Goku has knowingly sexually harassed Bulma for years within Dragon Ball continuity, and now Vegeta has finally made him pay for that harassment.
While Goku is easily the greatest hero the Dragon Ball universe has ever seen, there is one aspect of his past that is troubling and problematic: Goku is way too comfortable with sexual harassment–and Vegeta made him pay for it.
The issues surrounding Goku regarding sexual harassment arose during the classic Dragon Ball series. When Goku was a child, he was quite literally raised in the woods and didn’t interact with anyone outside of his recently deceased grandfather until Bulma found Goku wandering alone. Because of his lack of understanding when it comes to appropriate interactions with humans–especially women–Goku was given some leeway until he learned how to behave himself properly. For instance, to ‘tell the difference’ between a ‘girl’ and a ‘boy’, Goku would grab strangers’ crotches and base their gender on the physical characteristics of their body alone after touching them without their consent–meaning he not only assumes their gender, but he also physically assaults them. Immediately, Bulma tells Goku that this isn’t something he’s allowed to do since he innocently did not know that before he was told, and so he eventually stops–but then Goku starts doing things that are far worse: he uses women’s bodies (primarily Bulma’s) as items that can be traded and exchanged for favors, and it’s worse because he does this knowing full well it’s wrong.
In Dragon Ball chapter 509 by Akira Toriyama, Majin Buu has destroyed the Earth and Goku and Vegeta find themselves in the world of the Kais. While trying to come up with a plan to fix the damage Buu caused, the remaining Z-Fighters decide to use the Dragon Balls of New Namek to restore the Earth and its people. However, Old Kai believes the Dragon Balls are a mockery of nature, and he won’t permit them to use the wish-granting orbs. So, in an effort to convince him to help them, Goku offers Old Kai naked pictures of Bulma–something that is overheard by Vegeta. Vegeta immediately screams at Kakarot for objectifying Bulma like that. Not only was Bulma Vegeta’s wife, but she also deserved more respect than having her body shown off without her consent.
Goku Has a Long History of Sexual Harassment Despite Knowing It’s Wrong
Goku tempting Old Kai with a ‘naked Bulma’ is far from the first time Goku has used this method when trying to get what he wants. Way back in the classic Dragon Ball series, Goku tells Master Roshi that he can grope an underage Bulma if he helped him put out the fires on Fire Mountain. Then, earlier in this very DBZ saga, actually, Goku tells Old Kai he can do the same thing in exchange for his help, and Gohan (who was present for that shameful exchange) points out how wrong that was and rightly calls what his father is doing sexual harassment. However, despite years of being told it is wrong, Goku never stopped. He can no longer claim to be the ignorant forest-child who doesn’t understand human customs as he has been fully immersed in human society and explicitly taught right from wrong in regard to these specific boundaries–but Goku just doesn’t care, which is why Vegeta blowing up on him is actually very satisfying.
While Gohan previously told his father that this type of sexual harassment is wrong, Vegeta actually punishes him for it and aggressively drills it into Goku’s skull to never objectify Bulma like that again–something that actually sticks for the remainder of the series. It’s a shameful truth that Dragon Ball has a troubling past of playing off sexual harassment as a joke and having the series’ main protagonist be the proponent of that harassment, but in this chapter, Vegeta puts an end to Goku’s problematic nature once and for all by actually making him pay for it.
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