[UPDATE: 6/29/15 11:55AM EDT:] On Friday, Yahoo Movies reached out to Hasbro for an official comment on their choice of dinosaur pronouns.
[A spokesperson] said the switch “was an oversight” and that Hasbro is “in the process of updating the language with the correct information.”
As of this morning on Hasbro”s website, Blue and Delta are official girls again! Huzzah! Unfortunately – as of this writing – Charlie, Echo, and Indominus are still waiting.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
There was a lot of baffling sexism in “Jurassic World.” And it wasn”t just me saying it. But just when you thought surely the Gyrospehere of terrible decisions had pulled into the docking station, Hasbro decided to go off-roading with it instead.
Currently on Hasbro”s website you can buy a variety of “Jurassic World” dinosaurs. All them mysteriously re-gendered as male.
Why is this happening? Are toy companies so entrenched within the “Boy” aisle vs. the “Girl” aisle that they believe boys won”t play with dinosaurs that are female? Or that girls in general don”t like dinosaurs? And it”s not just Blue who is mysteriously mislabeled as male. Every single major dinosaur character was reworked with new pronouns. The best Hasbro can do? A handful of descriptions use gender-neutral pronouns to skirt the truth that “Jurassic World” is an ovary-fest.
Even if Hasbro hadn”t seen the film when writing up these descriptions, is isn”t as if the gender of the dinosaurs is a shocking twist. Anyone at all familiar with the mythology of “Jurassic Park,” you know the dinosaurs are female. A few may have managed to use their frog DNA to become male because “life finds a way” but the majority of the park”s creatures are ladies. “Jurassic World” calls every single one of the dinosaurs by female pronouns. A few misguided souls even tried to deflect criticism of sexism in the film by saying the dinosaurs were all female.
After the debacle over the lack of Black Widow toys and the earlier, eeriely familiar debacle about the lack of Gamora merchandise, and the EVEN EARLIER debacle of lack of non-sexualized Princess Leia toys, you”d think toy companies would learn.
You”d think that, but you”d be wrong.
[Via Uproxx]