Dear Disney,
Hi, I’m going to start with apologizing that this letter is going to be long. It’s long because I should have sent (and received a response) 10 letters ago. Let me preface this, as well, that contacting Marvel Entertainment has already been done. I’ve talked to Marvel; now I’m talking to Disney about Marvel
I wanted to touch base with you to let you know I’m disappointed that a Disney subsidiary, Marvel Entertainment, is falling down (badly) on the job when it comes to diversity in merchandise and products. When 50% of the population (females) makes up 20% of the characters portrayed in movies/shows/etc., that’s not great--but it’s what we’re used to. When the 20% female characters show up in 0% of the merchandise (specifically, merchandise for kids), it quits looking like an oversight and starts looking like intentionally cutting the girls out of the picture. And that is what is happening at Marvel.
Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” has one female character, Gamora; if you go to Marvel’s site, you can see the merchandise, split into 3 categories: Men, Women, and Boys. No Girls items—no ‘kids’ items, just things labeled ‘boys’. If I decide to shop in the ‘boys’ section (although I shouldn’t have to) I can find some clothing items which feature EVERY character in the movie EXCEPT Gamora.
Marvel’s “Avengers” features one female character, Black Widow. When I was asked for ‘girl superhero’ stuff, I thought Avengers items would be a reasonable place to start--but the coloring book has 5 pages that include the Hulk, and zero that include Black Widow (Or Nick Fury, the only person of color, if we’re keeping track there too--although his status is debatable within the Avengers, I suppose). The party supplies have every Avengers character except Black Widow pictured on the toys, cups, plates, banners, balloons. The bedding set has every hero except Black Widow. The backpack portrays everyone except Black Widow. Her missing from one product might be an oversight, missing from all of them doesn’t feel like it.
My daughter’s favorite TV show, “Superhero Squad” has a central group of 4 or so main characters (during season 1, Falcon is the junior member, during season 2 Scarlet Witch takes that role and is a central female character) and s rotating group of additional characters. When I try to find Superhero Squad stuff, I discover that things like board games of Chutes and Ladders include 4 male characters: Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man. Spider-Man never (ever-like I said, my daughter’s favorite show. I have seen every episode repeatedly and acted them out on my living room floor) appears in the series, but the female characters (Both Scarlet Witch and Ms. Marvel have considerable roles) were left on the cutting room floor and Spidey is on the merchandise. No female characters appear on the bedspread, play doh set, color wonder book, party supplies, etc. Again, this doesn’t appear to
When I first made attempts to contact Disney about this, I was referred back to Marvel. Disney isn’t a bystander--I don’t think that marketing people at Disney dictate the details of Marvel’s universe, but they do have influence they should be using, because Marvel’s failings on this front reflect badly on Disney.
And, in that vein, I think that Disney should be aware that Marvel is absurdly no communicative--as in, it takes sending registered letters to multiple offices to get any sort of response (I’ve detailed that on the website: http://dearmarvel.weebly.com/ . I started the website after my 3rd letter {if we’re counting number of letters written--more than 10th if we’re counting numbers of copies sent} went out. I don’t try to make everything an open letter but I feel I’m far past the point where I feel assured the company is actually responsive to fan concerns). I have, to date, received one response from Marvel; they assured me they would be examining their letter reading/writing/whatever process and telling me that change comes slowly but that they’re working on it. Since then, several more letters have gone unanswered, and my question of what, if anything they are doing directly to work on diversity in merchandise marketed to kids has been unanswered.
I have also contacted several of the companies that partner with Marvel to make items--companies like Crayola, Joann Fabrics, and the Disney store. These companies have been quite eager to push the blame back onto Marvel, but I think that Disney should do better than that. I'm sure that there are a gazillion product lines are vetted by Disney to be sold in their parks and stores every year. Disney 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 Disney 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.
It's reasonable to suggest that Disney did not think that the Marvel products that they carry in their stores did not think that these items were racist/sexist/exclusionary. But, looking at them and their marketing, they are. If nothing else, Disney is now aware that at least one customer thinks they are (and given the recent popularity of the #WeWantLeia and #WheresGamora hashtags, it’s safe to say that Disney is well aware that their public is noticing this). 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 Disney say "Where are the female superheroes?" or "Where are the people of color" on these products. (It would be even more amazing, however unlikely, for Disney to say "wow, this is incredibly sexist--where are the female heroes? We won't be able to carry any superhero products or OK development until you fix this". But I know that that's asking a lot; integrity like that costs a lot of money.)
I know that Disney isn’t going to single-handedly change the pervasive sexism in comic-book and superhero items (Although, if they wanted to, I think perhaps they could). But, as a retailer and as a parent company, they can, and should, ask questions and apply pressure.
And really, the questions aren't hard--if you show the line 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 just a hard question to answer without the producer of the project feeling put on the spot.
Please ask the hard questions of your subsidiaries; please consider asking them as both a parent company and a vendor.
Thanks
P.S. I do want to say that Marvel HAS done some incredibly great things recently, regarding representation. Squirrel girl, Thor, Ms. Marvel, NYCC panels, etc.--these things aren’t going unnoticed. But these are things for adults deep in the ‘geek-o-sphere’. They’re things apparent to people immersed in comics and the like; they’re not things that are apparent to the casual fan/movie-goer and none of them seem to impact the merchandise available for children.
Marvel is taking some steps that are notable and worthwhile; they’ve just got another area here that I’d like to be sure isn’t missed in the discussion.
Hi, I’m going to start with apologizing that this letter is going to be long. It’s long because I should have sent (and received a response) 10 letters ago. Let me preface this, as well, that contacting Marvel Entertainment has already been done. I’ve talked to Marvel; now I’m talking to Disney about Marvel
I wanted to touch base with you to let you know I’m disappointed that a Disney subsidiary, Marvel Entertainment, is falling down (badly) on the job when it comes to diversity in merchandise and products. When 50% of the population (females) makes up 20% of the characters portrayed in movies/shows/etc., that’s not great--but it’s what we’re used to. When the 20% female characters show up in 0% of the merchandise (specifically, merchandise for kids), it quits looking like an oversight and starts looking like intentionally cutting the girls out of the picture. And that is what is happening at Marvel.
Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” has one female character, Gamora; if you go to Marvel’s site, you can see the merchandise, split into 3 categories: Men, Women, and Boys. No Girls items—no ‘kids’ items, just things labeled ‘boys’. If I decide to shop in the ‘boys’ section (although I shouldn’t have to) I can find some clothing items which feature EVERY character in the movie EXCEPT Gamora.
Marvel’s “Avengers” features one female character, Black Widow. When I was asked for ‘girl superhero’ stuff, I thought Avengers items would be a reasonable place to start--but the coloring book has 5 pages that include the Hulk, and zero that include Black Widow (Or Nick Fury, the only person of color, if we’re keeping track there too--although his status is debatable within the Avengers, I suppose). The party supplies have every Avengers character except Black Widow pictured on the toys, cups, plates, banners, balloons. The bedding set has every hero except Black Widow. The backpack portrays everyone except Black Widow. Her missing from one product might be an oversight, missing from all of them doesn’t feel like it.
My daughter’s favorite TV show, “Superhero Squad” has a central group of 4 or so main characters (during season 1, Falcon is the junior member, during season 2 Scarlet Witch takes that role and is a central female character) and s rotating group of additional characters. When I try to find Superhero Squad stuff, I discover that things like board games of Chutes and Ladders include 4 male characters: Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man. Spider-Man never (ever-like I said, my daughter’s favorite show. I have seen every episode repeatedly and acted them out on my living room floor) appears in the series, but the female characters (Both Scarlet Witch and Ms. Marvel have considerable roles) were left on the cutting room floor and Spidey is on the merchandise. No female characters appear on the bedspread, play doh set, color wonder book, party supplies, etc. Again, this doesn’t appear to
When I first made attempts to contact Disney about this, I was referred back to Marvel. Disney isn’t a bystander--I don’t think that marketing people at Disney dictate the details of Marvel’s universe, but they do have influence they should be using, because Marvel’s failings on this front reflect badly on Disney.
And, in that vein, I think that Disney should be aware that Marvel is absurdly no communicative--as in, it takes sending registered letters to multiple offices to get any sort of response (I’ve detailed that on the website: http://dearmarvel.weebly.com/ . I started the website after my 3rd letter {if we’re counting number of letters written--more than 10th if we’re counting numbers of copies sent} went out. I don’t try to make everything an open letter but I feel I’m far past the point where I feel assured the company is actually responsive to fan concerns). I have, to date, received one response from Marvel; they assured me they would be examining their letter reading/writing/whatever process and telling me that change comes slowly but that they’re working on it. Since then, several more letters have gone unanswered, and my question of what, if anything they are doing directly to work on diversity in merchandise marketed to kids has been unanswered.
I have also contacted several of the companies that partner with Marvel to make items--companies like Crayola, Joann Fabrics, and the Disney store. These companies have been quite eager to push the blame back onto Marvel, but I think that Disney should do better than that. I'm sure that there are a gazillion product lines are vetted by Disney to be sold in their parks and stores every year. Disney 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 Disney 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.
It's reasonable to suggest that Disney did not think that the Marvel products that they carry in their stores did not think that these items were racist/sexist/exclusionary. But, looking at them and their marketing, they are. If nothing else, Disney is now aware that at least one customer thinks they are (and given the recent popularity of the #WeWantLeia and #WheresGamora hashtags, it’s safe to say that Disney is well aware that their public is noticing this). 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 Disney say "Where are the female superheroes?" or "Where are the people of color" on these products. (It would be even more amazing, however unlikely, for Disney to say "wow, this is incredibly sexist--where are the female heroes? We won't be able to carry any superhero products or OK development until you fix this". But I know that that's asking a lot; integrity like that costs a lot of money.)
I know that Disney isn’t going to single-handedly change the pervasive sexism in comic-book and superhero items (Although, if they wanted to, I think perhaps they could). But, as a retailer and as a parent company, they can, and should, ask questions and apply pressure.
And really, the questions aren't hard--if you show the line 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 just a hard question to answer without the producer of the project feeling put on the spot.
Please ask the hard questions of your subsidiaries; please consider asking them as both a parent company and a vendor.
Thanks
P.S. I do want to say that Marvel HAS done some incredibly great things recently, regarding representation. Squirrel girl, Thor, Ms. Marvel, NYCC panels, etc.--these things aren’t going unnoticed. But these are things for adults deep in the ‘geek-o-sphere’. They’re things apparent to people immersed in comics and the like; they’re not things that are apparent to the casual fan/movie-goer and none of them seem to impact the merchandise available for children.
Marvel is taking some steps that are notable and worthwhile; they’ve just got another area here that I’d like to be sure isn’t missed in the discussion.