Mattel Research Finds Boys Want Superhero Toys That Kill The Villain, While Girls Want Superhero Toys That Become Friends With The Villain

From the New York Times:

Mattel has won praise on parenting blogs for DC Super Hero Girls, a line it developed with DC Comics that will go on sale next year. The figures, led by Wonder Woman, are athletic. They strike powerful poses, and there is not a pink outfit in sight. 

Young girls that Mattel surveyed had said they “wanted their superheroes to be authentic superheroes,” according to Tania Missad, Mattel’s director of global consumer insights. Girls roundly dismissed an early prototype that put the superheroes in heels, she said. “They told us, ‘She’s not going to be able to fight with heels.’” 

Still, Mattel’s research showed some differences in what girls and boys wanted in their action figures, Ms. Missad said. 

“For boys it’s very much about telling a story of the good guy killing the villain. There’s a winner and a loser,” she said. 

“Girls wanted the action and the battle, but would tell us: ‘Why does the good girl have to kill the villain? Can’t they be friends in the end?’”