super michael wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 7:26 pm
Videl didn't lose to Spopovich and get brutally beat up for being female, she lost because she is a regular human being, fighting a super human. It is no different than Gohan getting beat up by Recoome.
Videl only learned to fly in the short time she trained with Gohan. Every Z fighter needed more time to train to become super human and beyond.
Tone and context matters. The Videl scene is played in a way to evoke sympathy for her and to establish Spopovich as irredeemably and horrifyingly evil. The story makes sure to point out that Spopovich is beating her up just enough to not kill her, which would cause him to lose the match.
This is a tournament where the way to win is to beat the ever-loving-crap out of your opponent until they can't get up anymore without killing them, which is
exactly what both Spopovich and Videl are trying to do (I will remind you that at one point, Videl attempts to break his neck). And yet, you have the characters, heroes included, questioning only the male contestant in this situation for a supposed lack of morality.
None of this works unless you give in to the notion that men beating women up is morally repugnant and Spopovich should've been more delicate with "the weaker sex." This in a franchise where human biology mostly doesn't matter and characters are either just born that strong for no particular reason or get stronger through gags and other contrived means. A character is exactly as strong as Toriyama wants them to be, and Toriyama wanted Videl to be a damsel.
Take note on how after this fight, Videl is ejected entirely out of the narrative and she never fights again or strives to become as strong as the other Earthling characters. All her build-up as a powerful girl who liked fighting, beating up bad guys, and who strived to become stronger through training went nowhere as soon as she served her one true purpose: Be beaten to motivate the male character and fall in love with him for saving her. If Toriyama had any sincerity with the way he wrote her all the way up to the Spopovich fight, she would've used that event as a wake-up call and an opportunity to get better, but that's not what happens in any of the sequels.
At the end of the day, Videl vs. Spopovich is just Namu vs Ranfan if you removed the gags, but didn't remove any of the underlying sexism of Namu going "Ohhhh nooooo, a womaaaaaaaan, I can't beeeeeaaatt a womaaaaan, it's wrooooong
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