I'd really like to see the desire not to condone sexism result in stuff to buy featuring non-white-male superheroes, so I can give you money and it can be win-win.
(And, full disclosure, yes, they sent me a giftcard--yes, I intend to use it)
And congrats, you're way more on the ball than @Marvel!
I'd really like to see the desire not to condone sexism result in stuff to buy featuring non-white-male superheroes, so I can give you money and it can be win-win. (And, full disclosure, yes, they sent me a giftcard--yes, I intend to use it)
0 Comments
Good afternoon,
I wanted to let you folks know that apparently, whatever was done to address the 'whoops, letters never get answered' problem hasn't been fixed. I've sent a few more letters into Marvel's black hole. The handy letters to your vendors were also included when these were sent. May want to work with your brush-off/fan mail/form letter department on their responses. -me (who is getting grumpier and grumpier when ignored again and again) Dear Marvel,
Hi, I just wanted to touch base again. I know the last time I heard from Marvel, I was told that you guys were re-examining how you dealt with fan letters, because of issues like mine where many (MANY) letters were sent into the abyss. Is responding to letters written a 'once per customer' thing (where I have received my one reply), or is Marvel going to be working on responding to letters? Because my most recent one, sent August 25 (via snail mail and several email addresses) didn't get a response--I'm (possibly unfairly) assuming that we're back to ignoring people who call Marvel out on it's failures--but if you want to look at that letter, I helpfully left a copy of it here for you. Really though, I thought I'd add another letter to the pile of ignored mail; THIS went to Party City today. And THIS to Joann Fabrics. It’s nothing new—it’s the same thing I said before but Marvel isn’t getting the message and Marvel’s partners (like Crayola, Party City, etc) need to be called on the sexism as well Thanks for reading, please, do better at responding to fans, please do better at acknowledging and supporting your female fan base. Marvel is capable of more--heck, it would be nice of Marvel were actually capable of answering it's mail. -ME I know that the 'open letter' is a cardinal sin of blogging.
I know it's not a very original way to do things. And I know publicly calling a company on the carpet isn't always the best way to do thins. So, just in case you were wondering, these letters I've been posting here? A printed copy was sent to the company it's addressed to. The letters weren't sent yesterday (I do prefer actual letters, emails get lost in bureaucratic nonsense. Letters do to, but they're a physical reminder to pay attention.)--the letters were sent last week to make sure that the company had a chance to respond before I posted it here. So I'm not telling @Marvel, @JoannFabrics, @DisneyStores, @Crayola, @Amazon, @PartyCity or any of the rest anything they haven't heard. I'm telling them things about their products they're already aware of (or should be. Realistically, corp. headquarters of Joann Fabrics is aware that they printed superhero fabric without female characters. And Disney Stores are aware that they neglected to put Princess Leia in it's toys. And Party City is aware that they only create 'boy' superhero products). I'm pointing out the (obvious) sexism (and racism, BTW) in the omissions and inclusions--things they should already well aware of. And I'll post (as I have in the past) any responses I get back from these companies. But they apparently prefer not to respond and to let their sexism take center stage. When I finally lose my crap and send them signature required, special delivery (I do tend to reserve that for the companies that are at the heart of things--so, yes, Party City chooses to carry stuff w/ all boys, but Marvel has decided to license it's images in this way across myriad items), I get a response. (And Marvel did respond. Once. 2 or 3 letters ago. Not again since). Hence publicly posted 'open letters'--companies who respond to good feedback don't need public open letters (mine haven't gone viral, obviously. But this one has :). But these places aren't responsive, hence the open-letter approach. Maybe, someday, the embarrassment that comes with being called on the carpet for blatant sexism will cause companies to @JoannFabrics
Hi, I wanted to touch base with you to let you know I’m disappointed there isn’t pushback from Joann Fabrics from companies that eliminate the female characters from fabrics you sell. It’s unfortunate when a company embraces outdated, inaccurate, and damaging gender stereotypes as its marketing model. My daughter is currently enthralled with superheroes. Given the things she could be into, I’m thrilled--superheroes are awesome and fun and culturally relevant and entertaining and powerful and assertive. And they’re, when produced by companies like Marvel and DC comics, 100% white male. Even when there is a female superhero as a part of a group (like Black Widow, the lone female in the current Avenger incarnation) or minority superhero (like Nick Fury, the lone Avenger of color), Joann Fabrics and Marvel and DC comics remove the anomaly (any female/minority) from the products that they market and send a clear message that they don’t want to include girls in the superhero world. After a particularly frustrating shopping expedition where we discovered (again) that there weren’t items featuring female superheroes to be found, I went to Joann Fabrics, in hope that I could make something. There was nothing to find. Non of Marve's female heroes showed up on their fabrics. There were signs that prominently featured Wonder Woman in the DC Fabric section...but no Wonder Woman appeared on any fabric. Why is that? Why would a segment that makes up 50% of the population (and, if we’re being realistic, more than 50% of Joann’s customer base) be absent from 100% of these products? Why would Marvel, DC, Disney/Star Wars/Lucas, and Joann's be indifferent to categorically eliminating girls from these products? It’s a truly appalling “oversight”. I reluctantly bought a remnant of male-superhero fabric and emphasized the ‘Thor is a girl’ half-truth to my daughter.I would really, really, REALLY like in my lifetime, for my daughter to be able to go into a business and be able to find the items in an aisle not labeled ‘boys’ (kudos to Joann Fabrics for understanding that part). And I want her to be able to see herself in female characters, instead of looking at rows and rows of male characters while somehow, the female characters in the franchise landed on the cutting room floor. Joann can do better than this; please, make a modicum of effort to be gender and race inclusive. Your company is capable of better, -ME #WheresWonderWoman, #WheresGamora, #WheresBlackWidow, #geeksexism @Party City,
Hi, I wanted to touch base with you to follow up on the incredibly sexist marketing in your stores, by your company. I don’t think anything about party supplies is inherently sexist, so I find it most unfortunate that your company has embraced outdated and inaccurate and damaging gender stereotypes as its marketing model. My daughter is currently entranced with superheroes. Given the things she could be into, I’m thrilled, superheroes are awesome and fun and culturally relevant and entertaining and all that. And they’re, when produced by companies like Party City and Marvel, 100% white male. Even when there is a female superhero as a part of a group (like Black Widow, the lone female in the current Avenger incarnation) or minority superhero (like Nick Fury, the lone Avenger of color), Party City and Marvel remove the anomaly (any female/minority) from the products that they market and send a clear message that they don’t want to include girls in the superhero world. After a particularly frustrating day, where I went birthday party shopping with my daughter and left Party City nearly empty handed. We walked in and eventually found superheroes in what was labeled the ‘boy’ aisle. We headed toward the Avengers--after all, ⅕ of the team is female, surely they would have Black Widow--to find that Black Widow’s existence had been scrubbed from every Avengers item made. Even the group shots on things showed only the male characters. So we looked for other superheroes--and we found 2 options: Batman & Spider Man. Things were not going well for a girl who wanted ‘girl superheroes’ at her party. It’s not that there’s a shortage of girl superheroes--there’s just an EXTREME shortage of products, that include the girl superheroes that exist. I reluctantly bought the male-superhero pencils--because we had to have a non-food give-away for school. Then I went home and between the internet and some crafting, managed to make a few things to pull of ‘superhero’ with the non-character party supplies we bought elsewhere. Then I posted on Twitter that I was frustrated with your lack of Black Widow products, some social-media person at Party City (https://twitter.com/PartyCity/status/504306877971562497) very helpfully provided a link to the eight (8!) items that come up when your website is searched for “Black Widow”--2 adult Halloween Costumes, 1 kid Halloween costume, and 1 wig to go with those costumes (the remainder of the items relate to witches, not at all to Marvel’s Black Widow Character. No party supplies. No plates, no balloons, no toys, no merchandise. I’m not entirely sure how linking me to evidence that your company does a dismal job with female superheroes. Party City has 108 products relating to Captain America (much much more than just costumes--lots of party supplies), but 8 for Black Widow? (and before I am told that of course Captain America brings up more stuff--he has recent movies, a search for “Hulk” who has exactly the same recent movies as Black Widow brings up around 30 items). A search for “Superhero Squad” (A show with several main female superhero characters) brings up 8 items, all of which only portray males. A search for “Avengers” brings up over 300 items, with two of the first 100 including Black Widow (a costume and wrapping paper--she’s not pictured on *any* of the party supplies except, for some reason, wrapping paper) in any aspect I know there are bigger sexism issues to address, but really, I want to address this one. Small acts of sexism multiply and my daughter who is saying “why aren’t there girl superheroes?” today is going to be asking “why aren’t there girl comic writers/scientists/etc tomorrow”. I want my daughter to, when she wants to have a superhero party, be able to find the items in an aisle not labeled ‘boys’. And I want her to be able to see herself in female characters, instead of looking at rows and rows of male characters while somehow, the female characters in the franchise landed on the cutting room floor. Party City can do better than this, please, let parties be parties, let toys be toys, and make a modicum of effort to be gender and race inclusive. Your company is capable of better, -Me #wheresGamora, #@wheresBlackWidow, @DearMarvel, @Marvel, #ComicSexism Well, apparently @Marvel only felt like answering the one letter (the one where they told me they were changing their system of answering letters so that fans wouldn't be lost in the shuffle), before reverting back to losing me in the shuffle. In the interim, the little hero at my house had a birthday (yay!) and since she's still a superhero fan, we settled on superhero pencils as her birthday treat to take to preschool. She was excited and I took her to Party City, knowing that they advertised gear for an Avenger themed party. There, in the 'boy' aisle was "Avengers" gear. But wait, no, it wasn't Avengers gear--it was Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk gear. Somehow, they 'forgot' to include Black Widow (and Nick Fury). There were no female superhero supplies in the store. We left with 1 pack of Batman pencils, 1 pack of Spider Man pencils, and 1 pack of IronMan, Thor, CapAm, Hulk AKA "Avengers with pesky minority or female characters removed--#WheresBlackWidow, #wheresNickFury" pencils. I Tweeted about it and @Party city said I could check out the Black Widow gear on their website. I was unaware it was possible for a company like Party City to miss the point SO VERY BADLY. If you search for "Black Widow" on Party City's website, you find 8 items: 3 Marvel's Black Widow costumes, 1 Marvel-esque Black Widow wig, and some witch related stuff. No party supplies. No plates or pencils or banners. So if you want to select from a very narrow selection of costumes, great, Party City has that. If you wanted Avengers party stuff to include Black widow, you're SOL.
|