Tag: lady business

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Marvel tries for ‘female product,’ kinda fails

Yes. They're in a band, apparently.This would actually be kind of hilarious if it wasn’t rather sad… Marvel has apparently decided that the trick to getting girls to buy their merchandise are… Chibis and cosmetics. And yes, they actually use the term ‘female product.’ Seriously!

“Since our core customer has always been guys, we need to be very careful when we introduce female product so that we don’t alienate our core,” said Paul Gitter, president of consumer products, North America, for Marvel Entertainment Inc. “What we have found through testing is that we haven’t alienated them, which gives us the OK to move forward with female product.”

Yes, god forbid they alienate the menfolk.

Points for trying, I guess, but isn’t there some kind of middle road here? Do they really have to go over to the hearts-and-pink-things side – or define ‘female’ as ‘preteen’ – to get women to buy merchandise? (Via Maggiesox, who has her rant on.)

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Woman don’t need superheros? Oh, it’s on now, bub

CinemaBlend’s Josh Tyler says we don’t need any more female superheroes, because women would rather have Julia Roberts and Sex and the City. Of course we do, darling. Of course we do. That’s why Buffy the Vampire Slayer never made it past being a mid-season replacement. To quoth Jezebel’s Dodai:

There’s nothing sexist about wanting a female superhero; there is something sexist in assuming that all women only want to see Sex And The City-type movies, that women are a monolithic block who all act the same way and want the same things.

Yes, we do need more films aimed towards us. And while it was great to see a ‘woman’s movie’ like Sex and the City become a genuine box office hit this summer, that’s not all there is. Diversify, already. Stop blaming Catwoman and Elektra – their sin was being bad movies, not about the ladies. Put as much care into a Wonder Woman as you put into an Iron Man or Batman Begins and you might get a good movie – or at least one that makes money.

The only thing wrong with female superhero movies is that they’re making damsel-in-distress crap like Twilight instead. Leia would not approve.

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“Women don’t like science fiction,” again

A New York Times article on the Sci-Fi Channel – well, a passage about how the network attracted more women – sent io9’s Annalee Newitz on one mother of a rant:

If there’s something keeping women away from enjoying science fiction, it’s not spaceships. It’s not “aliens on some far-off planet.” It’s the fact that people on our very own planet keep telling us that women aren’t supposed to like science fiction. It’s a self-confirming prophesy, because the more that scifi creators are told this, the more they imagine that their audience is all boys. So they write rich, believable male characters and boring, cookie-cutter lady characters. They organize conventions with panels devoted to shit like “the hottest women of science fiction” and nothing devoted to female heroes — or the kinds of hotties that straight women might want to see (i.e., men).

Can I get an amen, ladies?

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Broaden Your Intellect

Do all those sci-fi shows make you feel smarter than most? StarTrek.com reports that anthropologist Daryl Frazetti will be lecturing on Star Trek and its impact on culture.

Of note to the women of Club Jade, one of his lectures will be entitled “From Bjo Trimble to Starwars Chicks: Female Fans of Star Wars and Star Trek.”

According to the article, “Based on his research into fandom, the talk will focus on the historical role of women in the fan community, and discuss how media stereotypes of fans are often problematic. There will also be a comparison of male and female fans regarding their fan activities, and a comparison of “Star Wars” fans to Star Trek fans.”

How quickly will this talk end up on the internet?