to be MAD about bloody Lego Friends airport, where the pilot is a MAN.

[changeshow]

Got Lego Catalogue today. Looking through at all the exciting and colourful stuff for boys. Got to the Lego Friends page. Looking at the nice plane, check the figures.........

FLIGHT ATTENDANT SANDRA and PILOT DAVID. WTAF! Why is the pilot a bloke?!

Did no one at Lego has the wit to say 'errr women can be pilots'?

AIBU to be seriously unimpressed by this? Makes me bloody cross.

So what are you saying? Women are too stupid to get work in a male dominated society without being told they can? You speak for yourself. I work in a traditionally male environment and I'd have loved purple lego

My daughters had pink Lego, a Lego mediaeval castle, a Lego pirate ship, Harry Potter Lego etc etc. Neither of them has grown up feeling that they can't do something because they are a girl. They used to shoot their Barbies with the Playmobil cannons, and the Barbies used to shoot Harry Potter with water pistols. Children are only constricted if adults choose to make them so - and a male pilot really, really isn't a big deal.

Lego used to be gender less... You could swap heads, bodies etc and that for me was most of the fun - the kits had small enough parts that you could build it up to whatever you wanted.gender just wasn't an issue.

At some point it got pinkified, the bits got larger and the imaginative play bit got diminished. Now it's more 'set' so that you can't build much other than a plane with that kit. The older kits you could do anything with.

And for those that say it's not an issue, I actually disagree. I clearly remember several instances in my childhood where I was told off for playing with boys toys (not by my parents thank god.) one I really remember is being very upset indeed when I was told off for playing with some meccano in a dentists waiting room, and told that NICE little girls played with dolls. That's so upsetting for a child. You're sat there , all quiet and on your best behaviour, playing in the corner thinking 'hmm... This looks fun, I'll just sit here and tinker with this" then some old bag slaps your wrist and implies you're not a nice child.... Grim.

The attitude continues through childhood and into adulthood. Nice girls don't do science, it's hard. Nice girls play with dolls. Nice girls don't play in the mud. Nice girls don't get messy with chemistry sets. Nice girls submit to their men... If you were nicer, or thinner, or just didn't nag, he wouldn't hit you.

Do you see how those attitudes colour EVERYTHING?

I'm not saying that Lego friends is a direct shackle of the patriarchy, my friends, I'm just saying that a big parts of the 'nice girls don't.....' Theme starts with how we stop kids playing with things because of our ideas on gender.

But the whole flipping point of this type of Lego is to "appeal to girls". Yet they choose to make the pilot a man. Of course children won't be influenced by this alone but it all adds up. When I'm teaching I try hard not to reinforce stereotypes like this. I think it's hugely important.

I have also worked in a male dominated environment most of my life and wouldn't go ape about a male pilot in a kids piece of lego. I also like girls in pink and boys in blue.

The point is that this is the Lego marketed AT girls. That's the point. It's for you, but you don't get to do the important, dangerous, hard bit. Leave that for a man.

That's the point.

Make all the figures female: Make it all pink and purple, make them lion tamers, ornithologists, Astronomers, CEO, Presidents, Farmers, plumbers, Police officers. Whatever the fucks but cafe owners, dog groomers and pop stars can be left at the door. It will still be bought in the same quantities but with some principles.

But if it represents the percentage breakdown of male and female pilots, then it must be accurate.
I recently booked an army major onto an event as Major Surname. The event organiser phoned and wanted to make seating cards so said," I only have him as Major Surname. What is his first name please?". I paused for effect, then said "Susan".
Cue baffled silence.....yes, Major Susan is most definitely female!

Remus, that's kind of what I'm saying. Kids like to play with all sorts of stuff. Yours are using their imaginations with what they have and that's great.

The problem would come if you told the boys they were sissies for playing with the sindy and the girls that nice girls don't play with cannons.

Obviously you don't do that, but believe me, some do!

It's not about individual children - it's about our culture, our environment.

Why have they settled on that conceptand those gender identities? Wouldn't it hAve been just as easy to make the plane red and the pilot a woman?

Yes, Skipton - but those kids will be damaged by their parents' attitudes, whatever toys they have.

I hate that Lego has become gender specific, and WTF that the "girls'" Lego has a man pilot? Surely the Friends apologists must be irritated at this point?
This is surely as wrong as wrong can be.

It's not about individual children - it's about our culture, our environment. Why have they settled on that conceptand those gender identities? Wouldn't it hAve been just as easy to make the plane red and the pilot a woman?

Yes. Someone decided that the pilot in the 'girls' lego should be a man. They should be ashamed on themselves. And so should all the people that didn't challenge it.

And a lot of girls like the pink Lego. It is making a toy mostly seen as a boy toy more attractive to girls. What's wrong with that?

Erm... That is a load of crap. Regular lego used to be for both girls and boys. A lot of girls played with it, not just 'tomboys' either. Their marketing team were the one who changed that.

Im sure that if girls wanted to be pilots they would these days. Some jobs just remain that way they are due to most boys liking things like that and girls not so. We ARE different and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Equality is about being paid the same for the same job. Being treated fairly in a marriage etc.

If you swap the head you will have a normal head over stick arms and legs, as opposed to the lollipop head the Lego Friends figure has. Sorry if this has been said already.

This is why I also dislike Lego Friends.

I emailed the CEO with a picture of a standard Lego figure next to a Lego friends figure and asked how this fitted in with their policy. No reply.

Lego is not a 'boy toy'

In the 70s it was just bricks and houses and cars. All primary colours. And we all played with it.

They started their Lego friends range after sales of 'normal' lego were stagnating and they couldn't get them going again. Market research showed that there was a market for lego aimed at girls, and they developed the range. Depressing, but true.

probably because they read it and found there was no answer they could give missorinoco

some people will be offended no matter what.

Some jobs just remain that way they are due to most boys liking things like that and girls not so

Or of course it could be that we condition our girls to think that they aren't as good as boys in areas such as maths and physics so they never try and more importantly are never given the opportunity.

Yes I agree that is pretty shitty and an almost unbelievably stupid mis step by Lego.

So what if there are male and female targetted toys. It would be a dull world if we were all the same.

Yeah if I am still annoyed tomorrow I shall email the CEO. I don't expect a reply but at least to do something. It's just really thoughtless. There was an opportunity to do something amazing with Lego friends but it was really missed.

I think there are now some Lego female scientists. Whoopie Fuck.

Lego for girls fine! Go for it! But then all the figures should be girls.

Or of course it could be that we condition our girls to think that they aren't as good as boys in areas such as maths and physics so they never try and more importantly are never given the opportunity.

No chipped let's not lie to ourselves. It is far more likely that the female brain cannot cope with all those numbers.

Yanbu I got annoyed too when I saw this earlier. Of course you can change the heads/ use a different figure but the point is that they've made a set specifically marketed at girls for girls to play with, the set had a group of female characters that come with names and stories that give them a ready made personality but rather than using one of those characters as the pilot of the plane they've brought in a male character. It amazes me that anyone wouldn't spot a problem with this.

Also, once your child has seen the catalogue and read that the pilot is David (and so a boy) she already knows that he is who Lego have decided will fly the plane.

The fact that Lego Friends strips so much imagination and free play from the child it is given to is another reason I don't like it.