Lego - how depressing

I knew it would happen sometime since he had a load of faces if he mentioned it. He's only 6, so I'm hoping he mans up and decides to go back when he's older as he loved it. He's still doing it in secret in his bedroom

I see your point Suzi, and probably (unforunately) the case for a lot of people.

How sad your DS was convinced to quit....

50/50. Some of the parents I know woudln't have considered it much before because it was 'boys' and steered their girls to barbie etc. Others have been interested but couldn't convince their girls it was meant for them - their daughters seemed to know, even at age 6, that it was a 'boys' toy from somewhere. Probably the same people that managed to convince my DS to quit ballet because it's 'girly'. Most parents I know who only have girls choose the toys such as the houses and lego city stuff, not the ninjas and aliens.

But is that Suzi because Lego (as it is) has always been seen as a 'boys' toy by your friends, and not introduced as just another thing iyswim?

Ridicolous isn't it Dooin?

A couple of years ago my Dm's neighbour passed on a few bits from her now grown up DD so that DS could play with them. They were toys that were about 15 years old, and pink was most definitely not featured.

When did pink and glitter and so on become so rabid?

I have to say my DD was over the moon with her girls magazine and has actually sat and read it for once. Though we have the 'boy' one there too for DS. I guess if I was in a girl only household I might be a bit peed off about it, but we now get both. DS likes 'friends' but wants DD to get it then he can play with it. He sees it as girls lego for sure.

Was talking to a few friends today who only have DDs and they said their DDs are finally interested in lego because of the Friends range. So I'm not sure that's a bad thing?

I find it amazing that it is perfectly possible to dress one's daughter in utterly gender neutral colours, have her play with utterly gender-neutral toys and have an utterly gender-neutral haircut yet 99% of people will assume that she is a boy.

You can get stacking cups and all sorts of perfectly sensible "gender-neutral" toys (disclaimer: all toys are gender-neutral imo) in a range of fucking pinks (see my thread about 2 years ago on that very topic).

My only possible conclusion is that the only reason they feel the need to produce these things in a range of shite pinks just for girls pastels is that people are willing/want to buy/are not buying them until they are visibly ""girlified"" (double quote marks to show how much I hated typing that). The upside for them, if they find enough mugs willing to fork out twice for the same item, once for their daughter and once for their sons rather than pass down the item is that they get to sell more.

It's all utterly mystifying to me.

As I posted on the other thread, this makes me really cross, particularly about the magazine.

Just my 2p's worth....DS is 5 and a Lego freak enthusiast.

He love the lady minifigures (as well as the men ones!), and always reassembles them with other bits (he has over 100 minifigs alone and associated props) to make them into even more kick ass ninjas, space explorers, battle women, rock stars etc

He is utterlybemused by Lego Friends....everytime he sees an ad for it he asks "why do girls need special silly Lego?"

Fantastic!! Will seek her out - any idea which set?

Sorry it's Nya.

Lego ninjago has Nia, and she's a hardcore woman. She beats up all the skeletons and shows the other ninjas how it's done in the wee videos. In fact, in one, she screams like a girl and they "come to her rescue" but they're not needed because she kicks ass. I like her. She wears lipstick too ;-)

Dd4 has the pink Lego , and also the hello kitty megablocks. it has little flower bricks . Aw ( bit shit actually)

She plays with ds4s ninjago , or dd3 s massive Lego which consists of bricks , animal sets , a few star wars bits and some Lego city .

The favourite piece is Lego Yoda.

Yoda lives in dd4s pockets .

Pointless making pink Lego aimed at girls IMO.

Now glow in the dark Lego ( so you don't stand on the stuff during midnight pee , cause the kids have left it everywhere) would be good !

Good on you and your son. Yes we've got load of female mini-figs, I am just going to sneak some lady heads behind the Ninjago masks haha!

In fact, my son got a Lego Aliens set for christmas that has an annoying female newsreader in it who, according to ds's and DP looks exactly like me. (I hate to admit it but it does) - I might start sneaking myself onto all the cool Star Wars, Batman, weightlifter, judo man, surfer dude etc bodies (all male .....sigh) to prove a point.

In fairness to Lego, I've always thought the Lego Harry Potter range is very gender neutral - but then that is probably because teh source material was written by a woman (who initially had to pretend to be a man to appeal to teh Fantasy audience - double sigh)

i may check the lego ninjago range, i am not sure if it does? we certainly hav elots of female lego figues and the range of the minifigures you buy individually has plenty of female ones :)

it isnt always ironed out of the at school! my ds3 is 7 and in yr2 and very much still into pink and fairies, tinkerbell, fancy dress etc, he has had the odd comment but is cocky enough to stand up for himself he has even worn a pink silk party dress to school! something that i was slated for on mn for allowing him to do! why wouldnt i? he loves it, along with his tinkerbell fancy dress outfit :) so far most of his friends just accept him for who he is and dont say anything negative at all, long may that continue :)

or make the pink / Hello Kitty / LEGO Friends / Dolls House etc - liking boys seem abnormal - tbh, as soon as they get to school that is ironed out of them anyway which i think is a shame - all kids should be free to choose which toys they like playing with out of the whole range (and it will be different for different children and boys and girls may, in general, have different ways of playing with them) - without the relentless and over-bearing influence of marketing and advertising that tries to segregate them purely to sell more stuff (I assume - wha other reason is there)

I think the situation with girls now in th eUK is slightly worse because they are made to feel different, separate, other. There are no Lego ranges "just for boys" afaik - not marketed in the same way with boy-only characters, blue-only packaging etc. Even Lego Star Wars, Lego Minifigures, Lego Superheroes etc have some female characters (obviously in the case of Star Wars, Harry Potter etc as the original source movies/books did).

Actually, not sure Lego Ninjago has any female characters

its hard to escape it i think, we have always just had a variety of toys, so my boys have lego and scaelextric and action figures etc but also a toy cooker and dolls and a pushchair etc, my elder 3 boys are all v different, one sciencey and geeky, the next football mad and then the 3rd loves tinkerbell and fairies and all things pink! he also likes more 'boy' things as well, then ds4 is three and at the moment has become very ANTI pink and girls! i have no idea where he gets it as we have never defined toys in that way, and his brothers dont. i think its coming from pre-school buts its very annoying, i just try and ignore it as much as possible and hopefully he will grow out of it, his fave toy bizarrely is lotso bear from toy story 3, who is of course PINK!

I really hate how the 'girl toy' 'boy toy' is creeping into my DC's vocabulary, we've had a few chats about it over the last few weeks, depressing.

I did buy DD some 'girl's' lego for Christmas as I was very keen for her to get into the wonders of lego but the shop was laid out in such a way she didn't want it as it was in the 'boys' section. I plan to slowly add plain old lego to the pot, but yes I find it very depressing.

Potter, I think there is. It's not that folks have a beef with the colours pink or blue, per se, but that these are becoming "codes" for toys, games, etc. that are designated for either boys or girls. I think this can be equally restricting and in fact damaging for both boys and girls.

Things for girls tend to follow the stereotype of looking pretty, being interested in fashion, hair, make up and clothing, going shopping, caring for others and increasingly are also sexualised (e.g. the cartoons that go with Lego Friends are reed thin, long legs, short skirts, tiny waists, make up - not as bad as Bratz or Monster High, but still sexualised,)

Things for boys tend to follow the stereotype of being active, making thinks, doing things, leading - which is mostly good, but shouldn't JUST be for boys. One of the concerns about Lego Friends is that the sets don't allow as much creativity or require as much construction as other sets - reinforcing this idea of what girls "should" do. However, I've noticed that alot of toys, games, etc. targeted at boys tends to be "hypermasculine" if you will. For example, it's about getting dirty, being competitive, being aggressive, sometimes even being violent, often encouraging naughtiness or "getting one over" on your mum. I don't think this is always the right kind of message to be giving to boys!

Okay, none of that is entirely new, but my worry is that it's becoming more and more marked, now colour coded even. It makes it harder for girls who don't want to fit the stereotype of pretty passive princess to engage in alternatives. It's probably even MORE difficult for boys who want to play with dolls and tea sets, act out stories with princesses and fairies, etc. to incorporate this in their play.

A mum friend just a few weeks ago said she was sad that her son (I think he's 7) stopped playing with a girl who'd been his best buddy since they were toddlers. He told her he couldn't play with her anymore because "she's a girl." Yes, girls and boys have always to a certain degree pursued different interests, but now that's being pushed on children almost from birth. I don't think this pressure to go separate ways so young is good for either boys or girls, or for the future to be frank.

havea quick look at baby toys in the argos catalogue? they have toys that to me are pretty gender neutral, rattles, things for baby gyms etc but they also have the SAME toys done in pinks for girls? why is there any need? surely a baby gym is a baby gym and a rattle is a rattle why the need for a 'girly' pink version? oh and there isnt a 'boys' version of these things, just the gender neutral bright cheerful colours, which would be fine for either sex and then the pink which is obviously aimed at baby girls who quite frankly wouldnt give a shit what colour their baby gym was!

Potter, if you look at toys and clothes marketed at boys you don't see a sea of blue in the same way you get a sea of pink for things marketed at girls. There is nothing wrong with pink, what is wrong is how overwhelming it is and the way that removes choice and makes non pink-liking girls seem abnormal.

There have been some threads about boys though, I remember a couple about the slogans on t-shirts marketed at boys, things like 'here comes trouble' and the like. There are also comments like those above about how the marketing pushes boys out of toys that are about relationships and caring.

potter i think you do get mums moaning about blue/brown etc esp when it comes to the choice of clothes for boys! but with toys there are more colours for boys, not just blue, think of traditional lego which lots of people see as aboys toy, it has red, blue, green, white, yellow etc and toys like transformers, action figures again thought of as more 'boys' toys but it ISNT predominantly blue, yet LOTS of girls toys ARE predominantly pink.

i have 4 boys and one baby girl and i have been amazed at the amount of pinkness everywhere that you can get for girls, i dont mind a bit of pink but it can get overwhelming tbh. boys it seems can have more of a choice with colours, yet lots of stuff for girls is mainly pink, look at the barbie toy range!

Can I just ask why is there so much anti-pink-for-girls sentiment but I don't think I have ever seen an anti blue for boys equivalent thread?

Agree RE the lego.