Little Girl Ass Kicking Incoming!!!
Listen, I got a confession to make. Better come in close for this one. As some of you may know, I am a thirty-something middle-class white male. So I’m in like the 90th percentile when it comes to entitlement and privilege. I point this out because my demographic sort of shields me from a lot of the bull-shit the rest of the world has to deal with.
I try and be mindful of this, but the deck has been stacked, and I am the demographic companies and big budget advertisers aim to please (truthfully they shouldn’t try so hard ’cause I only got like $50 and some bread crumbs in the bank account). This is a poor excuse for my lack of mindfulness, but often times I’m oblivious to the royal shafting other people are getting because as I walk the aisles of Target, everything is designed to please people just like me.
I don’t see the problem. Until somebody points it out to me. And then I step back all bewildered, the blinders have dropped, and I’m staring straight in the face of an ugly truth.
This weeks ugly truth has to do with girls and the way companies market toys to them.
“Wait… this is about toys?” you say confusedly.
“Yes, yes it is,” I retort with ample sass.
“Um… alright.. keep going,” you say, keeping a wary eye on me.
“Fine I will.”
So earlier this week Marvel released their new Avenger lineup of toys and it has the world all up in a kurfuffle. Why? Well, because Black Widow and Scarlet Witch are pretty much nowhere to be seen. To be specific, Scarlet Witch has literally zero face-time, whether that be on the packaging or as a little siliconized plaything for children the world over. Black Widow faired a bit better, she’s on a shirt, on a video game starter pack, and on a shopping bag.
I admit, I spend less time in the toy aisle these days than I should. The fact that this was completely off my radar is therefore forgivable, or so I tell myself.
But this is some screwed up shit, and it’s not the first time. Gamora, the green skin bad-ass from Guardians of the Galaxy, didn’t get action figurized either!
When somebody pointed this out to me I had to sit back and scratch my head for awhile. I mean, come on people, what year is this? We’re possibly two years away from having a woman president and still we have to fight these sorts of lame gender battles.
You know what, I can’t put it more succinctly than this little girl, so give this video a little eyeball love real quick.
Holy balls. I want to point out two things real quick. First, little Riley is one articulate little girl. Yes, it’s likely she received a bit of coaching from her parents, but so what? This brings me to my second points, she’s absolutely right.
Black Widow is an awesome character in the Avenger’s movie. She’s not some token harlot, tramping around for the sake of showing some cleavage. She kicks legitimate ass, on her own terms, and don’t take no shit from nobody.
I want to be her when I grow up.
So, why is it then, that when it comes time to make the toys, the bad ass girl character gets zero love? Is it because superheros are for boys and princesses are for girls? If that’s what you think then you’re a shortsighted, small minded fool.
It’s still rare, but thankfully it’s becoming less so, that woman get represented in movies/books/comics in a way that accurately reflects their inherit badassery. As a society we’re carting around generations worth of gender baggage, and unfortunately, it’s not something we can just shrug off and be done with. We have to be intentional about the messages we send, and when Disney–one of the largest toy and media producers in the world–is still pushing these outdated stereotypical modalities, well, we’ve got ourselves a problem.
Girls are interested in more than pink dresses and princesses. Boys are interested in more than just superheros. Boys want to play with dolls, go for it. Girls want to play with action figures? Hell yeah, more power to you. But those decisions begin with a choice. A choice that, at this moment, is being made by big companies when they decide to do dumb-ass shit like not making Black Widow toys.
Here, to drive the point home, is another Riley video:
What are your thoughts? Tomorrow I’m gonna do another blog post outlining some of my favorite female characters on television, movies, and books, but why not get a jump-start on the conversation and tell me who some of your favorite female characters are? Hell, I might even use some of them in tomorrows post.
I’m certainly disappointed there aren’t better female superhero toys (and comics, and whatnot) available. I’m amazed marketing departments are oblivious to Black Widow or anyone from Guardians of the Galaxy being characters people would want to play with.
It’s fascinating in a way, because the movies these characters are from do a fantastic job of portraying them. And then the marketing teams screw it all up. Booh.
I loved action figures when I was a kid – although there weren’t many around and action figures were largely dolls. But then we got Barbie. Favorite female (action) character? Lara Croft.
My friend Debbie and I would hijack her little brother’s Matchbox cars/racetrack, go down to the basement and set up the most elaborate road for the cars to race upon. As her brother cried to her parents, we’d be burning the rubber (plastic, really) tires and loving it as the cars flew off the track and into the unknown, dank reaches of the basement. Occasionally, we dressed up her hamster and sat him on one of the bigger vehicles, but we figured he’d be better off as an observer.
My own brother’s GI Joe was an awful lot more fun than Barbie because he came with all this neat stuff: guns, bombs, grenades, a canteen, binoculars and such. Occasionally, as men do, he’d wander off with Barbie in her camper and have a different kind of adventure. I tended to look the other way during these trysts.
When Debbie and I were 14, “Star Wars” premiered. Of course, we were immediately fans of Princess Leia, even though she had cinnamon buns for hair. She was fearless, tough and certainly not a whiner, although she seemed to have a bit of an issue with choosing accents. So when the action figures came out, which one lingered on the shelves? You guessed it: Leia. She wasn’t an action figure, she was a DOLL. Or referred to as such. Now, one can argue that she could have been called a “doll” in the slang sense, being rather attractive, or seem really sweet, like a waitress might say to a customer.
Obviously, things haven’t changed. People think as tough as the female anti-crime superheroes are, they still have cleavage, wear short skirts or have to be knock-out gorgeous to be effective. Marketing recognizes that the females don’t sell as well as the males…but then again, they might not be positioned properly, either. Still, we’ve got a ways to go here, and what helps is educating young ladies that it’s really okay to be a superhero, no matter what anyone says, or they’ll kill you, just like Uma in “Kill Bill.”
As the mother of two little superheroines, I totally agree. I grew up playing with He-Man and was obsessed with Star Wars. Thundercats. What! I did not have time for Barbie- she was not handling her shit. Neither do my girls. They have no interest in all the pink and purple plastic in the Girls toy aisles. If there were more ladies among the Marvel toys, they’d be so down. Side note: anyone else offended by Lego’s Friends line? http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Heartlake-Shopping-Mall-41058;jsessionid=10F7669377573054AF0ECEE13AED6DE9.lego-ps16?fromListing=listing What the actual fuck? Get out, Lego. My girls are smarter than I was at their age and because their parents are uber nerds, they’re fans of the Marvel Universe. They’d be all over female action figures and related merch. Marvel is overlooking a huge market. Which is shocking because they’re so savvy. On a another side note: why aren’t they doing more with Loki? There’s some legit fetish potential to cash in on there. I’d wear out so many tiny Lokis…
“I’d wear out so many tiny Lokis…” might be the funniest thing I’ve heard today.
As a general rule of thumb, any toy revolving around the kitchen, malls, or beauty salons is puke worthy in my estimation. What in the ever loving fuck is the message we are trying to send to little girls? Cook, shop, primp? Gag.
Marvel as a whole is a super savvy company, as you say, so it’s all the more surprising when they do dipstick things like this. My guess on the Loki front is maybe he is more popular among the ‘adult’ demographic than the children, but that’s just a shot in the dark from a guy who knows next to nothing on the topic.
Wait. Which topic are you referring to?
What i think is dumb about the boys and girls thing in movies and stories is that having the “don’t take no shit from no one and kicks ass in her own right” os the OBVIOUS and ONLY counter to the princess steryotype. I think it is a sin of equal caliber to portray a woman that way too.
Its like women only get the extremes. People (men?) have a tough time flushing them out emotionally on h huge range like they can with male characters. And so the girls they create are either princess-pushover types, or the scrappy-tomboy-always-furrowed-eyebrows ass-kicker.
And i feel like if women are trying to break this cycle, they just end up perpetuating it because they are trying too hard.
I can think of the last, normal, female lead i could get behind. Its a problem.
*cant
Nope, too late. Typos can’t be taken back. You’re stuck with it forever. Muahaha!
Yaay, you registered Zach. Well done, don’t you feel better now?
Anyways, you bring up some really good points, but I’d ask you this: what was the last, normal, male lead you could get behind? I think part of the problem is the medium, whether that’s books, movies, or television, doesn’t lend itself well to “normal” characters. Because, why would I want to watch a movie or television show about “normal” people doing “normal” things. Those might be more accurate reflections of life, but they end up being boring in a lot of cases.
So to spice it up we go to the extremes. Do we commit the same sin we’re trying to avoid? Oh yeah, big time.
But you’re right, the scrappy-tomboy is just as cliche as the princess-pushover. Which brings me to one of my big gripes about females in stories is that often times to create a “strong female lead” all the writer does is write a “strong male lead” and then call him a her. If the only distinguishing characteristic in how your character acts is the gender descriptor, then you’re doing it wrong.
Here’s the thing though, we’re able to recognize the cliche inherit in this argument, but the little girls going to the toy store aren’t. They just see pink princesses being pushed down their throat and don’t realize there is a whole other cliche they could move towards (not until later years atleast). If they were constantly, and equally, inundated with both sides of the cliche, I’m sure eventually we’d see a move towards the middle ground. Instead, as young girls they are only marketed pink little princesses which only gives them one half of a very lopsided perspective.
I do like the scrappy-tomboy ass-kickers, but there is an uncomfortable truth hidden in that image of empowerment. Do female characters achieve equality when they assume what are largely considered “masculine” characteristics? Why is it acceptable even desirable to prefer swords over shoes? I don’t know. I would like more variety in the action figure market, but my Barbie would fly, fight, shop, or dress up depending on the occasion. That said, I have a Gamora action figure.
These are all really good questions, lsm50. Lord knows I don’t have the answer, but if I did, I think it would have something to do with choice. You want to play dress up with your Barbie? Awesome. Want to give her a sword and send her into battle? Still awesome. But right now the toy aisle only markets one of those images to the little girls. (Little boys aren’t excluded in the messages they are being forced to consume, either.)
It was very interesting to read through the replies. Do you notice the somewhat disparaging tone when folks mention pink, purple, Barbie or dolls? But we all proudly declare our love of match box cars and “action figures”? I actually think that little girls have more options than their chromosomally challenged brothers. Girls can and will play with the traditionally boyish toys (despite the limited supply of female action figures) and this is cool. After all, our society seems to paint things male as “good” hence girls who reach for a little action are tolerated. Woe betide the little boy that likes glitter and makeup, though. I’d love to see a little more pink and purple marketing towards boys. Remove the stigma of femininity.
I absolutely agree that the message we send boys by associating masculine with good and femininity with bad is equally as unfair to them as not marketing action figures to girls. I touched on this a bit in my post when i talk about the fact that plenty of boys want to play with dolls and princesses. I didn’t get too deep into it though cause I wanted to give the girls my full attention with their own post.
This has been a fun conversation. Lots of stuff to think about!
This is awesome! I was just talking about scientists the other day, and I was going off about some of my favorite female scientists like Marie Curie, Annie Jump Cannon, Hedy Lamarr, and yes even Miss Frizzle. Plenty of women out there who kick butt and have brains, and it was excellent to read more commentary on these super hero women, and it is important to bring them up since it seems for some odd reason society is still lagging in this aspect.
Hey, Anthony – Are you going to review the new Avengers movie?
I am planning on it! Don’t know when I’ll be getting to the movie theater, but very soon, I hope!
My husband wants to see this, so we can compare notes!
Sad that society still isn’t ready to deal with the idea of a woman being more powerful than a man, as is the case with the neglected action figures. Another thing that *might* be to blame is Marvel’s fear of angry weekend warrior moms who spend their days bitching about scantily-clad female action figures. All those skin-tight outfits, bare thighs, cleavage… personally I could care less, but I bet there’s some moms out there with Marvel on speed-dial just waiting for them to release a Black Widow figure. It’s dumb, and illogical (helllllo, Barbie?!) but I bet it’s happened.