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It’s unfortunate when a company embraces outdated, inaccurate, and damaging gender stereotypes as its marketing model.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