So apparently, according to the marketing team at Lego, I should probably spend this afternoon hanging out at the “returns counter” of my local toy store. It seems the Lego hospital I’ve bought my daughter for Christmas isn’t quite pink and sparkly and girl-world enough to hold her attention.
In 2012 the international toy giant is bringing out a range of Lego just for girls. What does that mean exactly? Beauty salons! Cafes! And lots of pink and love hearts!
(Really the most disturbing part of the whole thing, in my opinion, is that the characters look like they’ve wandered out of 1986 … with those big hair bodywaves and ra-ra skirts, I feel like these Lego girls should come with a free Bananarama cassette. Actually I think I saw that little Lego girl on the left on Toddlers and Tiaras last week ….)
Lego has certainly been a total boys-domain in the past. We’re talking NO girl characters in the main sets for kids aged 6 and over. But instead of creating girl-friendly Lego (what does that even mean?), couldn’t Lego just introduce female characters into Lego’s existing sets? Am I missing something?
Anyway here’s what news.com.au has to say:
TOY giant Lego is introducing “girl friendly” female characters that look more like dolls than the tiny yellow construction figures we are used to.
The “Friends” range is aimed at girls aged five and up and features ready-made characters called Stephanie, Emma, Andrea, Olivia and Mia all with different personalities and interests who live in a fictional home town called Heartlake City.
As the mother of a three-year-old girl I just find it exhausting fighting the fight against all the pink, sparkly, love-hearty, princessy stuff that’s marketed at her. And it’s a vicious circle, in my mind. The more our girls think they need their toys to be pink and sparkly (because they’re being taught that’s what girls play with), the more they want it. Maybe I’ll go buy Ava a kite ….
Here are some images of the Lego ‘Friends’ range:
So what do you think? Did you play with Lego growing up? Did you feel excluded? Do girls need their own girl-friendly Lego in order to play with it?
Top Comments
I love the Friends Lego range and so do my daughters. They have several sets and enjoy building it and playing with it. A lot of people are sounding really negative about this range of Lego, bit I think it is great that Lego have branched out to different things.
Lots of people have said they don't like the stereotyping that it creates, bit the fact is, some girls like to play with girly things, and there is nothing wrong with that. I feel like Lego Friends gives girls the best of both worlds, construction and dolls all in one.
Someone said they hope that no one buys this Lego, but why? Is it threatening to them that some girls like dolls? Lego is for both girls and boys but there is nothing wrong with combining girly stuff with Lego for girls that like that and boyish Lego for boys that like very boy stereotypical things.
Sadly, this isn't a new development for LEGO. For years they've been attempting to develop 'girls' LEGO as an entirely separate entity to the rest of the 'male' LEGO world.
This is a fantastic video from early last year regarding the 'Friends' launch internationally: http://www.youtube.com/watc...
As a kidlet I would veer away from anything pink and sparkly and head straight for the LEGO section, back when it was still easy to get off-the-shelf LEGO products that were unthemed and ungendered blocks! There's precious little opportunity for this to happen now with LEGO seemingly hellbent on the idea that there can't possible be a single product that appeals to both sexes equally, as their original products did for so long.
As I also happen to be a LEGO-obsessed kidlet who turned out to be an architect, I find this incredibly disappointing. LEGO WAS a learning product that didn't discriminate by gender. Now it's just a marketing exercise in reinforcing old-fashioned notions of gender roles.