Feminist Group Fighting LEGO over a New Girls' Set

[guywithashovel]

http://now.msn.com/money/0420-lego-girl-set.aspx

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/20...ny-executives/ (a lengthier article)

Basically, LEGO created a new line called LEGO Friends, which is supposed to appeal to girls. A feminist group is angry because the girl figurines in the set have "small breasts" and "fancy hair." They say that this hypersexualizes young girls.

They're also angry because they say the set reinforces stereotypical roles for girls because it has a beauty parlor, hot tub, a convertible, and an inventor's workshop.

[bara]

And its things like this that make me not take many feminist groups seriously.

[Aethian]

*twitches* the hell is wrong with these...females that their so moronic?

I still wish I had gotten that purple set from when I was a kid.

[Ginger Tea]

Basically the same shite that bratz, barbie and cindie have as play sets.
Also those have modest breasts afaik, probably the same body mould too.
Aside from looking like the Character Builder lego compatable figures eg HM forces and Dr Who, this is the first time a lego woman has actually had a figure to speak of, other classic fig's needed breast outlines painted on with the design.

[bex1218]

As someone said in one of the comments in the first artice, Barbie has done worse to oversexualize women.

[Cats]

If they're doing "job" related stuff, then the dolls are meant to represent adults, and not children, and thus there is no oversexualization of them. Women have breasts. It's a fact of life, DEAL WITH IT.

I can understand, in principle, the stereotypical female roles thing. In general, that bothers me slightly too. But Lego isn't the only one guilty of it, it's society and marketing as a whole. If you're gonna blame one, you gotta blame them ALL.

And if you don't like it? Then don't buy them for your kids. Buy your girls regular legos and hot wheels cars. I played with those just as much as I played with barbies.

[Andara Bledin]

Seriously? This is the sort of thing that they choose to get up in arms over?

They look like your typical tweenie; which is likely who they're trying to attract. And that's "fancy hair"? Really? One of them (the brownette, of course) has a ponytail.

Honestly, the issue isn't the toys themselves (and it would be awesome to have a group of boys with the same design type), but the marketing, which is perpetuated by Lego and pretty much every store that carries them.

^-.-^

[Anthony K. S.]

I liked that comment, "It takes so much energy to be so negative."

SPARK members also criticize the inclusion of a vapid beauty parlor and hot tub in the set for perpetuating dangerous stereotypes.

If this new line of toys consisted solely of stereotypically feminine sets, then they might have had a case.

But an inventor's workshop isn't exactly a stereotypical setting for women. That makes me think that LEGO is trying to give the line a range of appeal - the beauty parlor for those young girls who choose to follow the traditional gender role in their toys and activities, and the inventor's workshop for those who don't.

It actually sounds to me like SPARK doesn't want LEGO to have any traditionally feminine sets in this toy line at all. In my opinion, that would be foolish. This toy line is being marketed to young girls, many of whom like traditional girls' toys.

It's a very bad business decision for any company to ignore a significant portion of their target consumers. But that's just my take on it.

[HYHYBT]

Wait, SMALL breasts are hypersexual?

[blas87]

Hey, they're the ones that like to pound on their bra-free breasts.

[fireheart17]

Wait, SMALL breasts are hypersexual?

That was what I was thinking. Do they want Lego sets to have big breasted models?

And I've seen the Lego sets in question (boyfriend's sister LOVES it). There is nothing "hypersexual" or overly "stereotypical" about them at all. In all honesty, you could take the exact same setups and put them into Polly Pocket-would they be complaining then? (OK, probably a slightly poor choice given that Polly Pocket doesn't have boobs AFAIK)

A cafe is not "stereotypical." -.-

this isn't the first time Lego has tried to appeal to girls-does anyone remember Clikits?

[blas87]

It's a lack of consistency that makes feminist groups like this impossible to take seriously. Big boobs or small boobs, it's all hypersexual. Double edged swords.

It's women like this that are the reason the glass ceiling is so high. It's not the big mean white man doing it, it's all of these bitchy, chest pounding boars who want to make the whole world about the wrong kind of girl power.

[fireheart17]

It's a lack of consistency that makes feminist groups like this impossible to take seriously. Big boobs or small boobs, it's all hypersexual. Double edged swords.

It's not so much the "boob" issue, it's the fact that TOYS have boobs. They don't have a problem with young girls playing with toy babies, but bring in Barbie or Bratz or similar and suddenly, "ZOMG, THEY HAVE BEWBS!"

[blas87]

Well geez, what are women supposed to have? Nipples up and down like a cat?

[SkullKing]

I think that what angers them so much isn´t the new figures and new gender roles themselves, because, as pointed by others, other toys do much worse.

But that it is a change from a toy that was relatively gender neutral.

They probably like lego, and don't want it to change.

tyhat being said, I think they are being silly.