Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney. And well, I knew I'd be tackling Star Wars on here sooner or later. Oh no, I'm not talking about the casting, that seems fine. However, what is not fine is that Disney Stores across the nation are not carrying any merchandise featuring Princess Leia and Disney has plans for any Leia products in the foreseeable future. I gotta ask...
Well, if I'm to speculate on this, I think the answer can be found in how Disney has been marketing Marvel at the Disney Store.
They've been targeting all of their Marvel products towards young boys and it's clear that they've put a divide between their action stuff for boys and their princesses for girls because just like I pointed out in my Lego Aisle article, people still believe the idea of a "boy's toy" and "girl's toy". Here's the thing though, maybe this just my small thinking but wouldn't Disney want to embrace Leia. She's an iconic character and one of the main characters in Star Wars and a princess.
Including merchandise of Leia could show that not all princesses need saving and some can hold their own. Leia is one of the most beloved icons of the Stars Wars franchise and Disney knows this because as the article from Indiewire points out, they use her on the Star Wars page of the Disney Store website.
And not only that, at the Disney parks, you can find merchandise featuring Minnie Mouse dressed up as Leia and this has been going since long before, Disney ever got the rights to Star Wars.
Okay, a bit off topic is anybody else find it weird, Mickey being Luke to Minnie's Leia. I mean, you can even get picture taken with Minnie Leia during Star Wars Weekend at Disney Hollywood Studios.
And I do think that Disney has had meet & greets with regular Leia in the past, I'm not certain on that one as the only Star Wars character, I've seen in the parks is Darth Vader.
I think this bugs me even more because this shows that Disney is okay selling Princess Leia merchandise, if one of their characters parades around as Leia but merchandise of the real character. That's just insulting to Leia. Look Disney, when you bought Star Wars, Leia became a Disney character and she has a legion of fans that would love to take home a Leia action figure or doll, what have you. Because here's the thing, she is a great character and by doing this, you are sending the message that you do not care about the female fans of Star Wars and are only interested in targeting the male demographic with your Star Wars merchandise. That is just a narrow-minded way of thinking and why would you give a main character that is prominent throughout the original trilogy, the shaft. I can't say I'm too surprised to see you doing this though as you did this to Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates trilogy and she was a character that you guys created. Oh, sure there was the occasional action figure of Elizabeth but at least, yo had the decency to sell action figures of her and not just ignore her. Of course, you put all of your money on Jack but that's a topic for another day.
Could you at least take the time to consider people that are fans of Princess Leia and maybe, just maybe stop the old way of thinking and realize that maybe there are boys out there like Leia and also, there are girls out there that like Star Wars. I mean, if Lego could have Leia minifugre. Why can't you sell any type of Princess Leia merchandise?
At the end of the day, I just don't get this decision, Disney, I'm calling you out and saying that this was dumb. Clearly, the Force was not with you, when you made this decision. Peace!
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