Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

347 replies

changeshow · 04/06/2015 20:27

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
HoVis2001 · 04/06/2015 21:38

I feel like I spend half my life saying this, but - read Cordelia Fine's The Gender Delusion. We are not different. Culture and society (including pink lego) shape our expectations, aspirations, and even ability to take full advantage of our natural abilities.

(She gives a great example of an experiment in which 2 groups, both 50% male/female split, of people are taken into two rooms. In one room they watch a video which states that men are better than maths at women, in the other they are shown no video. In the first group, the girls do worse than the boys. In the second, they do equally well. It's called "priming gender" and it is exactly what tiny things like Lego Friends contribute to).

crustsaway · 04/06/2015 21:39

I think most of you may be a bit hypocritical here, what do most of your husbands do?

Women on the whole like powerful and successful men.

Equality to me is about balance. Not screaming about pink and pilots. This is not what I feel feminism is all about.

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:41

I haven't got a husband. I pay my rent and my kids shoes myself.

Feminism is about removing the barriers to women achieving on an equal footing to men.

One of the barriers is the social conditioning of girls to have lower aspirations than boys.

MrsHenryCrawford · 04/06/2015 21:43

Most pilots are male. I was wondering how many women have an unfulfilled desire to be a pilot?
why would they have a female pilot? It's not representative of the profession. I've met a lot of male air hosts so they could have a male in this role if they wanted, but then the toy might enrage people as there is no female figure.

BreacadhAnLae · 04/06/2015 21:44

YANB in the least bit U.

HermioneWeasley · 04/06/2015 21:45

I have a wife. My friends like kind, thoughtful men who respect them.

1950 called, it wants you back.

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:45

Why are most pilots male? Why?

Original poster
changeshow · 04/06/2015 21:45

Let's beg to differ then crustsaway. You think it's fine that the pilot figure, the most challenging job / role in all the Lego friends sets, is not a girl. And you don't see why anyone would have an issue with this.

I think it sucks arse.

Do you work for Lego, hmmmm?

OP posts:
chippednailvarnish · 04/06/2015 21:46

I think most of you may be a bit hypocritical here, what do most of your husbands do?
Women on the whole like powerful and successful men

WTF has this got to do with Lego.

Given you won't say what you do for a living and your now sprouting total shit, I'm going to assuming that you are taking the piss and are out to wind people up.

If your not, I pity any daughters you may have.

And yes my DH also thinks Lego Friends is crap.

TwiggyHeart · 04/06/2015 21:46

I was at legoland this week and watched the new Lego Friends show, it was awful! Such a load of girly crap, all short skirts and 'best friends', made me a bit sick. My DD liked it but said after she prefers the pirate show. My DH who doesn't normally notice stuff like that even said it was a load of shit!

HermioneWeasley · 04/06/2015 21:46

MrsHenry your argument about reflecting reality might hold some water if !ego Friends was a gritty and uncompromising reflection of real womens' lives in modern cities.

Let me go check if this is the case......

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:46

It's fucking circular isn't it?

Whenever pilots are represented they are male, because most pilots are male.

So lots of girls see being a pilot as a male job, and few girls train to be pilots, so most pilots are male, so pilot toys are made to be male, because they are representative.

Do you see how little sense this makes?

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:47

at Hermione Grin

crustsaway · 04/06/2015 21:48

I think getting bent out of shape about a lego pilot says a lot to be honest. Im very comfortable in my female gender and adored sindy etc. Doesnt make me inferior in the least.

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:48

There are nowt so blind as those who won't see.

chippednailvarnish · 04/06/2015 21:49

Article on female pilots

Captain Dave Thomas, BA's chief pilot and head of training;
Thomas thinks the lack of women is mainly a cultural problem that needs to be tackled at an early age. "We did a little bit of research, surveying children between the ages of six and 12, and I think it came out as number two on the boys' list of top jobs but I think girls don't necessarily think of it as an option."

Original poster
changeshow · 04/06/2015 21:50

This One of the barriers is the social conditioning of girls to have lower aspirations than boys.

This is Lego, it's about making things, it's about your ideas, your dreams. Girls need to see strong, clever and successful women. I don't watch TV but I am sure they abound in popular culture.....oh wait, maybe they don't.

OP posts:
HermioneWeasley · 04/06/2015 21:50

I adored Sindy too. As I said upthread, I just made her the doctor, not the nurse.

Being a feminist doesn't mean that you think women aren't as good Confused

Hovis2001 · 04/06/2015 21:51

crusts

'Women on the whole' do not like any single, universal thing because we are all individual human beings. The world is not split into men from Mars and women from Venus - that is the 'gender delusion'.

Seriously, please read Cordelia Fine, it's a fascinating and really well-researched book about this very issue (are men and women innately different).

crustsaway · 04/06/2015 21:51

Theres nowt so unseeing as those who don't value their own gender.

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:53

My sindy had a thing for Action Man. He was rough, tough, had a cool scar on his face and his own tank.

Set myself up for a lifetime of unsuitable men HmmSmile

stolemyusername · 04/06/2015 21:53

Does an alarm get activated when you put the flight attendant in charge of the plane?

Seriously, when my DC were younger you'd have been just as likely to finding a T-Rex flying the plane. The only person who makes the toy gender specific is the parent, just let children play with what ever appeals to them and stop stressing.

Original poster
changeshow · 04/06/2015 21:54

Theres nowt so unseeing as those who don't value their own gender.

I do value my own gender. But not when going on holiday obv. I need the pilot to be male.

OP posts:
Hovis2001 · 04/06/2015 21:54

stole

But the point is that Lego have gendered this toy, pretty explicitly...

undoubtedly · 04/06/2015 21:54

Oh my god are you so obtuse!!??

It's precisely because I value my own gender that I get angry as fuck when I'm told, or when my daughters are told that actually no, we're not as valuable.

No, you can't have the job that pays more money, or gets more respect, or involves more cool buttons and levers. You've got tits so you have to serve the drinks.