i know she wasn’t in the tournament but i’m thinking about nemona pokemon and how blatantly misogynist her treatment by the fandom is. nemona is one of the only fixed (as in not determined by the player’s gender choice) female rivals in the series, and while her predecessors faced their share of misogyny (bianca is constantly overshadowed by cheren, and shauna is often entirely overlooked along with the rest of the kalos gang sans calem and occasionally serena), none of it has had nearly the same concentrated vitriol as the nemona hate. people call her annoying simply for LIKING POKEMON BATTLING. THE PREMISE OF THE GAMES. plenty of male rivals have had an enthusiasm for battle, though maybe not to the extent nemona has, but it has literally never been an issue for people until she did it. most of the male rivals are seen as beloved and iconic for actively being jerks to the main player, or for being arguably much more annoying than she’s ever been (looking at you, barry). sometimes it feels like the only female character pokemon fans are willing to respect is cynthia, solely because her boss fight was a little hard for them when they were 8

nemona pokémon propaganda!