Is Lego Selling Out Little Girls?
68
Lego Dispute
Anytime I see the word Lego in the news, I usually click on it to read about it. Legos are a part of my everyday life. My son is a Lego maniac. They are in every room of my house. Every time I vacuum, I must suck up a least five of them. Lego has released a new line called Lego Friends, geared towards girls. They have pretty colors in them and have many different sets. There is a Pet Patrol, Veterinarian, an Invention Workshop and many others.
So today I read a story today about articles being published, petitions, and videos being sent to Lego to "Stop Selling Out Girls!" I was shocked. Really???
I have seen the commercials for the new Lego Friends and I have to say I looked at my husband and thought that it was really cool. Never once did a thought enter my mind that Lego is "Selling out to girls" because there are specific "girly" colors and they are limited to only those colors, not the normal rainbow of colors that Lego has in other sets. This is not the first time Lego has geared a toy specifically to girls. My daughter has a pink case full of Legos, if she wanted a red Lego or black Lego, she would just take it from her brother.
One of the writers in this article felt that if the little girls ultimately played with these new Legos “soon they will start to believe that they would rather have hot tubs and little plastic boobs.” I’m sorry, if your child is basing what they want in life or want for themselves on the toys that they play with, then I feel that there are some parenting issues going on at home, or rather not going on. It’s you the parent who is supposed to teach your child self-worth, encouragement, self-esteem, not some toy, right? My children do not base their values on the toys they play with, I instill the values in them.
There is now a petition to Lego to commit to gender equality in marketing. It has over 47,000 signatures. Am I missing something? Was there a hidden message in the commercial that all these people saw that I didn’t? My advice to them is if they do not like the toy, don’t buy it. I thought the Lego Friends was a great idea. It was opening the door to an audience that may not have liked Legos before and now maybe they will. It’s not degrading or stereotyping as others have commented in these specific articles.
I think Lego is a great company and it has been around for many years. My view of them has not been jaded by all of this uproar over their new Lego Friends. What’s your opinion?
Lego Friends
 | Amazon Price: $39.97 List Price: $39.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $9.20 List Price: $9.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $8.50 List Price: $9.99 |
CommentsLoading...
Thank you pdamiancarter. I truly appreciate your comment and thank you for sharing your personal story with me. My oldest son has been wanting to get the baby Duplos since he knew he was going to have a baby brother. My son plays with my husband's legos from when he was a boy. They are a huge part of my son's everyday life.
I did not mean to come across that you can't learn anything from Legos or they can't teach you anything, of course they can. My son has ADHD and he is a totally different child when he plays with his Legos. He can focus, his fine motor skills are not an issue at all and the things he builds, blows my mind. I tell him all the time "you have such a wonderful imagination." Legos can teach you so many things.
My point was that these women who had written this article, I felt, were going to the extreme with their views. They were comparing the fact that if their daughters were to play with these new "girly" sets then they would want or feel that they should have the shapely figures that these Legos had or want the Jacuzzi that is in the doll house. It just did not sit well with me.
Thank you again for your comment.
And thank you Klauer36! As you can see I too am passionate about what Lego can do for one's development - I had my own problems behaviorally but not I believe ADHD, though my mother coped brilliantly with what I did have - and it is most heartening to hear how Lego play can help your son's focus in the way you describe. Words of encouragement such as you describe are, to my amazement, downplayed by some parents I've encountered, even discouraged ("can't have him grow up soft!"). I don't know whether I'm right and they're not, but just in case I'll shake my head ruefully anyway.
I wish I could speak with more authority on the main issue of your hub, but I've been pondering this for some weeks now and I still feel quite betwixt and between. There are some pretty heated views being expressed out there, though how much of it is supported by actual evidence (and how many of the participants in the discussion actually care about evidence) is unclear to me. It will be interesting to see what sort of response from other hubbers your article generates (is there a link to the original article? (are we allowed to provide links to articles? Don't know actually). Hopefully I will be enlightened somewhat.
Cheers Pdamian
Thank you again for comment, Pdamian. I am interested in what others have to say as well.
Here is a link to where I read the article.
Ah good thank you for that link - odd that the Friends line is reported on as if "girly" lego never existed before - they seem to not realise Belville has existed for years (and before that Scala). This line has provoked a much greater reaction (and I'll try not to get too precious about the Huff Post referring to lego "blocks" instead of bricks - but oh the ignorance).
Noticing there that according to the article my daughter appears to be just entering the princess phase at Age 4. I think she is partially in this already - her preferred mode of dress is currently a tutu. I might add that my lovely wife is the daughter of Italian migrants (to here in Australia) and I don't know how Italians in Jersey (where she probably has cousins) are about this but here in Aus they all just loooove to give pink presents, which my little bella has acquired oodles of. And yet my daughter's favourite lego colour (and colour generally) is blue, so no conditioning yet!
pdamiancarter, I am glad you got to read the article that I was commenting on and I wish your daughter oodles and oodles of pink tutus and blue legos.
Ha-ha! Thank you! Best wishes for your son too, though not perhaps tutus!
Thank you too!
Hey, congratulations on your HubNugget nomination. You can vote and view the other nominees in the Games, Toys, and Hobbies Topic here:
http://hubpages.com/topics/games-toys-and-hobbies/
I actually used a Lego set as proof (made up, of course) that 2012 is the last year. I imagine you could use Legos as proof of anything, if you fake enough facts to go with them...
Well a HubNugget nomination! This is something I must aspire to - Congratulations Klauer36, I have voted for you.
DougBerry, I agree that anything can potentially be built with Lego - I once tried to build a universe with it in my garage, but I found I didn't have enough time (or space). Sorry physics joke!
I agree the value you instill in your children is what matters most. :)
Congratulations on your Hubnuggets nomination. To all who would like to read and vote, join the Hubnuggets team and their adventures right here: http://enellelamb.hubpages.com/hub/HubNugget-Myste
Interesting, I had not heard of any of this controversy. Thank you for sharing this information. Welcome to Hubpages and congrats on your Hubnugget nomination!
Nicely written. I had not heard of any controversy but I also don't read the Huffington Post. I feel that Legos are a great toy for kids and help them expand their creativity. My daughter and I own several sets, both girl and boy directed, that we love to play with. I agree it is my job as a parent to teach her values within life and that owning a Barbie or Princess doll doesn't mean she will look perfect forever nor does owning a little Lego Girl who has a hot tub mean she will spend her life in one! Congratulations on your hub nomination!
Hello EyesStraightAhead,
I think the Huff Post picked up on this from other sources where the debate had been raging since Lego released this new line. After considering it for awhile now I think the debate does seem come down to whether certain "values" are going to get imprinted on children (i.e. girls) by these toys, an extension perhaps of the Barbie syndrome or whatever you want to call it (maybe Malibu Stacey?). There also seems to be outrage from some quarters since Lego was thought to be above that sort of thing (even if the Belville range has existed for years). Much as I love my Lego (and playing with it with my daughter), I guess the result of the debate will be determined by sales figures, just as with any company.
Thank you so much.
Thank you all for your feedback and for the congratulations on my nomination. It is greatly appreciated.
Thank you pdamiancarter. I saw the picture of your lego creation as well, amazing.
Thank you Klauer! Little carter and I are having a wonderful time building.
Klauer36-Congratulations on your nomination. Marketing toys is the most scientifically developed marketing ever.
I don't think marking people ever sleep. They are always looking for new ways to convince us that we want something.
Once upon a time more than 40 years ago schools taught students to identify what was actually being sold. Great hub. Welcome to HubPages.
pdamiancarter 4 months ago
Hi Klauer36,
I'm a lifelong LEGO fan (I'm 45) who wrote MY first hub just the other day as it happens (congrats on your first two), on the subject of the grand lego project that I'm undertaking over the next year or so with my daughter, who turns 4 on Sunday 22 January and thus graduates, as it were, from DUPLO to LEGO this very week. She's a big fan of "the brick" already (much to my pleasure - like father like daughter perhaps), and there's quite a few basic sets on the way to her this week.
I'm sure that there will be others to respond to your comments/questions regarding the "girliness" issue and gender roles etc. I'd like to take up just one of your related points if I may regarding values and toys. I have to disagree with your assertion that a parent has "issues" if they're letting the toys do their "teaching" work for them. There may be something in what you say with other toys, I don't know. But my personal experience is that my childhood passion for lego building - encouraged by my family - and the creative possibilities it provided (and still provides) did much to generate in me those feelings of self-worth, encouragement and self-esteem. My mother knew this and this was part of her wise approach to instilling those senses in me, no parental issues involved. It is, IMHO, a great toy BECAUSE it can have those effects on children, something that as a relatively new parent I'm seeing already in my daughter and her desire to take on (and confidence in taking on) more and more elaborate lego building projects.
I should add that there is relevance to the gender issue too here. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s Lego's publicity generally featured girls AND boys happily playing with the whole lego range and without any obvious concern of gender. The company has slowly changed that position (or bowed to marketing pressures, or something), but the point I wanted to make was that it was this toy Lego that was primarily responsible for instilling in me the notion of, for want of a better term, gender irrelevance when it came to creativity and capability (and hence any other intellectual pursuit), something that has very much stayed with me.
It just never occurred to me that girls SHOULD play with different lego to boys - and somehow as an adult my brain has extended this principle to a value system that sees as invalid any intellectual or creative distinction made on the basis of gender. Possibly my family (mainly females!) may have reinforced that in other ways but I think my mother really just "instilled" this value by encouraging what I was already thinking because of Lego building with my friends (there was a lot of Lego around back then in various friends' homes).
This has also, perhaps unsurprisingly, motivated me to instill in my daughter the notion that the whole palette of life experience is hers unlimited by gender. I'm sure there were other formative influences in my case, but I wanted to offer the thought that toys CAN play a meaningful role in the development of a person, IF they are the right toy. And a parent could do worse than contemplate the role of creativity in their child's life.
Kind Regards
pdamiancarter