A few weeks back, I revealed myself to be the humorless, politically correct parent that I am, complaining about the gender roles represented by?Lego’s new line of Minifigures.? My complaint: Of the sixteen Minifigures, the only two that were women were a?Cheerleader and a?Nurse. Ever the earnest parent, I hope?my daughter can imagine herself creating a life beyond these stereotypical roles.? And I hope the boys she grows up with will also understand that their female friends can aspire to so much more.
I’m not debating whether this is profit-maximizing.? I’m asking that Lego take a bit more responsibility for how they shape our young ‘uns.
Well, Lego has just released?Series 2 of their Minifigures. This time, we get three out of sixteen female characters.? That’s an improvement, but only just.? And the three female Minifigures?? We now learn that women can also be?a big-chested red-swimsuit-wearing lifeguard, a?bedazzled midriff-bearing pop star, or?a witch.? When I think of strong and powerful women I would hope my daughter could learn from, I wasn’t just thinking about?Pamela Anderson,?Britney Spears, or?Christine O’Donnell.
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Ok, I spoke (typed) too soon. Generally the lego figures are gender neutral. These are not so much. However the skier, traffic cop and mime could just as easily be women.
What character in set 2 is a good career role model?
The Spartan warrior? Maybe the Mariachi? I’m guessing it is the vampire.
Are you sure the mime is a dude?
Let’s just hope they don’t make an economist character. It would be nice if playing with Legos remained FUN!
Do you really think that children will learn about gender roles only from legos or do you think that they will learn more from other sources, like mom and dad. If a child has a construction worker father and nurse mother, will that child grow up thinking that women can’t work construction and men can’t be nurses?
Sorry my fellow adults, but I think our children have a better grasp of reality than we do sometimes.
I would have no problem with my (hypothetical) daughter becoming a witch, as long as she doesn’t give it up to become a Fundie.
But I have a problem with Lego that goes far beyond any gender stereotyping. Once upon a time, Legos were just bricks – and wheels, gears, cams, and whatnot – and you could build just about anything you wanted. (I even took a university engineering course that built robots from Legos.) Nowadays… well, I tried to find a Lego set for a friend’s kid last Christmas, and all I could find were pre-designed scenes. No imagination or thought needed.
What about a figure for the most impressive job a woman can have… a mother.
Seriously, if you want your daughter to be anything at all, I’d think it’d be for her to be a good mother. You know those happy, loving feelings you get for your daughter? Don’t you want her to be able to experience those feelings as well? You might want to be sure to encourage her to not only keep her eyes up to the stars for a career, but her head back on earth enough to recognize where true happiness comes from.
you want your daughter to grow up to be a vampire or a pharaoh or a ninja or a robot or a zombie instead?