LEGO announced that after 4 years of intensive research, they have finally come up with a LEGO product that fulfills the desires of “how girls naturally build and play.” This new theme is called LEGO Friends and it’s a pink and purple, gender segregated, suburban wasteland populated by Barbie/Bratz style dolls.  Many parents, educators, feminists, and media critics have spoken out against LEGOs attempts to separate girls into their own stereotypical isolated enclave within the LEGO universe.

In part 1 of my two part LEGO and Gender series, I’ll explore how LEGO went terribly wrong with LEGO Friends and provide a brief history of LEGO’s ridiculous and slightly hilarious attempts to market to girls since the late 70′s.  In part 2 I’ll delve into LEGO’s intentional strategy to market almost exclusively to boys since the mid 80′s by developing and marketing sets that are male identified and male centered.  In conclusion, I’ll offer LEGO a couple of suggestions that they can consider when creating and marketing new products.

For more information, links and a full transcript visit Feminist Frequency

Source: feministfrequency.com

466 Notes/ Hide

  1. mephitztophel reblogged this from femfreq
  2. weirdothingo reblogged this from wst220
  3. zenbuddhist reblogged this from femfreq
  4. allthethingspaperthin reblogged this from theangryfeminist
  5. kookaburlesque reblogged this from steveholtvstheuniverse
  6. gemmathegreat reblogged this from feministepiphanies
  7. labellepoubelle reblogged this from femfreq
  8. masterofintrigue reblogged this from theangryfeminist and added:
    Ah, this… hurts… my soul… . “Naturally” play? I was having very intricate wars between my beanie babies and dinosaurs...
  9. sousied reblogged this from brendosaur
  10. bonerack reblogged this from femfreq and added:
    LEGO, you are doing it so very, very wrong. There’s nothing wrong...things or shopping or...
  11. renamok reblogged this from femfreq and added:
    The funny thing is, as...kid who LOVED LEGOs (especially
  12. wst220 reblogged this from theangryfeminist
  13. aschenblume reblogged this from shelivesin221c
  14. fuzzythephychobunny reblogged this from burnthisdiscodown
  15. burnthisdiscodown reblogged this from harrietjonesformerprimeminister
  16. city-night-lights reblogged this from femfreq and added:
    I don’t get LEGO’s attitude. How...I’ve always seen...as...
  17. keepfabandgayon reblogged this from darkangelkie
  18. whitneythepoohtoo reblogged this from darkangelkie
  19. pandacolfer reblogged this from darkangelkie
  20. darkangelkie reblogged this from inkarnadyne
  21. toast-n-apples reblogged this from johnfrusciantesbeard
  22. inkarnadyne reblogged this from tofixtheshadows
  23. tofixtheshadows reblogged this from jinxess and added:
    This is awful … I always categorized LEGOs as gender neutral. As a kid (born in ‘91), I constantly played with LEGOs,...
  24. zydeco-zeitgeist reblogged this from johnfrusciantesbeard
  25. andthenyoudie reblogged this from youremyguitarhero
  26. johnfrusciantesbeard reblogged this from youremyguitarhero
  27. youremyguitarhero reblogged this from femfreq
  28. squeakgirl reblogged this from stopgirlhate
  29. marilynnadine reblogged this from mia-the-wonder-slut
  30. angelcreations reblogged this from shelivesin221c
  31. misssam reblogged this from lookitssaaaarah and added:
    I got the Paradisa cafe/beach house set from my uncle when I probably nine or ten. After the thrill of getting my own...
  32. kyuohki reblogged this from pyra-the-pyro and added:
    So…they made Polly Pocket, but with Lego blocks. :| But it seems like they’re doing just what every other toy company...
  33. sickwiththeart reblogged this from toutematendresse and added:
    I could really argue both sides of this, but a lot of the points were really valid. I had never seen the commercials,...

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus