UPDATE: Geek Girl in Hollywood: Rey finally put in ‘Star Wars’ Monopoly

UPDATE:In the wake of the outcry over this subject, Hasbro has announced they will add Rey to their Monopoly edition after all. This piece was written before the about-face.

You have got to be kidding. Seriously, this is a joke, right?

I wasn’t planning on writing a story on “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” today because there are enough to choke a Sarlaac pit out there. This, however, was far too egregious to pass by: Apparently Hasbro has once again forgotten that women exist. As you may remember, I wrote a piece for Legion of Leia about how I went to Target and saw their exclusive Hasbro set for “The Force Awakens” and it had Chewbacca, Finn, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren and two unnamed First Order officers. No Rey.

I started the hashtag #WheresRey and was quickly told over and over from reader after reader that I was “too impatient” and that I was “imagining things” and that I was getting pissy over nothing. (I was even told that an 8” action figure of a girl was a “doll” and subject to different standards.) Then the film came out and lo and behold, Rey is the main character.

So, in light of that confirmation, I figured maybe Hasbro would figure out that this was a problem. Yeah, I figured wrong. My friend Carrie Goldman tweeted a letter from her little girl Annie Rose lamenting the fact that Rey is not a playable character in the “Star Wars” Monopoly game. You can play as Finn, Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Yes, Darth Vader, who is not in the new film.

How do you justify this, Hasbro? How? How do you explain to little girls that they don’t matter? I’m serious. I want to know. Are you going to tell me it has something to do with likeness rights? Are you going to say that boys won’t play with girl toys? It’s Monopoly, for Pete’s sake. You can’t even pretend to claim this one as a “boy toy.” Even if you’re saying that this game covers the entire “Star Wars” saga, you have zero women in it.

So go ahead. Tell me I’m imagining things. Tell me I’m shoving the “feminist agenda” down throats by commenting on this. (Oh yes, I heard that multiple times.) Explain how only boys watch the films. Tell my niece how she isn’t as important as my nephew. Go watch the film again and tell me Rey isn’t the lead. Tell me why I don’t matter as a fan.

#WheresRey

Follow Jenna Busch on Twitter @jennabusch and visit her site, Legion of Leia