Is Dragon Ball a misogynist series?

[Kid Buu]

I'm currently at the Buu arc and I've been wondering about this.

Bulma is the first major female in the series. She's a pretty well-rounded character in the first arc, but even then she's sexually exploited plenty of times in the series. She had some of the better character development in the series in my opinion, although the whole thing where she gets all lovey-dovey with Vegeta just so we can have another Super Saiyan was pretty lame.

Chichi originally had a minor role as the Ox-King's daughter who actually lost to Yamcha in a fight. She's reintroduced at the 23rd Budokai Series whose meant to be rather stronger compared to the rest of the humans. But even then she's beaten in a single hit by Goku and sadly reduced to a gag for the rest of the series.

Lunch is a character that served as a gag, and never really transcended beyond that. Her only real notable moment was saving Master Roshi from the RRA when they invade his island, but other than that she's so irrelevant even the author seemed to forget about her.

Eighteen is a character who gets notability because she manages to beat down Vegeta, Trunks, and Future Gohan. Even then, it's established she's the weakest of her trio and her romance with Kuririn in somewhat forced in the sense that we're left wondering what the hell she sees in him. By the time of the Buu arc and even battle of Gods, it seems her character cares for nothing except for money.

Videl is the final major female to be introduced, and has one of the strongest personalities in the series. Her relationship with Gohan is one of the highlights of the Buu arc, but by the tournament she's given (IMO) the most brutal beatdown in the series then washed away for the series for good until her fetus goes Super Saiyan.

Now I'll be first to admit I laughed when Kuririn pulled off Bulma's top for the Invisible Man fight gag, but I couldn't really imagine being a woman without thinking how the woman are treated in the series. What are your thoughts?

[Fionordequester]

Oh it's DEFINITELY misogynistic in the beginning, and frankly, it's fricken TERRIFYING how lightly Master Roshi's behavior is treated !! I mean between this, the HUGE amount of female mains who are 12-14, yet are drawn to be alluring and luscious (as is the case with Sailor Moon), and how often the whole "looking at dirty magazines" thing is treated as a gag in so many series, it really makes me frightened of what Japan's values on that might be.

Once the Z era starts though...eh, seems ok to me. It makes me wonder if Akira's marriage happened sometime between the beginning of Dragon Ball and the Z era.

[The Monkey King]

Calling wives and mothers 'breeding stock' is pretty misogynist and offensive in itself.
Being human Bulma, Chi-Chi etc were bound to become irrelevant anyway.
18 is bearly weaker than 17. I'd say if 17's a 10 18's a 9.7.
Videl's fight is brutal but it's an establishing character moment, Videl went down fighting and gave it her all against towering odds and was pretty badass.
And I like how you conviniently left out Bulma being a genius scientist and basically saving the entire DBU by creating a time machine.

So is Dragonball a series that hates women?
I'd say no.

[Rocketman]

I wouldn't call it misogynist, because I don't think anything was done with malice. It does, however, severely neglect its women characters.

[Kid Buu]

Calling wives 'breeding stock' is pretty misogynist in itself.
Being human Bulma, Chi-Chi etc were bound to become irrelevant anyway.
18 is bearly weaker than 17. I'd say if 17's a 10 18's a 9.7.
Videl's fight is brutal but it's an establishing character moment, Videl went down fighting and gave it her all against towering odds.
And I like how you conveniently left out Bulma being a genius scientist and basically saving the entire DBU by creating a time machine.

So is Dragonball a series that hates women?
I'd say no.

I did not mean to be sexist by referring them as breeding stock. I said that in Chichi and Bulma's case because the former sadly gets nothing to do in the series except be Gohan and Goten's mother. As for the latter, it seemed to me Toriyama put Vegeta and Bulma together for the sole purpose of creating the Trunks character. Yeah Bulma is pretty well-rounded character who helps the Senshi many time, but even then she's sexually exploited many times for humour.

As for the "humans are useless" excuse. Well Mr. Satan is a human and he saved the entire world in the Buu arc. Even then, Toriyama could have made a female Saiyan.

Edit: Actually, if there are any females on the forum who were offended by the term "breeding stock" then I apologize. I didn't mean it in a spiteful way.

[Gaffer Tape]

You accusing Dragon Ball of using female characters as breeding stock shouldn't be taken as offensive by anyone because *you* aren't saying women are breeding stock.

But anyway, I agree with Rocketman. I don't think the series is purposefully misogynistic, but it treats its female characters pretty terribly most of the time. I just don't think Toriyama knows how to write them or what to do with them. Then again, that applies to 90% of his characters, male and female, so I don't know if it's a "woman problem" or just a general "Toriyama screws over his characters" problem. The few characters who do consistently have things to do are the strongest fighters, and they happen to be male, so maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe...

[Kiyza]

Now I'll be first to admit I laughed when Kuririn pulled off Bulma's top for the Invisible Man fight gag, but I couldn't really imagine being a woman without thinking how the woman are treated in the series. What are your thoughts?

I'm a woman and, to be totally honest, while I was initially reading the series, I never once gave it a thought. It's only when I started seriously discussing it online (and listening to Kanzenshuu's podcast) that I actually bothered to think about it, and I still think it's more a result of the fact that it's a male-oriented Japanese series written in the mid '80s to '90s. Of course women aren't going to be playing a major role. To be honest, it still doesn't bother me. It's not like it was intentionally hateful toward women, as others have said.

[Roland_ELoG]

A good question to ask is if ANY media made for young boys ISN'T misogynist.

I don't think most of it is that harmful, and some things from Dragon Ball that I would consider very egregious can be chalked up to cultural differences.

[penguintruth]

Check your privilege, cis scum. Stop slut shaming Bulma, Roshi, you're just contributing to rape culture, omg. Check out my tumblr with GIFs of Doctor Who and Benedict Cumberbatch. I also ship Mal Reylonds and Simon Tam. BUTTSECKS, don't be a hater. Here's a link to my forty Twilight fanfics!

Seriously, though, DB isn't misogynist, it's just clear Toriyama can't really write for women that well, and it's an action manga mostly about muscled strongmen. All of the characters have their foibles, whether male or female.

[Ringworm128]

DB is targeted at boys that are still young enough to believe in girl germs.

[Fionordequester]

DB is targeted at boys that are still young enough to believe in girl germs.

Not that you'd know that given how much Bulma and other women are objectified in early DB.

[Blade]

I'm not convinced that it's at all misogynistic, on the contrary - I think rather conversely Toriyama only tends to write very strong and independent female characters. Even when the narrative is almost entirely male-centric and action based, Chi Chi and Bulma are still entirely in control and the dominant forces in their relationships, with Chi Chi's influence in how Gohan is raised particularly providing a constant backdrop to his personal story.

Is Dragonball misogynistic? No. Does Toriyama occasionally objectify the female body for comedic purposes? Yes - but that's something entirely different, the two don't necessarily go hand in hand.

[Ashelia]

This is my first post here so sorry if its too long or comes of confrontational.

As a woman this argument is one of my hated topics. I'll never understand the negativity that comes with fictional stay at home mothers or sexuality so to me terms like "breeding stock" are insulting as it equates one to being a brainless cow with no consent and all personalty, actions, etc disappears once pregnant. I'll never be a mother due to choice but that alone doesn't make me better nor does just having a kid make one infallible. Its nice that you apologized, Kid Buu but I say judge the person not just their job.

Anyways Toriyama clearly wrote headstrong independent tough women, not blow up dolls who faint at the vapors. It wouldn't be a crazy leap if say Chi Chi or Videl started training then kicking ass on par with the men cause we know they are expectational women. So due to this the issue isn't their portrayal, personalities, etc its usage and lack there of in fighting. Sexually I still see no ill intent/harm as its usually done jokingly where we know Roshi is wrong, isn't glorified and does fall out of practice so it doesn't bother me at all.

Overall the women aren't dumb one dimensional angels who accept abuse with a smile, they're cool strong women in my eyes. To me the husbands accept way more abuse than they should and I often feel bad for them. You risk your life multiple times to save the universe/world but you still openly get bossed around/yelled at with no fear of even verbal retaliation and its seen as a joke? Thats messed up imo but thats not the topic.

tl;dr I see no hatred or even ignorance, just another sign of interesting characters being put into convenient limited roles.

[kei17]

Dragon Ball is a shonen series focused on fighting. I see no problem with it not having many strong female characters. Also, from what I know, at least the original manga has no "women should just stay back and don't fight" moments that many shonen series at the time had, which is enough gender-conscious for a shonen series produced over 20 years ago. I guess Toriyama is just a little embarrassed and doesn't want to depict many female characters. He is not sexist.

how often the whole "looking at dirty magazines" thing is treated as a gag in so many series, it really makes me frightened of what Japan's values on that might be.

Seriously, what's the problem?

Videl is the final major female to be introduced, and has one of the strongest personalities in the series. Her relationship with Gohan is one of the highlights of the Buu arc, but by the tournament she's given (IMO) the most brutal beatdown in the series then washed away for the series for good until her fetus goes Super Saiyan.

No, it doesn't. It just glows blue.

[Ringworm128]

DB is targeted at boys that are still young enough to believe in girl germs.

Not that you'd know that given how much Bulma and other women are objectified in early DB.

Kids can be perverts too. Also Japan isn't as overprotective.

[The Monkey King]

Bulma doesn't get enough credit for essentially being the biggest hero in Dragon Ball.
In an apocolyptic world where her closest friends were dead, the father of her son dead, the Dragonballs gone forever and perhaps even her parents dead. Bulma didn't have a break down, she single handedly raised her son into a polite young man in the worst of conditions. Pulled up her sleeves and spent years creating a Goddam time machine out of scraps!

If Future Bulma isn't a strong female if not the strongest character in Dragonball I don't know who is?

[Fionordequester]

Seriously, what's the problem?

Well, I know you were born in Japan, and I was raised in America, so I guess our views will likely differ. But, as a man with powerful MAN urges, I see any sort of lewdness as something dangerous to mess around with, lest you, say, get drunk and get a woman pregnant, or have sex before you're ready. I mean heck, a lack of proper sexual education for teens is already a significant problem, so these sorts of images can perpetuate the problem, whether Akira saw any problem with it or not. So anything that belittles the importance of that (like characters treating pervertedness like it's nothing more than a minor annoyance), to me, seems like it's doing a disservice to men and women.

That, and what if the reader of Dragon Ball happens to be trying to get over some sexual sin him/herself, like adultery or promiscuity? All of a sudden, you've got this lewd image getting them front and center, the same way an alcoholic would start to sweat and writhe when someone puts a bottle of alcohol in front of him/her. And for what? Some immature joke? Is that really worth it?

Like I said though, that got better once Dragon Ball started to get rolling. Heck, in terms of personality, Bulma was the only real offender in the series outside of some one-off characters, objecting herself like crazy in Dragon Ball Chapter 1, and walking around in her underwear in front of Gohan and Krillin on the space ship. Independent personality or not, that's still a little absurd.

[Roland_ELoG]

Alright you just took that to a weird place.

Sex is a thing that happens. Getting freaked out because a culture has a higher tolerance threshold of nudie mags is a thing that is silly. The most important thing a person can learn from traveling or studying other cultures is that morals are dogshit.

Sexaholism. Honestly.

[Ringworm128]

Seriously, what's the problem?

Well, I know you were born in Japan, and I was raised in America, so I guess our views will likely differ. But, as a man with powerful MAN urges, I see any sort of lewdness as something dangerous to mess around with, lest you, say, get drunk and get a woman pregnant, or have sex before you're ready. I mean heck, a lack of proper sexual education for teens is already a significant problem, so these sorts of images can perpetuate the problem, whether Akira saw any problem with it or not. So anything that belittles the importance of that (like characters treating pervertedness like it's nothing more than a minor annoyance), to me, seems like it's doing a disservice to men and women.

That, and what if the reader of Dragon Ball happens to be trying to get over some sexual sin him/herself, like adultery or promiscuity? All of a sudden, you've got this lewd image getting them front and center, the same way an alcoholic would start to sweat and writhe when someone puts a bottle of alcohol in front of him/her. And for what? Some immature joke? Is that really worth it?

Like I said though, that got better once Dragon Ball started to get rolling. Heck, in terms of personality, Bulma was the only real offender in the series outside of some one-off characters, objecting herself like crazy in Dragon Ball Chapter 1, and walking around in her underwear in front of Gohan and Krillin on the space ship. Independent personality or not, that's still a little absurd.

Well I guess we shouldn't allow food in anything in case someone on a diet is reading, watching etc. And really what's wrong with sexy? Why are people not allowed to show a little skin and look good? Why is it such a crime for someone to throw in a little fanservice? What are we Amish?

[Metalwario64]

What are we Amish?

Americans for the most part are, in regards to nudity. It's ridiculous.