LEGO's offensive to women

[TE999]

LEGO's new line of toys, 'LEGO Friends' promotes sexism, may cause body image problems, exacerbate eating disorders and foster gender inequality, critics say.

More here: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-lego-girls-toy-protest-20120123,0,141471.story

Do the critics have a point here or is this so much PC bullshit? You decide.

 

[mynameisben]

LEGO's new line of toys, 'LEGO Friends' promotes sexism, may cause body image problems, exacerbate eating disorders and foster gender inequality, critics say.

More here: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-lego-girls-toy-protest-20120123,0,141471.story

Do the critics have a point here or is this so much PC bullshit? You decide.

The whole world is obsessed with drawing attention to themselves by being outraged or incensed or insulted by one thing or another. Nothing sells a story or a cause like ravening hordes defending their myopic perception of how their little world has to be.

I vote it's PC bullshit. Everything else is, so why not this too?

 

[Stella_Omega]

What do you do with legos?

You build it yourself,
do it yourself,
create adventure on your own.

These new sets for girls,
What do you build with them, a farm? A city? A world? An awesome nuclear something-or-other machine?

Nooo... Build a cute little pink dressing table and... brush your hair, yippee! Or a dress store! Or a pink sports car!

Yes indeed, just what girls want from... Lego.

 

[Boxlicker101]

What do you do with legos?

You build it yourself,
do it yourself,
create adventure on your own.

These new sets for girls,
What do you build with them, a farm? A city? A world? An awesome nuclear something-or-other machine?

Nooo... Build a cute little pink dressing table and... brush your hair, yippee! Or a dress store! Or a pink sports car!

Yes indeed, just what girls want from... Lego.

I can see the dolls that come with the set might be a problem, much like Barbie might be a problem. However, I see no problem with the new Legos and the way they are meant to be used. As far as I can see, they just offer another option, and that can't be a bad thing.

Girls or boys can still buy, or get their parents to buy for them, the standard Legos and build the first group of things you mention. Or, if they prefer, they might get the new Legos and build the second group of things you apparently find so objectionable. It's up to the kids and their parents what kind of Legos are bought and used, as it should be.

 

[3113]

These new sets for girls,
What do you build with them, a farm? A city? A world? An awesome nuclear something-or-other machine?

Nooo... Build a cute little pink dressing table and... brush your hair, yippee! Or a dress store! Or a pink sports car!

Yes indeed, just what girls want from... Lego.

Which translates, by the way, to "It's not PC bullshit, it's a valid point." I guess that's kinda hard to see if you're not female or don't have a daughter who might be given these legos--which would give you a chance to see how limited they're making your daughter's view of her place and possibilities in the world as compared to that of her brother and the legos he'd be given.

And speaking of which, would you feel the same way about this argument regarding the influence of these toys (that they're PC bullshit) if that hairdressers lego was being given to a boy to play with?

 

[Boxlicker101]

Which translates, by the way, to "It's not PC bullshit, it's a valid point." I guess that's kinda hard to see if you're not female or don't have a daughter who might be given these legos--which would give you a chance to see how limited they're making your daughter's view of her place and possibilities in the world as compared to that of her brother and the legos he'd be given.

And speaking of which, would you feel the same way about this argument regarding the influence of these toys (that they're PC bullshit) if that hairdressers lego was being given to a boy to play with?

I don't think it's PC either; I think it's a matter of the Legos company seeing a market niche and filling it. If a girl receives the new Legos as a gift and wants the standard ones, I'm sure she can exchange them. If a boy receives the "hairdressers" Legos, he can either keep them or exchange them also.

 

[mynameisben]

I don't think it's PC either; I think it's a matter of the Legos company seeing a market niche and filling it. If a girl receives the new Legos as a gift and wants the standard ones, I'm sure she can exchange them. If a boy receives the "hairdressers" Legos, he can either keep them or exchange them also.

I don't really think it's a niche market Legos is targeting. Their team of market researchers simply responds to what their best indicators tell them is the broadest market they can sell to. They aren't out to perpetuate outdated perceptions, or misconceptions or anything like that. They want to make a buck, pure and simple. The product they packaged has nothing to do with pushing an agenda of sexual identity stereotypes down anyone's throat.

Legos epitomizes everything that's wrong with this country. I don't think so. There are a million other entities far more deserving to focus one's trumped up outrage over.

 

[mynameisben]

Which translates, by the way, to "It's not PC bullshit, it's a valid point." I guess that's kinda hard to see if you're not female or don't have a daughter who might be given these legos--which would give you a chance to see how limited they're making your daughter's view of her place and possibilities in the world as compared to that of her brother and the legos he'd be given.

And speaking of which, would you feel the same way about this argument regarding the influence of these toys (that they're PC bullshit) if that hairdressers lego was being given to a boy to play with?

This is where parenting comes in. You have the power to buy whichever toys for your child you feel are appropriate. Or not. Every perception your child has about the real world does not have to come from Mattel.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Are girls required to play with these sets? No.

Are girls barred from playing with any other sets? No.

Are there some girls who would enjoy playing with them? Most likely.

Are all options available to all children? Of course.

Where's the problem? There is none.

 

[Handley_Page]

LEGO's new line of toys, 'LEGO Friends' promotes sexism, may cause body image problems, exacerbate eating disorders and foster gender inequality, critics say.

More here: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-lego-girls-toy-protest-20120123,0,141471.story

Do the critics have a point here or is this so much PC bullshit? You decide.

I think it's a load of PC cr@p.

What do you do with legos?

You build it yourself,
do it yourself,
create adventure on your own.

These new sets for girls,
What do you build with them, a farm? A city? A world? An awesome nuclear something-or-other machine?

Nooo... Build a cute little pink dressing table and... brush your hair, yippee! Or a dress store! Or a pink sports car!
Yes indeed, just what girls want from... Lego.

And do these new figures prevent a "female figure" from building a reactor or a Library ?.
NO!

Are girls required to play with these sets? No.

Are girls barred from playing with any other sets? No.

Are there some girls who would enjoy playing with them? Most likely.

Are all options available to all children? Of course.

Where's the problem? There is none.

Here Here!

I don't recall this protest with Barbie, Cindy or any other doll.

PS.
Thought:
Dear Lego,
Please will you make some figures which are obese, so that the protesting folks have no reason to protest and fat girls do not feel isolated or left out ?.
Thanks

 

[Spacefender]

Maybe some company should market a "My Little Mechanics" set for girls featuring such figures as "Greasy Gertrude", "Overalls Olive" and "Deep Socket Desiree". No doubt it will be a whopping success since we all know that girls and boys are exactly the same and any differences are due to society forcing them into restrictive gender roles.

After all, if the all the gender role expectation were removed there is little doubt that little girls would just as often choose to play with toy soldiers as they would "Burping Baby with Realistic Farting Sounds" and surely little boys would just as often choose the "My Little Hairstylist" set as they would choose Lightning McQueen or Thomas the Tank Engine.

The fact that girls tend to choose "girly" toys and boy tend to choose "boyish" toys is due to our evil misogynist society that seeks to keep the womens barefoot and pregnant at all costs.

 

[Wife of Bath]

I think they're cute. I don't know about the new dolls themselves, but I know I would have liked to play with those buildings and details when I was playing with Legos.

Of course, the hairdresser would have to stand side by side with the spaceships.

Do the same people who protest these hate Polly Pocket? I used to love those. I still have a huge box of them somewhere. Along with my huge box of gender-neutral Legos.

 

[Verdad]

My, my, such bitterness from some of the gentlemen here.

 

[autoplot]

I think it'd be nice if LEGO put out some toys aimed at girls that didn't enforce outmoded and idiotic gender roles. And I think the "well the kids don't have to play with it" argument is fairly disingenuous. Kids don't "have to" play with anything, that doesn't automatically mean no toy anywhere can be objectionable.

I don't think these sets are inherently bad or should be abolished, but how about a LEGO set featuring some central female characters who are something besides fashion models? You know, so we don't have to separate Legos into "for girls" and (supposedly) "gender neutral"?

Although my biggest beef with these sets is that they really seem to undermine the invention and building aspects of Lego, which is what's cool about them to begin with.

I don't recall this protest with Barbie, Cindy or any other doll.

I'm afraid that's just you not paying attention.

 

[PennLady]

My girl would probably love this, as she loves her brother's Star Wars legos. I can't get worked up about this. Maybe we could encourage Lego to hospital sets or whatever so the girl legos can be doctors and nurses and surgeons and everything else, but you can probably do that yourself if you have other pieces. I'm with autoplot, though, and so is my hub -- with Legos in "kits," it's almost no fun. It seems very opposite the original idea of Legos.

I'd also say Lego is a business. If they have a customer demand/request, and meet it, fine. Don't buy it if you don't want it.

 

[estragon]

Unfortunately, this toy, trivial as it is, highlights the fallacy of "free choice". It isn't the five-year-old girl who buys this, it's Mummy or Daddy, or Grandmama. And their stereotypical choice, if indeed "choice" is the proper word for it, is imposed on someone without the critical faculties to see this for what it is--gender-typing, enslaving propaganda. So that young girl, who gets this Trojan Horse of a "gift", will have even a steeper uphill fight to attain what is, and of right ought to be, her own choice. She can be as girly as she wishes, or not; shop till she drops or design cold-fusion reactors; live, believe and love how she wants. But she must fight to get there.

Oh yeah, evolution, the damned Double Helix (which some would say is more predestinationist than John Calvin at his worst), and society combine to destroy the illusion of "free choice". But we have to fight, win or lose. I'll take my stand with Karel Capek: "It was a great thing, once--to be human."

 

[TE999]

Dear Lego,
Please will you make some figures which are obese, so that the protesting folks have no reason to protest and fat girls do not feel isolated or left out ?.
Thanks

They already have such toy figures; they're called Weebles.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My entire childhood and youth was bombarded with overt suspicion that I was queer. People were alarmed cuz I preferred the company of females and had lotsa female interests.

I wrote poetry and drew pictures and read and generally associated with girls if possible.

What no one suspected was me being a sick lil pervert who interacted with girls in very inappropriate ways for my age. I was a spy in the world of girls, and got an education! I was a boy prodigy.

Hell for me was being forced to go to a wrestling match with my old man.

So I think folks oughta backoff trying to shoehorn kids into ONE SIZE FITS ALL...or fits one-half. Live your own life.

 

[3113]

\Legos epitomizes everything that's wrong with this country. I don't think so. There are a million other entities far more deserving to focus one's trumped up outrage over.

Immaterial to the argument. That there are a million other things wrong with our country doesn't negate the fact that this is right or wrong or that anyone has a right to get outraged over it if it is wrong.

 

[mikey2much]

A parent can only try

A loving parent can only try to mold their children's minds so far, if you go beyond that point you began to do harm. I had a son and a daughter separated by only eleven months in age. back when a tonka truck was a nice toy, I got one for both of them. My wife wanted a doll for our little girl but I made the point that play could be the first steps of training. At this time, late seventies, most of the women I knew that were doing good in the 'man's' world were driving heavy equipment.

It was a wasted gift because she never played with it, so my son got a fleet of dump trucks and our little girl got a slightly belated but much desired chatty cathy doll. I think the jump from doll to dumptruck was a bit much for my little girl to make. Maybe something like this could really help sway little girls to expand their thinking to include their having to build the stages that their doll figures will act out their play on. Bottom line is the legos for girls might be a gateway for girls who would never try construction toys otherwise.

You give a kid a toy, but what you really do is give them a tool for the building of their imagination, that could just as well be the box the leggo's come in. It is all up to the kid.

 

[3113]

Are girls required to play with these sets? No.

Are girls barred from playing with any other sets? No.

These are stupid comments. Do they "have" to play with the toys? Stupid! Did you know when you were a kid what message toys were giving you when you played with them so that YOU could decide which ones to play with or not play with? I was given dolls. I didn't *have* to play with them, but I got the idea that I was *expected* to play with them as I wasn't given any other toys, even the ones I saw boys playing with that I wanted.

So, I played with what I was given, and got the message from them what was expected of me. Kids don't know what's available to them to play with--parents and grandparents give them toys, especially at the lego age. And they play with what they've got.

Besides which, you're begging the question--totally missing the point. Which is that legos put itself forward with gender neutral figures implying to children that they could be and do anything. Now this gender specific toy implies that only girls can be hairdressers--and should be hairdressers. Whether girls have the option of playing with the toy or not is immaterial. The toy gives the idea that this is a girl's world. Not "this is a world that anyone could work in."

 

[PennLady]

Unfortunately, this toy, trivial as it is, highlights the fallacy of "free choice". It isn't the five-year-old girl who buys this, it's Mummy or Daddy, or Grandmama. And their stereotypical choice, if indeed "choice" is the proper word for it, is imposed on someone without the critical faculties to see this for what it is--gender-typing, enslaving propaganda. So that young girl, who gets this Trojan Horse of a "gift", will have even a steeper uphill fight to attain what is, and of right ought to be, her own choice. She can be as girly as she wishes, or not; shop till she drops or design cold-fusion reactors; live, believe and love how she wants. But she must fight to get there.

Oh yeah, evolution, the damned Double Helix (which some would say is more predestinationist than John Calvin at his worst), and society combine to destroy the illusion of "free choice". But we have to fight, win or lose. I'll take my stand with Karel Capek: "It was a great thing, once--to be human."

The 5yo is free to play, or not play, with it. My kids have received many toys that are not played with immediately, or are played with later, or are played with at some point and then forgotten. My daughter likes pink stuff, and trust me I did not impose pink stuff on her. Kids like what they like. I don't see pink Legos as anything more than pink Legos, and perhaps small-mindedness on the parts of those who made pink hairdressers instead of pink rocketships.

 

[mynameisben]

Immaterial to the argument. That there are a million other things wrong with our country doesn't negate the fact that this is right or wrong or that anyone has a right to get outraged over it if it is wrong.

I agree with you. Nothing negates the "fact" that any issue is right or wrong. Every issue is right or wrong, and often times both.

I never suggested people don't have the right to be outraged. People LOVE to be outraged, about anything and everything, and there's just no stopping them. If I covertly drove 500 miles out into the middle of the blistering desert and left a weenie on a rock, I guarantee you somebody would find it within days, race it over to the press, and scream out about how outraged they are, about how offensive it is to women. Or about how offensive it is to vegetarians, or to ecologists, or to some damn crazy cause or another. Sure, they have the right to be outraged; it's written in their DNA. Be outraged if you want to be, but why bother? There are far better battles to be fought and won.

I think the world would be a much more pleasant place to live in if more people would rein in their outrage over every little thing that sniffs of an offense to [your group or cause du jour] and focus it on matters of consequence. That will never happen, of course, but I'm not gonna jump up and down and be outraged over it. Its just not my bag.

 

[3113]

And do these new figures prevent a "female figure" from building a reactor or a Library ?.

Again, you miss the point. Studies have shown that peer pressure on what a boy can do vs. what a girl can do start as early as age five--if not earlier. So, yes, these new figures COULD prevent a female figure from building a reactor. Imagine both sets in a kindergarden. Now imagine some girl brings over one of the female dolls to another Lego set. Are you saying that you can't possibly imagine the kids at that set saying, "that belongs at the hairdressers, she can't help build a reactor"?

If you can't imagine it, then I refer you to this article. Kids enforce gender roles on their peers, and the problem with such toys isn't a matter of whether the parents can avoid them and, thus, avoid what they may teach the kids; the problem is that such toys can be used by kids to pressure each other into gender roles. You'll see in the article, by the way, that when the kids themselves were asked to list who could play with what, the "gender neutral" legos were given to boys. Legos, they say right off the bat, are for boys.

So. Now there is a legos for girls it would seem and what is it? A hairdresser. Do you get it yet?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

A loving parent can only try to mold their children's minds so far, if you go beyond that point you began to do harm. I had a son and a daughter separated by only eleven months in age. back when a tonka truck was a nice toy, I got one for both of them. My wife wanted a doll for our little girl but I made the point that play could be the first steps of training. At this time, late seventies, most of the women I knew that were doing good in the 'man's' world were driving heavy equipment.

It was a wasted gift because she never played with it, so my son got a fleet of dump trucks and our little girl got a slightly belated but much desired chatty cathy doll. I think the jump from doll to dumptruck was a bit much for my little girl to make. Maybe something like this could really help sway little girls to expand their thinking to include their having to build the stages that their doll figures will act out their play on. Bottom line is the legos for girls might be a gateway for girls who would never try construction toys otherwise.

You give a kid a toy, but what you really do is give them a tool for the building of their imagination, that could just as well be the box the leggo's come in. It is all up to the kid.

Generally speaking parents model OK behavior for their kids, and its tough to hide your shenanigans. Your kid knows if you play on LIT. Your kid knows when you wink at the clerk down at the QUICKIE MART. And she gets the idea for when its okay to take her panties off, and when to squeal.