Line #52 Main/UnisexSeriesGenderedMerchandise


1	%% This trope is about merchandise only. The show itself being aimed at a certain demographic but getting a completely different audience than expected is PeripheryDemographic, not an inverted version of this trope. Put those examples there.
2
3	->'''Sokka:''' There's no girls in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Avatar\|TheLastAirbender}}'' universe.\
4	'''Aang:''' There's not?\
5	'''Sokka:''' Of course not. Just ask Mattel.
6	-->-- ''WebVideo/AvatarTheLastPuppetBender - Hot Air''
7
8	Merchandise is a tricky thing. Often times, merchandise producers don't seem to take note of what the work is about. A lot of [[MisaimedMerchandising merchandise will blatantly go against]] a work's morals or feature [[OutOfCharacter the characters doing things they'd never do]]. Merchandise also has a tendency to be aimed at one gender that isn't the ''entirety'' of the audience. A work with a unisex audience will end up with merchandise aimed at either mostly men or mostly women.
9
10	Children's works are especially prone to this. Gender neutral toys exist, but in general, toys are broken into "boy's toys" and "girl's toys". This leaves unisex works in the middle area, forcing them to appeal to only one gender. The protagonists are mostly boys? Make a bunch of boy's toys. Mostly girls? Only make girl's toys.
11
12	This often results in a work falling into the GirlShowGhetto. Female characters will rarely get any promotion if the merchandise is aimed at boys, no matter how much of the main cast is made up of girls; likewise, any work with merchandise aimed at girls will either ignore or heavily downplay the existence of its male cast. Gendered merchandising can actually affect the work's longevity (especially works that become popular with [[PeripheryDemographic a completely different demographic than intended]]). The demographic of a work failing to match the heavily gendered marketing has resulted in [[ScrewedByTheMerchandise works being prematurely canceled]].
13
14	Compare to MisaimedMerchandising and AudienceShift. See also MenswearGhetto, when clothing in a virtual economy heavily favors female player characters even when the game or site in question is intended for a gender neutral audience.
15	----
16	!!Examples:
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18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
21	* Zig-Zagged with ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}''. Unlike many examples, a few of the female characters did get toys, but only the androgynous or masculine looking ones like Garudamon or Taomon got any of the good ones (and even then, the toy commercials would only show the male Digimon), with the more overly girly Digimon like Lillymon and Angewomon only getting cheap crappy toys, if any at all. Kari was also the only 02 character not to get a Digivice toy, for the crime of... being the color pink. This got even worse starting with ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'', with even androgynous female characters not getting anything beyond mini figures, although at the very least Zoe got her pink and purple D-Tector Digivice toy. ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'' went as far as not even giving the female characters [[ImageSong image songs]] even though every previous series did. The rare young-girl oriented Digimon merch would invert this by omitting the human male characters and any Digimon that doesn't fall under the RidiculouslyCuteCritter category. Starting with ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' this was averted, as the marketing became gender neutral and the female characters finally got more merch. Of course, the franchise having a big adult fandom helps as well. Funny enough though, explicitly female targeted merch and ads for ''Tri'' and ''Last Evolution Kizuna'' will sometimes still omit the human female characters, [[HesAllGrownUp but for a]] [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys completely different reason.]]
22	** Note this only applies to the anime; marketing for the games were gender-neutral from the start.
23	** The American toyline for ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' actually did try to avert this to an extent, as there were a few toys of Yolei and Kari+Gatomon that were released exclusively in the states, such as Tiger Electronics handhelds and Deluxe playsets. However, all the toys based on the Japanese toyline, such as the Digivolving figures and Digivices still played it straight.
24	** Interestingly, merch for the kid-targeted ''Digimon'' series made after the reboot, such as ''Anime/DigimonUniverseAppMonsters'', ''Anime/DigimonAdventure2020'', and ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'' will instead give the shaft to ''all'' human characters that aren't TheHero and TheLancer, regardless of whether they're male or female.
25	* ''Anime/{{Hamtaro}}'' averted the trope in the west, where all of the marketing and merch was gender neutral, but played completely straight in Japan where toys for the series were primarily aimed at girls, with the series getting girlier and girlier as it went on.
26	* Infamously, Creator/KidsWB tried to turn the [[{{Shojo}} very-much-for-girls]] ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' into a unisex show by [[DubInducedPlotlineChange removing the more overly girly elements, playing up Syaoran's importance, and removing any episodes without Syaoran in it]]. In spite of this, all American ''Cardcaptors'' toys were still aimed exclusively at girls like they were in every other country that showed the series.
27	* When ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' first came out in North America. It had an accompanying series of action figures, however it excluded all the female characters. This included very important characters, like Sakura, who was in almost every episode and a main character, as well as other strong female characters, such as Tsunade, Hinata, Ino and Kurenai. What made this particularly conspicuous is that many characters who were far less significant than Sakura, like Kimimaro, Kidomaru, Shino, Choji and even Iruka, got toys. This is because Mattel, the creator of the toys, marketed the figures to boys, and they thought that boys wouldn't play with the girl figures. Like Avatar: The Last Airbender, this has since improved with later toylines based on the series, such as S.H.Figuarts, Nendoroid, Anime Heroes and [=McFarlane=] Toys, who made Sakura early on in their Naruto lines (and in Nendoroid's case, Hinata and Tsunade as well, and there is a rumor that S.H.Figuarts will make Hinata in the future).
28	** In Japan however, there are actually lines based entirely around the female characters, including the Naruto Gals action figures, and the Naruto Premium Heroines series of figures.
29	** Mattel did make figures of Sakura, Ino, Temari, Tayuya and Tsunade, however they were much smaller than the regular figures, and were part of 3-packs or tree dioramas.
30	** To similar reasons, the ''Manga/OnePiece'' toy line released in North America also excluded the female characters, such as Nami, Nico Robin and Vivi. Similarily to Naruto, this has thankfully since improved with later toylines based on the series, such as S.H.Figuarts, Portrait Of Pirates and Variable Action Heroes, who made the female characters early on in the lines.
31	* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'' was intended to be a celebratory piece for Creator/FujioAkatsuka's post-humous birthday, and it didn't originally swing towards one gendered demographic. After the first season's first cour, however, a noticeably large older women demographic started developing, so most if not all merchandise and spinoff material started being marketed to girls. Its first official manga ran in a {{josei}} magazine, and while subsequent manga spinoffs began running in neutral manga reading websites, articles concerning the series are published near exclusively in magazines with predominantly woman readership. Even its brief live-action affairs started taking cues from things the older woman demographic was interested in.
32	* In Japan, because ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'' was published in a shounen magazine, most of its merchandise is aimed at boys. As a result, any merchandise aimed at females will only have Shinobu and Nezuko on it, with no sign of any male characters anywhere. This is averted overseas, where female-oriented merchandise does contain male characters.
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34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'': While the show and comics are aimed at a gender-neutral audience, certainly helped with the main four being a GenderEqualEnsemble of two girls and two boys [[note]] that is, until the TokenMinority Milena was added, making it three girls and two boys[[/note]], much of the merchandise is aimed at girls, with Monica and Maggy having a majority of the merch themed around them, and they have a more feminine posture to match. Recent years, with the ''Rulers of the Street'' marketing, the girls have a more empowering instance in order to appeal to the feminist side of the fandom, to mixed results.
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38
39	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
40	* Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon films are aimed at a general audience. Their merchandise? Not so much. While gender-neutral Disney merchandise exists, a good chunk of it is aimed at female audiences (especially little girls). This reached its peak when the ''Franchise/DisneyPrincess'' line was created. Almost all Disney films starring royalty (even ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', where Jasmine is a secondary character) get pinned under the line and end up with mostly girl-aimed merchandise. On the opposite end, there is ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', where most of the merch and advertising completely omit Lilo in favor of Stitch, even though Lilo is ''co-protagonist'' alongside Stitch. Even the original movie poster didn't include Lilo in it. Going even further, Angel (from ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' and ''Anime/{{Stitch}}'') has more or less upsurped Lilo as the main female in merchandising, and in TheNewTwenties, Disney even ''rebranded'' [[Franchise/LiloAndStitch the franchise]] in most marketing to be just ''Stitch''. The only exception is ''Franchise/TheLionKing'', and this is mostly due to its entirely non-human cast.
41	* Creator/{{Pixar}} merchandise is mostly aimed at boys, even when their audiences include both boys and girls equally. Some notable examples are ''Franchise/{{Cars}}'' and ''Franchise/ToyStory'' series, whose toys are aimed at boys only (although Jessie and Bo Peep merchandise aimed at girls have been produced from time to time for the latter). ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' are the two exceptions, with Merida being lumped in with the ''Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es'' despite not being part of the Disney canon and most of the tie-in merchandise for ''Inside Out'' focusing on Joy, Sadness and Disgust, with no male characters shown most of the time with the exception of Bing Bong [[PinkProductPloy because he is pink,]] which in turn causes him to be eliminated from merchandise for boys.
42	** The merchandise for ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' is heavily aimed toward girls which makes sense since most of the major characters are girls. However, of the male supporting characters, namely Jin and Tyler, only Jin has any related merch despite Tyler having more screentime and a greater impact on the plot than Jin. There's also 4*Town but they are more of a plot device than fleshed out characters and yet they do feature on some of the merch.
43	* The ''Franchise/{{Trolls}}'' franchise has an unisex aiming towards children, but most of its merchandise is made for girls, presumably because a number of the major characters are female, as well as the franchise's overall aesthetic.
44	* The merchandise for ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'', which is a unisex-aimed movie series, was mostly aimed at boys because of the lead characters being male (and also because it was a satire of Disney, which, as mentioned above, had by that point acquired a reputation of being "girly"). Therefore, Princess Fiona, despite being a major character in the films, barely appeared on any of the merchandise, but did get her own toyline for ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'', which was exclusively aimed at girls.
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46
47	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
48	* There was a backlash when the toys based on ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' was released because there was no action figure for Black Widow (the only female member of the team). Notably in the film she rides a motorcycle and uses Captain America's shield in conjunction with it, but the toys had Cap riding the bike in Hasbro's version and Iron Man in Mattel's. The toylines for ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' notably avert this, with Black Widow being a prominently marketed character in the toyline.
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51	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
52	* [[WordofGod Cited reasoning from the creator]] states that this was why ''Series/TowerPrep'' was [[ScrewedByTheMerchandise canceled]]. The creator said that it was mostly made as a gender-neutral show, but apparently was being more favored by girls than by boys, which is what the marketing ''didn't'' want to happen.
53	* ''Series/SesameStreet'' is aimed at pre-kindergarten kids of both genders, but some products omit female characters like Zoe and Abby Cadabby.
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56	[[folder:Toys]]
57	* According to WordOfGod, ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePony'' was aimed at boys as much as girls. (This is very obvious with the initial ''Rescue at Midnight Castle'' special. While the show proper has its share of adventure and action stories, ''Midnight Castle'' features far more genuine danger and peril, complete with [[VileVillainSaccharineShow a highly threatening and competent villain]].) It soon became clear, however, that boys were more interested in [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers that other Hasbro cartoon with the cool robots]] and didn't want to watch the whimsical fairytale adventures of cute, colorful ponies, so later merchandise and adaptations of the series quickly became targeted exclusively at young girls--up until partway through ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''[='=]s run, when the company started intermittently going for a wider demographic due to [[PeripheryDemographic the large number of adult men]] (ironically, including those who watched the cool robot show as a kid) who had been watching that series. Even after the company started acknowledging that they'd achieved a wider audience, they only did so '''very''' loosely and occasionally by way of things such as making the packaging for some of the toys less pink, creating the short-lived "Guardians of Harmony" line of action figures and collector-oriented statues, and making a few [[FandomNod specific nods]] to the adult male fans; the franchise continued to skew heavily towards young girls, just a bit less exclusively.
58	* While ''Toys/{{Tamagotchi}}'' avoided this trope in the 90's in Japan, this happened in Japan when the franchise was relaunched in the 2000's with the tie-in merchandise for the franchise, which was either [[PinkProductPloy pink]], featured Mametchi, Memetchi and Kuchipatchi alongside a few female characters like Violetchi, Mimitchi and Makiko, used symbols girls like such as candy and hearts, or was a girl's activity toy like an accessory maker or a diary. In addition, apparel with the characters on it only came in girls' sizes and styles with no boy ones to be seen. It got worse when [[Anime/{{Tamagotchi}} the anime came out]], with most merchandise not only mainly using the tactics described above, but prominently featuring new female character Lovelitchi and having many of the male characters not named Mametchi and Kuchipatchi not appear on it. It got to the point where '''the toys themselves''' were then marketed exclusively to girls. For instance, most of the recent Tamagotchi Meets [[note]] Tamagotchi On overseas[[/note]] devices have feminine shell designs featuring hearts and rainbows on them, and many of the post-2009 collaboration Tamagotchis are with franchises aimed at young girls like Creator/{{Sanrio}} and ''VideoGame/{{Aikatsu}}''. Some signs of this were visible even back in the [=1990s=]: for instance, ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' was originally envisioned as the SpearCounterpart to ''Tamagotchi''. Overseas, this was inverted, as the merchandise for the franchise is mostly gender neutral with the exception of the ''Tamagotchi Friends'' line, which was mostly marketed to girls.
59	* Franchise/{{Transformers}} has had this happen a few times in its history. The [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers original series]] was definitely aimed specifically at young boys, but later cartoons were more popular with general audiences (such as the Anime/UnicronTrilogy and WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime) while still aiming toys mostly at boys. The first real example of a unisex toyline appears to be ''WesternAnimation/TransformersCyberverse'', with its the colors of its packaging being less gender oriented and having far more female characters than any previous toyline.
60	* Franchise/{{LEGO}} tends to zig this a bit. While early merchandise heavily markeded their unisex appeal, over time they began to introduce themes aimed specifically at female audiences, starting with Toys/LEGOFriends, with minifigures being replaced with "Mini-Dolls" which are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin just about what they sound like]], pastel colors, and [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Ridiculously Cute Critters]]. That being said, many of their original action themes have at least one ActionGirl in their lineup, even if TheSmurfettePrinciple is often in play, and their licensed themes tend to avert this entirely [[note]]Franchise/DisneyPrincess notwithstanding, though the Disney Minifigures series had non-gender specific versions of characters from some of those movies[[/note]], notably avoiding the aversion to Black Widow and Rey mentioned in live-action film above from the very beginning.
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63	[[folder:Video Games]]
64	* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' is a gender neutral franchise, but most of the manga adaptations have been {{shoujo}} and most of the merch and ads are targeted at girls, because cutesy animals in a cutesy village are often considered "girl material". Additionally, the merch heavily favors the cutesy female animal villagers. To date, Stitches, Poncho, and Raymond are the only male animal villagers that aren't main [=NPCs=] and weren't in [[Anime/AnimalCrossingTheMovie the movie]] to be given official plushies. Though this stance seems to be loosening due to the universal success of ''[[VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons New Horizons]]'', at least in the west.
65	* The ''VideoGame/AtelierSeries'' is for a gender-neutral audience, and most games have a GenderEqualEnsemble or even a CastFullOfPrettyBoys. In fact, a survey revealed most players are women. Despite this, most of TheMerch seems targeted towards a male demographic, with things like scantily-clad figures and fanservicey art prints that make the series look more like a BishojoSeries.
66	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' is aimed at all ages and genders, in fact ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' was one of the first console [=RPGs=] to allow you to choose the protagonist's gender, and this feature returned in ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIV IV]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIX IX]]''. In spite of this, only the male protagonist option ever gets to appear in any merch and on the box art (Barring a few spinoffs, see below, as well as the Japanese box art for the original Famicom release of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV''). When the Heroes from various ''Dragon Quest'' games were added to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', none of the female hero options were included in spite of the ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' avatar characters allowing you to choose either gender. This is averted with the female party members at least, as some of them do get merch.
67	** Downplayed with the Japanese boxart for the ''Builders'' games, where both protagonists are on the boxart but the male is front and center and the female is only in the background. The western boxart for ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders2'' completely averts it and gives both protagonists equal prominence, but the western [=PS4=] boxart for [[VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders the first game]] plays it straight and removes the female protagonist entirely.
68	** Completely averted with ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters Dragon Quest Monsters 2]]'', where the male and female protagonists [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo were given separate games]] and the remake combining both games gave both characters equal prominence in the box art.
69	* ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' remains gender-neutral even with its SugarBowl aesthetic, though most of its merch skews towards older women with goods like accessories, makeup and plush toys, as action figure type toys aren't produced very often.
70	* ''VideoGame/{{Medabots}}'' has a gender-neutral premise, but its [[Anime/{{Medabots}} anime]] and manga adaptations are clearly aimed at boys. Even an attempt to make a female-focused spinoff, ''Girls Mission'', is still aimed at boys due to the addition of BishoujoGame elements such as visual novel interfaces and MaleGaze (namely, ClothingDamage on the girls).
71	* ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' is a gender-neutral series, but, due to the overwhelmingly male cast of characters, almost all merchandise for it ends up in the boys' section (merchandise featuring Roll being an exception). The same holds true for any {{animated adaptation}}s that use the classic series as a base, like [[WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears the 1990s series]] and ''WesternAnimation/MegaManFullyCharged'', as well as later spinoffs like ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' and ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork''.
72	* ''VideoGame/MyWorldMyWay'' was marketed exclusively to young girls in the west, even though WordOfGod states it's made for the same unisex audience as the game it spun off from, ''VideoGame/MasterOfTheMonsterLair''.
73	* Zig-zagged with ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
74	** On one side, most of the [[Manga/{{Pokemon}} manga]] are predominantly aimed at boys. ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' and ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' are mainly {{kodomomuke}} and feature elements that appeal to both female and male fans, but they dip into {{shonen\|demographic}} territory. (The anime most visibly in the Kanto and Johto seasons; later seasons tend to flesh out their female companions more and include elements aimed at female viewers, like May and Dawn's Pokémon Contest arcs or the ''XY'' seasons' romantic subplot. ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'' outright has a female main character after the end of ''Journeys'' retired Ash.) Even decades later, the series has very few {{shoujo\|Demographic}} manga -- ''Manga/MagicalPokemonJourney'', a oneshot about Chloe from ''Journeys'', two oneshots about Pikachu and Eevee, and one based on ''Horizons'', and both are either because they have female protagonists or star cute Pokémon.
75	** Game merchandise tends to be gender neutral. There is also plenty of merchandise aimed at boys and girls, of different ages.
76	* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'':
77	** For a unisex series that uses the female Inklings as the default and has very prominent female [=NPCs=], this is surprisingly averted with most of the series' merchandise and promotional material. The heavy focus on unisex fashion and music in the games might be behind it.
78	** Despite this, out of the three manga made for the series, the two {{shonen\|demographic}} series ([[Manga/{{Splatoon}} Sankichi Hinodeya's manga]] and ''Squid Kids Comedy Show'') promote the ''male'' Inklings over the female ones despite having {{Gender Equal Ensemble}}s. In the former, the various teams in the series are split down the middle, but have at least one male focus character; a female lead wouldn't come until 6 years in during the ''Splatoon 3'' era. In the latter, Hit is typically accompanied by Maika, but Hit drives most of the punchlines as part of their BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine. The only manga that doesn't follow this pattern, fittingly, is the ''Mellow Squid 4-Panel Comic'' manga that runs in the general-audience ''Weekly Famitsu''.
79	** While advertisements for ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' avert it, North American commercials for the first game were clearly targeting young boys more than the unisex commercials seen in Japan and Europe. The ads are soundtracked with noisy rock tunes, emphasize the chaotic action of the game, and focus most closeup shots on male Inklings, in stark contrast to the prominence of the girls in other media.
80	* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' is aimed at both genders and stars a prominent cast of female characters, yet much of the merchandising is marketed with and to young boys, probably because a blue hedgehog with an attitude and robots fit in the "boy's" section. The female characters are more likely to appear in the gender-neutral merchandise, in which most are to appeal to the adult PeripheryDemographic. What girls merchandise there is often only has [[PinkProductPloy Amy]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-cp0dtX27I Interestingly there was going to be a girl-oriented]] ''Sonic'' cartoon but it was quietly canceled for unknown reasons. A DolledUpInstallment of ''VideoGame/PopfulMail'' called ''Sister Sonic'' was also announced around the same time, but it too was cancelled in favor of bringing over the game as is, and it's unknown if it had any relation to the cartoon.
81	* ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'' is a gender-neutral franchise, but a large amount of ''Mario'' merchandise gets put in the "boy's" aisle, with merchandise of the Princesses ([[PrincessClassic Peach]], [[TomboyPrincess Daisy]] and [[TrueBlueFemininity Rosalina]]) and Toadette being the exception. This was a reason given for making ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' a pack-in game for the original Game Boy over ''Super Mario Land'', since Nintendo didn't want the console to be viewed as exclusively a "boy's toy."
82	* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' was infamously marketed closer towards boys with the commercial starting the game was "starring Kiddy Kong" showing a badass biker kong as him... despite the entire game showing Dixie Kong as the protagonist, with Kiddy only being the partner character. It's pretty telling the commercial was trying to avoid the GirlShowGhetto, to the point of deeming a baby more marketable than the title character.
83	* Starting in TheNewTens, most of TheMerch for the gender-neutral ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' became more geared towards women, consisting mainly of {{bishonen}} goods.
84	* In Japan, ''Franchise/YokaiWatch'' is a unisex franchise. In America, however, marketing treats it as a "boy's series". Most clothes, even adult-aimed ones, are aimed at males. The original female protagonist, Katie, is barely advertised (including Nate being on the front cover of ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch1'' but not Katie, unlike the Japanese cover which didn't feature humans) and her Yo-Kai Watch has [[NoExportForYou never been exported]] outside of Japan. Even a {{shoujo\|genre}} [[Manga/YokaiWatchWakuwakuNyanderfulDays manga starring Katie]] was never translated, while the more [[Manga/YokaiWatch unisex manga starring Nate]] was.
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86
87	[[folder:Web Original]]
88	* ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' was gender-neutral from the beginning and had features that appealed to both male and female players of all ages. However, back when TheMerch was first being made, most of it was exclusively sold at Limited Too and Claire's, stores that deal in clothing and accessories for young girls. Eventually averted, as the toys started being sold in more shops, although the plushies were still heavily biased towards cute pets and colours like Faerie that appealed to girls, with the more masculine, tough, or "ugly" looking pets and colours, like Grarrls, Skeiths and the Darigan and Mutant colours, getting the short end of the stick, with some species and colors not even getting any plushies at all.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Western Animation]]
92	* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' is a SpinOff of the gender-neutral series ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', but most of the merchandise for that show was aimed at girls, compared to past ''Rugrats'' merchandise being aimed at both genders (with the exception of the ''Totally Angelica'' toyline).
93	* Infamously, ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' toys excluded the female characters, especially Katara, which might explain why they stopped making them by the end of the first season. What made this particularly conspicuous is that many characters who were far less significant than Katara (including Bumi and Jet, who are each in only one episode of the first season, and Avatar Roku, who's [[PosthumousCharacter flat-out dead]]) still got toys. Its female-led sequel series ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' outright didn't have toys. This has since improved with later toylines based on the original series by Diamond Select and [=McFarlane=] Toys, who do have figures of the girl characters.
94	* Modern day ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'' merchandise is almost always aimed at women. This is despite the original shorts being gender neutral and, if anything, Betty was MsFanservice eye-candy aimed at men.
95	* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' featured action figures of every major character except Mira Nova, who was only represented in UsefulNotes/McDonalds Happy Meal toys.
96	* Zigzagged with Creator/DCComics adaptations. On the surface, the shows look gender neutral. However, they are MerchandiseDriven, and all of the toys are aimed at boys. DC has not taken kindly to the female PeripheryDemographic in the past and caused shows such as ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' to be [[ScrewedByTheMerchandise cancelled due to not selling enough toys to boys]]. They have, however, made works aimed at girls such as ''Franchise/DCSuperHeroGirls''.
97	* ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' is a gender-neutral cartoon meant to teach kids Spanish (or, in some dubs, English). Despite this, most merchandise is aimed exclusively at girls. This came to the point where ''WesternAnimation/GoDiegoGo'' was created as a SpearCounterpart (despite being equally gender-neutral) and the [[WesternAnimation/DoraAndFriendsIntoTheCity sequel spinoff]] was aimed ''only'' at girls (with TheOneGuy Pablo), complete with Dora getting a GirlinessUpgrade. Oddly enough, the merchandise started off unisex, but after a few years it began being aimed at only girls.
98	* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' had prominent female members and a fanbase of boys and girls. Toys however, were aimed entirely at boys. The cartoon attempted to change the unisex fanbase by drastically [[ExecutiveMeddling reducing the screentime]] given to female team members, but it was eventually cancelled after its second season.
99	* In terms of marketing and merchandise, ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' is treated as a SpearCounterpart to ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst''. This is despite it being a unisex EdutainmentShow based off an equally [[Franchise/TheLionKing unisex Disney series]].
100	* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' tends to be a unisex cartoon (its creator was a man, after all), with female and male characters being given equal amounts of screentime, and it has a fanbase of both females and males. Given how its titular characters are a group of superheroines, however, nearly all of its merchandise is aimed at young girls.
101	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' is a relatively unisex superhero cartoon, but a vast majority of the merchandise has been aimed at younger girls, likely because the protagonist is female. As a result of this, the female characters get far more focus than the male characters -- while toys of Chloé/Queen Bee as a hero are still being heavily marketed even after [[spoiler:she had a FaceHeelTurn on the show]], toys of Adrien/Cat Noir are rare, and Nino/Carapace is basically the marketing equivalent of Bigfoot.
102	* ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'' features three child superheroes, with one of them being female. Like ''PAW Patrol'', the merchandise is aimed at boys and occasionally excludes Owlette entirely.
103	* ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' is a preschool cartoon about dogs (and it even has two female puppies on the team), but most merchandise is aimed at boys, with some pieces of merchandise even omitting Skye and Everest. The exception to this is merchandise featuring just Skye and Everest (the two female members) and the occasional male character (usually Marshall), which is geared towards girls. After [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow a campaign to get the female characters on merchandise in 2015]], the North American products now tend to feature all pups on most products for boys and girls.
104	* ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' is a gender-neutral cartoon about a pig family, but because the protagonist is female, she mostly appears on female-oriented products, and usually by herself. If something was made for boys from the franchise, it will only have her little brother George on it, and oddly enough have Peppa only appear on the packaging. The only exception to this is the toyline.
105	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' was largely considered to be a gender neutral cartoon, despite being on the largely female oriented Creator/DisneyChannel. It featured a handful of significant female characters - such as Candace and Isabella - who were very popular among fans regardless of gender. However, most of the merchandise that Disney would release were often focused around either the titular characters or [[EnsembleDarkhorse Perry the Platypus]], with the female characters occasionally being excluded from merchandise like t-shirts and stationary items. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYBDdLG_OA8&t=3626s According to co-creator Dan Povenmire]], this mentality also prevented a ''Fireside Girls'' spin-off from happening, as some executives were worried that a show focused on girls would tarnish the franchise's gender-neutral appeal, something none of their other shows had.
106	* Creator/CraigMcCracken stated that ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' was a gender-neutral cartoon. However, as the protagonists were cute little girls in bright colours, [[GirlShowGhetto almost all merchandise was aimed at girls]]. Though both the Japan-made ''Anime/PowerpuffGirlsZ'' anime and the [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016 2016 reboot]] had an AudienceShift that were geared towards girls more than the general audience, the most extreme example was the short-lived "Dream In Style" fashion line, which saw the Girls get an AgeLift to preteens and becoming fashionistas with style and life tips. Reportedly, Craig was '''pissed''' when he found out about it.
107	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is a unisex show, but most of its merchandise [[MisaimedMerchandising aimed at kids]] is for boys and solely features Bart. Even adult-oriented merch and general marketing for the show seem to focus on Homer and Bart almost exclusively.
108	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is a gender neutral cartoon, however most merchandise is aimed at boys. In addition, most merchandise omits female characters like Sandy.
109	* The Target-exclusive Hasbro ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' action figure box set excluded the two female crew members of the ''Ghost'', Sabine Wren and the captain Hera Syndulla, in favor of a Clone Trooper Captain and Shadow Stormtrooper.
110	* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' did the same thing as ''Spongebob [=SquarePants=]'', omitting the female characters from the toyline. This is actually lampshaded within the show itself, during the episode "Number One Fan", when the title character shows off his memorabilia to the team.
111	->'''Piper:''' Hey! Why don't ''I'' have an action figure?
112	->'''Noob:''' Oh, that's because the ''brainiacs'' in merchandising say girl figures don't sell.
113	* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' isn't aimed at a specific gender, but most of the merchandise tends to skew towards boys. Outside of the toyline, it's rare to see any of the female characters on merchandise, as usually Thomas, James, and Percy are the only characters included. When Mattel realized that just as many girls were watching the show as boys, they created Nia and Rebecca to appeal to girls, and they're included in the female-oriented merchandise.
114	[[/folder]]

Context Main / UnisexSeriesGenderedMerchandise