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DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. are about to launch a new initiative called “DC Super Hero Girls,” a universe designed specifically for young women. “DC Super Hero Girls” will give us a look at female superheroes and super-villains including Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Bumble Bee, Poison Ivy and Katana, “prior to discovering their full super power potential.” The initiative will see these characters as teenagers in a new line of products. The target audience is girls aged 6-12.

“DC Entertainment is home to the most iconic and well-known Super Heroes including Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl,” DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson said in a statement. “‘DC Super Hero Girls’ represents the embodiment of our long-term strategy to harness the power of our diverse female characters. I am so pleased that we are able to offer relatable and strong role models in a unique way, just for girls.”

Okay, here’s my issue with this. You all know how important I think it is to have female representation in comics and every other sort of media. However, targeting them as “for girls only” is just another way to be exclusive. We’re separate. We’re different. We have to have a niche market. Look, I appreciate the effort, but drawing yet another line between men and women is not the way to go. So, where are you going to put these products in Target? On the pink side of the toy section or the blue side?

The thing we’ve been fighting for is to have comics and fandom be inclusive. Have an entire universe of teen superheroes, with just as many female characters as male characters so you can buy the same toys (and for Yoda’s sake, produce the female toys and watch the same shows, etc. I admire the effort, but this just shows how much they don’t get it. How about putting more women in the existing universe of toys and shows? We really don’t need little girls to feel like they get a corner of the fandom universe, but aren’t a part of the “real” one.

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Jenna Busch

Jenna Busch is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Legion of Leia and has hosted and written for sites like Nerdist, ComingSoon.net, Metro, Birth. Movies. Death., IGN, AOL, Huffington Post and more. She co-hosted Cocktails With Stan with the legendary Stan Lee and has appeared on Attack of the Show, Fresh Ink, Tabletop with Wil Wheaton, in the documentary She Makes Comics, on NPR and Al Jazeera America, and has covered film/TV/gaming/comics for years. She's currently a co-host on Most Craved. She's been published in the comics anthology Womanthology, is a chapter author for Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind, Game of Thrones Psychology and Star Trek Psychology and more, and owns a terrifying amount of swords and 20-sided dice. There are also those My Little Pony trailer voice overs that give one nightmares.