Hollywood stars are speaking out about the conspicuous absence of action-themed merchandise aimed at the female audience.
A little backstory: Ao back in the 1970s, there was this movie called Star Wars: A New Hope… Oh, you got that? Okay, let’s try again.
Last month, Disney’s merchandising department faced a lot of backlash for their Avengers: Age of Ultron product launch because of a staggering lack of products featuring the movie’s only main female character, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.
Related: Black Widow gets her own Marvel movie in SNL parody starring Scarlett Johansson
Although Black Widow is the third most prevalent character in the film, she has almost no solo merchandise, and has also been excluded from most of the ensemble pieces.
This is upsetting for both male and female fans who would like to show their love for Black Widow. It is also unsurprising, of course, considering Disney’s recent Guardians of the Galaxy marketing fail.
When Guardians products hit stores last year, fans quickly realized that Gamora (played by Zoe Saldana) was nowhere to be seen. This led to lots of fan outrage, and a mass tweeting of #WheresGamora… which, evidently, accomplished nothing.
Related: Hey Marvel, where’s your Black Widow merchandise? Sincerely, Mark Ruffalo
After the Ultron merch landed, several actors from the franchise have been speaking out about the ridiculous exclusion of Black Widow, including Mark Ruffalo and Clark Gregg.
And Disney did offer an explanation… sort of.
Basically, Disney has no reason to cater to a female audience as they’ve already got that covered with Frozen merch, and until boys want to play with girls’ toys (read: until advertising brainwashing tells them it’s okay to do so), the action toys are strictly by boys, for boys.
Of course Disney has another huge, traditionally male-led franchise film out this year: Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And everyone’s worried we’ll be looking at exactly the same merchandising inequality.
Related: Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise to hit stores in September
Colin Hanks, whose four-year-old daughter was recently introduced to the original Star Wars saga, is the latest celeb to call out the merchandising industry for their lack of products targeted at female fans:
Of course, other Princess Leia action figures do exist. However, Hanks’ story of going to Toys ‘R Us and seeing what is actually available is a bit of an eye-opener.
It makes you wonder if Disney is listening to these demands, or if they’re set on the “Frozen is for girls, Avengers is for boys” business model.
Earlier this week, another blow was dealt to fans hoping for Black Widow merch when Disney released a new Age of Ultron toy set featuring the sweet motorcycle Natasha was seen riding in the movie… and a Captain America figurine to ride it. Nice going.
Remember the scene where Black Widow drops out of the jet on the motorcycle? Well fuck you the toy is Captain America pic.twitter.com/juefiCqlX8
— Zac Shipley (@zacshipley) May 8, 2015
(Tweet via The Mary Sue.)
Surely, one of these days, Disney will realise that — although kids are impressionable and can be forced to accept that boys are superheroes while girls are princesses — the world has moved on, and is waiting for Hollywood to catch up.
After all, if girls can play with male action figures, boys should play with female action figures too, right? The only reason they don’t is because the figures are not available — and because they’re being told by toy companies that they shouldn’t be.
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