To kick off our new Soap Box section Helen is having a moan about the new girls range from Lego. What do you think?
Before I start, can I just say that I am a BIG fan of Lego. Way back in the 70’s when I was a child I spent hours playing with Lego, and I didn’t stop until I was in at least double figures. Then I continued to play with it when I started working with children and now with my own children. But I have to say I am pretty cross about this new Lego range!
My first objection is probably the most obvious one……why has it been made ‘pastel’ and pink’?! This is my number 1 gripe in the toy world. Things do not have to be colour coded for boys and girls – things do not need to be blue or pink. What is wrong with the normal range of bright colours? The Early Learning Centre is one of the biggest culprits of this – suddenly there were ‘girl’ versions of things; for example the gardening set. What is wrong with the original green mini gardening set – it’s functional, bright and designed for children! Lego is bright and comes in many colours – you don’t need to alter that – or make exclusive ‘pastel/girl sets’. Why not just introduce new colours generally across the range.
The second objection – and probably the main one – the kit has been ‘dumbed down’ so it is much simpler to put together than other constructions. Hello – what message does this give to girls…….you can’t build as well, you can’t follow instructions as well as boys, it needs to be simple or you’ll get bored?
Now I am not anti ‘girl’ toys and I do think that there are somethings which will be played with by one gender more than another – and that is fine. I don’t object to pink as a colour. What I really object to is this colour biased streaming of toys into sections – most of which are completely unnecessary – keyboards, cameras – which send some very strange messages to children which reflect adult bias and expectations.
By all means have Lego girl characters, have pink Lego bricks, have new locations to attract a wider audience and to keep new products flowing – just stop packaging and presenting them in these nauseating and stereo typical ways!!
What do you think about colour coding of girls and boys toys? We’d love to hear you views. And if you’d like to contribute to our Soap Box section then drop us an email at info@mumstheboss.co.uk with your idea.
Get a grip. You should read India Knight’s column in yesterday’s Sunday Times for a more sensible view.
I’m in two minds about this. I signed my daughter up to the Lego Club when she was about 4 – so 5 years ago and shortly afterwards wrote a letter of complaint to them that their magazine was too boy orientated and that she loved Lego but didn’t like the magazine. They admitted then that this was definitely the case and that they were working on including more girl stuff in the magazine. In compensation, they included a little gift for her… a keyring Lego footballer – duh!
In principle I hate the idea of gender stereotypes but my experience shows that girls and boys do play differently and prefer different toys. However, of all toys Lego has the potential to be the most unisex and I agree that there is no need to make it pink or more simplistic to appeal to girls. I am glad that the Lego company are finally making an effort to market it for girls too but you are quite correct that just offering scenarios such as home, garden etc. along side the usual vehicles, space, knights etc. would be fine.
Completely agree with you. It drives me completely and absolutely barmy!!! I find it so strange that we have this blue/pink divide and it seems to have happened in the last couple of decades. In fact at the beginning of the last century pink was thought to be a boys colour (as a paler version of red which symbolised strength) so you’ll probably see a picture of your grandad, or his dad as a baby in his little pink outfit! I have 2 girls aged 4, and 7 whose fave colours are green and blue respectively, but people insist on giving them a pink balloon at a shop, or a pink straw n their drink etc… if we’re out and about, automatically assuming that they would prefer it. Why on earth would half the child population restrict themselves to just 1 colour.
I don’t have any objection to the overtly girly stereotype used by LEGO. We showed the range to my 4 year old and she instantly wanted the puppy related sets. There’s nothing wrong with that, she’s a girl and likes girly things. She loves playing with it and will grab some of her big brothers LEGO Dino to play alongside it – that’s the great thing about LEGO, you can buy a variety from across the ranges, and once the boxes go in the bin who’s to say what’s girlie and whats not!
We own a toy shop and our customers are over the moon about the release of something more overtly girlie from LEGO. Some of them are a bit worried because of the negative press that journalists are putting out there, but if you look just at the kids reactions to this new range you’ll see all the hypothesis and stereotypical concerns fly out the window. It’s pink, it’s girlie and it’s great!
I have nothing against girlie toys – and I can understand why girls would be attracted to this new range – I just didn’t think that Lego needed to do this.
I have to disagree that the LF sets are “dumbed down”. Like all other Lego collections, there are a sets in small, medium, large, and huge sizes. The smallest sets are simplest and least expensive because they have fewer pieces. The largest sets have the highest degree of complexity (and price tag) because they have the most pieces. My daughter has been collecting and building the Lego Creator houses, and she was thrilled that the LF sets her friends gave her for her birthday were perfect for furnishing those houses
I will add that, I while I happily played with Lego Space Police as a girl, as an adult Legophile, I’m thrilled that my daughter has more colors, more choices, and more collections to mix and match than I had.