"...one step behind the boys, not as smart as the boys, not as interesting as the boys, but right there."

At BoingBoing:

Vi transcribed the relevant piece, in which Dini recounts conversations he's had with execs who insist that they don't want any girl fans of their shows, because girls don't buy toys. And to keep girls from watching the shows, they make sure that girls are always presented as sidekicks, "one step behind the boys." It's absolutely infuriating.

*headdesk*

*headdesk*

*headdesk*

and also UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Comments

[Jen Robinson]

That is revolting.

[Leila]

RIGHT? I'm so disgusted. And yet, not particularly surprised. I think Professor Mortis said it best just now on Twitter: "That stuff was both unbelievable and totally believably horrible."

[Beth]

...What is this. I feel dirty now.

[dangermom]

ARGH. I HATE THIS. You know what, I have a 10yo daughter who is geekitude personified. She should have been born wearing a Tron t-shirt. She loves the toys. I can't believe I have to buy the toys, knowing this. (Not that we get Comedy Central, but you know what I mean.)

I also have a 13yo daughter who loves the stuff, though she's more Who than anything else. Please tell me DW is better than this, at least.

[tanita]

Tech Boy read this to me this morning, and it reminded me a lot of the "well, we can't put black kids on the covers of books because black kids don't buy books." Self-fulfilling chicken-and-egg loop, much?

I cannot comprehend how you would WANT to turn ANYONE off to your product, your story, your world, if you're truly a creator, and artist. What this tells me is that SOME OF THIS CRAP is made by hacks.

[Leila]

@Tanita: YES. I thought of the book cover thing, too, which made me want kick something EVEN MORE.

[Angela]

Ugghh. And UGH again. I had seen this mentioned awhile ago in relation to the cancellation of Young Justice, which was SUCH a great show. I don't know that Paul Dini ever explicitly stated this was the reason YJ was canceled, but I would not be at all surprised if that were the case. As far as I can tell, its numbers were pretty good, but Cartoon Network wasn't getting the demographic it wanted, ie, boys.

Also, what on earth is up with these people who think something can only be marketed toward boys if the girls in the story are somehow made lesser? It already bums me out that I have to hear our library patrons say, "Oh, he won't read that, it has a girl on the cover. That's a girl book." But to take that a step further by planning to give boy protagonists uninteresting and unintelligent female friends... ugh. Did we learn nothing from Harry Potter? He would have failed in basically everything if Hermione hadn't been his (brilliant and awesome!) friend. There are zero things wrong with having a boy as the main character of your story, but there is something DEEPLY wrong with purposely making the girls in the same story unequal.

I'm so mad. I'm so maaaaad.