Enraged by what they see as gender stereotyping, pressure group SPARK started a petition on web site change.org asking Lego to stop "selling out girls." Thus far it's attracted nearly 3,000 signatures.Yeah, but the problem, Doc, is that LEGO hasn't had a lot of luck with the female market. It's not as if little girls are prohibited from building pirate ships and medieval castles - and, no doubt, these items may well appeal to many - it's just that not as many girls as boys are interested in the traditional themes.
"Raising healthy girls and boys is all about creating a wide range of possibilities and options for our children," says SPARK co-founder (and developmental psychologist) Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown in the petition's preamble. "The rainbow of colors and a range of options for young children to create the scenes they are most interested in is much better for them than feeding them a narrow set of stereotypes."
Hey, I know! Maybe the federal government should intervene and subsidize sales of the more male-oriented toys to girls (in conjunction with a gender-studies program, of course).
It just seems odd, to me, how the concept of "diversity" keeps getting translated into a dreary sameness.
Hopefully, LEGO will point these people to the nearest cliff and then issue them written instructions on how to proceed. But, I'm sure they will crater like most corps. Maybe a hed tilt of shame or diversity training for their developers.
ReplyDeleteThe rainbow of colors and range of options. Sounds like that organic nature of change stuff.
Profiles in arugulaism.
Deborah Leigh said... I love to play with LEGOS. There are plenty of girls who dream of sailing a pirate ship, or being the princess in a castle. If LEGOS came out with pink blocks the feminits would still be unhappy.
ReplyDeleteYOU GO GIRL!:)
ReplyDeleteYou're probalby right. They make their living by being offended.
With "feminists", it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I used to love building houses out of those little plastic blocks (prototype Legos) that looked like bricks, and came with little white window frames and doors. I also liked to play cowboys and Indians with the boy cousins.
Heh I had that set as well, Mrs. H.
ReplyDeleteAlso had the Tinker Toy set which was fun. The Erector Set was probably my favorite even though those square nuts caused havoc with my fingers.
Thanks for bringing back some good memories!
I was going to use this as an example of Lego sexism but really it promotes the feminist-approved, nontraditional standards of beauty.
ReplyDelete