So they think female babies don't have super-powered ambition? ;-D
Babies probably don't really care that much, but there is a definite ingrained pink is for girls and blue is for boys, which is funny to me, b/c my favorite color is blue. I've never really liked regular pink itself that much for for clothes mainly because I look awful in it.
I don't have any kids at this point, but I do have a niece and I was wracking my brain for superpowered ladies to introduce to her a few weeks ago. (She probably would've been all for the pink Supergirl costume, too.) These days pickings are sorta slim unless I go the Sailor Moon route or Korra (she's still a bit young for live-action Marvel). At least when I was growing up I had things like live-action Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, and the aforementioned Supergirl. Today feels like a bit of a step back.
My kid also just got the latest Disney Infinity installment, the one with all the Marvel content, as a belated birthday gift. This is a step up from the first version in that the characters you can play out of the box actually include a female one (Black Widow).
But there's a peculiar pattern in the Avengers campaign, in that the game keeps introducing all these other female Marvel superheroes (the Wasp, the current Captain Marvel, and Sif)... as non-player mission-giver characters. (Nick Fury is also one of these, but unlike them, he's also apparently playable in the Spider-Man campaign.) The game even goes out of its way to talk up Captain Marvel's powers and Sif's toughness, to the point that I wondered if one of the writers was trying to push back against the decision of which player characters to market.
Marvel seems, I dunno, not willing to leverage their female characters that much as a company. (Kevin Feige actually had the gall to call Captain America: The Winter Soldier a bit of a Black Widow solo film a few months ago, LOL.) I really am not into superheroes that heavily (and actually I am more familiar with DC since I watched Superfriends as a kid), so I haven't been following all of the merch and other related items that closely. But I did hear of a Guardians of the Galaxy birthday party table set that cut Gamora out of the group picture. Can't remember if it was on the tablecloth or some sort of poster or what. It's pretty depressing.
Also, there was a cartoon that was cancelled not too long ago (can't remember which one) that was supposedly cancelled due to having too large of a female audience. Apparently the suits felt the female viewers didn't buy enough merch? I mean, little girls love stuff like Disney, so I dunno, maybe if you suits made an effort, you too could sell some poorly made and overpriced merch. But effort is hard, I guess.
But I will say that if Marvel (or DC) finally gets off their butt and puts out a female-led superhero film in the next few years, I might actually buy an overpriced movie ticket (the first one in many moons) and a disc when it comes out, b/c the suits apparently need a whack upside the head and it only seems to work with money. I am sure they will pooh pooh it though, since they are always surprised/fake surprised over and over when movies outside of the recent "Hollywood norm" do well. I am going to be watching the hell out of Agent Carter when it airs on ABC this spring, though. I don't have a Nielsen box or fancy DVR or anything like that, unfortunately. My online legal views and maybe a DVD will have to do.
Young Justice was cancelled very quickly, but I don't know if the number of female characters had anything to do with it. As far as I've heard the executive reaction was something like, "We have a successful show with an interested fan base! Quick, do a Firefly and cancel it real hard!"
Black Widow is pretty prominent in Winter Soldier, but... no, it is not a Black Widow solo movie.
In Infinity, my daughter rarely plays as Black Widow because, as the Badass Normal of the bunch, she starts out with the least impressive powers; the game design hobbles characters who can't fly. But the Wasp and Captain Marvel can fly! Too bad you can't play them. Of course, the decision to make Black Widow the sole playable female Avenger probably stems from the movies, but that just pushes the problem back one step.
I'm sure that if you ask the suits about this gendered kid-marketing, they'll say the same thing: that girls who play video games, etc. may accept male characters but little boys are repelled by anything girly, and that this is a real effect that impacts sales. To some extent, I'm sure it's true: I've definitely seen it in the wild. But it's a vicious cycle: the attitude is reinforced by the gendered marketing to kids, and then justifies more of the same.
I think the main problem with merch marketed to girls is that they make it pink and just quit. It's a bit more complex than that. And nah, I think some/a lot of boys are conditioned to not like "girly" things, but Marvel's apparent viewpoint that female character = GIRL COOTIES that no boy will want to associate with is such a tired mindset. In the case with the Guardians birthday set, the person who mentioned it said the boy it was for would've loved to have Gamora more prominently included. I think she was included on a napkin, or something. Oh wow.
But maybe the hold-off on making Wasp and Captain Marvel playable, is, like you said, the movie-verse. What better way to gauge interest than rolling stuff like that out? I had heard that Wasp was originally supposed to be part of the Avengers movies, but they cut her due to Antman (and then seemingly killed her, but maybe Hope whatever is going to take over part of that character). The fact that they are dragging their heels on Captain Marvel frankly angers me (and they really missed their shot with a Black Widow origin story). I am not a fan of DC's grim-darkness of late, but I hope they finally do the Wonder Woman movie. It is majorly overdue. Like decades. Endless Batman/Superman reboots are just tiresome.
If little boys are repelled by anything girly, at which stage does that end so that a large portion of the male players of videogames like the departed City of Heroes have female avatars?
Yes, I'm excited about Agent Carter. However, she's currently not a superhero (unless they are going to give her some powers at some point during the show/movie-verse). Marvel has a lot of other female characters with powers that they haven't done much with yet. (And they are doing *more* male superheroes as leads for their Netflix series...why couldn't one of them been a woman, instead? She-Hulk could've been a good one, for instance.) I haven't really read much Marvel stuff as far as comics go, so I don't know if they've spent all of their energy historically on their female X-Men characters and not on their others. But still, it's no excuse. And a bit insulting to female fans (which I don't think many major comic houses think highly of at all). But I guess we're supposed to be happy with whatever is thrown our way and smile.
The pinkification of merchandise aimed at girls and women seems to have gotten really heavy over the last 10 years or so. Ironic given that in the 1920s pink was seen as a masculine colour, and didn't really become a default "girl colour" until the '40s.
One of the more eyerolling examples of pink marketing is the US gun industry offering pink firearms and accessories in an effort to attract women buyers.
I have seen pink (or pastel) sports equipment as well. Why would I want to use a pink softball or glove? It is ridiculous.
I had heard that about pink being once seen as a masculine color, but hadn't really investigated it further. I am not really a fan of assigning colors to genders, anyway.
LOL. Are you sure it isn't specially calibrated for ladybreathing? And of course it is more expensive than the standard one (which is probably for the pink coating nonsense).
(I actually have sleep apnea and I don't think a pink one would've helped me tolerate a CPAP any better. My sinuses don't like being vacuumed.)
The purpose of pinkifying sports equipment is to reduce the risk that sports equipment will be handed down from older sister to younger brother (or older brother to younger sister.) Vendors want parents to buy new gear for each child.
Maybe so, but the pink/pastel versions seem cheaply made. Also, I wouldn't have wanted a pink glove myself, partially because it would've shown dirt pretty badly. (And a pink ball would've been harder to see.)
Anyway, my brother and I both played baseball and softball and the gloves for each are somewhat different since the balls are, too. We didn't really share gloves, either.
Looking at Marvel's new releases page starting in July (I don't know how else to get a complete list of comics they currently publish, as opposed to historical, and I don't read DC anymore) I see:
Storm (I don't read this so I don't know how age-appropriate it is) Electra (not appropriate for kids; it's an assassin hunting a serial killer) She-Hulk (Dunno how age-appropriate this is since I'm not reading it - it sounds like fun but I missed the first few issues and I'm reading enough other things right now.) Ms. Marvel (very kid-friendly; I highly recommend it) Captain Marvel (kid-friendly) Black Widow (I read the first two issues, which was not kid-friendly - she was working as an assassin, lots of blood - and then dropped it because I didn't enjoy the writing. Not sure if it's changed since.) Hawkeye (Half-credit: there are two people using the name "Hawkeye" right now - Clint Barton, the original, and a teenager named Kate Bishop who was one of the Young Avengers. Or maybe she's 20 now. AFAIK this comic is still doing the thing where every second issue is about her.) Thor (starting next month) Spider-Woman (I didn't even know this was being published right now so I know nothing about it)
That's not counting all the women who are part of a team.
The comics aren't the media-and-merchandise side, though. Those two business entities don't seem to do an especially good job of existing in the same universe.
Thanks for the list. Judging from the recent uproar (*NSFW*) (http://eschergirls.tumblr.com/post/95300389080/this-is-an-alternate-cover-of-spider-woman-1-the) over one of the Spider-Woman covers, I'll take a guess that it's not going to be kid-friendly, haha.
My niece can be a little hyper at times, so I don't know how well she'd do with a comic right now (she is 7), but I might give it a try at some point.
I guess I was leaning towards TV because that's how I was introduced to superheroes. Neither one of my parents were comics readers growing up, I don't think.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-10-01 01:49 am
no subject
Babies probably don't really care that much, but there is a definite ingrained pink is for girls and blue is for boys, which is funny to me, b/c my favorite color is blue. I've never really liked regular pink itself that much for for clothes mainly because I look awful in it.
I don't have any kids at this point, but I do have a niece and I was wracking my brain for superpowered ladies to introduce to her a few weeks ago. (She probably would've been all for the pink Supergirl costume, too.) These days pickings are sorta slim unless I go the Sailor Moon route or Korra (she's still a bit young for live-action Marvel). At least when I was growing up I had things like live-action Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, and the aforementioned Supergirl. Today feels like a bit of a step back.
no subject
But there's a peculiar pattern in the Avengers campaign, in that the game keeps introducing all these other female Marvel superheroes (the Wasp, the current Captain Marvel, and Sif)... as non-player mission-giver characters. (Nick Fury is also one of these, but unlike them, he's also apparently playable in the Spider-Man campaign.) The game even goes out of its way to talk up Captain Marvel's powers and Sif's toughness, to the point that I wondered if one of the writers was trying to push back against the decision of which player characters to market.
no subject
Also, there was a cartoon that was cancelled not too long ago (can't remember which one) that was supposedly cancelled due to having too large of a female audience. Apparently the suits felt the female viewers didn't buy enough merch? I mean, little girls love stuff like Disney, so I dunno, maybe if you suits made an effort, you too could sell some poorly made and overpriced merch. But effort is hard, I guess.
But I will say that if Marvel (or DC) finally gets off their butt and puts out a female-led superhero film in the next few years, I might actually buy an overpriced movie ticket (the first one in many moons) and a disc when it comes out, b/c the suits apparently need a whack upside the head and it only seems to work with money. I am sure they will pooh pooh it though, since they are always surprised/fake surprised over and over when movies outside of the recent "Hollywood norm" do well. I am going to be watching the hell out of Agent Carter when it airs on ABC this spring, though. I don't have a Nielsen box or fancy DVR or anything like that, unfortunately. My online legal views and maybe a DVD will have to do.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
(no subject)
no subject
In Infinity, my daughter rarely plays as Black Widow because, as the Badass Normal of the bunch, she starts out with the least impressive powers; the game design hobbles characters who can't fly. But the Wasp and Captain Marvel can fly! Too bad you can't play them. Of course, the decision to make Black Widow the sole playable female Avenger probably stems from the movies, but that just pushes the problem back one step.
I'm sure that if you ask the suits about this gendered kid-marketing, they'll say the same thing: that girls who play video games, etc. may accept male characters but little boys are repelled by anything girly, and that this is a real effect that impacts sales. To some extent, I'm sure it's true: I've definitely seen it in the wild. But it's a vicious cycle: the attitude is reinforced by the gendered marketing to kids, and then justifies more of the same.
no subject
But maybe the hold-off on making Wasp and Captain Marvel playable, is, like you said, the movie-verse. What better way to gauge interest than rolling stuff like that out? I had heard that Wasp was originally supposed to be part of the Avengers movies, but they cut her due to Antman (and then seemingly killed her, but maybe Hope whatever is going to take over part of that character). The fact that they are dragging their heels on Captain Marvel frankly angers me (and they really missed their shot with a Black Widow origin story). I am not a fan of DC's grim-darkness of late, but I hope they finally do the Wonder Woman movie. It is majorly overdue. Like decades. Endless Batman/Superman reboots are just tiresome.
no subject
(no subject)
no subject
On the other hand, Agent Carter the TV series. Which isn't bad for a character that was supposed to be mainly just the Love Interest.
no subject
(no subject)
no subject
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
One of the more eyerolling examples of pink marketing is the US gun industry offering pink firearms and accessories in an effort to attract women buyers.
no subject
I had heard that about pink being once seen as a masculine color, but hadn't really investigated it further. I am not really a fan of assigning colors to genders, anyway.
no subject
no subject
(I actually have sleep apnea and I don't think a pink one would've helped me tolerate a CPAP any better. My sinuses don't like being vacuumed.)
(no subject)
no subject
no subject
Anyway, my brother and I both played baseball and softball and the gloves for each are somewhat different since the balls are, too. We didn't really share gloves, either.
no subject
Storm (I don't read this so I don't know how age-appropriate it is)
Electra (not appropriate for kids; it's an assassin hunting a serial killer)
She-Hulk (Dunno how age-appropriate this is since I'm not reading it - it sounds like fun but I missed the first few issues and I'm reading enough other things right now.)
Ms. Marvel (very kid-friendly; I highly recommend it)
Captain Marvel (kid-friendly)
Black Widow (I read the first two issues, which was not kid-friendly - she was working as an assassin, lots of blood - and then dropped it because I didn't enjoy the writing. Not sure if it's changed since.)
Hawkeye (Half-credit: there are two people using the name "Hawkeye" right now - Clint Barton, the original, and a teenager named Kate Bishop who was one of the Young Avengers. Or maybe she's 20 now. AFAIK this comic is still doing the thing where every second issue is about her.)
Thor (starting next month)
Spider-Woman (I didn't even know this was being published right now so I know nothing about it)
That's not counting all the women who are part of a team.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Sorry, miscomprehended.
Those are all excellent suggestions.
no subject
My niece can be a little hyper at times, so I don't know how well she'd do with a comic right now (she is 7), but I might give it a try at some point.
I guess I was leaning towards TV because that's how I was introduced to superheroes. Neither one of my parents were comics readers growing up, I don't think.