After over 1,000 #NotBuyingIt tweets and nearly 8,000 signatures on our petition, the Disney Store has quietly removed the women’s “I Need a Hero” Avengers t-shirt from their website.
Late last week we started a Change.org petition and #NotBuyingIt campaign after seeing the limiting ways in which the Disney Store and Marvel were selling their Avengers’ clothing to women, men and boys (none were labeled specifically for girls).
These items portray women as helpless bystanders in need of rescuing by men and boys. They’re also heteronormative in implying that only women “kiss heroes.”
In response to the shirts, thousands signed our petition and used Twitter to ask the Disney Store to stop selling sexism. The brand quickly appeared on our #NotBuyingIt list of all-time worst offenders:
As a result of the pressure, today the “I Need a Hero” is no longer available on the Disney Store website.
Though they continue to sell the “Be a Hero” t-shirt only for boys (and a “I Only Kiss Heroes” t-shirt just for women) the removal of one t-shirt is significant in that it shows our voices are being heard. And that when we come together to talk back to sexist media we have tremendous power to influence change.
Keep the pressure on the Disney Store to stop using limiting gender stereotypes, and to begin creating t-shirts which empower ALL of us to be heroes.
Written by Imran Siddiquee at MissRepresentation.org. Follow him on Twitter @imransiddiquee