The new ‘Star Wars’ hero is weirdly missing from toy shelves
Remember back in April, when fans (us included) were ultra disappointed to find that Black Widow — the only woman on the six-person superhero team — was mysteriously missing on pretty much all Avengers merch? And it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of demand, as the Twitter-verse was filled with Marvel fans using the hashtag #WheresBlackWidow, wondering why their fave heroine wasn’t included. The same thing happened with Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy last year, too.
Unfortunately, we’ve got a serious case of déjà vu, because Rey, one of the main protagonists in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is also missing from the film’s merch. Several have noticed that Rey, played by Daisy Ridley, doesn’t have a place in several Star Wars toy sets — yet random stormtroopers do — and they’ve taken to Twitter using the hashtag #WheresRey. (Sound familiar?)
Others are pointing out other ways the situation is unacceptable — such as the fact that there are Rey toys out there, but they only appear to be sold in solo packs. . . not with the entire team. You know, despite the fact that Rey is a major protagonist.
And still others are pointing out the fact that this is happening at Target, the store that got rid of gender-based signage and put girls and boys toys together. . . and that this isn’t exactly an example of ridding itself of gender bias.
Despite the fact that thousands of women and girls all over the world are massive Star Wars fans, marketers, manufacturers, and stores are still sticking to the incredibly outdated and massively unproven idea that only boys play with Star Wars toys. Not only would including women in their merchandise please the general population, it would sell considerably more toys.
We can only hope that companies like Hasbro and Marvel soon let go of these gender constructs and remember: Girls like Star Wars. Girls like the Avengers. Girls like X-Men. And they’re sick and tired of having to prove that, time and time again.
(Images via Lucasfilm and Twitter.)
