaws in that regard.

[Gog]

Gotta say I don't really see a purpose for this thread either. It reads like a chatroom, which is, well, something Kanzenshuu is against.

I know that this is off topic but, huh? Is Kanzenshuu against chatroom's? I never knew that fact, could you please explain why, or how this happened

[Dbzfan94]

Gotta say I don't really see a purpose for this thread either. It reads like a chatroom, which is, well, something Kanzenshuu is against.

I know that this is off topic but, huh? Is Kanzenshuu against chatroom's? I never knew that fact, could you please explain why, or how this happened

That's just how it is. A forum and a chatroom are two different things.

[Soppa Saia People]

Gotta say I don't really see a purpose for this thread either. It reads like a chatroom, which is, well, something Kanzenshuu is against.

I know that this is off topic but, huh? Is Kanzenshuu against chatroom's? I never knew that fact, could you please explain why, or how this happened

This is a Dragon Ball-exclusive community. Unless there is a direct comparison, correlation, or influence being discussed with regard to other franchises, we ask that all conversations and contributions be about and solely about Dragon Ball. All contributions should be polite, accepting, and written properly. Excessive (particularly one-line-quote-and-response) back-and-forths are frowned upon, as are multiple posts in a row by the same user. Please think about your contributions before making them; a simple “Yes” or “I agree”, while having a perfectly fine sentiment behind them, do not actually add anything substantial to the on-going conversations. Just like a single word is not an appropriate response, an image in and of itself is not an appropriate response. No matter what the subject matter, we simply ask that our members bring as much substance to the conversation as possible in as well-written a way as possible. All written and visual content should, as a general rule, be kept as “safe for work” as possible.

[Cipher]

But heterosexual relationships, desires, and urges ARE addressed in Dragon Ball, all the time: Goku and Chichi, Blooma and Yamucha, Blooma and Vegeta, Lunch and Tenshinhan, Gohan and Videl, Oolong and Kame'Sennin with anything with a vagina. Yes, it's shallow, but it's ever-present, often crucial to the plot, and yet they certainly don't seem shoehorned in. After all, the entire story of Dragon Ball is set in motion by a teenage girl's heterosexual desires.

I freely admit I'm no fan of tokenism, and sometimes it's all too easy for an inclusion of an under-represented group to feel that way instead of the organic outgrowth it needs to be in order to be successful. But it's hard for me to accept an argument against homosexual relationships with the justification that Dragon Ball doesn't need any sexuality at all. Because it's there. And using that reasoning often belies the true reason for hesitation: that they perceive heterosexual relationships as the norm and all else as a jarring deviation at best. It's an unconscious bias that allows people to look at a smorgasbord of heterosexuality examples and not even notice them but perceive any incursion of other sexualities as something that is jarring and can't be ignored.

Unless, of course, I'm misreading your statement, and you are expressing a wish that Dragon Ball literally hadn't addressed sexuality at all, including all of the heterosexual examples it has included over the years.

I'm going to second Gaffer Tape on this. We may not delve far into any of them, but heterosexual relationships are very much present in the series.

I think there's a bit of a false equivalence that goes around when people discuss the difficulties of adding gay characters to popular fiction. There's an odd assumption that to do so, you'd have to delve into the romantic or sexual side of their relationships in a way that has never been true for the portrayal of straight couples.

Which is to say, Dragon Ball could absolutely have some coupled gay characters. Their relationship wouldn't need to be any more foregrounded than Bulma and Vegeta's, Videl or Gohan's, Kuririn or 18's, etc. Hell, a male fighter in the upcoming multiversal tournament could simply walk back to his boyfriend in the stands.

Whether that light a depiction gets into tokenism or would simply be an equivalent representation and a natural one to include given the expansive size of the cast is another matter, and really one that comes down to execution.

This is veering back into the territory covered by the recent "Queerness in DB" thread. I don't want to take it back onto that track, but I did want to throw some support behind this post.