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Earlier this week, Amy Ratcliffe over at Geek with Curves delivered a pretty comprehensive post about the lack of Gamora in the new outpouring of Guardians of the Galaxy toys and merchandising. Over at the Mary Sue, they’re bringing more awareness to the public outcry among fans who want the opportunity to spend their hard-earned cash on some licensed stuff that features our favorite green assassin along with the rest of the Guardians.

Gamora_from_poster

Image from Marvel

We support these sites and initiatives, because we are also women who like to wear and collect our fandom, and loved Guardians of the Galaxy. The idea that there aren’t enough women or girls to generate demand for this sort of merchandise has gotten so old and played out it’s frankly almost boring. Of course we want it and would spend money on it. Of course she should be there.

The point that I haven’t seen nearly enough actually has nothing to do with fangirls, however. What bothers me is the way these decisions also reinforce traditional gendering in the toys we sell our kids. The logic presumably goes like this: Comic book & genre movies are for boys, so we only put the male characters on the toys for boys, and only provide male characters for the boys to play with, because boys don’t like anything having to do with female characters.

As the mom of a little boy, I have to point out that this simply is not true. First of all, little dudes have been playing with female characters for years—Princess Leia, Lady Jaye, She-Ra. More importantly, when kids start playing with character-based toys, they don’t really understand much less discriminate based on gender differences. My son loves his Wonder Woman toy for her lasso as much as he loves his Batman for his Batmobile.

We—and by “we” I mean studios, toy companies, store conglomerates, and those of us who support all of these entities with our cash—are the ones reinforcing the notion to our boys that feminine toys or female characters are somehow worse than masculine toys and male characters.

I naturally have a problem with that notion, and though we are a household of comic book & superhero fans, I try to go out of my way to make sure I’m not sending that kind of message to my own kid. So we give him Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, and Princess Leia to play with along with everyone else.

That said, finding these female character toys can be tricky, if not impossible. He really likes these small, chunky Hasbro Playskool and Fisher-Price Imaginext action figures, for example, which run the gamut from Marvel & DC to Star Wars or Pixar characters, and just about anything else you can imagine. What we have found, however, is that while you can find affordable sets with the main male characters all day long, the girls tend to be special editions, or included in collector sets. This means that you either shill out a lot for them, or you do without. On top of which, the dude toys just come with cooler stuff. I mean, his Spider-Man play set came with a car, a trapdoor, a revolving window, a bank vault with secret buttons, and more, all of which is a lot of fun for him to discover and interact with.

spider-man playset hasbro

Image from Hasbro.com

When you look for these female character toys for kids, however, you just can’t find anything like that. For example, I just now went to ToysRUs.com and searched for Wonder Woman. I got 26 results, including the 1 action figure we already have (she comes in a set with Superman), plus clothes, costumes, a jewelry box, an apron, a couple wall decals, and then a mish-mash of statues and collectibles that are likely meant more for grown up collectors than kids. When I searched for Superman, I got 103 results. Spider-Man yields 251 results. Gamora yields two.

What’s a parent to do? There’s always the argument to be made for not supporting any of these industries and only giving your kid non-licensed Montessori-approved toys (or whatever the early childhood development trend is these days). It’s a pretty good argument, actually, if only because bringing your kid into your fandom without reinforcing some of the inherent traditional gender messages is a lot harder than just letting them play with blocks, art supplies, and kitchen sets (which, by the way, our kid also enjoys).

But part of the reason we are passionate fans is because we grew up watching things like Star Wars and playing with action figures. As geek parents, we genuinely delight in sharing that passion with our children. That moment when my son could, at around 20 months old, name all seven of his Star Wars bath toys was an adorable triumph!

I just don’t believe that we should have to set our fandoms aside in order to raise well-adjusted kids that believe in gender equality. I do believe, however, that the female characters of our favorite books and films should be available for fangirls AND fanboys.

To talk with Dani more about geek parenting, ping her on Twitter at @dani_ketch.

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Dani Ketch

6 CommentsLeave a comment

  • Reblogged this on Man vs. Pink and commented:
    “The logic presumably goes like this: Comic book & genre movies are for boys, so we only put the male characters on the toys for boys, and only provide male characters for the boys to play with, because boys don’t like anything having to do with female characters. As the mom of a little boy, I have to point out that this simply is not true.” – @dani_ketch with her thoughts on #WheresGamora

  • “As geek parents, we genuinely delight in sharing that passion with our children.” This, so much this.

    This was my rage topic on my blog today too. So frustrating! When I took my kids out today because they wanted Guardians of the Galaxy action figurines both of them were disappointed by the lack of Gamora. Even my son passed up a t-shirt because “the whole team was not on it.” The worst part was my four year old, her take away from the void hole left by the lack of Gamora was a worried look at me and a “maybe superheros aren’t for girls Mom.” I mean damn it, I cosplay as a Green Lantern. Superheroes are for girls! Damn you Marvel (and DC.)

    • Oh, Mama. All I can say is, working with you to help keep thoughts like “Maybe superheroes aren’t for girls” OUT of your daughter’s head is basically our entire reason for existing. We want her to know that not only can she enjoy superheroes, she can create superheroes, she can BE superheroes. In the meantime, YOU are a hero for being a good mom and setting a great example for both of your kids!

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