i really need to talk about this somewhere because this is the worst gender stereotypes episode i’ve ever seen in a kids show, it’s so stupid and offensive towards what women had to go through for CENTURIES.
so, i bet you all know Doraemon, this was an episode that was made around the 80’s and remade in the 2000, it’s about Nobita wanting to become a girl, first of all, the old episode:
the old version:
Nobita is at school and as always Gian and Suneo are bullying him and the teacher is scolding him for arriving late and the whole class laughs at him when he messes up in gym class and this idiot thinks that it’s because he’s a boy and that if he was a girl everything would be better. now, if you’re a woman who grew up in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s you know that it’s not true, i’m not but i know that times were hard for women back then. so Doraemon tells Nobita that there is no difference between being a boy and being a girl, alo not true because even tho society is more evolved women are still considered inferior, a woman would still make less money than a man for the same amount of work. in the end Doraemon turns Nobita into a girl so he’s now named Nobiko, i like the design but i’m not here to talk about that. the first thing that changes is that Nobita’s mom gets more concerned when he/she falls down the stairs since he/she’s a girl now and the next day at school is where the infuriating part starts, the teacher doesn’t scold him/her because he/she’s late and everyone is nice to him/her, even Gian and Suneo, oh and they let him/her play sports with them which would’ve never happened back then, since you know “girls life is easier”, THIS WAS MADE IN THE 80’S, it’s horrible to say even at a time like that, ESPECIALLY in a time like that where nobody would blink if a man forced his wife to not work and instead cook and clean. Nobita is happy at first but then he wants to become a boy again first because Shizuka won’t marry a girl and second because Gian is now in love with him/her, and the episode ends. so, this is the old version so you might say that the authors got more mature and the new version is better… it’s not, it’s much worse because it was made more recently.
the “new” version:
the episode opens with Nobita and Gian playing sumo and Nobita looses, so when he doesn’t want to play anymore Gian and Suneo call him “Nobiko”. at home Nobita asks a valid question “who decided that mens have to be strong?” and Doraemon’s answer is really stupid, he talks about how the Japanese symbols for “man” and “woman” represent a specific thing like praying for women and working for mens, that’s wrong, sexism has been a thing for way longer that writing, cavemen technically decided it since biologically women have more fat cells to protect the fetus in case they get pregnant and mens have more muscles since cavemen would always go hunting and it’s still there because of evolution (correct me if i’m wrong). Nobita says that if he was a girl nobody would touch him even with a flower even tho as you know violence against women is unfortunately very common, so Doraemon turns him into a girls with a “headband”, i hate Nobiko’s new design, that’s not Nobita in girls form, that’s just a girl who looks like him. when Nobita/Nobiko’s mom entered and scolded her for sitting the wrong way i thought that this episode would’ve worked on the fact that women were limited in almost everything they could do (and they still are in some countries, let’s hope things will change) but it didn’t, Nobita arrives at school and all the boys treat him like he’s made of soap bubbles, Gian falls in love with him/her, Gian finds out that Nobiko is actually Nobita and the episode ends.
so yeah, the reason why these two episodes are terrible is because they are treating women’s problems like they didn’t exist and acting as if us girls have a perfect life and are always treated with care and respect, it’s not true, women are still treated like objects and in some countries they have no rights and the fact that this kids cartoon is underestimating the issue is disgusting and toxic.
tell me what you think and thank you for reading.