Recently my spouse did the math of how many female Power Rangers came in the different sets.  This is all involved with our son receiving two different Power Ranger toys that require these strange “keys” which are made with the figures themselves?  It is incredibly clever, but also very disturbing.  But I digress.

I can’t recall the numbers now, but for all that there were upwards of 30 figures on the back of the box, very, very few of them were female.  And, as my spouse noted,

“That’s messed up.”

It set my mind off a trundling.  Often after we hear that sort of numerical breakdown is that girls need role models, too, and there need to be more female heroes.  But I think it’s something more than that.

We don’t need a ton of heroes.  We don’t need to be validated in every single branch of every single genre.  What we really need is for woman to be normalized in all roles.

I don’t see it as a failing that there aren’t as many female superheroes.  I see it as a failing that society– or at least big businesses– view them as such a strange and mystical thing that they are not included regularly in different play sets, in different shows, etc.

We’ve created an environment that even though we set-up certain women as these wonderful heroes, overall women are not accepted as a normal part of groups such as superheroes.

Perhaps if we began including them as an expected part of such unassuming things as toys, it would lead to women being accepted in other, larger roles.

After all, what sort of society raves about a movie with a female protagonist, yet purchases toys with only male figurines?  Rey, we stand with you.