Fans called out Marvel and Disney earlier this month for inexplicably leaving Gamora, the sole female hero on the massively popular Guardians of the Galaxy team, out in the majority of the merchandise for the blockbuster summer movie.
Using the Twitter hashtag #whereisGamora, they asked why they couldn’t find toys or clothes celebrating the female hero—or, in fact, including her at all—despite the fact she plays a central role in the film. Now, they’re taking the same grievance to a children’s clothing retailer.
Twitter user @kristenrapp tweeted The Children’s Place to ask why Gamora wasn’t on the store’s Guardians of the Galaxy T-shirt, and it didn’t take long for other customers to chime in with their complaints about the absence of female character merchandise.
@Guardians She’s so dangerous, in fact, she HAD to be left off this @childrensplace shirt design! Super dangerous! pic.twitter.com/LqmPh9U5cS
— Kristen (@kristenrapp) August 18, 2014
.@childrensplace over 45% of all #comics fans are women. Almost half of all comic readers are parents. Do you hate making money?
— Catrina Dennis (@ohcatrina) August 19, 2014
Thank goodness corporations like @childrensplace are carefully weeding out all female influence from our boys’ clothing!
— Shannon Hale (@haleshannon) August 19, 2014
The Children’s Place eventually responded to the original complaint, but their answer was less than promising.
.@justjenn @amy_geek @HiddlesEducates @Guardians FYI, I got a reply from @childrensplace and… this IS 2014, right? pic.twitter.com/MT3A855HcF
— Kristen (@kristenrapp) August 18, 2014
Yes, apparently this shirt “is a boy’s shirt, which is why it does not include the female character Gamora.”
In other words, this shirt was designed with the assumption that boys won’t wear anything with a girl on it, even when balanced out by three male characters. Either that, or The Children’s Place thinks that there isn’t a market for Gamora shirts at all.
Since Guardians of the Galaxy was a hugely popular family movie with plenty of female viewers, there’s definitely an audience for at least some Gamora-related merchandise. Plus, Gamora is a badass green alien lady with a bunch of cool weapons. It’s unlikely that the addition of her picture would suddenly make a Guardians of the Galaxy team T-shirt unpalatable to the average boy.
.@annesobe @awarenews @kristenrapp @childrensplace My 10yo boy thinks this is dumb. “If it doesn’t have everybody, it’s not a GotG t-shirt.”
— Amy Jo Cousins (@_AJCousins) August 19, 2014
It looks like the best solution to the T-shirt problem is either to order an unofficial fanmade design, or make your own Gamora-friendly version. And try to forget that respected retailers excuse this kind of faux pas by describing a man, a tree and a raccoon as a “diverse” cast of characters. That’s just embarrassing.
Fixed your glaring #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy mistake for you, @childrensplace. Please send a check c/o my kid, thanks. pic.twitter.com/TkeIdgmxZg
— Kristen (@kristenrapp) August 17, 2014
Photo via recommandedmovies
