I recently started following a user on Twitter called @whereisnatasha. It's a twitter page dedicated to finding Black Widow merchandise. When I first saw this I thought "Well, that's not so hard. Avengers stuff is everywhere now." But I recently went on a "Black Widow scavenger hunt" and I found out that I was wrong. I was SO WRONG.

I went to various stores around the tri-state in search of Black Widow merch and I quickly became frustrated. It's like Marvel is trying to erase her from the Avenger's franchise. (Sexist much?) I mean, I understand that Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk are major players in the Avengers and have their own stand-alone movies, but Black Widow has been in those movies too. Sure, her name wasn't in the title, but the movies that she was in would have been completely different without her. She's one of the first bad-ass female superheroes that little girls can look up to since Wonder Woman. But there's Wonder Woman merch EVERYWHERE...Where's Black Widow's????

So, I went in search of Black Widow and what I found (or didn't find) irked me.

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Chynna Hall
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First of all...

WTF is THIS?? Were they afraid her boobs wouldn't fit on the cover or something? (And where's Hawkeye? He played a big part in this movie as well.)

And THIS...

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Chynna Hall[/caption]Let me get this straight...a "hero" is a science experiment that doesn't even want to be there, a rich, orphan, weapons manufacturer with daddy issues, a sad WWII vet working for the government, a guy that has a bow and arrow, and a god with anger issues and a hammer. But not a woman who was trained to be an assassin against her will, who was physically, emotionally, and mentally tortured for years, yet saw the error of her ways and chose to use her skills to help people instead of hurt them? Who never gives up, even though the world always seems to be against her? Okay, cool, yeah, I totally see why she's not a "hero"... (Must be an invite for one of those "No Girls Allowed" parties...)

AND WHAT THE FLIP IS THIS????

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Chynna Hall[/caption]

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Chynna Hall[/caption]ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW??? THAT WAS HER SCENE. Natasha was the one that drove the motorcycle out of the Quinjet so she could scoop up Captain America's shield and save his ass. HE NEVER EVEN RODE A MOTORCYCLE IN THIS MOVIE. They essentially erased her from the scene so that they wouldn't have to make a female action figure.

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Chynna Hall[/caption]At this point, I was so angry and frustrated that I cut my scavenger hunt short so that I didn't set Wal*Mart's toy aisle ablaze with the fire that was burning in my soul.

So here's a checklist of what I found that Black Widow was erased from:
-Band-Aids (Because boys bleed way more than girls do, right?)
-any Avengers stuff in the boys/guys section.
-Lego's
-plushies
-bed spreads, pillow cases, curtains, and throw blankets
-cups, plates, napkins, party bags
-lunchboxes
-Halloween costumes (I found EVERY Avenger, plus Vision, Ultron and Ant-Man costumes. No Black Widow.)
-stickers
-temporary tattoos
-t-shirts, sweat shirts
-necklaces, watches, sunglasses
-ALL THE TOYS

Now I understand why this person made that Twitter account. WE NEED MORE BLACK WIDOW. Little girls like action figures too! Not just Barbie's! They want and need more to look up to than Elsa and Anna and Minions. The "girls" toy aisle is essentially just ponies and princesses and damsels in distress. Why? Why can't they have toys that let them be the hero? That let them save the day instead of sitting around in a sparkly dress waiting for someone else to do it?

To those girls I say LOOK WHAT I FOUND:

TAGRET:
-In the store I found a birthday bag, one pair of underwear, and a cup that had Black Widow on it. BUT when I went to Target.com...

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Target.com
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I don't know WHY all of there Black Widow stuff is online only, but it's there! It exists!

WAL*MART:
-There girls section is 50/50 when it comes to Black Widow. Some shirts and sweat shirts don't have her on it, some do. You just gotta find the right one.
-of the bajillion cups and tumblers that have the Avengers on them I only found ONE that had Black Widow on it.
-They have a bunch of Black Widow Halloween costumes on their website as well, but I couldn't find any in store.

The two best things I found in store were these:

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Chynna Hall
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Now, those were the only two local stores I could get to before I flipped my lid. I didn't get the chance to check out our local Hot Topic store, but I do know that HotTopic.com has Black Widow plushies, shirts, dresses, costumes...lots of stuff.

Hopefully I've helped in the search for Black Widow merch. If you don't believe me when I say that Black Widow is the new Waldo, go out and conduct your own scavenger hunt. You'll see. If you want to avoid the frustration and merely just want to find some good Black Widow stuff, follow @whereisnatasha on twitter.

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