Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Lego - how depressing

217 replies

EverybodysSnowyEyed · 05/01/2012 23:53

I've always loved Lego as a 'genderless' toy

And now they have launched Lego friends - aimed at the little ladies in your life. And guess what, there's a beauty parlour!

Even DH finds this depressing! Are we alone in this?

I thought toy manufacturers might be starting to realise how bad this all looks!

OP posts:
4madboys · 11/01/2012 20:58

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 Grin 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 :)

4madboys · 11/01/2012 21:00

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 :)

befuzzled · 11/01/2012 21:07

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)

droves · 11/01/2012 21:12

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 !

suzi2 · 11/01/2012 21:27

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 ;-)

suzi2 · 11/01/2012 21:29

Sorry it's Nya.

befuzzled · 11/01/2012 21:32

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

TBE · 11/01/2012 21:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Valpollicella · 11/01/2012 21:46

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?" Hmm

PattiMayor · 11/01/2012 21:47

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

duchesse · 11/01/2012 21:59

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 Angry 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.

suzi2 · 11/01/2012 22:01

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?

Valpollicella · 11/01/2012 22:04

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?

Valpollicella · 11/01/2012 22:06

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?

suzi2 · 11/01/2012 22:18

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.

Valpollicella · 11/01/2012 22:20

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

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

suzi2 · 11/01/2012 22:22

I knew it would happen sometime since he had a load of Shock 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 Grin

jjkm · 11/01/2012 23:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

teta · 11/01/2012 23:57

Befuzzled i have experience of both law and medicine and girls are now doing much better than men up to mid-level in law and in medicine too.Susi2 my twin ds still does ballet along with his twin sister [and is really good at it].But it does help that another boy does it too!.I asked my twin ds about the 'girly lego colours' tonight.He also thinks its a good idea as his twin sister likes anything pink.As does my 12 year old dd [although she says that a lot of girls pretend that they don't like girly colours these days-apparently its not cool to like pink/purple].I personally think the future is female [and i worry about my sons].

TheRealMBJ · 12/01/2012 08:46

teta can I PM you about a law/medicine question?

ByTheWay1 · 12/01/2012 11:39

Sorry, but my girls have LOADS of my old Lego Belville stuff and play with it for hours - they are now 9 and 11!! It has horses and carriages, and palaces, and mermaids and beaches with castaway tents, princes and princesses... as well as more recently a music studio and a hospital. It is unashamedly girly with loads and loads of little accessories - they build massive scenarios, they have used it to make various stop go animations as school projects etc

Lego know they have girly fans out there who already like the girly stuff - why can't they produce some?? I played with Belville and the previous girly range before that one and still ended up as a Network manager in charge of 20 blokes providing round the clock technical support to computer systems worldwide....

It is a toy....

FreddoBaggyMac · 12/01/2012 12:45

I'm really surprised by the negative reactions here! I must admit that I thought lego friends looked great when I saw it advertised and have already bought some for a birthday present Blush

I've been trying to introduce DD1 to lego, she had the Kingdoms advent calendar and enjoyed building the bits but overall pronounced it had too many knights and swords! She got some Harry Potter lego for Christmas which I know she wouldn't like nearly so much if it didn't have Hermione... in my experience both girls and boys like to play with things they can identify with and my daughters are simply not interested in playing with ninjago (although DD1 happily builds it for her little brother then leaves him to play with it!)

My DD's would not be interested in the beauty parlour (although I'm sure some girls might be) but they'd love the inventors' workshop and stage and girly looking cars!

FreddoBaggyMac · 12/01/2012 12:52

Just thinking aloud here after reading a few more posts... surely part of what gives us a personality is that we all have a feminine and a masculine side? Some children are more masculine and prefer toys that appeal to that, others are more feminine and prefer more feminine toys. Making all toys 'gender neutral' would be a bit dull imo. If my sons wanted to play with pink lego I would not have a problem with it just as I have no problem with my girls playing with anything 'boyish' - it's nice for them to have the choice!

slug · 12/01/2012 12:58

Hmm, just don't go signing up to the Lego magazine

lollygag · 12/01/2012 13:03

Freddo: I think Lego Friends is a great idea too.Can't understand what all the fuss is about honestly.You'd think there were more important things for people to get worked up about but maybe this is a mark of how far equality has come that all people have to complain about Lego!