Sad, but true, sumac. I imagine companies think gender focus helps them sell more toys- “They’ll buy one set for the boot and have to buy this whole different set for the girl! Mwahaha”. Perhaps less sinister than that, but still, I’d love to see their actual books to determine if this technique is really working for them. I’m big on logic and I have to believe there’s a reason that no companies seem truly sorry when they get called out. Wonderforge is close here, but I think DC is the real source of the problem in this case.

Cheers, snarly.
It’s definitely an experience.
“Yes, you know Vixen. She was at the new Titans tryouts; she ate a worm.”

LikeCaesar, my daughter is also a huge Teen Titans fan.

You have my sympathy.

🙂

Things have gotten worse in this respect. The old marketing was meant to show that everyone loved a game or toy. New marketing is much more niche-focused. Boys love it! Girls love it!

And the more they do it, the more it reinforces the idea in kids that they must fit precisely in the niche in order not to be mocked for being irregular….

I know I’m way out of date on this thread. I’m currently browsing to find templates to make tokens for custom Axis of Villains characters. Not focusing just on gender, my daughter is a huge Teen Titans fan (yes, the annoying one, but I take geekdom where I can). She was dissappointed not only that there were no female characters, but that her second favorite hero, Cyborg, was not present. Hence, color printer + web search = happier kids, happier family time.

Addressing your post, Lizzie, I wonder if that box you saw was the beginning of the fall. I am often struck but how balanced the pictures on my grandparents’ games were. Tinker Toys showed a boy and girl building things. Legos showed a boy and girl building things. Life showed the whole family playing around a table, smiling. No explosions, no popular character tie-ins, just a picture showing the intended goal of the product inside. I grant you, they weren’t multi racial in any way, which is an issue that I am sad to see hasn’t changed much, like you said, IN FIFTY YEARS. Honestly, it almost seems like things have gotten worse.

Jonathan and I are villains from PBS’s Word Girl. I am Lady Redundant Woman, a copy shop employee who makes duplicates of herself to do crimes, and he is The Butcher, who butchers the English language and can be defeated by tofu.

I love you, though.

Yeah, yee haw.

(P.S. Nice lipstick shade! Still trying to figure out what the Kinkos outfit…might be, but love the tights/dress/hair combo. Also, the squinchy face.)