Whether I’m actually going to make my son a Black Widow backpack for his first day of school depends a lot on his behaviour in the next few days, but we’re talking about it. I have all the supplies, and I’m really looking for an excuse to make the pattern, but we’ll see. The thing that strikes me, though, is that both DC and Marvel have licensed their products to Simplicity. This backpack is the only pattern for a female-themed Marvel product. The fall collection is the first one to feature a male-themed DC product—a Joker costume.
It’s weird, right? I know that sewing is a female-coded hobby, though I know plenty of guys who sew, and that’s why it’s so hard to find patterns in general for men’s or boys’ clothing. On the other hand, superheroes are a male-coded hobby, and that’s why Marvel has so consistently marketed almost exclusively to men and boys. Simplicity, presumably, is caught in the middle of these two gender roles.
Okay, I’m guessing on that last one. For all I know, Simplicity has somehow gotten the idea that boys like Marvel and girls like DC, which is its own kind of weird gender stereotyping and not one I’d previously encountered. I’ll confess that I don’t know how licensing of patterns works, and I do know that companies seem to turn a blind eye to blatant rip-offs produced by McCalls or Butterick, so long as there are just enough differences to make it clear that it’s not an official product. The Totally Not Star Wars patterns currently available are proof of that!
There’s got to be a reason, though, right? They’re all pretty decent patterns; I made the Thor one for Simon last Halloween, and the DC costumes range from Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman complete with little tutus for babies (one can obviously leave off the tutus and have Superman and Batman costumes, but that’s how they’re labeled) to the classic costumes of all three to pin-up versions to a Cesar Romero Joker costume. But if you want a Superman costume for anyone over eighteen months, you’re going to have to go with the knock-off.
It’s weird, too, because the pattern and fabric companies are getting better at marketing to fandoms. Jo-Ann Fabrics has been building an entire cosplay section, featuring things like four-way stretch materials and a whole mess of kinds of pleather. My local store also has two rows of licensed fabrics even before you get into the sports-themed stuff. I’ve actually heard some bad things about the cosplay fabrics, though frankly I don’t have much use for them or the money to buy them, but it’s still more of an effort than any major company appears to have made until the last couple of years.
But there’s still that little issue of gender essentialism. Whyever the decision was made, Marvel is for boys and DC is for girls. I could understand if the Marvel options were limited to those characters still in the hands of Marvel Studios; it’s worth noting that Simplicity also has both Disney and any official Star Wars merchandise. (Though the McCalls Kylo Ren costume is pretty decent.) But not only can you not get a Black Widow costume, her picture doesn’t even appear on the envelope with the backpacks. And the demonstration image isn’t even black.
