While it’s all well and good for us adults to stand up for gender equality in kids’ products, there’s something about kids themselves taking retailers to task for not giving both boys and girls a fair shake. Leading the pack of girls who aren’t about to take a boys-only view of the sports world this week is a 12-year-old who was so disappointed in Dick’s Sporting Goods for not featuring women in a recent basketball catalog, she took the company to task in a scathing, informed and otherwise wonderful letter.
Showing everyone else how it’s done in a letter addressed to Dick’s Sporting Goods and posted by her dad on Twitter — sports writer Chris Peterson — the middle school basketball player lays it on the line (h/t Jezebel).
She points out that she herself, plays basketball, and enjoys watching the sport so much, she had season tickets for her state women’s team, the Phoenix Mercury.
“I don’t know if you are keeping track of the ladies sports world, but they are the Western Conference Champions AND the League Champions of 2014,” she points out, rattling off some other key players in the sport.
Her point, however, is that “There are NO girls in the catalog!” Except, she adds, the girl sitting in the stands on one page, some cheerleaders on coupons and a reference to women on one page for shoes.
“It’s hard enough for girls to break through in this sport as it is, without you guys excluding us from your catalog. Girls buy stuff from your store,” she very eloquently adds. “In fact, my last two pairs of basketball shoes were purchased at Dicks, as well as my hoop and practice equipment. Maybe my dad will take me to some other store that supports girls to actually PLAY basketball and follow their dreams and not sit on the sidelines and watch the game to get my next pair of shoes and equipment.”
OH SNAP, MCKENNA! Here’s where we high five.
She goes on to say that she looks forward to seeing girls in the next basketball catalog, and is considerate enough to compliment Dick’s staff for being “very friendly and kind” when she goes there to get new shoes.
She signs it, adding, “The Fabulous Basketball Player.” Fabulous, indeed.
Her dad’s tweet:
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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