I’m on the next route and a horde of nidoran appear, mostly males with one female. I pick the female to catch, since presumably she’s the rarer one.

Although small, its venomous barbs render this Pokemon dangerous. The female has smaller horns.

And here we are back where we started. The female nidoran doesn’t even get her own pokedex entry, and what she has is about how she sucks compared to the regular nidoran.

You may recall this issue from when I ranted about it long ago in Blue.

Let’s go a quick recap of nidoran male and female entries throughout the series, courtesy of Bulbapedia.

Generation I

Red/Blue:
Male: Stiffens its ears to sense danger. The larger its horns, the more powerful its secreted venom.
Female: Although small, its venomous barbs render this Pokémon dangerous. The female has smaller horns.

Yellow:
Male: Its large ears are always kept upright. If it senses danger, it will attack with a poisonous sting.
Female: A mild-mannered Pokémon that does not like to fight. Beware, its small horns secrete venom.

Stadium:
Male: Its large ears sense danger. It extends its toxic spikes when angry. The size of its body thorns indicates its toxicity.
Female: Although small, it should be treated with caution because of its highly toxic thorns. The female has a small horn.

Generation II

Gold:
Male: It is small, but its horn is filled with poison. It charges then stabs with the horn to inject poison.
Female: The poison hidden in its small horn is extremely potent. Even a tiny scratch can have fatal results.

Silver:
Male: It raises its big ears to check its surroundings. It will strike first if it senses any danger.
Female: Although not very combative, it will torment its foes with poison spikes if it is threatened in any way.

Crystal:
Male: It constantly moves its large ears in many directions in order to detect danger right away.
Female: Small and very docile, it protects itself with its small, poisonous horn when attacked.

Stadium 2:
Male: It is small, but its horn is filled with poison. It charges then stabs with the horn to inject poison.
Female: The poison hidden in its small horn is extremely potent. Even a tiny scratch can have fatal results.

Generation III

Ruby/Sapphire:
Male: The male Nidoran has developed muscles for moving its ears. Thanks to them, the ears can be freely moved in any direction. Even the slightest sound does not escape this Pokémon’s notice.
Female: Nidoran has barbs that secrete a powerful poison. They are thought to have developed as protection for this small-bodied Pokémon. When enraged, it releases a horrible toxin from its horn.

Emerald:
Male: The male Nidoran has developed muscles that freely move its ears in any direction. Even the slightest sound does not escape this Pokémon’s notice.
Female: Its highly toxic barbs are thought to have developed as protection for this small-bodied Pokémon. When enraged, it releases a horrible toxin from its horn.

FireRed:
Male: Its large ears are flapped like wings when it is listening to distant sounds. It extends toxic barbs when angered.
Female: Though small, it must be treated with caution because of its powerfully toxic barbs. The female has smaller horns.

LeafGreen:
Male: It stiffens its ears to sense danger. The larger its horns, the more powerful its secreted venom.
Female: Although small, its venomous barbs render this Pokémon dangerous. The female has smaller horns.

Generation IV

DPP:
Male: It scans its surroundings by raising its ears out of the grass. Its toxic horn is for protection.
Female: While it does not prefer to fight, even one drop of the poison it secretes from its barbs can be fatal.

HeartGold:
Male: It is small, but its horn is filled with poison. It charges then stabs with the horn to inject poison.
Female: The poison hidden in its small horn is extremely potent. Even a tiny scratch can have fatal results.
SoulSilver:
Male: It raises its big ears to check its surroundings. It will strike first if it senses any danger.
Female: Although not very combative, it will torment its foes with poison spikes if it is threatened in any way.

Generation V
BW/2:
Male: It scans its surroundings by raising its ears out of the grass. Its toxic horn is for protection.
Female: While it does not prefer to fight, even one drop of the poison it secretes from its barbs can be fatal.

Generation VI

X:
Male: It scans its surroundings by raising its ears out of the grass. Its toxic horn is for protection.
Female: Although small, its venomous barbs render this Pokémon dangerous. The female has smaller horns.
Y:
Male: Its large ears are flapped like wings when it is listening to distant sounds. It extends toxic barbs when angered.
Female: Small and very docile, it protects itself with its small, poisonous horn when attacked.

You notice how the male one is always solely about male nidoran, and the female one is often about nidoran and then how the female one happens to differ A few of them could be read to say the female has a smaller horn but stronger poison, but as a whole, it’s clear that’s not what it means. There’s also whatever’s going on with how the male entry often emphasizes how active and alert they are, and how awesome their big ears are (another area the male is better) while when the female entry isn’t specifying that females are different from the usual, it’s talking about how very docile nidoran are.

It’s not all terrible. Here and there are entries that are basically the same between the two, such as HeartGold. But those are the exception, and when it came time to recycle the entries, they consistently went with the one about the female being the inferior.

To further hammer this in, we have the show pokedex. Here’s what it offers:

Nidoran♂. Its horn is larger than the female’s and its Horn Attack is quite powerful.

Nidoran♀. Its poison pin is quite powerful for its size, but its horn is smaller than a male’s.

I remember that episode. I remember loathing that they’d taken away the ability to pretend the female’s poison wasn’t tied to the horn size the way the male’s was and loathing that they’d done it at the same time as confirming the horn size also just made the male a better pokemon in general. Of course, it’s accurately reporting how things actually work out in the games, where the male is objectively the better choice in part precisely because of getting horn attack.

Here we are, six generations in, and nidoran female is still stuck with an entry about how they’re “that one that’s the inferior knockoff of real nidoran”. This is a small thing, yes. It is also a thing that has been going on for nearly two decades with no end in sight. If I may indulge in another link, it’s an issue of background radiation.

When they introduced gender in the first games, the pokedex entry for the female was just about how she was worse. When they gave gender in the next set of games, females were defined by the weaker attack stat. When they gave us gendered sprites still later, they did it by doing things like shrinking the fang size. When they gave us gendered evolutions (something I don’t recall anyone calling for except in the occasional homophobic complaint about gardevoir), it was to allow them to divide up feminine and masculine looking pokemon.

And this generation they won’t even let you put on pants until you get two towns in.