16 May 2015

Take a Letter

This morning, I was reading this article from Forbes. In it, Bartyzel, the author, talks about how Disney spent $15 billion in order to acquire Star Wars and Marvel, but then focused all their marketing on the young, male demographic. Basically, they took all the girls out of their merchandise, going so far as to make a toy based on a scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and replacing Black Widow with Captain America. We've run into this before looking for superhero fabrics and outfits for Cups our 8-year-old comic book geek girl, only to find the Avengers apparently only comprised of Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. (To their credit, DC has been better about including Wonder Woman, which is likely why Cups has so much Wonder Woman stuff, even though I'm a huge Marvel nerd.)

I brought this article up with my spouse, and we commiserated at Disney/Marvel's lack of desire for a wider audience. (At least, in their toys. Marvel's stories, especially in the comics, has become incredibly diverse as of late, while their movies are moving in that direction.) Cups overheard us, and she became angry as well. My spouse suggested she write a letter to Disney about it, so off she goes to get paper and a pen to write her letter.




We have a 4-year-old as well. Cap'n was also around, and not to be out done by his big sister, he wanted to write a letter, too. He said he likes girl superheroes and wants more toys with them as well. I had to help him with the writing of the letter, but he told me what he wanted to say and signed it himself.


Their letters finished, Cups went off to search for envelopes and stamps, since she was fully intent on mailing the letter. (And we'll get to that, as soon as I find the right snail mail address for it to go to.)

Cap'n went off to play with the Rapunzel play dough set.