My Reaction to the Star Wars: Episode VII Boy-Targeted Merchandising Plan

I am a fan of Star Wars. To the point of being obsessive. I purchase toys, clothing, props, housewares - a variety of goods featuring Star Wars logos, characters, everything. Despite that, it feels like I'm not wanted by marketing because I'm a girl. We're often excluded and ignored, and I'm so weary of gender based marketing that I could punch things. I recently discussed the lack of Hera and to some degree Sabine in Star Wars Rebels merchandise, noticed that neither Black Widow or Scarlet Witch are part of this group of The Avengers: Age of Ultron toys from Hasbro, and today? Well, female fandom got another kick to the gut courtesy of a Star Wars: Episode VII merchandising plan.

Jedi News grabbed a picture of the plan at the UK Toy Fair. Please click to enlarge to see all the details.

This is the plan for The Force Awakens merchandise being sold in the UK. Aside from the part where they misspell Carrie Fisher's last name, let's focus on the merchandise target:

Priority: Boys 5-12
Secondary: Parents/Gift Givers

That sound you hear? Me weeping tears of rage and frustration. I know it only mentions the primary and secondary target demographics and not all of the marketing targets, but why is it "boys" and not "kids?" Why must this gender based crap continue? It hurts to be excluded entirely. Women could fall into the secondary categories so at least there's that... I guess?

And it does have an effect. If it stings for me as an adult who understands the context and shitty yet inexcusable business reasons surrounding this, think about how it would make a young girl feel. To give an example of how it goes both ways, a friend said her boys were both excited to see Strange Magic until they heard George Lucas say it was for girls. Then they weren't interested. Thanks for reinforcing gender stereotypes, all of society! This is why we can't have nice things.

Because this issue has hit me so hard recently, I don't have any more words at the moment. I don't have the answer. For goodness sake, I was outside in the snow this morning dressed as a Sith - what do I have to do to prove I am a fan worthy of being marketed to? Argh. So, my reaction in gifs.

When I first saw the merchandising plan:

source: moviegifss

A few minutes later:

source: CafeMom

Then anger:

source: HarryPotter.cc

And then back to:

source: Reddit

And finally:

source: Reaction Gifs