Given my track record with responses from Marvel and similar companies, I am probably not the best person to tell you how to contact companies.
But, in the interest of making it easy for people to write letters (and Marvel seemed willing to ignore the first 100 letters or so; but if we made it 1,000, that might be harder to ignore) and kick things into gear:
New York, NY 10020
Burbank, CA 91521
Glendale, CA 91201
West Palm Beach, Florida 33409 And, since Marvel is a subsidiary of Disney:
Glendale, CA 91201 Maybe now would be a good time to make a resolution to write a letter or 3. Or, in my case, a dozen. Unfortunately, as someone who has more projects in a day than I have hours to do them, I can't find the most recent, November/December letter I sent to party city. Again.
I'm, however, having trouble coming up with a scenario in which multiple certified letters are binned and a generic "here, call our giant phone tree for customer service" email is deemed the correct response. But, apparently, this is how business is done in the business of superheros world. Someone returning my phone call would, however, be a swell place to start. Dear Disney,
As you can see, right over in that picture, I know the Disney Store Headquarters received a letter from me earlier this month. I know it was received, because someone there signed for it. May want to review your letter-handling protocols. In case you missed it before, though, I'll reprint the letter here: 12/11/2014 *I have been in contact with Disney previously about Marvel--seeing that Disney's production is behind making the products, Disney stores sell the products, and Marvel is a subsidiary of Disney. I was told that my information was forwarded to Marvel but that Disney wouldn't involve itself directly. I do hope that this letter, showing my frustration at my futile and extensive efforts to prompt a response from Marvel will help Disney see how badly involvement from outside Marvel is needed. Below, please see the letter and timeline that I am sending Marvel this week. Thanks. Dear Marvel, Have you ever been told that there's a point where the best response to something beyond the pale is just the word 'wow'? Saying an incredulous 'wow' hammers home that something is so far off the mark it's remarkable, just for extremity and absurdity that there are no words--and it does it without having to spell out all 3 million reasons the response is “wow”. Wow. I'd love to have that speak for itself, but somehow, the messages I'm sending, even when they're spelled out, are not getting through. So I probably have to spell it out again. Which is most unfortunate, I had other plans for today and this is going to take way to long and I'm sure whomever had the misfortune to be the person opening this letter has things he or she would rather be doing. I think, however, that laying things out clearly would help-with a timeline. It will be refreshing for both of us since I'm tired of writing walls of text and Marvel is clearly tired of not reading and throwing away my walls of text. *Remainder of text available here:* P.S. I’m not sure which address and email addresses I should send this to, so I’m sending it to several. Please assume that a quick email of “hey, we got your letter, we will respond shortly” which is followed up upon later is preferable to waiting a long time to respond—because feeling ignored is how we got here in the first place. P.P. S. Happy Holidays! Good morning.
At some point today, people @Marvel and @Disney will be signing for some of these today. The rest of the letters will just be normal mail. Somehow, the last 'signed for' letters didn't get a response. Hope these fare better--a response would get me into the Christmas spirit--although not as much as finding a Ms. Marvel fig @Universal studios would have. Dear Marvel, Have you ever been told that there's a point where the best response to something beyond the pale is just the word 'wow'? Saying an incredulous 'wow' hammers home that something is so far off the mark it's remarkable, just for extremity and absurdity that there are no words--and it does it without having to spell out all 3 million reasons the response is “wow”. Wow. I'd love to have that speak for itself, but somehow, the messages I'm sending, even when they're spelled out, are not getting through. So I probably have to spell it out again. Which is most unfortunate, I had other plans for today and this is going to take way to long and I'm sure whomever had the misfortune to be the person opening this letter has things he or she would rather be doing. I think, however, that laying things out clearly would help-with a timeline. It will be refreshing for both of us since I'm tired of writing walls of text and Marvel is clearly tired of not reading and throwing away my walls of text. I'll make anything positive (or even remotely acceptable), that Marvel does purple and italicized.
So, now that I've laid out in copious detail, what I, as a fan and a consumer (and as a person who is all but BEGGING to be able to give you money for female-centric merchandise) am dealing with, I'd really (really) like to see Marvel respond. I can't come up with a better reaction to the take away from that timeline – a message of "wow, you contacted a company essentially monthly, for a year and got 1 response? And then ignored again? And they continue to show females on often less than 1% of merch. portrayals? and their answer to that is to do NOTHING-not even write back?” than “wow”. I’d really like that reaction to be changed to “wow, they screwed up badly—but are taking ownership of both their fan reaction system and their sexism and stepping up now.” I know that one of the questions I'll be asked is, “what do you expect Marvel to do?”. At this point, my expectations are awfully and terribly low What I would *like* them to do is, first and foremost, respond. Make it clear fans heard. Write a ding-dangity letter back. Don't throw away letters without responding. I’ve said before, and I’m saying again, I’m not writing because I hate Marvel, I’m writing because I’m a fan who is feeling maligned and who is seeing my daughter being shunted away from the love of comics we share because of sexism. What I would like to see Marvel do, secondly (and more importantly) is include female characters in merchandise-In shows, on t-shirts, in movies, on merchandise. And I’d like to see these female characters not as an afterthought, but as full characters, who show up and DO stuff. What I would like for Marvel to do is make a plan and publicize a plan for including their for female characters that's more concrete than "you'll see some in the future". I know Marvel can't say "oh, we're planning, next week, to announce the Squirrel Girl thing--shhh, don't tell anyone"; there are plans invisible to fans, as always, but a vague 'changes are coming' means nothing if we don't see those changes. When I shop on Marvel's website and that 50% of the population with XX chromosomes shows up on 3/83 items (<yes, those are the real numbers from Marvel's toy website this winter when I last commented), those promises feel an awful lot like empty lip service. What I would *REALLY* like is for Marvel to acknowledge it's a problem and attempt to fix it. Until Marvel can say "yeah, 3/83 or 3.61% female depiction is a problem. We need to work on this", fans are going to hear the promises to do better ring pretty hollow. I know that it takes time to create merchandise, but I don’t see any reason Marvel can't 'fix' things that exist? As 'Daniel Tiger' teaches preschoolers every day, "saying I'm sorry is the first step. Then 'how can I help?'" Marvel probably can't/won't re-make entire lines, but there are small 'corrections' that could be made. For example, one of the products I complained about was "Superhero Squad Chutes and Ladders"--with all male pawns (including males not even a part of the show). Marvel probably isn't going to be able to remake the game tomorrow, but could have printable female character play pieces of Ms. Marvel and Scarlet Witch. The coloring books leave out female characters and characters of color; provide some printable coloring sheets to parents who want their kids to be able to color someone other than a white male. Honestly, if, as a person with just access to a computer and a printer, I can come up with fixes like that off the top of my head, Marvel should be able to figure out how to put Gamora into some of their merchandise with their available resources. I'm a fan of Marvel because Marvel has awesome characters and has historically been at the forefront with things like diversity. I love the characters produced and the fandom I get to be a part of. And the Marvel that was able to put characters of color into integrated settings, that was able to refocus the comics code so they could warn about dangers of drugs, that has the anti-bullying message out right now is capable of combating sexism. So, to sign off, I'd just like to say that all I really want for Christmas is peace on Earth, goodwill to everyone, a heaping helping of equality, and my daughter to see herself reflected in the heroines she plays with. (And a response to this letter.) Thanks for your time and attention. You can reach me in any of the ways listed in the header here. -Me P.S. I’m not sure which address and email addresses I should send this to, so I’m sending it to several. Please assume that a quick email of “hey, we got your letter, we will respond shortly” which is followed up upon later is preferable to waiting a long time to respond—because feeling ignored is how we got here in the first place. P.P. S. Happy Holidays! #DearMarvel, #GeekSexism, #IsThisThingOn, #LousyCustomerService, #WheresBlackWidow, I don't have delivery confirmation on the letter yet, so, whichever intern has the extraordinarily dull job of sifting through mail may not have even gotten to sign yet. But here's a copy for the rest of the world until then.
Please don't worry to much about what to do with the letter; I fully expect a lip-service response, which assures me Marvel will be responsive to letters in the future and that they're aware they're sexist and are working on it--you know, rather like last response I got from Marvel, when I sent things that required a signature. But I hope the rest of the day at work isn't as soul-sucking-ly depressing as tossing heartfelt fan mail in the circular file. Dear Marvel, I should start by congratulating Marvel, the company hasn't done anything majorly offensive that I have seen in two weeks! More than that, they’ve done some cool stuff: Thor, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, allegedly awesome stuff at NYCC, etc. Impressive stuff! On the flip side, Marvel hasn’t convinced me that they’re actually going to make any effort to work on the sexism in the merch they aim directly at kids and they’ve decided once again that my letters (yes, plural, multiple copies sent in August, multiple copies sent in September) should be ignored—that or the assurance that you were looking into the problems and would try to respond better was supposed to be a ‘once in a fan’s lifetime they will get a response to every 10th letter’ thing. I wrote an entire long letter this week, that I had printed and ready to send (and to send so it required signature, since, apparently, that is the only mail anyone at Marvel reads)—but I decided that I was just creating more paper that said the same thing (instead I’ll enclose the previous 2 here (and, of course, unanswered mail goes on the dearmarvel.weebly.com website)—that I’d love to see something, even unofficial, that looks like a plan or a timeline to address this, because, given the lack of response from Marvel, I’m not entirely convinced that there is a plan. Please don’t think that the positives Marvel is are going un-noticed—they’re noticed and appreciated. I’m celebrating the progress, but Marvel can (and should) do MORE, so much more, than what it is doing—because a lot of what it’s doing is still sexist (50% of the population is female. 20% of the various teams are female, 0% of the merchandise is female. Hard to argue with numbers)—especially when it comes to the ‘mass appeal’ positives (the things Marvel has done to address sexism are happening 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. They’re not things trickling down to the kid products and t-shirts. I know product development takes time, but I think it’s disingenuous for Marvel not to take steps in the interim. Marvel doesn’t have any playable female characters in the Superhero Marvel Chutes & Ladders game; there’s no way to issue an apology and a printable female (Scarlett Witch) replacement piece? Marvel neglected to put any female characters in their coloring books; there’s no way to issue an apology and a printable sheet to color? Marvel’s own website lists 3 categories for Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise-- Men, Women, and Boys. No Girls items. That’s a moment by a web-design person to ‘fix’ so it says ‘kids’—so why hasn’t that happened? (And yes, some of these things, I can do these things myself—and I have. But it would mean a lot for Marvel to publicly take steps that means they’re taking this seriously and want to fix it. And, if this is what I can come up with, as a parent with access to nothing but the internet and a printer, surely Marvel’s media teams can do much better) I look forward to a response. Thanks Me 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?) that ignoring people who write polite, if irritated letters leads to people writing more, marginally less polite, verbose letters.
So, to the poor employees who get stuck opening the mail at @Disney, @Marvel, and @PartyCity, I apologize. Reading customer service complaints tends to mean you're working a soul-sucking job (or, worse luck you're the intern who isn't getting paid) and people complain to you all day. Sorry, person working crap job. And the poor desk jockey @PartyCity and @Marvel will get stuck having to go get their supervisor to say "uh, this lady included information about a bunch of previous letters and it arrived registered mail"...which means they probably can't just toss it in the circular file, like they did previously. This is my email back to Joann Fabrics:
Thanks for your response. I do agree that the bulk of the blame goes on to the companies who produce these items (like Marvel)--but I'd like for Joann Fabrics to hear me out on why I think they are part of the problem. I'm sure that there are a gazillion product lines that approach Joann Fabrics every year to be carried in the stores. Joann 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 Joann Fabrics 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 Joann Fabrics 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 say that Joann Fabrics did not think that these fabrics were racist/sexist/exclusionary. But, now Joann Fabrics is aware that at least one customer thinks they are (and I would say that if people at Joann go on the internet, they'd find that the discussion of sexism in products is pretty widespread. #WheresGamora would be a good term to start the Google 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 Joann Fabrics say "Where are the female superheroes?" or "Where are the people of color" on these products. I'd love to see Joann Fabrics say "Hey, Wonder Woman is on all these signs, where is the Wonder Woman fabric?" (It would be even more amazing, however unlikely, for Joann 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, I know; integrity like that costs a lot of money.) I know that Joann can't single-handedly change the pervasive sexism. But Joann Fabrics, as a retailer with a working relationship with vendors can ask questions and apply pressure. And really, the questions aren't hard--if you show the fabric 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. Thanks for taking the time to respond to my concern and to read this. And for the gift card, which I will use to make something for my small super-heroine. And please consider asking the easy questions that are so hard to ask. -Me 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) |