I'll Copy and paste the letter here.
(For what it's worth, I decided not to tack on a very large 'ugh' related to costumes, sexism and sexulization --there are enough other people writing well on that front, if I thought Party City was open to feedback, I rest assured others have already covered it--for years- without Party City changing.)
Hi! I think the first order of business is to say, did you know that your company is thoroughly lousy at answering mail? This isn’t your first letter from me. I’m not even sure it’s your second letter from me (if we’re counting email, I’m 100% sure it’s at least your 3rd contact from me). Your company may want to work at that, because people with mild grievances tend to go from “irritated” to “really annoyed and irate” when they feel they’re not being heard.
(I’m no exception, except that I’m rather resigned to the fact that I’m tilting at windmills and that while corporations may be people in the eyes of the courts, they have terribly bad manners. And I think that the poor person stuck opening letters is probably working at a soul-sucking job, so yelling at that person is highly unnecessary. Unless that person is the reason my previous letter(s) went into the circular file--in that case, consider yourself given a squinty-eyed-glare for a moment, and then move on.)
(Also, I’ll also apologize that this is much MUCH dang long. I place the blame for that squarely back on Party City though. My first letter(s) were much shorter, apparently I respond to being ignored by being annoyed, which manifests itself by being verbose. The more times you make me write, the more time your poor beleaguered employees have to spend reading my rambling letters.)
What I wrote in to say before, and what I’m saying again (just because I’d like for it to be heard), is that there’s some pretty blatant sexism in your store and their merchandising; your company should work on that.
Rather than re-write the letter that I already took the time to write, I’m going to copy and paste it below:
I don’t think anything about party supplies is inherently sexist, so I find it most unfortunate that your company has embraced outdated, inaccurate, and damaging gender stereotypes as its marketing model.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 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. ...
(for purposes of this website, instead of re-reading all of this, the bulk is copied from HERE, the previous (ignored) letter to PartyCity. So click there to read it, otherwise, you scan skip to the bottom...)
....
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.
Let me interrupt myself right here. Because I didn’t get a response, I went ahead and put this on the ‘open letter’ website I started up when companies (like Party City, and Marvel) were uncooperative: http://dearmarvel.weebly.com/. I’d recommend you give it a gander--I have screenshots of your site and everything.
And let me continue my interruption to head off one thing--I’ve taken this up with Marvel. If Party City decides, like a few other retailers, the proper response is “well, if Marvel doesn’t MAKE it, we can’t sell it”, I’d like to call that out as disingenuous right now.
I do agree that the bulk of the blame goes on to the companies who produce these items (like Marvel and DC Comics)--but companies like Party City are a part of the problem. I'm sure that there are a gazillion product lines that approach Party City every year to be carried in the stores. Party City probably responds with "no, we don't wish to carry that" to more than a few--I'll hazard a guess that some of these products are things Party City doesn't wish to sully it's good name by associating with and that many of the rest are just things that your company doesn't wish to sell or doesn't think will be profitable. I would imagine that the reverse may have also happened--that Party City may have approached some of their vendors and said "X item is selling swell, if you expand that line, we'll carry it".
It's reasonable to suggest that Party City did not think that these items were racist/sexist/exclusionary (unlikely, but I won’t rule it out). But, now Party City is aware that at least one customer thinks they are (and I would say that if people at Party City go on the internet, they'd find that the discussion of sexism in these types products is currently pretty widespread. #WheresGamora would be a good term to start the search with). The question is, what to do about it.
In a world where corporations are people, I would love to see a company have the integrity to push back. I would love to see Party City say "Where are the female superheroes?" or "Where are the people of color" on these products. I'd love to see Party City say "Hey, Scarlet Witch is in the Superhero Squad/Black Widow is in the Avengers, where is she?"
(It would be even more amazing, however unlikely, for Party City to say "wow, this is incredibly sexist--where are the female heroes? We won't be able to carry these designs until you add them". But I know that that's asking a lot; integrity like that costs a lot of money.)
I know that Party City can’t single-handedly change the pervasive sexism. But, as a retailer with a working relationship with vendors, Party City can ask questions and apply pressure.
And really, the questions aren't hard--if you show the line of products to an 8 year old fan, and his/her response might be "where are the girls? Where are the non-white people?” that's not a hard question--it’s an obvious one. It's just a hard question to answer without the producer of the project feeling put on the spot.
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. Ask those hard questions. Work toward inclusivity. And consider answering your mail.
I look forward to your response.
(you guys are going to respond this time, right?)
(For what it's worth, I decided not to tack on a very large 'ugh' related to costumes, sexism and sexulization --there are enough other people writing well on that front, if I thought Party City was open to feedback, I rest assured others have already covered it--for years- without Party City changing.)
Hi! I think the first order of business is to say, did you know that your company is thoroughly lousy at answering mail? This isn’t your first letter from me. I’m not even sure it’s your second letter from me (if we’re counting email, I’m 100% sure it’s at least your 3rd contact from me). Your company may want to work at that, because people with mild grievances tend to go from “irritated” to “really annoyed and irate” when they feel they’re not being heard.
(I’m no exception, except that I’m rather resigned to the fact that I’m tilting at windmills and that while corporations may be people in the eyes of the courts, they have terribly bad manners. And I think that the poor person stuck opening letters is probably working at a soul-sucking job, so yelling at that person is highly unnecessary. Unless that person is the reason my previous letter(s) went into the circular file--in that case, consider yourself given a squinty-eyed-glare for a moment, and then move on.)
(Also, I’ll also apologize that this is much MUCH dang long. I place the blame for that squarely back on Party City though. My first letter(s) were much shorter, apparently I respond to being ignored by being annoyed, which manifests itself by being verbose. The more times you make me write, the more time your poor beleaguered employees have to spend reading my rambling letters.)
What I wrote in to say before, and what I’m saying again (just because I’d like for it to be heard), is that there’s some pretty blatant sexism in your store and their merchandising; your company should work on that.
Rather than re-write the letter that I already took the time to write, I’m going to copy and paste it below:
I don’t think anything about party supplies is inherently sexist, so I find it most unfortunate that your company has embraced 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 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. ...
(for purposes of this website, instead of re-reading all of this, the bulk is copied from HERE, the previous (ignored) letter to PartyCity. So click there to read it, otherwise, you scan skip to the bottom...)
....
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.
Let me interrupt myself right here. Because I didn’t get a response, I went ahead and put this on the ‘open letter’ website I started up when companies (like Party City, and Marvel) were uncooperative: http://dearmarvel.weebly.com/. I’d recommend you give it a gander--I have screenshots of your site and everything.
And let me continue my interruption to head off one thing--I’ve taken this up with Marvel. If Party City decides, like a few other retailers, the proper response is “well, if Marvel doesn’t MAKE it, we can’t sell it”, I’d like to call that out as disingenuous right now.
I do agree that the bulk of the blame goes on to the companies who produce these items (like Marvel and DC Comics)--but companies like Party City are a part of the problem. I'm sure that there are a gazillion product lines that approach Party City every year to be carried in the stores. Party City probably responds with "no, we don't wish to carry that" to more than a few--I'll hazard a guess that some of these products are things Party City doesn't wish to sully it's good name by associating with and that many of the rest are just things that your company doesn't wish to sell or doesn't think will be profitable. I would imagine that the reverse may have also happened--that Party City may have approached some of their vendors and said "X item is selling swell, if you expand that line, we'll carry it".
It's reasonable to suggest that Party City did not think that these items were racist/sexist/exclusionary (unlikely, but I won’t rule it out). But, now Party City is aware that at least one customer thinks they are (and I would say that if people at Party City go on the internet, they'd find that the discussion of sexism in these types products is currently pretty widespread. #WheresGamora would be a good term to start the search with). The question is, what to do about it.
In a world where corporations are people, I would love to see a company have the integrity to push back. I would love to see Party City say "Where are the female superheroes?" or "Where are the people of color" on these products. I'd love to see Party City say "Hey, Scarlet Witch is in the Superhero Squad/Black Widow is in the Avengers, where is she?"
(It would be even more amazing, however unlikely, for Party City to say "wow, this is incredibly sexist--where are the female heroes? We won't be able to carry these designs until you add them". But I know that that's asking a lot; integrity like that costs a lot of money.)
I know that Party City can’t single-handedly change the pervasive sexism. But, as a retailer with a working relationship with vendors, Party City can ask questions and apply pressure.
And really, the questions aren't hard--if you show the line of products to an 8 year old fan, and his/her response might be "where are the girls? Where are the non-white people?” that's not a hard question--it’s an obvious one. It's just a hard question to answer without the producer of the project feeling put on the spot.
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. Ask those hard questions. Work toward inclusivity. And consider answering your mail.
I look forward to your response.
(you guys are going to respond this time, right?)