Like a (Super) Girl

As a nerd dad with three daughters and who is part of a Disney family, I thought I was destined to drown in princess gowns and pixie dust. So when Marvel was bought by Disney, I saw a ray of hope for getting my girls into superheroes. Disney Infinity was the first way I introduced my girls to the awesomeness that is the Avengers (they are still a little too young to watch the movie). Both CJ (age 6) and Ava (age 3) fell in love with Black Widow. We played together on PS3 for hours, saving the city from Frost Giants and stopping Loki. Next Disney XD gave us the Avengers Assemble animated series which strengthened their love for Black Widow. The girls liked the other heroes too, but Black Widow let them be super and "girlie"

It came time for CJ to go to first grade and Ava to start pre-K and they both needed backpacks. CJ wanted a Disney Princess backpack while Ava asked for an Avengers Backpack. It almost brought a tear to my eye. My little princess ASKED for the Avengers over Frozen/Queen Elsa, and all the other addictive frilly Disney "princessness."Ava did have one request. She asked for a bag that had Black Widow on it. This was around the time after Avengers: Age of Ultron, so I figured it was going to be a simple task. I was wrong... oh boy was I wrong. I found at least six different variants of Avengers backpacks that featured characters, but only ONE of them included Black Widow. And that particular one was out of stock. The trooper that my daughter is...she accepted the backpack that had Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor on it. Then she needed a lunch box and I had similar issue finding one with Black Widow on it. I also happened to find an Avengers Assemble themed plastic container. I thought this would be awesome for Ava's to carry in her lunch bag. Care to guess who were the characters featured on it? Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man... yep no Black Widow. I was begining to wonder if they forgot she was part of the Avengers, As if the Avengers was some type of He-Man woman haters club. To be fair, the lunch box, well its more of a lunch bag, the container, and the backpack didn't have Hawkeye, Vision, or Scarlet Witch on them either, but I digress.

 

Even the cup Ava got didn't have Black Widow on it...
 

There is a point to this rant,a reason that I'm harping on the Avengers lack of Black Widow. Fast forward to Halloween and the time for the girls to get costumes. My wife ended up finding both a Black Widow and an Iron Man costume on sale. She got them both. Ava tried on both costumes and chose to be Iron Man for Halloween. That's right...she chose to be Iron Man over the Black Widow.

 

The punchline of this article comes in the form of what Ava asked for for Christmas. She (and I quote) said she wanted "A Iron Man that talks". The nerd pride that gleamed from my face could've been seen for miles I wager. I didn't even know if the toy existed. We didn't see any commericals that advertised anything like that. Still, I was determined to find one. I did and Ava loves her Iron Man.
SO I guess the moral of the story is if Marvel doesn't give girls female heros to love...they'll move on to Iron Man....