@Elfman:
Lol I'm Dutch. I couldn't care less about this topic when it comes to One Piece. It's probably the most liberal country on earth so maybe that's why people couldn't accept my view on the situation on page 10 (also I said it a little bluntly)
I think people are really looking too hard to search for something that isn't there, and react all sensitive when a girl doesn't get her fights in a shounen manga where the target audience is male teens. It's a gag where Franky kissed, in a fight between two hard boiled men.
Stay out of this woman, and watch us fight because you don't understand it is the male equivalent of Nami and Robin staring at Franky and other guys when they freak out over robots and say pshh that's stupid.
I think people in Europe are less sensitive about stuff like this in general. Not only on this matter but also about gay issues, racial stuff. It's all been said and done. In America they don't want to touch it with a 10 feet (which is about 3 meters, time to switch to metric btw) pole, but it's better to just bluntly talk about it and get it over with. Everytime I hear someone say 'the N-word' I have to cringe. It's so correct to say n-word, while everybody knows what you mean, you only put extra emphasis on it, and instead of closing the gap between different races or genders or whatever, you only widen it.
That's why with stuff like this, people really should shrug it off. If emancipation means wanting the same treatment as a man, than don't start falling over a kiss in a comic, and look at everything through a magnifying glass.
First, one thing I've noticed is how we talk about "Europe" as an entity, when it's not. Maybe some countries are more progressive/advanced on these matters, but I can tell you here in Spain we're going backwards and backwards each day regarding racism and homosexuality and abortion laws. I don't think Italy is much better in that regard (racial issues, gender issues, sexual issues), and many others could easily follow.
Second, to shrug off any unconfortable issue is not an option, I think. I'm not as gung-ho as some here, what with calling this chapter the most disgusting thing ever seen by human eyes, but it's true that Oda just keeps piling up these scenes, where he goes out of his way to portray them which is just. . .not nice. I mean, in this very same, troublesome chapter, the closing panel is a supposedly "mean spirited, evil, bad mouthed" princess (a description that brought many a hopes up) crying up for help desperately and calling his white horsey prince's name. It's the fact that Oda is not giving this issue a friggin' rest. Individually, these scenes might not be all that, but when it becomes a trend, it's really worrisome. And annoying.
I don't know, he could create a crybaby prince for a change, and his strong willed sister is the one that calls him a crybaby and a coward. And the prince gets kidnapped, and the princess tries to save him. Or just create a Vivi again; yeah, she was very emotional, and somewhat naive, and she needed to be saved cause all by herself she wasn't very strong, but she tried her best, she infiltrated a fucking massive criminal organization, tried to save an entire country on her own, was incredibly brave. . .just that is good enough.
"Closet shonen sexist" stuff like girls getting less fights, wearing less clothes than their male counterparts, existing in less numbers, being more emotionally frail. . .all that is kinda commonplace, and while sorta disgusting, this is shounen, what can you do about it. Now, going out of one's way, invest chapter titles + pages + creating incredibly out-of-left-field scenarios JUST to portray a male empowering scene (even if I still believe it's all one giant joke), that's going beyond your run of the mill shounen sexist trope. That's putting EFFORT in creating an unconfortable scene. And it's not the first time (see Zoro vs. Monet).
Now, if this were ANY other manga? I couldn't care less. But One Piece is my favorite manga, even if it's not at its peak right now I'm still enjoying it and I still think Oda is much more talented than the vast majority of his peers. And he even seemed to be a bit more progressive and conscious regarding some issues (see the whole Fishman Island arc), so everytime he goes out of his way to portray a sexist scene, as big of a joke it might be, it just doesn't feel right. So, yeah, shruging it off is not an option when the man doing this stuff is my favorite comic author, and someone I respect regarding many other issues.