Why Is the Female ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Character Not Sold in Stores?

If you’re one of the millions of female fans who loved Guardians of the Galaxy you may be surprised to find out your gender isn’t particularly well-represented in merchandise available to buy in stores. Well, perhaps not surprised, but predictably disappointed by the habitual neglect of your gender by the movie and gaming industry. It seems an odd marketing move for a film whose audience was 44% female, a larger percentage than any other Marvel movie. And yet Gamora, the kick-ass green alien, has been sadly absent from merchandise. What’s a gal gotta do to get on a t-shirt of a movie in which she played one-fifth of the starring cast?

Apparently, you have to be a t-shirt that’s not marketed to boys. At least, that seems to be the explanation the retailer The Children’s Place decided to go with. When one twitter user brought attention to the fact that their Guardians shirt included the whole cast except glaringly-omitted Gamora, The Children’s Place chose to reply with this:

The Children’s Place isn’t the only company with some explaining to do. The absence of Gamora even sparked the hashtag #WheresGamora, but Marvel and Disney haven’t responded. But they should. And if they don’t, fans might just take things into their own hands.

Writer and self-described geek Amy Ratliffe even pointed out while store displays may promote Gamora, that doesn’t mean you’ll find any products with her on them available for purchase. And more discouraging was her discovery that a t-shirt designed to feature the main cast each with their own column of poses left out Gamora and simply doubled up on the males. What the what?

There are also a very few Gamora items if you hunt around online, but they’re not readily available in-stores, or her inclusion is only as part of a set of the toys. Strange that they wouldn’t even think to sell Gamora-specific merch on the Disney site, as I found just one bobble head Gamora that wasn’t part of a set. Though, not so strange considering Disney’s history with female character merchandise. There was the omission of Black Widow on Avengers merchandise, as well as the conspicuous exclusion of Princess Leia in their recent lineup of Star Wars toys. After fans got vocal creating the hashtag #wewantleia about the princess, Disney amended their mistake.

So let’s pump up the noise on demanding justice for Gamora!

(Featured image via comicbook.com)