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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Lego 'Lord of the Rings' range

24 replies

Melpomene · 01/04/2012 14:22

So, Lego are going to release a range of Lord of the Rings minifigures in summer. It looks like they're going to do 19 different characters (including a Lego Legolas, of course), but not including any of the female characters.

I know LOTR is hardly a bastion of feminism, but Eowyn in particular is a good strong character. They've got so many figures that they must have made a conscious choice to exclude the female characters.

Are they thinking only boys will want to play with these? My dds are fans of LOTR and like lego.

OP posts:

SardineQueen · 01/04/2012 14:37

I read the hobbit and lord of the rings when I was quite grown up as I felt I ought to

The hobbit was OK

Lord of the rings boys-own adventure the lack of female characters was remarkable. I noticed and this was before I had even heard of Dittany

So I guess the toy is just representing the book.

SardineQueen · 01/04/2012 14:38

I gave up on it actually halfway through the third book.

Maybe there are loads of women in that last bit that I didn't read (HA!).

Give your children terry pratchet to read instead

PurpleRomanesco · 01/04/2012 15:02

Yy, Terry pratchett should be mandatory reading for all children!

HerRoyalNotness · 01/04/2012 15:19

They tend to release more sets over the life of the range which is normally 3years, I'd expect to see a whole rivendell set which could include Eowyn

PurpleRomanesco · 01/04/2012 15:44

Good point HerRoyal, Perhaps this is just the fellowship and their enemies?

CardgamesFTW · 01/04/2012 15:49

They've got Eomer and Theoden but not Eowyn, they've got male elf Haldir but not his queen Galadriel. This is REALLY odd. Either they will make more figures or Lego just officially became boy's only.

TeiTetua · 01/04/2012 16:02

Eowyn never went to Rivendell, HRH. You might be thinking of Arwen.

I'm bemused about why The Hobbit would be more acceptable than Lord of the Rings. They're both about one bunch of males bashing another bunch of males, and we're expected to cheer for the good ones and boo the bad ones.

Don't forget Jemima Sackville-Baggins. She is who she is and doesn't compromise.

WidowWadman · 01/04/2012 16:09

Hmm, I think they should include female minifigs if they're in the story, but to be fair, the lack of female minifigs didnt stop me from playing with the space and the knights sets of my childhood.

AgnesCampbellMacPhail · 01/04/2012 16:43

I think its more to do with the rebranding of lego as "boy toys". After all, why would a boy want to play with a girl figurine?

SardineQueen · 01/04/2012 17:09

Was that to me, teitetua?

WidowWadman · 01/04/2012 17:18

Agnes - I think the bigger problem is the gender segregation of Lego "Friends" being branded for girls. The movie tie -ins I think are by and large not so much of an issue - if the advertising wasn't directed at boys so much.

If you've got 20 minutes to spare, I can recommend the thoroughly well made and interesting videos from Feminist Frequency on the topic:

www.feministfrequency.com/2012/01/lego-gender-part-1-lego-friends/

www.feministfrequency.com/2012/02/lego-gender-part-2-the-boys-club/

As I said earlier, I don't remember many female minifigs from when I was a kid (I inherited mostly my brother's lego, anyway), but it was never presented to me at the time as a problem, or that I shouldn't play with male minifigs. I loved the knighty stuff, and really didn't care much for missing princesses.

(That said, there's some ace knighty stuff available now with female minifigs, too.)

OneHandFlapping · 01/04/2012 17:25

Isn't it Lobelia Sackville-Baggins?

OptimisticPessimist · 01/04/2012 21:16

It does seem odd that they have produced pretty much the entire variety of male characters (not sure why you focused on Legolas OP? ), but not any of the 3 female characters. Arwen's exclusion could be forgiven given that Elrond isn't there, but given the inclusion of Theoden, Eomer and Haldir I'd have expected Eowyn and Galadriel to be included. Even if you base it solely on who appears in the battles then Eowyn should be there at the very least.

WidowWadman · 01/04/2012 21:30

"not sure why you focused on Legolas OP? "

Legolas. Geddit?

OptimisticPessimist · 01/04/2012 22:10

It's been one of those days...

dahu · 01/04/2012 22:35

It's not official but there are ladies in this.

Lego LOTR film

catgirl1976 · 02/04/2012 21:24

There are some very strong female characters in LOTR.

Arwen is a bit of a drip but Eowyn is great and Galadriel rocks

TeiTetua · 03/04/2012 13:04

Sorry, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. The movie was comparatively recent but I read the book back in the Second Age. (And she's not in the movie.)

lisianthus · 04/04/2012 08:53

Eowyn is a major character! She kills one of the main bad guys in battle which was only possible because she WASN'T a man. Leaving her out is just stupid. She was my favourite character as a child. :(

Don't get me started on how annoying I found it that Aragorn passes up clever, courageous Eowyn for drippy but gorgeous Arwen.

OneHandFlapping · 04/04/2012 10:54

There is lots in LoTR that doesn't stand up to modern scrutiny. How about the fact that the good are beautiful, and the bad are ugly/deformed?

How about the good being pale skinned (and blue/grey eyed) and the dark skinned being bad?

How about the fact the noble in character are generally also noble in birth?

(I still adore those books, for all their faults)

OptimisticPessimist · 04/04/2012 11:24

Mine to lisi, I love the fact that she goes against all her people's rules to go into the battle anyway, and as you say ends up having such a huge impact. Of course, then it's ruined when she marries Faramir because he loves her, despite her being in love with Aragorn

OHF I don't dispute most of what you say, but surely in the end the mist "noble" characters are the Hobbits, who no one thought could make a difference, many had never heard of, and then in the end all four of them play a huge part in the overthrow of Mordor. I thought that was the message of the story in a way.

TeiTetua · 04/04/2012 13:32

A big part of the story is the message that "Power corrupts". Gollum held the ring for however-long it was, and it turned him from a normal person into an ugly vicious monster. Even in the short time that Frodo had it, it started to drive him insane.

Denethor and his sons Boromir and Faramir were clever creations also--it was totally plausible how two of them started off good but turned bad (even though they were nobles).

Denethor had married Finduilas, daughter of Prince Adrahil of Dol Amroth; however, she died untimely when Faramir was five, and is said to have remained to him "but a memory of loveliness in far days and of his first grief". After her death Denethor became sombre, cold, and detached from his family, but the relationship between Faramir and Boromir, who was five years older, only grew closer.

So apparently there was a woman, who if she had only lived could have saved Denethor and Boromir.

TeiTetua · 04/04/2012 13:42

One change they made from the book to the film which I thought wasn't a travesty (unlike the rest) was that at the end, Eowyn and Faramir were standing side by side at Aragorn's coronation, and you could make what you wanted out of that, but at least she didn't dwindle away into a wife like in the book.

OptimisticPessimist · 04/04/2012 14:03

Yes I agree Tei, with both your posts.

WRT the changes in the film, I spent the drive home from watching The Two Towers ranting about it and still can't watch it in the same way I did FotR which I love. I found the changes in FotR and RotK acceptable for the most part, but no one will ever convince me that TT was anything other than butchered

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