The Women of One Piece

all right let's talk about it I realize not everyone cares about this topic in terms of like how the women of One Piece are written and that tends to be because this is just a silly little shaen manga so I get the uncaring of it but at the same time this is one of the biggest fictional properties in the world I feel like I should remind people of that with every video to be honest in terms of our current day pop culture one piece is quite literally up there with the Kings right now and like I've said with previous videos it's weird it doesn't get a whole lot of studying done on it but what scholar wants to spend months to years going through this whole series and picking apart the influences from the time period of which one piece is from while also comparing it with the other media it's either inspired from competing with or recently inspired me [ __ ] I bet Aristotle would have loved one piece I'll say it before and I'll say it again it's so fully worth looking at one piece in an analytical way whether it be for its writing style political ideas or influence of Pop Culture if you don't care you don't care fair enough we can enjoy this series for the funny pirate show it is but I care okay I'm essentially saying a lot here while saying nothing at all I just feel the need to express why I enjoy having these kinds of conversations in regards to good old one piece our topic today well I already said it it's also the title and probably the thumbnail so you already know what it is oh boy boy today we're going to be dissecting the women of One Piece we'll be looking at them in terms of how they're written the impact they have on the story and the overall handling of women within one piece honestly there probably might be a lot of videos like this out there already I know there's a lot of articles on it like a lot there's also this screaming complaints on social media here or there regarding one piece girls which is both interesting and insane because you'll find a lot of those complaints are from people who haven't watched or read the series how would I know because I used to be one of them can you imagine me not being a one piece fan I was a different person back then if you're clicking on this video because you've never seen one piece and you just want a rundown of how the women are actually handled in a writing sense not just with their design then you've come to the right place because trust me I used to be you I really didn't give one piece the benefit of the doubt at the beginning either and I'll hold your hand through this journey we'll be taking together but before we disembark to a world full of beautiful women and big bouncy bahas it's sponsor time while we cannot all be pirates in our current day and age we can still be Pirates online and we can do that safely with Atlas VPN if you're not a tech node like me and have no idea what a VPN is a VPN makes it so all your internet searches browsing and history is completely protected it's sure to hide your IP address and keeps you safe from spying especially from the pesky FBI agent in your computer who's watching you look up zoro's big fat boobies as we speak but Atlas VPN isn't just a VPN it also protects you from popup ads and malicious malware it can also give you access to any country's version of Netflix or multiple other streaming services I mentioned Netflix specifically because did you guys know multiple one piece movies are on Australian Netflix and with that L you yes you can take advantage of atlas's Black Friday sale you can get a three-year subscription from $1 70 a month with a 30-day money back guarantee even better than that if you use my link in the description below you get an 86% discount for premium subscription snatch that deal while it's hot and thank you so much Atlas bpn for sponsoring this video I won't let you down all right everybody it's time to look at a bunch of lovely ladies as I said previously if you haven't seen one piece and you like many others think the women in this series are just boobs and pretty faces on a blank slate I literally can't blame you why because design aside and we will be getting to that one piece is a Shonen anime I know a lot of men in particular don't pay attention to how women are written in a shaen series and I'm not going to fault any guy for that not only does Shonen literally mean for boys but the costs are very largely male but also why are you as a man reading a series full of big muscular sweaty men constantly slapping meat suspicious but yeah if you read a series full of just men and you only encounter like two women of course you're not going to pay much attention to them outside of I candy fod after all in the head of a lot of readers this isn't about them and that's what a lot of shaen authors probably think too the reason the bar is so in the dirt for women and shaen specifically is because they're not seen as anything important women and shaen don't tend to be their own people they are usually just a support for the boys or their boy crazy or they're not important to the overall plot if they're not boy crazy to begin with then they end up getting a crush because at the end of the day a Shonen series will always focus on the main male protagonist and for that to still stay consistent to keep the focus on the man while a girl is in the series she needs to form a crush the formula is usually male protagonist male best friend male rival who can also be the best friend and girl who either forms a crush or always stays 10 steps back as to not take any shine away from the male protagonist she gets no real story she gets no place and she gets no development of course huge examples of this are the infamously written women of Naruto which I admittedly have not seen but have been told by many of Naruto fans that apparently they're just us and it is also true that I am a woman a woman I can't confirm this information personally of course but I do know like 99% of the women in that series all form big fat crushes on a guy I know that sounds hypocritical considering how I said I judged one piece before seeing it but I did make sure to ask my local Naruto fans for this one feel free to reprimand me if I got my sources wrong Dragon Ball the original is something I have seen and oh boy didn't Bulma have such a huge personality outside of men that's a joke I'm joking bulma's original purpose was literally finding a boyfriend like she literally wanted to find all the dragon balls to wish for a boyfriend but she's cute so I forgive her ah but then there's Android 18 you say she's strong so she must be good uh wrong she doesn't have much of a personality outside of punch and yes you can argue that's what she's meant to be but kind of sad the only Mainline female fighter is the one with no personality I'll say it as many times as I need to but strength alone doesn't make for a good character and especially not for a good female character Android 18 certainly doesn't experience all the highs and lows Goku and Vegeta do she is a stepup though she's just kind of uninteresting if she's not fighting but hey it's Dragon Ball you can argue that's the only thing anyone wants and you know what fair enough go drag on those balls Kings in terms of recent shown in anime with things like Attack on Titan Jiu-Jitsu Kaizen hero Academia and so on there seems to be a development where women now just seem to get written out I guess that's better for Jiu-Jitsu Kaizen there's a really fantastic video on the women of the series by a YouTuber named esper and I highly highly recommend watching it if you'd like more of an Insight on that they not only cover why the women of Jiu-Jitsu Kaizen became a let down but the discussion of women in shaen overall I really cannot recommend it enough and her video essay opened my eyes to a few things I'd previously not thought about but the main girl in current day shaen still tends to get boy obsessed and their fights and aspirations Focus around men or liking men usually the main character their original goals either started as supporting a man in a romantic sense or become that they have a crush so now their character is just male support their moment to shine is literally but mother I love him and well that's sha and girls a lot of the time women and shaen are just a commodity and again I can understand why many men especially would think well who cares this is meant to be about men slapping meat anyways I can not overstate how I'm not trying to persecute anyone who originally didn't have these thoughts or ideas but in my opinion that doesn't mean you can't write good women think about it this way if you're writing a series mainly targeted at men especially teenage to young boys isn't it healthier to include female characters who are actually independent from the male protagonist or at least who can just platonically exist around men the way I see it having women exist in these stories as a way to just support men in a romantic sense isn't going to be doing anyone any favors I'm not saying forming a crush isn't natural of course in general there's nothing wrong with that and the boys form crushes too but they're still independent from their female counterparts the formula of every damn main female character having or developing a crush is something shaan is still struggling to break from luckily now not all of them but a vast majority of them are still doing it and if it's not a crush then they're watered down to male support and if you think I'm being too preachy or being a woman about it God forbid the writer of One Piece Oda has literally had this same thought that's right we indeed have a written record of odor noticing just how poorly the women in shaen are written he has said word for word in the manga I read as a kid there was always a point where the heroine existed just to be rescued that didn't sit well with me I didn't want to create a story about women being kidnapped and saved I depict women who know how to fight for themselves and don't need to be saved if a moment comes where they're overpowered their Shipmates will help them out and vice versa he said this during an interview with the New York Times and I'll be sure to link that below so the argument can be made that shaen is for men and shaen doesn't have to include women at all least of all well-written ones but OD sure doesn't think that's the case in fact he's made a conscious effort of wanting to make his women strong in writing and as far as the bar is in the dirt that's more than I can say for a lot of male writers intent matters and these things should be acknowledged I should also address the notion that OD said one piece is for boys only I see this everywhere when people argue about this topic and let me break your bubble now that's a total misconception and he didn't say that what happened there is someone asked odor why there was no romance in one piece and he said because his series is a Shonen not a shjo and in our day and age shjo is considered a genre containing romance they do literally translate to four boys and four girls but he's 100% talking about shaen in a genre and series sense he's not nailing a no girl a loud sign on the front of his series Oda has expressed multiple times that he's made one piece to reach a wide variety of audiences from families to children to teenagers to adults not once expressing he's targeting just men hell he's even added elements into the story to appeal to his daughter specifically and once again he has actually stated this is the case Sanji was specifically made a quadruplet to appeal to his daughter and from what I know his daughter is not a teenage boy he's also gotten multiple questions from women reading the series one of them reading a friend said to me you're a girl why are you reading sha and jump and to this Oda answered as long as they understand a boy's fiery Spirit boys girls old guys and old ladies are all welcome darn it I feel that's important to cover since at this point in time one piece certainly has a much greater audience than just men and I mean much much greater take it from me when I went to see one piece on Ice yes that was a thing it slapped the audience was literally full of women in the age range of 40 to 60 and I know they weren't just there for the ice skaters because the lovely lady in front of me had her Zoro earrings in what I'm saying is Oda would have to be an idiot to not notice the broadness of his audience and using one piece is a John N is no excuse to not care about how the women are written especially when Oda himself has expressed that he wanted to make well-written women specifically for his series and I can say one thing it sure does show it greatly shows because you know you're doing something right when female shaen fans are actually liking your female characters and are not only attaching themselves to the male characters specifically you'll find so many girls who who just love numy or Robin or vivv or tashigi or any other female character they found a connection in of course there's still the complaint here or there since they're by no means perfect and there is a preconception that Oda doesn't know how to write women and I think we should get into that first let's rip the Band-Aid off in regards to the negatives for these girls afterwards I'll hopefully blow your minds with just how good these girls are to start let's do it let's get into the designs now listen I get it I get that a lot of guys don't know what's wrong with the designs but keep listening just keep listening I agree to a point in a world full of absolutely weird and wacky proportions from every single character and not just the girls there's literally nothing inherently wrong with this but where are their organs I hear yelled a lot and to that I say they're in Zoro Zoro has two sets of organs that's why he's so wide he's full of organs the most normal looking character you're going going to get is probably sunji and even then his eyebrows are whack and his legs are the length of a Sailor Moon character so when there's a well this zy and this crazy and this insane looking there really isn't anything I'd say is wrong with these women having itty bitty waist and big bouncy bahas where the issue is drawn is that there just isn't much Variety in terms of bodies for women you get the occasional Lola the occasional big mom the occasional Miss Monday and the occasional boa sisters actually to be honest Amazon Lily did pretty well in the body variety department but from some outliers here or there if we come across a traditionally attractive woman in one piece she's got the numy type of look and we can just boil that down to the fact Oda simply likes drawing tits and you know nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with liking women liking tits liking ass but when your main body type for women is one single body type of just this that's where where the sexism comes into play like I said before there is nothing inherently wrong with how Nami and Robin are drawn I honestly don't have an issue with it on its own it's just the lack of variety that hurts but I will be real here the body discussion is essentially beating a dead horse we can talk about it we should talk about it but when that's the only thing you focus on for these women in deciding they're only their bodies just because they look like that that's where it goes sour because is numy there just to be eye candy is Robin there just for her big tits is any woman in one piece existing as a big boobed prize to be swept up by male characters no as crazy as this sounds they just happen to be girls with these giant jugs and while there's the occasional fan service it's hardly commented on within the series I promise you one piece girls are not just tits on a stick the other negative of course is the fan service areas where they do become just their bodies examples of moments like this is Absalom in the shower with numy num's Bath House scene in wo her ninja outfit in wo she was made to wear kind of the alabaster bath scene but that one's definitely a lot less uncomfortable since nami's having a laugh listen they get sexualized their appearance and their being absolutely gets sexualized but within the One Piece manga at least there's actually pretty little fan service there are also perve characters like Sanji and Brooke who do go gagar over the girls and can become a problem in this regard but Nami and Robin do not exist for them and they do not exist for NY and Robin yes Sanji can have a filthy mind and yes he does go crazy for girls but what separates him from the comment shown in perv is he does actually hold a lot of respect for these women in some regard he does back off he does shut up and he does fully support them when the support is needed and it's not just to get something from them it's because he genuinely cares while there's misogyny in sanji's character numy Robin and any other lady are not just women to be oogled at by him this is not how Sanji sees women and this is not how women are written in the series again the bar is in the dirt but the fact there's no non-consensual group of female characters in this series genuinely deserves a fat thumbs up well if we exclude Momo who's meant to be that weird kid character who I was not a fan of at first yes there was Absalom in Thriller bark but this entire scene was presented to be scary and uncomfortable from nam's view as Absalom was a villain trying to turn her into his wife and honestly the fact as an evil character who is only judging women by whether they'll make a good wife or not is a pretty big commentary in itself self this man was designed to be a bastard and oh boy is he a bastard OD does also have a problem of killing off Mothers specifically but with the amount of dead parents in general in one piece I see this as more of an irritation than any major problem but while there are a lot of wrongs with od's design and handling of women I also believe there are a lot of rights to the point I was genuinely shocked upon my first viewing of One Piece because I wasn't expecting it I wasn't expecting to watch One Piece to watch these women and for them to be people people with dreams with struggles with aspirations and with development I wasn't expecting one piece's women to resonate with me and I wasn't expecting them to continue resonating with me and when I say that I don't mean clutching at straws trying to find reasons to like these Fem male characters I mean having a genuine emotional connection with them that never faltered because when it comes to one piece girls and when it comes to writing their beings hold on to your chairs they're indeed written and respected like the men I hear boing I hear jeering but it's true before I explain why I felt this way and why I do truly think this is the case let's address another issue in the room the fights now in my opinion the biggest problem Oda has is the race Rao of women to men and the fact women tend to only fight other women sometimes there's outliers such as Uso and Chopper fighting Miss Merry Christmas Usopp fighting perona Zoro fighting all of barck works or Lauren kid fighting big mom but there's a few and far between men tend to fight men and women tend to fight women in one piece this isn't just a one- piece problem this is actually an overall fights in media problem but it is annoying to just pair fights off by gender or sex I'm sick of it I just want to see numy kill a man the ratio of women to men is also annoying considering this is a fantasy world with pirates all over the globe yet the standard pirate crew will maybe have one woman shout out to crocodile for being inclusive and one toing that [ __ ] let's go King Oda is by no means the worst for it he's honestly got a bigger than most cast of women characters but it would be nice to just see more there's also o one other mini problem but I will explain that with this next point the biggest complaint you will see in regards to Nami and Robin in regards to OD writing them in a sexist way is that they don't fight or don't have big fights the big fights are usually given to Sanji Zoro and Luffy but numy and Robin do fight they are good Fighters and they always get themselves out of any problem in fact both Nami and Robin have literally saved Sanji from an opponent he literally couldn't fight I cannot express how much this is not them just being support for Sanji midf fight these are opponents he couldn't fight so those fights become their own entirely these fights were Nami versus Khalifa and Robin versus Black Maria numy and Robin rarely if ever have to be saved midf fight and if they do need the help they give that help right back as Oda said if a moment comes where they're overpower howed their Shipmates will help them out and vice versa Nami and Robin have a mutual relationship with the men on their crew they are not just support characters because by that definition everyone who isn't Luffy would be support characters not only that everyone on the straw hats including Luffy has been saved by their crew the ratio of women to men being rescued in terms of the straw hats is pretty even but the biggest thing here and something everyone tends to forget is numy and Robin's main role is not fighting and they're allowed not to be if we look at a Shonen like hero Academia and we look at how these girls are either just support or absent from the battlefield that's a problem because in this series the main point is they're Meant To Be Heroes the main point is they're meant to be in battle they're literally in a school where they're made into Fighters so of course there's going to be a huge huge sexist elephant in the room when these girls are sidelined in fights that's not what one piece is nam's main role is not a fighter nami's aspirations are not about fighting Nami was not raised as a physical fighter and the exact same can be said for Robin Robin is even someone who doesn't particularly like fighting or want to fight but she had to so she could stay alive she happily states she has powerful friends who can protect her and during her battle with black Maria we find the only reason she found the need to become stronger was for the entirety of her crew numy also asks Usopp to help her fight not because she wants to be a fighter but so she can hold her own and it worked numy in current day one piece has not been made into a damsel in distress she has not lost any fights she's been forced into she has not backed down from any enemy who targets her even if being previously apprehensive about it the only time she was kidnapped was Absalom but even then Sanji failed to save her and she had to get out of that situation on her own if anything this entire situation felt satirical and how women are treated as useless beings when in perilous situations and nummy literally work up and beat the [ __ ] out of Absalom what I'm saying is Robin and nummy don't need need big fights to be given respect as female characters they get about as many fights as Usopp Frankie Brooke and Chopper do but the mini problem I addressed and the one issue with this is the fact all the main Fighters are men if one of the big three here happened to be a woman whose fights are as big as the others then that' be great oh wait a minute but while that is a conundrum in itself fights are not what make these women work the support role is not something Nummy and Robin exclusively take up or sometimes take up at all because intent and context of the series matters greatly this is not a cast where everyone is out for themselves this is not a story about exclusively Luffy achieving his dream the straw hats are a collective who share their dreams share the worlds and share support Luffy has been a physical support for Robin just as much as Robin has been for Luffy when it comes to an arc like wano every single crew mate's fight mattered in making sure Luffy could finish off the main big bad in fact in Robins 10 fights Brooke was quite literally her support this fight was robins and Robins alone how crazy is that a male character supporting a female one to make sure she can finish her fight off clean and Easy in that same vein nam's fights are never taken over by men and and Her Shine is never taken away from her with any win she achieves one piece does this insane thing where even though they're not Fighters the women are still allowed to power up of their own Merit Robin and numy grow with the men in terms of strength they grow with the crew and their development of strength and person is never sidelined for the purpose of uplifting a man but this is just about the fights and again they're not even meant to be Fighters yet somehow they still have a presence on the battlefield the importance these women have and the reason why they're written as the people they are lies in their impact of story and plot nummy and Robin as characters are not passive this story literally cannot function without them the plot cannot move on without them you cannot replace them or remove them completely for nothing to change and again this lies in the fact that the straw hats are a collective there's a total prominence on the fact that everyone in the straw hats matter that everyone has a role to fulfill and has a place on the crew and Robin and nummy are no exception without numy they'd be incapable of making it Island to Island we watch numy Dodge storms steer through currents and ride up monstrous streams to bring her crew to safety her skills as a navigator are acknowledged all the way up to current day one piece we are both shown and told this series cannot function without her Robin on the other hand is literally the only person in the world who can read poneglyphs Robin is literally a Pinnacle Point in finding the one piece to the point a Mainline villain demanded she' be kidnapped so he could use her skills this kidnapping did not happen as Robin held her own and due to Robin we discover the history of each island we encounter Robin is also from my knowledge the first person to mention Joy boy I won't go any further than that but for you non- one piece fans that's a major aspect of one piece's story that holds a lot of weight what I'm saying here is if you took numy or Robin out of one piece the plot would come to a grinding halt but it's not just numy or Robin a lot of the time the plot can't move without women in general a major example of this is viie from alabaster's Ark she was the plot Alabaster was her story and the straw hats Luffy included were her support throughout this entire Arc Vivi was not passive in this story physically and she certainly wasn't a passive character metaphorically Vivie was not a princess to be saved she was a princess taking drastic action for her kingdom and there'd be no story without her Viv is one of the reasons why Alabaster is one of my favorite arcs in general and if we get into the writing of these girls as people as we look into their stories and selves we truly see why one piece's female characters Shine the way they do arong Park to many one piece fans is what made this series stand out to all of Shonen and this is Nummies Arc through arlong Park we see num's story we see her pain we see her struggle but most important ly we see her strength Nami was a little girl whose mother was killed by fishmen a little girl who decided to take the burden of saving her Village upon herself and for nearly a decade she put her life on the line to do so Nami is a character who is obsessed with money and the money wanting woman seems to be a Trope in shaan now I only noticed this recently but there's multiples of them for some reason the difference with numy and the reason why numy stands out is we see why this is the case her backstory gives us an understanding of character of why she backstabs and holds this type of greed and it's at this point we are given layers nam's want for money is so much more than just she was poor her backstory is nuanced and packed with relevance of her current day desires and we see just where her dreams are born from but the biggest thing the most important thing is that this story is hers numy does not exist to uplift a man numy is not a two-dimensional side character she is a person who has suffered a pain anyone can connect to and throughout all of arlong Park she is never sidelined her famous line of asking for Luffy's help is not nummy being a damsel in distress it's numy meeting her wits end it's numy who is tired Who has fought her entire life life and is now broken down due to the man she made a deal with lying to her and using her for his own means when Namy asks for help this means something because it shows Nami is putting her trust in something other than deals or money with the context we are given we can see Luffy saving numy does not take away from num's writing as a person just like Luffy Sav Zoro Sanji Uso and anyone else we know this is just what Luffy does he saves his friends and numi is considered one of them in this moment numi is not just seen as a woman she is a person one we can universally connect to and she's treated with a respect I greatly admire the exact same can be said for robin as water 7 was mainly her story and this Arc is yet another Arc that one piece fans hail as a magnificent one and again this Arc cannot move without Robin this Arc is about Robin and through Robin's story to her current day self we are once again met with a Nuance in writing that makes Robin a person while Robin is being saved she still continues to fight for herself even in the situation because she wanted to save her crew Robin is not a damsel in distress here she's a person fighting for her life with a new new will to exist one piece has two arcs the fans love dearly and both of these arcs are not only centered around the women of the straw hats but the most famous lines within both arcs are said by the women numy asking for Luffy's help and Robin screaming that she wants to live if you want more information regarding these two characters I've written a video essay on both of them which is why I'm not digging super deep here in terms of Shan and women and how they're treated this is extremely significant these arcs these scenes and these lines are extremely significant because like the men numy and Robin are given arcs like the men numy and Robin are allowed to shine and like the men they are treated as people their arcs show their aspirations and their arcs show they are individuals in their own right Robin and nummy are the ones being uplifted by men here and their goals are never stepped on nor ever forgotten in fact development of female characters is something Oda is fantastic at in general in fisherman Island we meet Shah hosi who is a cowardly princess scared of the outside world in this Arc alone we are given Shah hushi story to explain why she so afraid of the world and she develops in this same Arc by facing her fears and helping save fisherman Island in hake Island we meet pudding who starts as a villain by tricking the straw hat into thinking she's sweeter than she is once again we are given her backstory to help us understand her and once again she's given development in this Arc alone it's important to note here that while Sanji a male character did help her develop her core being did not surround men pudding was a character who was tormented for the way she looked even her her own mother mentally abused her and she not once desired a man to come along and fix her so to speak Sanji just happened to show her a kindness she'd never received nor had she ever expected and it's through his kindness that she started to change but at the same time she still found it hard to change and couldn't help herself in berating Sanji any chance she got the kindness Sanji gave her is a kindness anyone could have given her which is what makes her story so tragic but a female character I just love in terms of how she was handled and one I was amazed at upon meeting her was Boa Hancock here's the thing about boa she's in love with a man does this detract from her as a character no because we see exactly why Point by Point she fools for someone like Luffy like I said previously having a crush is not a bad thing but my biggest peeve with it will always be Boy Meets Girl so they have to like each other at no point does one piece do that especially with its women but if we look into boa and we see her story she's so humanized to the point she became one of my favorite characters in the entire series and who is BOA as a character what does she do boa is a character who is so beautiful she can use her body and looks to seduce anyone to win nearly any battle the Trope of a beautiful woman using her looks to their Advantage is not an uncommon one this exists in plenty of other media not just shaen and not just Anime in fact this idea is rooted in misogyny but it's how we see it and how boa's character is presented that truly sets her apart after all numy is also a character who will use her body from time to time for her own Advantage the difference here is this is from the control and confidence she has in herself her mother Bel was not only someone who would tease men in the same way but raised numy to have confidence in herself and her being explaining she will raise these girls to be good and strong people there's even a beautiful speech Bella mer has where she tells Nami and her sister that girls must be strong too numy also has other skills to be able to get what she wants and anytime she's swindling men with her looks it usually tends to be because she's chosen to trick them in such a way uh most of the time like I said there are ups and downs but for boa we discover she has absolutely no confidence in herself in her life and she's scared all the time from her traumatizing past of being a slave of being force-fed the power she now has we know boa absolutely despises the objectification she's faced with due to her beauty because once again it's not just men that treat her this way but everyone everyone only sees boa's Beauty and when we first meet her she feels extremely vain due to such a thing but as her past is revealed we're told this Iron Mask she wears is just a defense to hide her fear and if she's going to be objectified for her beauty she may as well use it as a tool the reason this in particular struck me is because I honestly don't see this a lot especially from male writers there's plenty plenty of female characters out there who are written as using their looks and Beauty to get ahead in life the only thing is this tends to be shown as a positive thing or even something they've been blessed with and for those who don't know thinking women have it easier due to their beauty is an extremely misogynistic idea boa Story shows that when she gets objectified it doesn't feel good she clearly despises being seen as nothing more than an object of desires not just by men but by other women to the point no one treats her like a person so she uses it as a power along with a devil fruit power she was forced to have and the only person she likes is Luffy why because Luffy treats her like a person instead of an object she's made out to be obviously it does not feel good to be objectified it does not feel good to have to submit to the idea of being a lesser person to get a step up and that's what Bo's story is about because as I said before there's this idea that women have it easier sometimes that so long is where beautiful and desirable and so long as we give in to the notion that our general beings won't be respected as humans we have it easier it's degrading it's infuriating and boa's deepest fears are so prominent that she's even scared of being revealed as a former slave because she thinks people will find her weak for it the proclaimed most beautiful woman in one piece is shown not as a pretentious snob but is shown as a victim of the system she was forced into to the point she's willing to look like the villain just so she can protect her Island and her people from the men she suffered from this is a good female character especially due to the fact our protagonist Luffy respects her completely and from here Bo's story doesn't become Luffy Luffy is just someone she's Fallen madly for yes she jokes about wanting to be with him but she keeps her position as an empress to continue protecting her people the point is BOA and Luffy is not a boy meet girl situation boa even despises Luffy at first and her reasons for falling for him is something we can both sympathize and feel pity for because I don't know about you but the fact this poor woman was so void of genuine human connection and care that she falls for the first person who actually treats her with sincerity is heartbreaking to me especially considering Luffy doesn't feel any romantic attraction to her at all he literally just sees her as a person I've also got a boa video if you want to learn more about her and trust me her story is a layered one when it comes to women liking men in one piece hiori is another example of how this can be done well without dehumanizing them hii was a female character present in a single Arc in one piece and just like shirahoshi and pudding she gets a story and development too while the story was more about her older brother hiori is still allowed to shine in her own right and receive her own Justice hiori fools pizor in wano because she sees how strong he is she forms a crush on Zoro in a comical way and he pretty much completely rejects her but heor well does not become Zoro at this point her Ambitions are still solidly set and Zoro does not become the only thing she thinks about the crush she has on Zoro literally gets sidelined because it's not important to her or her character it's just a comical addition while showing how much the women of wano value strength hiori is a character who suffered all her life under Tyrant who had to give into his wills and his desires if she wanted to live even though this Tyrant is the man who killed her father even as she faces him head on with fire burning around them she's not once presented as weak she has a samurai who protects her but once again he is her support in fact hii's story is so prominent that her words and will is paralleled alongside one of the biggest Transformations our protagonist received sees hiori and her pain never being forgotten making sure we don't forget this battle means just as much to her as it does to her brother and Luffy as the Tyrant Burns hiori receives the last word and she takes Vengeance for her mother father and Country when literally closing out the ark while hii didn't do as much as the men during the fight while she didn't take out the big bad himself nor turn into a dragon her importance and suffering is never forgotten and most importantly her crush on Zoro doesn't matter at all in these moments hiori sought Justice and with her own will she got it once again just like many other women of One Piece hiori cannot be removed from this Arc without consequence she's so importantance she contrasts Luffy in her will and want for her people and faces her own battle while while one piece and odor doesn't always treat the women fantastically in terms of beauty standards and general perversion there's still a huge weight they hold in the story odor in general just makes sure to write his characters all with a purpose so when anyone has any qualities of character we at least get an explanation for why this is the case such as hiori having a crush on Zoro it's not because she's boy crazy it's just because we know we're in a country where physical strength is seen as extremely attractive or another example could be num's love and care for children this is a nummy specific trait and is not something all the women of One Piece have the reason num's nice towards children is not because she is naturally nurturing if anything she's the opposite of nurturing but because she was adopted by a woman who refused to let two children be harmed at the cost of her life nurturing is something to be taught and shown for everyone not just for women and her care for children is something she was taught from bellare Nami even only likes women and children Oda himself said so and again these are two things directly influenced by bamir I think one last thing to touch on is the spoken misogyny we get in one piece because believe it or not it does exist and while it should be pointed at someone like Sanji funnily enough it's actually pointed at Zoro Zoro is a character who's holding the dreams of a childhood best friend who just happened to be a woman honestly while kena's struggles felt very real she still kind of just existed to push zoro's own narrative she kind of got fridged but Kina was definitely not a blank slate of a person and I still felt a connection to her pain the weird thing here is in the skyer arc when Robin got hit mid battle Zoro caught her and said she's a woman Zoro why the hell would you say that the even weirder thing is no one else thinks like that the only two who seem to see women as their own thing on the battlefield seems to be Zoro and Sanji just in extremely different ways the only other character I can think of who didn't want to hit a woman was Frankie but in terms of being on the battlefield it was a strange thing for Zoro to say but when we jump ahead years later Zoro finds himself in a fight with a woman and as speculated it seems Zoro does hold this internal misogyny because he's literally called out by another woman tashigi tashigi reprimands Zoro for not taking women seriously for refusing to go all out on them and explains to him how insulting that is Zoro doesn't even deny it he just sits down and lets her take up the fight which she nearly loses kind of an L there honestly as Zoro steps in he finishes the fight off not by actually slicing the enemy but by scaring her at first tashigi thought he delivered the final blow but then she discovers he just freaked her out enough to the point she couldn't stand tashigi once again tells Zoro he's not taking women's seriously and once again Zoro doesn't deny it when discussing fighting women Zoro says there's things even he doesn't want to cut and tashigi is infuriated by his treatment of women in battle from this scene we are shown zoro's internalized misogyny he seems to have is a huge negative he must get over after all when the enemy got back up she nearly blew up the whole complex with the straw hats inside it had this happened this could could indeed have contributed to Zoro not actually delivering the final blow there's currently been no followup on this as the story is still going but I have hope zoro's flaw will be addressed more at first it seems weird Zoro might think this way about fighting women due to who his best friend was but then we also need to remember he was raised by a raging misogynist by all means this could be commentary on how misogyny is programmed into men and needs to be programmed out even if they've lived lives that counter such ideas but then there's sunji whose hesitance to fight women is seen as Noble and Oda kind of writes his way around this by making it a promised thing more than a taught thing as Sanji does not believe women to be weak which we are shown time and time again he was just threatened not to hit women but it's still incredibly weird in concept especially when Zoro is the only one getting the misogyny card thrown at him I can only imagine how [ __ ] angry tashigi would be at Sanji look one piece isn't perfect but I cannot deny the hilarity of the misogyny Brothers point is misogyny in one piece's world is addressed from time to time it's just not always addressed well okay I think I should wrap this up overall there's a lot of misogyny in the writing of One Piece women a a lot but when I see these girls paralleled to other shaen girls who are literally just fod for the sake of the men in their stories I can't help but get upset could these girls be better yes but as I said before we must acknowledge the good just as much as we must acknowledge the bad when it comes down to it all these women have been written as people just like the men they are allowed to have their own stories they are allowed to suffer real pain and they are allowed to be individuals with their own dreams despite popular belief nummy and Robin are still important they still are active in the story and they still push the plot along if you take the straw hat girls out of one piece this series will come to a grinding halt because once again the straw hats have been written in such a way where they are a collective they all have their own dreams and they're all individuals but this is a crew who work together the women carry just as much weight as the men here and while it might not be in physical fights they're relied on for so much more you cannot kill Robin without extreme consequence you also cannot kill nummy without extreme consequence they simply cannot be taken out of this story and that genuinely genuinely means something one of the villains known as big mom was also such a threat our protagonists literally had to run from her the female emperor not only had an active role in the story but was given a terrifying power that went across Arc and there's an implication she'll still hold an importance later on big mom wasn't just a strong woman but a flawed one and it took two men to maybe take her out in my opinion what's most important here is all these women have flaws as a person all of them have personality all of them have a will and while their bodies may be the same they vastly stand out from each other boa and Robin do look the same and while I wish they had some variety here they're totally different in character the women of One Piece are not put into a box they're not given limits of which they must abide by and again that means something oders flopped in many aspect ects of his women don't get me wrong but they certainly stand out all in all while they can definitely be better they are still a force to be reckoned with so long as his girls don't become plant and so long as they continue to uphold the importance put on them the women of One Piece Will Remain fantastic characters to me let's just hope he can tweak them to be even better and with that thanks for watching holy [ __ ] this was a long one find me dead on the ground after this dear Lord I was desperate to make this video because nearly every time I watched anything regarding women in Shonen or anime one piece was always mentioned as just a negative I will be honest I used to do the same but I've definitely leared to give things a chance before categorizing them since then I do believe there's a misconception that the girls of One Piece just suck when they honestly really don't so I hope this managed to show both the good and the bad of how the women are written I'd like to thank esper for their fantastic Jiu-Jitsu Kaizen video once again I messaged them to include it here and they gave me the go-ahead thank you for trusting me to do so please please watch it if you enjoyed this video it's so well done and touches on so many good points regarding women in shaen it really deserves more views as always let me know what you think what do you think about one piece's girls what do you like and what should be improved on I read all the comments I can because I love hearing everyone's opinion just a quick reminder that I do have a patreon and if you would like to support me there I'd really really really appreciate it however I know not everyone can support me in that way and watching and sharing these videos does more than you can imagine for me if there's anything you'd like to see me cover one piece or otherwise please let me know and I'll see you in whatever I make next see [Applause] you [Music] [Music]

Channel: MelonTeee

Views: 397,528

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Id: 2ZIohfgDH78

Length: 54min 40sec (3280 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 17 2023