BelowTheMasonDixon
Veteran
Marvel Games' 'Women Of Power' Reflects Rising Clout Of Female Fans
Have several seats.
Marvel Games' 'Women Of Power' Reflects Rising Clout Of Female Fans
Marvel Games' 'Women Of Power' Reflects Rising Clout Of Female Fans
Rob Salkowitz ,
With female fans becoming a driving force in the nerd-economy, purveyors of popular culture are finally starting to redress decades-old biases in the development and marketing of toys, games and comics. The latest example is a new "Women of Power" initiative from Marvel Games set to launch Thursday, March 3 across the company's range of mobile, console, handheld and PC game titles. Concurrently, Marvel comics will feature 25 variant covers spotlighting the company's top heroines including Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Elektra, Phoenix, Thor and the Fantastic Four's Invisible Woman.
Among the characters and games featured in the announcement:
- Moonstone, Captain Marvel and Poundcakes will be showcased in LEGO Marvel's Avengers
- Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), She-Hulk and X-23 in Marvel Contest of Champions
- Proxima Midnight in Marvel Future Fight
- Silk and other female spider-characters in Spider-Man Unlimited
- Rescue (Iron Man's Pepper Potts) in Marvel Heroes 2016
- "Multiple new female heroes" in Avengers Academy
Bill Rosemann, Creative Director of Marvel Games, told Entertainment Weekly that "we're going to launch over a dozen new female characters across all our different games as well as in the game story events... The Women of Power event is the culmination of what's been going on at Marvel and... the organic growth of their Women of Marvel movement from the podcast to different levels."
Reversing a trend? This focus on female characters - and, presumably, female fans - is a welcome development in an industry where primarily male decision-makers have often predetermined that women are not consumers of toys, games and licensed content, or that it is not worth potentially alienating male fans by blurring the rigid gender lines ("action figures" vs. "dolls," for example) that have defined the market. Earlier this year, for example, Hasbro HAS -0.12% came under fire for neglecting to offer toys based on Rey, the protagonist of Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, although the company later reversed that decision. In that case, an anonymous industry insider was quoted as saying, "We know what sells. No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it."
Marvel Entertainment, which is also owned by Disney, has not been immune from controversy either. In 2014, the company commissioned European artist Milo Manara, most famous for his erotic works, to draw a variant cover of Spider-Woman #1. The suggestive pose and exaggerated anatomy angered fans who saw it as a continuation of a long tradition of using "cheesecake" representations of women to sell comics to a primarily male fanbase, even as Marvel was taking steps to promote gender diversity across its line through the introduction of characters like the female version of Thor.
A shifting fanbase. Several demographic studies over the past few years have shown a marked shift in the traditional fan base for comics and games. Last year research by Eventbrite showed that fan conventions have achieved gender parity, with males and females turning up for events in exactly equal numbers and exhibiting almost identical consumer behavior when it comes to spending money on their favorite properties. The data further showed that women are starting to predominate in fandom under age 30.
Recent studies in the videogame industry have shown a similar dynamic. A 2014 study in the UK found that women account for 52% of the gaming audience, and 25% of survey respondents said they play games every day on their phones. A survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2015 showed that more US women own gaming consoles than men.
Bringing franchises into alignment with fans. The Marvel Universe dates back to the 1960s and the traditional canon from the comics, which originally reflected some Mad Men-era attitudes, has evolved over the years to become more inclusive on a number of fronts, although a lot of critical fans suggest there's still plenty of room for improvement. Marvel appears to be aware of those perceptions and eager to change them.
“We’re getting to a point where people just want to see really great characters and powerful characters up there, and it doesn’t matter what their gender is,” said Marvel’s Director of Content and Character Development Sana Amanat. “We are not going out there and painting our characters with one color, with one style. What makes the Marvel universe so rich is all of these variances and different perspectives, and a lot of that has to do with showcasing different experiences but some of that is just showing distinct character and personalities.”
“The reason we do this is because we live and breathe the Marvel mantra: with great power comes great responsibility,” said Rosemann. “And we view our power in Marvel games as storytelling. Our responsibility is to use that power to embrace and spread Marvel’s historic and ongoing message of diversity and inclusion and inspiration and empowerment.”
Market Research Says 46.67% of Comic Fans are Female
Market Research Says 46.67% of Comic Fans are Female
02/05/2014 11:33 PM BY BRETT SCHENKER
While we don’t have any market research, the eyes don’t lie. If you go to conventions and comic book stores, more and more female readers are emerging. They are starved for content and looking for content they can relate to.
– Axel Alonso, Marvel’s editor-in-chief
While making the rounds promoting Marvel’s new series Ms. Marvel, the above quote was made in discussing the female comic readership. Other than DC’s attempt at market research conducted with Nielsen, the market research done to figure out the readership and fandom of comic books pales in comparison of, well, pretty much all other forms of entertainment. That is partially what got me to begin looking in to what data was available and attempt to figure out those demographic questions.
Every month, I release new numbers looking at data readily available to anyone through Facebook. While it’s not necessarily everyone who shops up to comic shops, every Wednesday, regularly, irregularly, once in a blue moon, etc., these are people who have said they like “comics,” “graphic novels,” “manga,” and specific publishers. So, I’d have to disagree with Alonso, there is market research, and there potentially is a lot more market research using data available to Marvel, they just overlook it, or don’t admit they use it (Marvel, give me a call, I can hook you up).
In February, the Facebook universe of self-identified comic fans grew to a new high of over 24 million fans in the United States. Of that 24 million, women account for 46.67% of that population. Since I’ve been tracking these stats, that’s the highest percentage of women recorded. With some changes on Facebook’s end, I can now see what terms have grown from the previous month, and in this case it wasn’t any single term, it was many of the over 100 used to compile the statistics.
But what Alonso and Marvel is seeing shouldn’t be a shock at all when it comes to women and what interests them. In a September breakdown, I looked at just female comic book characters and who were fans of them. Exhausting a few lists online of every female comic book character, I found every term I could on Facebook for these stats. While the amount of people who like female comic characters was about 5.8 million, women made up a majority 62.07% of those fans.
Shocker: women like female characters. While Alonso says Marvel doesn’t have hard numbers to back it up, that correlation, and Marvel’s wanting to expand their female readership (which I tracked at about 36.96%) explains their launch of new solo series for Black Widow, Elektra, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel as part of All-New Marvel NOW! and greater focus on female characters in other books too. They see the phenomena my stats would predict.
Knowing who is buying what is vital for any modern day business. Understanding demographics allows you to better market your product to a greater audience, and sell similar products better. To ensure a healthy comic book industry in the future, we need to know who makes up that audience today. In 2014, every publisher should be thinking about that, working to find the answers to that question, and using that information in actionable ways.
Women still make up the majority of moviegoers, prefer female superheroes
By Katie Rife@futureschlock
POSTED MAR 27, 2014
Suggesting that “chick flicks” means “pretty much all movies”, the MPAA presented its latest data on cinema attendance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week, and for the fourth year in a row, women made up the majority of movie audiences in 2013. It’s a slim majority—52 percent of moviegoers last year were female, just slightly outpacing women’s 50.8 percent share of the U.S. population. Women also accounted for 50 percent of movie tickets sold in 2013. But what are these women seeing? Surely half of all films released last year didn’t concern the romantic misadventures of an architect who dreams of opening her own cupcake shop.
As it turns out, women also like splashy, action-packed superhero movies, though they prefer them with female protagonists. The MPAA’s analysis of the five top-grossing films of last year—Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Despicable Me 2, Man Of Steel, and Monsters University—showed that, while females accounted for only 40 percent of the audience for Man Of Steel, and 42 percent of the audience for Iron Man 3, they made up 54 percent of those who paid to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in theaters. In conclusion, can we have that Wonder Woman movie now, please? (A Black Widow movie would also work.)
I don't care what that shyt say. More men watch these movies and more men buy consoles. If they saying more women play games its some shyt like candy crush.
@ this 'ole #AlternativeFacts motherfukker.
