User blog comment:12th Supernova/Chapter 789: The Final Countdown/@comment-4493594-20150604120455/@comment-24.235.56.170-20150606185507

I think that's where the frustration comes from: the target audience IS young men, and they DO need to learn what it means to be a man.

So when men are shown in contrast to women to be powerful, and stoic and generally heroic, it teaches these young men how they should act toward women. Which is to say protecting them and not letting them fight their own battles and not treating them as a serious threat. ,,, Which is to say the wrong way to treat women.

Now, I don't think that Oda is necessarily doing this on purpose, and I will agree that a fair bit of this influence is likely coming from Shounen; after all, Japan is not super progressive in a lot of areas, so they probably think they'll sell more copies if they cater to the status quo. But even with all the excuses we could make so that we don't have to hate our REVERED GOD ODA, it doesn't make it any less frustrating to see women consistently take a back seat in an arc with SO MANY powerful fighters.