Seven-Year-Old Girl Accuses LEGO of Sexism

[faefrost]

Not a single one of the 7 LEGO characters I still have have a single discernible primary OR secondary sex trait.

Times have changed
http://www.bricklink.com/ml/sw490.jpg
http://www.bricklink.com/ml/sw406.jpg
http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/minifigs/large/sh024.jpg
http://www.bricklink.com/ml/sh044.jpg
http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/minifigs/large/col002.jpg
http://www.bricklink.com/ml/col131.jpg
http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/minifigs/large/col093.jpg
Just a few examples

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I know it's been a while since I've played with Legos, but isn't the only difference between a 'boy' Lego figurine and a 'girl' Lego figurine that they have slightly different facial features? Couldn't you just move the heads around and have girl Astronauts or Police or Cowboys or whatever the heck else you want?

It's changed quite a bit since many of us on this site were young.

On either side are ones we grew up with, though they are more clearly female then the real classic minifigs (which were androgynous smiley faces with bodies). In the middle are the ones specifically targeted at girls as part of pink playsets. That model can't change beyond swapping out hair or hats.

You can still get the traditional female minifigs, but only (or at least primarily, I worked in a toy shop and never noticed girl playsets with "classic" minifigs) in sets target at boys.

 

[Smeatza]

snip

As I'm sure you're aware though, the Lego Friends sets represent only a small subsection of the full Lego product range.
Their existence is hardly problematic. It's a market that exists so they have every right to cater to it. It's not like potential female buyers or female minifigs are outright excluded from other sets.

There's no doubt though that female characters are significantly less common, especially when it comes to the more traditionally male sets (space sets, ninja sets, castle sets, etc.). That's certainly worth addressing.

Now there's no doubt that marketing will be a primary influence on this but part of me wonders if it's the consequence of a financial decision as well. One will often find that individual heads for female minifigs sell a hell of a lot more in Lego stores than individual heads for male minifigs.
I imagine Lego get better profit margins from selling individual minifig parts, than selling full minifigs as part of sets.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

So even kids are throwing the word "sexism" around now?

Civilization has failed.

 

[Stu35]

Yes, let's use the word "groupies" to describe a seven-year-old girl in an article about sexism. Because the word "groupie" is so respectful and appropriate to call female fans.

-> Here's the point.








-> Here's you. Missing the point.


Seriously. Go re-read the whole thing. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Now, do you see how the use of the word 'groupie' was deliberate in that context to highlight the perceived views of the LEGO company?




Personally I'd have never identified Lego as being a "boys toy", I've always thought of it as being a pretty gender-neutral toy. Learn something new every day I suppose.

 

[putowtin]

humm, me thinks dad may have prompted this,
1) that spelling... a seven year old?
2) free lego! (have you seen the price of it these days?!)

This service announcement was brought to you by cynical Wednesday, making the middle of the week more cynical!

 

[144_v1legacy]

Blatantly obvious her mother coached her to write this. Looks like somebody's got a feminist for a mother!

While I wouldn't say "blatantly obvious," since not enough people see it that way, it's probably a true statement.

A lot of people are commenting on the spelling, but a seven-year old asking a parent how to spell words is normal. The red flags for me were in the wording, such as the the closing line "I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun." It feels like someone attempting to use a child's voice to voice her opinion, which is exactly what's happening. But it needs to keep a balance between getting the message through and still sounding like a kid actually wrote it, so "OK!???" is as the end, just in case. And honey, I think when you write pink and blue, you should put girls and boys in little letters above that. It will help enforce the point that Lego is playing to gender stereotypes, sweetie.

 

[Lucane]

Not that I've seen this one way or the other but If the "pink isle" isn't meant to be (girls only) meaning the "blue isles"(if colored blue there are usually more than pink ones) what do you think that means? Neutral? They a girl's isle(s) and then just Neutral? Either that's Girls and Boys or Neutral and Restricted which doesn't sound like something that's very fair to me. Also if the sets that everyone says are swap-able with a simple head switch why are identical sets either placed in the Pink isle to start with, packaged with more female heads in them and displayed on the box art(the logic that little girls can buy separate heads and replace the male/default/"neutral" heads if they want a lego to be like them for pretending. Could be switched around for boys then too.) or Simply have various sets in each section when ever a tie-in Lego set is made say for Harry Potter,Star Wars or etc. it's never, even by a little bit placed in the Pink Isles right?

It's always in the "MAiN Isles" regardless of gender make-up of the set or series as long as the Main character(s) is/are mostly male [sub](power rangers for an example)[/sub ]you'll never see a part of it in the pink isle unless it completely purges it's male demographic completely out of the packaging. Say like a set of Disney's Aladdin Toys being in the main isles but then you'd see "Princess Jasmine" in a princess collection dress set or pattern or tea set.

For something more relevant there was what they tried to do to Princess Merida from Brave.

Or Arcee in the Transformers Prime series she's a female character who's placed in the main toy isles with the rest of the line.Now how or why would a little girl if not directed by someone find a female character like that out of a haystack of male counterparts without looking over everything or by pure luck? and if little girls should have to look everywhere then why have the division of toy isles in the first place?

 

[Lieju]

Blatantly obvious her mother coached her to write this. Looks like somebody's got a feminist for a mother!

While I wouldn't say "blatantly obvious," since not enough people see it that way, it's probably a true statement.

A lot of people are commenting on the spelling, but a seven-year old asking a parent how to spell words is normal. The red flags for me were in the wording, such as the the closing line "I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun." It feels like someone attempting to use a child's voice to voice her opinion, which is exactly what's happening. But it needs to keep a balance between getting the message through and still sounding like a kid actually wrote it, so "OK!???" is as the end, just in case. And honey, I think when you write pink and blue, you should put girls and boys in little letters above that. It will help enforce the point that Lego is playing to gender stereotypes, sweetie.

Do you really think children are that stupid?
When I was 6 I wrote a letter to Mauno Koivisto (the president of Finland at the time) telling him how he should deal with European union and communism.
I was also upset at there not being enough girl characters in Donald Duck and sent letters to them telling this.

My mum didn't in any way tell me to.

There's no doubt though that female characters are significantly less common, especially when it comes to the more traditionally male sets (space sets, ninja sets, castle sets, etc.). That's certainly worth addressing.

I think a big part of the issue is that there is an increasing number of licensed sets. Something like LOTR or Star Wars isn't going to have a large number of female characters.

Although many non-license sets have very traditional gender roles as well, and things like more detailed hair-pieces can make it impossible to mix the minifig pieces the way you want.

On the more positive side, the collectable minifigs that play around more with design have more female figs, and non-traditional as well.

 

[rasputin0009]

Yes, let's use the word "groupies" to describe a seven-year-old girl in an article about sexism. Because the word "groupie" is so respectful and appropriate to call female fans.

Now, do you see how the use of the word 'groupie' was deliberate in that context to highlight the perceived views of the LEGO company?

Nope, I don't see it. The word "groupie" doesn't pertain to anything else in the article. The author simply used it generally to refer to female fans. Since a groupie is heavily associated with trading sexual promiscuity for social status, it was kinda stupid to liken "groupies" to common female fans and a seven-year-old child. I'm sure executives at the LEGO company don't perceive their female fans as wanting to give out sexual favors, and I don't see the author highlighting that view at any point. So... ya, definitely not deliberate. Just a stupid misuse of the word.

Unless you have a definition of the word "groupie" that is completely different from popular knowledge?

 

[Lyvric]

I know it's been a while since I've played with Legos, but isn't the only difference between a 'boy' Lego figurine and a 'girl' Lego figurine that they have slightly different facial features? Couldn't you just move the heads around and have girl Astronauts or Police or Cowboys or whatever the heck else you want?

It's changed quite a bit since many of us on this site were young.

On either side are ones we grew up with, though they are more clearly female then the real classic minifigs (which were androgynous smiley faces with bodies). In the middle are the ones specifically targeted at girls as part of pink playsets. That model can't change beyond swapping out hair or hats.

You can still get the traditional female minifigs, but only (or at least primarily, I worked in a toy shop and never noticed girl playsets with "classic" minifigs) in sets target at boys.

It doesn't really matter if the girl might not know about buying online. She's simply seeing how the image differs above. Despite however you use/play with it she still sees the majority of it in the 'boys' section. Walk into any mass store and you can see this quite simply. Overall it's not a sexist issue: it's a marketing and unification issue. Make all your products interchangeable and advertised as a less divided product. If Lego wants to be more girl-friendly then stop making it girl exclusive like how it 'felt' boy exclusive to buy back when they only had a couple of faces.

 

[O maestre]

.... I am afraid to ask but, how exactly do can you tell what a lego's gender is?

also isn't the point about lego playing with the bricks? If she wants to play with people why not action figures or dolls?

on the other hand I can't imagine it breaking lego's budget to paint half the figures differently.

 

[Charli]

This should read : "7 year old girl's PARENTS accuse lego of being sexist." Kids don't see these distinctions unless their parents put those thoughts into their heads.

So girls don't want to go on adventures unless it's drilled into them?

I know, fuck, I used to get creative with this shit, and I swear this is before the pony hype of recent year, but I had my beanie babies go to war with my pony toys.

Complex political nightmares of epic proportions.

And definitely 'adventures' aplenty, through no pushing from anyone (hell DISCOURAGEMENT was more common).

Humans tend to accept the norm if it's fed to them their whole lives, and surprise surprise, alot of the friends I had pretty much had barbies, and pink pretend kitchens and baby dolls. The need to 'fit in' as a girl is heinous. Like you would not believe.

It was weeeeeeeiiird to me.

In opposition my parents bought me a mix of things. A sega mega drive, along with a stuffed dog, one very well loved cat beanie baby were my weapons of choice. Fairly neutral stuff. Despite me owning a number of pink girly things. When presented with choice, I chose what my imagination could identify with.

.... I am afraid to ask but, how exactly do can you tell what a lego's gender is?

Eyelashes. I'm not kidding.

And there is 'girls lego' it's pink, boring and generally sucky.

And there are themes to lego that are slightly gendered. I get what this kid is getting at. It's the boxes more than the lego itself, hell when it's open I just mix it all in and go to town.

 

[Naqel]

I once put a female head on a ninja figure(hard to tell because of the ninja mask).

It was supposed to go when me and my brothers(ages 14, 19 and 21 then) were passing our LEGO along with other toys to our father's co-worker's kid(then 6), but the youngest one for some reason tried to sneak it out of the box.
I "reclaimed" it pretty much instantly, but it was already too late(and/or too much of a hassle) to have it sent away.

This article makes me kinda proud to still have it.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

I agree that LEGO is actually supposed to be about building whatever you want, rather than sets being boy or girl sets.

Perhaps the bigger issue is that children require more creativity and should be encouraged to make more of their own things and not see LEGO as a 3D puzzle to match with the box cover picture.

You know, I remember back when I was an avid LEGO guy, I used to get sets often, and would only build the set once.

In a matter of half-a-day, it would be torn apart, assimilated into my collection, and would be part of whatever I decided to build at that time. Usually something sci-fi, like starfighters or mechs. Particularly mechs, once the old Life on Mars sets came out. Those were fantastic.

To be more on topic though, a lot of people are right to point out the fact that the minifigs are largely gender neutral. Sure, now there are specific heads that are male or female, with facial hair and lipstick usually being the key identifiers, but there's still plenty of genderless heads out there, and a wider variety of hairpieces and hats nowadays.

Bodies are usually a little easier in some respects, because you have two types: Male/Genderless, and Obviously Female.

Those that got Star Wars set know a perfect example of the latter: the Slave Leia minifig. You can't get more obviously female than that, and if you put a clearly male head on that, it just looks a little peculiar.

 

[144_v1legacy]

Blatantly obvious her mother coached her to write this. Looks like somebody's got a feminist for a mother!

While I wouldn't say "blatantly obvious," since not enough people see it that way, it's probably a true statement.

A lot of people are commenting on the spelling, but a seven-year old asking a parent how to spell words is normal. The red flags for me were in the wording, such as the the closing line "I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun." It feels like someone attempting to use a child's voice to voice her opinion, which is exactly what's happening. But it needs to keep a balance between getting the message through and still sounding like a kid actually wrote it, so "OK!???" is as the end, just in case. And honey, I think when you write pink and blue, you should put girls and boys in little letters above that. It will help enforce the point that Lego is playing to gender stereotypes, sweetie.

Do you really think children are that stupid?
When I was 6 I wrote a letter to Mauno Koivisto (the president of Finland at the time) telling him how he should deal with European union and communism.
I was also upset at there not being enough girl characters in Donald Duck and sent letters to them telling this.

My mum didn't in any way tell me to.

I'm not saying I don't think the kid wouldn't have written it, or even that the kid may have felt this way. Read the post again. I am saying that there are specific passages in the body of the text that seem suspicious to me, based on my own experiences. Red flags, I said. The guy I quoted claimed it was blatantly obvious, and I said not necessarily. Perhaps you didn't see those flags as a result of bilingual hampering, or maybe we don't pay attention to the same kinds and quantities of politics.

I'm also impressed at your comparable examples. I wonder if you mailed your letter by yourself? If not, I don't know if your mother looked at your letters before helping you send them. But Charlotte's mother did. And I think she "helped" her daughter "make them a bit better."

 

[Stu35]

Nope, I don't see it.

Y'know what, I had a long, 4 paragraph response to this. I've decided, however, that you don't want to see it, and nothing I say will change your mind (plus 2 of those paragraphs were sarcastic basic English lessons and probably would've been construed as a personal attack).

So I'll leave you with a metaphor.

You've missed the point. I've tried to bring you on target, you refused to change your point of aim. So fuck it. You win. Who cares.

 

[Madner Kami]

This girl speaks the truth. What Lego girl figures exist are mostly sold in sets that resemble hideous pastiches of Barbie and Bratz, where you get to enjoy such exciting things as brushing their hair or riding ponies.

Outside of that, the only time you see them are as housewives in the city sets, or as licensed characters in the various trademarks Lego is milking. Chances of finding a female cop, pirate or astronaut are practically zero.

Or, you know, you put a female looking head on a gender-less body.
You also sound like a person that doesn't know her(bitchy)/his(spineless) LEGOs.

Female looking head? How do you make a female looking head for a LEGO figure?
Lipstick? - Because all females wear lipstick all the time, right?
Long hair on the head itself? - Not only does that not work with the LEGO-style (the heads have no hair, if there's hair, then it's a seperate piece like a hat), but neither is long-hair a sign for a girl character nor is the baldness of the LEGO-figures representative of male heads.
Mascara and long eyelashes painted on the face? - Because all females wear mascara and have long eyelashes, right?
Shall the civilian LEGO-figures get more pink clothing? - Because all the girls wear pink all the time, right?
And so on. The true sexism is displayed by the little 7 year old girl there, as she instills generally genderless LEGO-figures (the figures with beards or specifically make-upped heads or boobed upper-body parts is miniscule) with primarily male attributes. Especially with all the figures in uniforms or utility clothing (astronauts and so on), it's simply ridiculous to assume, they have any sexual attributes at all, because - just as in reallife - uniforms generally eliminate obvious sexual differences beyond facial-features...

 

[wulf3n]

Maybe this is just me being old (at 22), but wasn't the whole appeal of LEGOs that you could mix-and-match? You could create entirely new characters by simply switching heads. Want a female cop or scubadiver? Just put a female head on the cop body and there you go. If you're just playing with LEGOs as they are advertised on the set, that onus is on you, not the company

I think the focus of Lego has changed. It used to be when you bought a theme kit, the Instructions would have alternate projects to build with the included pieces sparking the creative spirit.

Nowadays, at least with the Star Wars Kits, you're buying very specific thing, with so many "unique" parts that it's difficult to make anything new out of it.

 

[Lieju]

I'm not saying I don't think the kid wouldn't have written it, or even that the kid may have felt this way. Read the post again. I am saying that there are specific passages in the body of the text that seem suspicious to me, based on my own experiences. Red flags, I said. The guy I quoted claimed it was blatantly obvious, and I said not necessarily. Perhaps you didn't see those flags as a result of bilingual hampering, or maybe we don't pay attention to the same kinds and quantities of politics.

I'm also impressed at your comparable examples. I wonder if you mailed your letter by yourself? If not, I don't know if your mother looked at your letters before helping you send them. But Charlotte's mother did. And I think she "helped" her daughter "make them a bit better."

You think a 7-year-old can't figure out how to mail a letter? I think a lot of people are underestimating kids these days.

Well, maybe that's true now that all kids just hang out in the net and email each other and whatnot?

And I don't agree that those 'flags' you mentioned are any proof of anything.

"I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun." It feels like someone attempting to use a child's voice to voice her opinion, which is exactly what's happening. But it needs to keep a balance between getting the message through and still sounding like a kid actually wrote it, so "OK!???" is as the end, just in case. And honey, I think when you write pink and blue, you should put girls and boys in little letters above that. It will help enforce the point that Lego is playing to gender stereotypes, sweetie.

???

It's very possible the kid was influenced by stuff she hears at home, maybe her parents or siblings talk about that stuff, maybe they even told her what to write.

But I think a lot of people are underestimating children here...

I learned to write when I was 4, and have kept stuff I wrote, so I have pretty good idea what my level of prose was at what age.