When my husband told me that Lego was about to release sets designed for girls, I may have squealed a little in delight at the thought of fun, pink pieces. Then I noticed the disapproval on his face. This is the same father who sincerely appreciates when our 3-year-old daughter gets a particularly girlie, pink gift, but half-jokes, “Why don’t they just give her a glass ceiling instead?” He’s also the same guy who noted that our daughter’s gender-neutral name could come in handy on her future resume if reviewed by a sexist human resource manager.
Although I was quick to get excited, I immediately understood his disdain for Friends, the girl-targeted Lego sets. Girls should be able to play with current, primary-colored Legos now, shouldn’t they? They should aspire to be builders and architects just as much as boys with sets currently on the market.
The problem, though, is that a quick browse through most toy sections reveals there are few sets, if any, that are just blocks and not part of a predesigned Star Wars-themed, Indiana Jones-ified sets. Yes, girls should be able to play with those character-driven sets, but 91% of Lego’s marketshare is comprised of boys, so it doesn’t sound like many girls are. In a recent Wall Street Journal piece, a Lego spokesperson noted that the company spent four years doing extensive research to find out what girls want out of Lego sets. The company learned that girls weren’t fans of the iconic, boxy Lego people and would much prefer characters who looked like them, along with accessories on which to build their sets’ storylines.
Some people are up in arms about the new Lego sets, fearing the stereotypes they’re reinforcing. While there are Lego Friends sets with a vet, a treehouse builder, and a cafe, the sets featuring a girl who drives a convertible and loves to plan parties (per her online bio) and the beauty shop set with a character who loves to give her friends makeovers seem to be most offensive to critics.
In our household, I’ve chosen the bulk of our daughter’s toys, outside of gifts, with some vetoing by my husband. We have chosen some toys like building blocks in primary colors (but no Legos yet as she’s just grown out of the choking hazard age, supposedly), over pink options, based on the potential for a future son to play with them. However, I do fully intend to encourage a son to play with “girl” toys. When I shop for my daughter, some items are admittedly chosen based on my own desire to live vicariously through her– or items I’d have fun with, too, since I’m her most frequent playmate. Some are chosen specifically for their educational value, because they’re good for motor skills, or because they’re a way to channel her imagination. Her vast collection includes quite a bit of pink, lots of dolls and other toys that cater to her girlie side, but she also has ninja and superhero toys and cars.
Regardless of whether you find the new Lego sets offensive, I’m curious about how other parents approach their toy selections and how they find a balance of gender-neutrality. Or do they? Do you think your personal exposure to types of toys as a kid yourself made a difference in who you are as an adult?
Maybe this viral video star, Riley, has the right idea; maybe it IS all the toy companies who are telling boys and girls what they should and shouldn’t play with. But maybe parents should think about how they’re voting with their dollars, too.
image courtesy Bloomberg
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
When I was pregnant with my first child I was all about offering gender neutral toys (or at least toys “for both genders”) to my new daughter. We bough blocks, trucks, balls and dolls. I am a tom boy and have always hated barbies. Once my daughter was old enough to develp preferences it was clear that dispite my best efforts, I had a princess sparkly girl. She loved glitter princesses and purses. She accessorized her outfits with jewelery and hair bows. I didn’t carry a purse but she did. When we went to the store by 18 month old daughter would say “got purse mommy?”.
So, that being said, I think some “girly” legos are a good idea because my daugter (now 7) is drawn to them. She has always been more attracted to the pink, purple girly toys.
I have two more children and they have turned out a little more like I had planned. My son played a lot of princess and barbie stuff with his sister but at 5 has somewhat outgrown that and moved on to star wars and spiderman. He does an assortmen of things and is not restricted by gender rules.
My youngest daughter is the same. She likes animals, balls, fire trucks, trains, dolls and paints. So, much of it depends on who the little person is.
There is nothing wrong with pink legos because as a parent you can still control what comes into your child’s life and it is up to you to offer a nice balance and to watch out for messages.
Yes, yes. Your last paragraph exactly!
I don’t have children yet, but I have to say that I’m in favor of the Lego Friends sets for the reason you pointed out: boys comprise 91% of their current market. Yes, girls CAN use the old Lego sets, but that number tells me it’s just not happening. If a Lego Friends set gets little girls interested in a world of building, then I think it’s a great thing. If people don’t want them, they don’t have to buy them! It’s that simple.
I am in favor of the new Legos too – because it will offer my daughter something she is interested in. As a previous poster stated – just b’c I’m a tomboy and like trucks and cars and blocks, doesn’t mean my daughter does – even though I have offered and played with them, with her. She’s right down the middle.
Sometimes she likes to dig in the dirt, sometimes she likes to paint her nails and play kitchen. I am quick to remind both my daughter, and my son, that they can play with whatever they want. In fact, a Lego commercial for some sort of…I don’t know, ninja like thing came on the other day – and my daughter said she wanted it. My son said no, it’s a boy toy. [he's 4]. I told them both they could play with whatever they wanted, regardless of whether it seemed like a boy or girl toy. When my son was younger he loved to play dress-up, and dolls. Now he’s strictly a car kid – most of the time. He does love to cook some fun stuff in their kitchen set though. :)
I wouldn’t mind the concept of the new Lego’s if they were just marketed as another set of imaginitive play toys for anyone and came in gender neutral colors, or at least a nice mix of blue, pink, green, whatever. I grew up with Legos, LOTS of Legos and I never once had a problem with my Star Wars ship or my pirate stuff….and I was SO GIRLY it hurts me to think about. But the separate colors, the “girly” occupations and the marketing bug me.
I’m torn.
Maybe it WILL entice a little girl more to play with them – if she is into pink! – leading her to discover a love for creating and architecture, that she wouldn’t have known otherwise?
Maybe.
I ALWAYS tell Luca he can play with all toys. He says “THOSE ARE FOR GIRLS!” And I don’t even know where on earth he heard that. He refuses to play with pink girl toys, though.
But, he does like for me to paint his nails ;)
It’s marketing, pure and simple. Like they said in the WSJ article, they did four years of research into this. They wanted to sell toys to more kids! That’s all it is.
I am all for just letting my son be who he is. Who he is, is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT typical BOY. He’s only two, and he makes everything a sword, he knows how to make car noises and car crash noises (where he heard those is beyond me), and he “fixes” his toys with his daddy’s tools whenever he can get ahold of them. It’s in his DNA, I guess, because we don’t push him to play with these specific toys. At all. I know when I was little, I was all about being a princess and my favorite color has always been pink. I wouldn’t have played with the standard Legos, but I sure as heck would’ve played with the “Friends.” And the professions they have aren’t very gender-specific at all!
I think these are a great idea.
I guess I don’t care what color the Legos come in, I just wish they would sell them in general sets like they used to. I don’t want a Star Wars ship and neither does my daughter! At 6 years old she is already is very aware of “boy toys” vs, “girl toys” even though we tried to be very gender neutral at home. From the very beginning I refused for my only child to be into all things pink and princess! She still isn’t into Barbie (yeah!) but I was sad that she recently gave up her dinosaurs and told me they were for boys.
As hard as we may try at home to teach our children to be open-minded about gender (among other things), we have to remember that they’re only influenced about 10% from us, and the other 90% from everything else, mostly including social networks they cultivate at daycare, school, church, extracurricular activities, etc. All we really can do is try and correct the blatant misconceptions (like successful women only drive fancy cars and go to college to find husbands to pay for them … ugh) and reinforce the positive ones (like men can be stay-at-home dads supported by their wives, or even husbands). At least, that’s what I tell myself to keep from becoming too discouraged when overwhelmed by today’s media influences. Kids are smart, after all, almost smarter than adults sometimes.
Yes! Where are the Legos that aren’t in sets? The only place we’ve been able to find them lately are at yard sales.
Boo Lego! Bring bac kthe plain Legos without a set and maybe add more colors.
I started writing a novel, so instead, I responded on my blog. http://awholelotofnothing.net/legos-for-girls-lego-chest-hair-for-susan-whymommy/
LOVE!
My daughter is 9, soon to be 10. She had a mild “princess” stage, “only wear dresses/skirts” stage, and now will play with pretty much anything. We recently saw these toys at the store and my husband asked her what she thought of them “Umm…..why are they pink? Legos are for anyone. Those are kinda gross and don’t look anything like Lego people………where’s the Harry Potter sets?”. She will play for hours with Legos with my husband. She was also play for hours with her Monster High dolls (which if they weren’t monsters, I wouldn’t buy due to lack of skirt lengths and hooker shoes. but she’s been super creative with them designing clothes for them and creating stories around them). She also asked for a skateboard last Christmas, reads comic books, play video games, loves the paranormal stuff like zombies, vampires, and werewolves, and loves to have her nails painted.
I don’t like these Legos at all. If they were just regular Lego people in a vet office, then cool. Beauty parlor…..stupid. Little Riley has got a great point…why does all little girl stuff have to be pink? Girls can like super heros just as much as boys. And there’s some pretty amazing super hero women out there.
I totally agree with your Super Hero comment. My son’s room is what I call “adverturer themed”. There’s everything from Super Hero’s to Space Travel and everything in btwn (even an Igloo-themed tent) but he also has an art easel,a writing desk, and looking forward to a kitchen set of his own come his 2nd birthday this summer. We’re expecting our second child this summer also and hoping for a girl. I have SO MANY girl Super Hero posters for her walls from when I bought up a bunch on a thrift spree for my son. I have a feeling that her room is going to be similarly themed as my sons. Even the colors we use can be considered gender-neutral as my son is drawn to avocado-greens and cherry-reds …
Then again, my husband & I are rather large comic fans … our on-going debate for the last eight years is Batman vs. Superman … It’s just a given that our kids will be BOMBARDED by Super Hero paraphernalia … poor kiddos … LOL! I feel like the superhero market (while mainstream has only shown male figures to-date) is a VERY gender-neutral arena of entertainment. Even with side-kicks and villains, there’s almost ALWAYS strong-willed, capable, independent women and witty, intuitive, innovative men, both of which are highly influential for both girls and boys to be exposed to. Or maybe that’s just my genre-bias showing through.
despite having an awesome name in common….i think you and i would be great friends. :) i too enjoy all things sparkly and glittery but also some butt kicking comic books!
As many other comments have implied, many times it’s the kids that pick their toys, despite parent’s intentions. My mother tried to influence me with dresses and dolls, but I’d rather play with my monster trucks in the dirt wearing cut-off shorts and tennies … Now, at almost 30, I LOVE accessories, and make-up, and HEALS, and dressing-up and all things pretty AND I can change a tire in a mini-skirt and nails … I have a 7 year old niece that LOVES all things pink, even her motocross helmet and MATCHING Harley Davidson jacket & biker boots are pink. As you might can infer, she’s VERY much a tom-boy, just does it in pink and glitter (she asked for her own hunting rifle this last Christmas, it was pink w/pearl inlay on the butt). My own 20 month old son absolutely LOVES to play with his 3 year old cousin’s kitchen set & they fight over the doll’s stroller. I don’t see a big difference in all these toys, gender or otherwise. I see life-skill-building sets. It’s just as important for a boy to know how to push a stroller and use a stove as (in many communities) it’s just as important for a girl to know how to change a tire or shoot a hunting rifle.
I have 3 girls, a 7 y/o and twin 3 y/os. When my oldest was born I bought “boy” toys, “girl” toys and neutral toys. She loved them all. With my twins, I have one that loves everything girly and one that loves trucks, trains, cars, etc. I don’t buy boy or girl, I buy them what they like. Honestly, they all play with everything, but it’s obvious what their preferences are and what they gravitate more towards. So why not tailor it to the child and not the gender.
Just an aside – my oldest wore and my one 3 y/o currently wears “boy” underwear as often as “girl” underwear because you can’t get Thomas the Train, Woody or Buzz Lightyear in “girl” underwear. When my oldest started daycare at 2.5, she was horrified to learn on the FIRST DAY that she was wearing “boy” underwear and refused to wear the characters she liked anymore. It was a sad day in our house. Friggin peer pressure. My twins are still at home so they don’t know yet. Big sis never let on because her baby sister loves them so.
I’m starting to see the results of peer pressure via preschool, too, but mainly in the humor in saying “poop!” over and over again. When it starts manifesting in toy selection and outfit choices, I’m going to be sad, too.
When I was a kid, way back in the 90′s my favourite things to play with at my friend Jenna’s house were her girly Lego sets.. Now I’m struggling to remember exactly what they were like but I believe one was a hotel/ resort style thing and they were definitely dotted with bits if pink.. I believe it may have been a hand me down set from an older sister of hers but we loved it.
I think most little girls find some appeal to the traditional plain sets as well.. For building whatever they want but when it comes to those big theme kits, they are aimed only at boys which is a shame.
As long as we teach our children they can do whatever they want, be whom ever they want, and raise them to be strong, independent, aspiring individuals, I don’t think it matters if their legos, or any other toys, were pink.
Almost all of my daughter’s toys are gender-neutral, which is pretty great since we now have a son too. In all honesty, I actually find green and blue toys more appealing to some of the “girly” colors. (Maybe it’s because I have two older brothers and I always had green and blue hand-me-down toys.) The majority of her so-called “girl” toys were gifts so she gets her fix of both kinds of toys and can decide what she likes the best.
They do still sell regular brick sets, in primary colors and in pink!
http://creative.lego.com/en-us/Products/Starter/Default.aspx
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