Go, Read: DC Entertainment Gives A Statement To CBR Concerning Recently Criticized Licensed Material

Albert Ching at CBR scores a reaction from DC Entertainment on recent, licensed products that read like a parody of old-school sexist sloganeering and set off a wave of Internet scolding, myself included. The Superman half of that, at least, was originally unearthed by the site DC Women Kicking Ass here. I caught it on a second wave of commentary; my apologies to those who think I should have dug back to the original unearthing of the shirts and my thanks to those that did that unearthing like DCWKA.

To my mind the DC statement scores highly in terms of their admitting the shirts are dumb, less so on targeting exactly why this might have happened and somewhere in between on promising to explore changes in the process.

I don't really buy that most corporations have core values that simply need to be applied in situations like this one, like someone forgot to throw a switch. You can argue the idea of it, and you can do so with some amount of crossed-arm fury due to the fact that individuals there certainly have these values, but I think the record over the longterm favors a lean towards profit and advantage over principle. That's why something like this happens in the first place. That's also a reason why moral stands are important: there's a cost involved. I do think businesses like DC can do a better job of not making it totally discouraging for parents who want their kids to enjoy those ubiquitous characters, either on their own or through one of the parents, and good for them if that's the course correction here. I think that's a form of civil decency and I think that's good business. Ditto engaging the criticism, as they've done here. They can also make very specific changes on a case to case basis according to values people working there might hold dear. If that can have a systemic benefit for a while, well, that's a bonus.
 
posted 5:35 pm PST | Permalink
 

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