Disney Anti-Feminist? Black Widow Replaced By Captain America
A new Hasbro toy, based on Black Widow’s exploits in Avengers: Age of Ultron, doesn’t feature the red haired Avenger, but has instead been released with Captain America.
The toy is based off the Avengers scene where Black Widow drops out of a jet on a motorcycle and helps Captain America save the day, but Disney chose to remove her when making the toy.
That hasn’t made Twitter users happy, and many of them, including Zac Shipley, took to social media recently to voice their displeasure.
@Hasbro did they let you even see the movie before making the toys? War machine and Iron Man motorcycles, no Widow.
Target has also been the source of anger for Avengers fans after customers discovered an appalling lack of Black Widow toys.
Scarlett Johansson may have done an amazing job of bringing Black Widow to life, but kids, and adults, will probably have a hard time finding her toy action figure in stores anywhere.
Despite being the third most watched character in the new Avengers movie, Black Widow toys are virtually impossible to find, according to the website But Not Black Widow.
“Unnamed characters, like ‘Hydra Henchman’ and what we called ‘Ultron bot,’ were easier to find than any female character.”
Although a huge box office success, the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron has had trouble from feminists in the media almost from the start.
First Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans called Black Widow a slut and a whore during a promotional video with Digital Spy.
Then Renner went on Conan and did it again.
“If you slept with four of the six Avengers, no matter how much fun you had, you’d be a slut. Just saying. I’d be a slut.”
That was just after deleted scenes were released showing Iron Man making a joke about re-instituting Prima Nocta, the medieval practice that made it legal for a lord to rape a man’s wife on her wedding day.
The Avengers toys aren’t the only ones made by Disney to be missing their female action stars, according to Polygon.
When Disney released its Star Wars action figures, they were notably missing Princess Leia and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise was absent Gamora.
If you’re starting to see a trend of female characters getting a bad rap in the Disney-Marvel universe, you’re not alone. The blogosphere has been a-fire lately with fan criticism, ranging from an open letter to Joss Whedon to a disapproving opinion article by a professional journalist.
Hey Disney, what’s up?
[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney]
