To want to ban Friends Lego?

[chippednailvarnish]

I know it's been done before, but I'm just looking at Lego for DD's upcoming birthday and I'm most put off.
Why are most of the Friends sets which appear to be marketed at girls just so crap? There's a popstar dressing room set, a recording studio, a popstar limo, a shopping mall, a food market and the all important hair salon.
Why do Lego produce such dross aimed at girls, but the sets marketed at boys are so much more inclusive of a wider range of interests?

[Tamar86]

I love that Brickmaster website!

this was my first ever Lego set .

I wish Lego would bring back Fabuland. I didn't have any of the big sets, just a few figures, but I loved it. I've been looking at all the big sets on that website, wishing I could buy them now for DD2.

[halcyondays]

Yabu, I've got 2 dds, one likes Lego friends, the other likes Lego city and creator. What sort of lego does your dd actually like?

[CinderellaRockefeller]

DH bought the recording studio for DD and I'm not sure who was more excited building it. DH and DD currently have the Lego elves recording an album.

All the changing of the figures stuff, DD doesn't like the yellow figures, she thinks they look weird and not human. Obviously she's not alone or they wouldn't have brought out a different style.

[prepperpig]

tamar there are fabuland sets on ebay. Some even have the boxes.

chipped yes but you also have to remember that it was the seventies and everything was yellow, brown or orange. The kitchen did have big "girly" flowers on it.

[prepperpig]

And the beauty of secondhand lego tamar is that you can pout it through the dishwasher and its as good as new.

[slippermaiden]

My daughter got some Lego friends for Christmas the year before last, it's the horse trailer and jeep. She got it out of the box but soon lost interest....my son however, spent the rest of the afternoon putting it together and playing with it! It's as sexist or rubbish as you want it to be!

[Tamar86]

Prepper I am very tempted! If I can find the amusement park, I'll definitely bid on it.

I have also come across Scooby Doo Lego while browsing about, due to be released later this year, and I'm a bit excited about it .

Now thinking about whether I can persuade DD1 that she doesn't want the Lego Friends lighthouse-ice cream parlour for her birthday, but instead wants the Scooby Doo haunted lighthouse.

[prepperpig]

There's an amusement park on ATM but its £70 with postage

[itsmeitscathy]

I find it strange that everyone goes on about this. I my sister had lego paridiso as a kid and I adored it. if a wee girl likes it fair enough, if she prefers another range then buy her that one. I know I'll get torn to pieces for this but genuinely, I just don't see the big deal.

[DisappointedOne]

Most of the time they're not deciding to like it in a vacuum. Look at the posts on this thread. Plenty of people thinking punk should be nowhere bear boys because they'll get bullied. Ergo pink is for girls. Dress them in it, burly pink versions of everything and the girls will grow to be drawn to it at the exclusion of all/most other options. They're pushed by society at large towards the pink, frilly, sparkly stuff. They're told how pretty they are, not how clever. They're not expected to be any good at science or maths etc. Buy them toy hoovers and ironing boards and prams and dolls - none of which has anything to do with their innate sex. That's why people go on about it.

[SomewhereIBelong]

but most of us don't buy into all that... a bit of lego, a Disney princess outfit, woo - the kids enjoy them...

they are not going to change the overriding parental ethos - my girls are bloody good at maths and science because I have encouraged them and guided them along that path too - not because I gave them neutral lego.

Or would they be even better if I had?

Pink lego brings many fewer issues to me than the mindless clones tap-tapping on mobile phones on social media - I would hazard a guess that few of those play with any lego at all...

[chippednailvarnish]

Statistics from The Women's Engineering Society

Only 6% of the engineering workforce in the UK is female

Only 5.5% of engineering professionals are female and only 27% of engineering and science technicians are female

Only 5.3% of women in the UK are involved in SET compared with 33% of men

Nearly half (46%) of all co-ed secondary state schools sent no girls on to do physics at A level in 2011

In 2012 nearly 4 out of 5 (79%) of those who took A level physics were male

Only about half (51%) of female STEM graduates actually go on to work in STEM roles, compared with over two thirds (68%) of male STEM graduates

In 2011, men were awarded 85% of engineering and technology degrees and 82% of computer science degrees

In the same year, 83% medical degrees and 79% of veterinary science degrees went to women

I'm not saying that the lack of Women in Engineering and STEM generally is attributable to pink Lego, but I'm sure it doesn't help. So why encourage it?

[SomewhereIBelong]

Because squabbling about the little crap removes focus from the big picture that you have laid out in the stats.

I was in engineering - IT network manager responsible for 24hr support worldwide , I had kids, my priorities changed. Getting back into engineering after a 10 year gap requires expensive and extensive retraining, so instead I do a bit of tutoring in Maths. Engineering can be a temporary career for women because of lots of issues.

The A level physics stats are skewed - I chose my girls school based on the fact that girls DID do A-level Physics there and half the A level maths class was female. I would not have chosen one where girls were not encouraged to do so - thereby perpetuating the negative stats.

I played with dolls AND did engineering - my dad was an scientist... that had a much bigger bearing on my future than my playthings.

[chippednailvarnish]

I played with dolls AND did engineering - my dad was an scientist... that had a much bigger bearing on my future than my playthings

and what about girls who come from families with no professionals, no scientists, no engineers? Families where no one has been to university and no one has maths or engineering skills? No one to offer the influence that you have benefited from?

Disappointed summed it up well, They're pushed by society at large towards the pink, frilly, sparkly stuff. They're told how pretty they are, not how clever. They're not expected to be any good at science or maths etc. Buy them toy hoovers and ironing boards and prams and dolls - none of which has anything to do with their innate sex. That's why people go on about it.

As for "squabbling about crap" that can be applied to the entire AIBU section, which you are posting on.

[PandasRock]

I did maths, further maths and physics A levels. Along with languages.

I have encouraged and promoted maths and science with all my dc. Dd2 (now 8) as much as the others.

Didn't stop her becoming completely discouraged when she got to school, and her peers were all' oh, maths isn't for girls' and 'you mist be a boy, you have short hair and don't like pink' She was not strong enough, confidence wise, to carry it off, and so the only option was for her to fit in.

The rest of the world counts. And wider society pushes girls towards pink, domestic tasks (through things like play) and away from science and engineering.

Dd2 completely changed what she liked and disliked, aged 3'to fit in with her peers. Because that's what she needed to do. And what she was socialised to do by her preschool workers (eg steered towards quiet, indoor play so as to not get her dress dirty, when dd2 wanted to play on the pirate ship outside, not helped by the fact that the boys were playing out, and girls were mostly playing with dolls and so dd2 learned pretty swiftly to play with the dolls, like pink, etc. She hates standing out.)

I have no problem with her liking pink, if she actually likes it (rather than liking it to,fit in, but then I can't change her personality type). I have no problem with a wide range of playthings, accessible to both boys and girls.

I have huge problems with the way toys are marketed - once dd2 was indoctrinated by her peers, she began to naturally swerve towards the pink aisles in toy shops, whereas before she would seek out what she wanted. And the pink aisles are full of very different toys than the rest of the shop, as described on this thread. I know lego friends have finally brought out some non-stereotyped girls sets, but it's been a long time coming, and isn't good enough.

This stuff does matter. It does have an impact. I am delighted that your dds are so confident and self assured that they can always make their own choices completely untouched by peers or marketing ploys. Mine, despite my best efforts, isn't, and is (entirely naturally) keen to fit in with her peers and societal expectations. And those societal expectations are generally a bit shit if you're a girl.

And then, to top,it all off, the one range of toys which everyone knows, from their own childhood was a great leveller - no gender divide, just bricks to pile in and play with - brings,out a highly stereyped range, aimed solely at girls. And then a second range, also aimed at girls, with similar connotations of magic, whimsy and domestic bliss (the Elves range). Just why? Another shop where there is now a pink aisle for dd2 to gravitate towards, while I have to, yet again, try to redress the balance. It's just so unnecessary.

[DisappointedOne]

Yes yes Pandas.

My parents both studied music and worked in education. I wanted to study a language, music, maths and business studies at A level. My good school refused as that wasn't how they timetabled lessons. It was arts or sciences. I ended up doing the languages and arts at my school, maths at another school (amazingly I only had 1 clash of lessons each week) and business studies at night school the year after. My father had had exactly the same problem 30 years previously.

As a child in the 70s I was dressed in mustard yellow, orange, brown, navy blue, paisley............ I remember my sister wearing hot pink aged about 6, but pink didn't feature heavily before that AT ALL. We didn't obsess about barbies because we were mostly playing outside or fighting with each other. Lego was lego. First toy my father bought me (before birth) was a Hornby train set. "What if it's a girl?," asked my mum. "What if it is?," replied my dad. At 3 I was helping him build a patio and making concrete. At 6 I was helping him service the car. He taught me to cook (mum was building her career), decorate, wire plugs, change light fittings, lay carpets, tile, do plumbing. (I'm completely shit at housework and cleaning, but who cares?)

Compare that with what my daughter is exposed to now. Fisher Price think she needs the option to sit on a pink zebra FFS.

[SomewhereIBelong]

DD14 is proud to run with the nerd-herd - or "future employers of the pretty-posse " as they are known at her school... She still plays with Lego Belville and lego friends - stop-go zombie apocalypse animation right now - the friends pose better being hacked to death than the minifigs.

Attitudes at school, at home etc do matter... but ... I don't know, I just think it is a bit of plastic, a plaything, a toy, I'd rather the kids played with this stuff than sat on social media all day, and if this pink stuff keeps more younger and younger girls away from duck-face poses on facebook, it has a part to play.

[PandasRock]

I partially agree, Somewhere, but sadly think that the pink lego stuff is encouraging the duck-faces by making it all about image. The Frends minifigs are all about what they wear/how they look, without even starting on their scenes and environment. A toy which was all about subliminal maths and engineering Has now turned into one of the most stereotyped gender biased nonsense there is. And that is disappointing, to say the least.

It is subliminally showing girls that looks, and emphasising them is importnat - why else could they not have the traditional minifigs? (Which come in a whole range - the collectible ranges really are astounding)

[holmessweetholmes]

at 'future employers of the pretty-posse'!!! Dd (9) loves lego and plays with it all the time with ds (7). She too is proud to be part of the 'nerd herd' and loathes Lego Friends.

It's true that Lego Friends probably fills a gap, in that other current Lego sets do (whether we like it or not) appeal more to boys than girls. But I really don't see why they couldn't have introduced more gender-neutral or girl-friendly sets without changing the minifigures into wide-eyed, big-headed, spindly-limbed, tiny-waisted Disney-alikes. Wyld Style manages to be cool and sassy without looking like that.

[WyfOfBathe]

I don't have a problem with it

My stepDD (age 3) is still at the 'Duplo' stage so there's no Lego friends yet, but she does have some pink/girly sets from the Duplo Town range - a shop, a cafe, and a baby buggy. She uses them completely mixed in with all her normal bricks, diggers, trains, etc. When boys come over to play, none of them mind that the only toy car is bright pink.

My younger sister played with the 'Belville' sets (the old version of Lego friends) and now, at age 13, spends all of her money on Lego - her most recent purchase was the UN Headquarters from the 'Architecture' range, and she also has lots of Star Wars and DC Comics Lego. She wants to be either a physicist or an engineer, so I don't think playing with pink Lego has forced her to conform to 'girly' standards.

[CinderellaRockefeller]

My DD approached the little figures in the same way I used to play with play Mobil when I was her age, they're basically dolls. She does building too, but she loves them as dolls, they go to imaginary school and all sorts.

Clearly that kind of play is viewed as inferior by some people and she should be happy with the yellow mini figures and doing serious construction only, which makes me a bit sad for her.

And have you looked at them? They're not tiny waisted. They don't have defined waists at all. The boys and girls legs are the same, and they're identical to how playmobil represent legs. They're not like Barbie.

[PausingFlatly]

Who is suggesting that role-playing dolls going to school is "inferior"?

What people are complaining about is using colour-coding, which children have been taught since birth, to direct children to specific values or activities chosen for them because of their gender.

[merrymouse]

Yes - the problem is all the pink and purple that says this a toy for girls not boys. If it were just lego, but with slightly more emphasis on the figures to enable more role play, I don't think anybody would have a problem.

[PandasRock]

Why can't the yellow mini figures go to school/the hairdressers/doctors with the baby?

I have yet to see a male lego friends figure in the flesh, so to speak, so cannot actually compare.

They are absolutely tiny waisted, with spindly limbs and a huge emphasis on looks - big doe eyes and huge hair etc. they also do seem to have defined chests, although thankfully not in the same proportions as Barbie. I don't actually have an issue with that, just the general proportions of spindliness.

[chippednailvarnish]

They make the traditional minifigures look positively fat...