Lego - how depressing

[EverybodysSnowyEyed]

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!

Bytheway how many women work in electronics? Are there equal numbers of men and women?I suspect not.There isn't in engineering,dp had no women on his degree course.

Channelling girls towards pink unchallenging,uneducational shite isn't going to change that is it.

Also things have changed since when we were little,toys are less generic,less good quality.When I was young toy shops didn't have a pink shit aisle a la ToysRUs.We had less,we used our imagination/brains more.

Only time will tell but seriously I think a large number of the current generation of girls are missing out.

Re Lego themes.There has always been plenty that appeals to both genders if you're that way inclinded of steering where gender is concerned.Only this Christmas there was a lighthouse,Harry Potter,apple tree house,log cabin,robot with lighting up brick.Who will be buying these for their dd's now?.

Personally my dd has enjoyed playing with exactly the same themes as her brothers as she hasn't been conditioned to think all her toys should be pink and involve pets or beauty.

Ooops sorry it went offline,didn't realise it had still posted.

My dds play with lots of lego kits, also lots of technical lego. They have never liked the pink versions (it was Belleville a few years ago when we started buying lego, but they didn't like that). They liked the pirate ships, fire engine, boats, the current 7yo dd (my most typically "girly") likes the house kits very much, and they'd all like Harry Potter probably (don't most children, girls and boys, like Harry Potter? Most I know do). It's not THAT depressing if you just avoid the beauy parlour type kits.

I'm really not that sure that most little girls in my 70's childhood were using their imaginations to build things from lego and scaletrix, that's not how I remember it. Many girls spent their time with my little pony, Barbie/Sindy/Pippa, and care bears.

Think I must be older as Care Bears etc came after me.We had so much less.Sindy wasn't completely pink and she did stuff.I had the camping set,dune buggy thing etc.It was expensive so you didn't have hoards of stuff all the same but pink.

I had Spirodraw(big hit with my friends),normal Lego,bit of Playmobil. Everything didn't have to be pink or the same as there was less you improvised more.

I just think the pink thing leads girls to expect pink and reject other good toys.It makes them fit in with it all.Also a lot of it is total trash and doesn't ever differ.

All I'm saying is parents need to look for toys that lead to learning opportunities/quality play as play is important.

My dd has a couple of Polly Pockets but not the mall,model runway type shit too.You don't need all that stuff.She gets masses of play out of the box of normal Lego,Playmobil or even a shoe box alongside said figures as she's not trapped in a cafe,beauty world of very limiting toys.

Money is tight these days.Parents will probably only big a couple of Lego sets if their dc aren't obsessed or they're very rich.Personally I suspect a lot of parents of girls will play safe and plump for the pink range now when choosing completely bypassing all the other fab themes they may have gone for before.

I just took a look at the Lego friends range. It looks really moronic.

Fennel - I am as girly as they come and did an awful lot of Lego as a 70s child. No My Little Pony or Care Bear in my house, and very few Sindys. I did love Pippa, however!

Me and my sister used to pool our pocket money to buy Lego. Often it was buildings rather than vehicles (possibly houses for our pippa dolls to live in) but it was still building things

I would have happily swapped our lego for a Sindy horse or camping set .

My dd2 aged 6, has just seen an advert for the forest police Lego, and announced that she wants that. Even supposedly 'boys' lego appeals strongly to girls.

I find this gender stuff difficult.

I'm not into pink. Although I had dolls and loved animals as a girl, I also played with lego, cars, dinosaurs and as I grew older I was into science and computer programming as well as reading and art. Girls (and boys) like all kinds of stuff and restricting things by gender only limits them.

I don't like the idea of a house full of 'girly' toys. But I also wouldn't want girls to think that things traditionally associated with femininity are sub-standard or wrong either. They certainly aren't wrong because they are associated with girls. At the end of the day, there are loads of ways to be a girl (or indeed a boy) and I want them to find whatever way suits their personality. I reckon my job as a parent will be to discuss this sort of thing with them as they grow to encourage awareness of peer and media pressure.

Incidentally, I don't like the idea of hyper-masculine toys either. I don't understand why people are frightened of boys playing with dolls and the like. If girls playing with dolls is often about role-playing at being mum, why wouldn't they want boys to role-play at being dad? Skills of caring and nurturing are appropriate in both genders.

I'm 13 weeks pregnant. I don't know whether I'm having a boy or a girl. I will encourage my baby to play with a wide range of toys and discover what he/she enjoys. I hope I can encourage her/him to follow their passions, even when they cross traditional gender boundaries.

fingers crossed babies passion won't be make-up or lethal weapons - whichever gender they are.

As a Guardian headline read yesterday: Canadian teenagers send Lego man into space www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/26/canadian-teenagers-lego-man-space?newsfeed=true

And where is 'woman'? Confined to the Beauty Parlour. Is it just me, or does this not really sound like child's play anymore?

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alittlefeministblogonlanguage.blogspot.com/2012/01/one-giant-leap-for-language.html

Holy shit - I just realised that given a rattle and a toy truck to divvy up at baby signing I gave the rattle to my 7mo DD and the truck to my friends DS sitting next to her.....it is so hard not to end up sucked into this stereotyping thing. Not only that but DD doesnt have anything with wheels yet, she has a ball but thats it...

Entropy

If she's only 7 months you've probably got away with it without damaging her for life. Do get her some trucks though!

yeah I know panicky crazy person....

It seems that the overall percentage of pink in her sleep suits has jumped up again too...i think we just got into the second size range that other people bought for her grrrrrrrrrr. So thats blue/green/yellow/red sleep suits and trucks on tonight's shopping list...

think I will ask the sales assistants why they are labelled as 'for boys' again while Im at it

Go entropy girl!

Here's another ridiculous one: I put tights on my 1y old. I buy them in all colours and stripes with no pink in, mainly navy, grey, rainbow etc. where I grew up it was entirely normal for boys to wear tights. Its cold. Theyre comfy. Loads of people at his nursery have commented on it, all positive if a little surprised. One girl thoughts said, oh I didn't know boys could wear tights? Doh, he's one, he has legs ......