When I was a kid, my parents frowned upon gender-specific toys for my sister & me. No guns or Tonka trucks for me, and no baking or tea sets for my sister. Lego was fantastic. In the early days, the building blocks were pretty basic. As manufacturing costs came down, more specialized Lego sets came out. I have definitely noticed the trend of more violent Lego sets. Disappointing. Thanks for the video! I will definitely be letting Lego know that I disapprove.
I loved my Hogwarts castle, and all my Legos. The lack of female minifigs didn't bother me. But then, I was a child, and I also basically wanted to BE a boy. A desire pretty much born from the fact that boys toys were cooler and more fun, as were boys activities and boys clothes. I grew out of that desire after my parents sent me to an all girls school because I was getting beaten up by the boys at kinder for trying to play with them.
The Paradisa range co-incided with my childhood and I had a few sets from it. I also had a few from the regular (apparently) boys range. I honestly never realised the difference till you pointed it out. Playing with them was essentially the same - lots of little pieces; minifigures; instructions for one design; pictures of other designs for inspiration. The central idea was building and creating, and the complexity was identical to non-paradisa sets. Why on earth did they ever scrap that?
This video and especially part 2 of it, encouraged me to write to Lego about the issue which I am doing now and while one email may not grab their attention, I'm sure receiving many emails (or letters or phone calls, whichever you find more effective) will. So I hope everyone will do the same to bring back the gender-neutral Lego bricks that the new generation of kids should experience like we did, rather than having the male-oriented sets imposed on them.
What bothers me about "female lego heads" is that all women/girls/etc don't wear red lipstick.. I feel like I did when I would watch 90s cartoons (where the female characters always had a HUGE pink bow or high heels.. so they couldn't do much. just cause she was "female.") XD
But I guess right now, we'll take what we can get, right? >.> I just wish there was a more expanded meaning to being "female." Than just "figure/lipstick/makeup." Sounds like a strictly hetero male's perspective of female.
It bothers me that 95% of my minifigs are male, I've always wanted more female minifigs. LEGO is better in it's high end modular line in terms of gender equality, as these sets are not aimed at children like other LEGO products, LEGO would struggle to successfully apply gender to them without destroying the appeal of the sets and thus the figures included are a fairly even mix of male and female. it's a shame they feel this approach is inappropriate for children.
I am female. I grew up with lego, it was a key part of my development as a child and I remember it fondly. I am so glad this awful "girly" lego didn't exist when I was young because I would simply have been disgusted if someone presented me this. I'd love my gender to be represented in lego but not as these helpless, sheltered, weak characters. I'd rather discover a new species than paint my nails. Mega bloks aren't any better in their girls department but I absolutely love their dragons sets...
Part of me is wondering when the Harry Potter franchise became a 'boys thing' and why marketers, when adhering to silly gender stereotypes, always pass over medieval castles as a rather gender neutral theme. There are knights and kings, yes, but pretty princesses and horses! Do companies just not want to double their profit?
I'd also point out that toy marketing is now also aimed at adults, which does mean 'pink toys only' parents are more likely to buy lego, rather than eschewing it entirely.
Lego's management is just scum. All they had to do was add more female minifigs and show more girls playing with Legos, instead of the insulting crap they ended up producing. Kids don't need more mindless plastic crap that doesn't spur their creativitiy.
Okay I agree with her on this one. I never thought Legos ever had to be segregated, my sister and I grew up with my legos when they were still labeled as Mania back in the early 90s. Though I don't see what's wrong with the Paradisa set, I'm a guy and I'd love to have that set. Even heroes deserve a vacation in the imaginagery world of Lego City.
I remember when I was little I was always jealous of the boys in my class (I identify as a woman and am biologically female, btw) because they were able to play with Legos and I was nevr really allowed to; I was never told explicitly to not play with Legos, however I was never given the opportunity to play with them. The only Lego toys that my sister and I had while growing up was one based on a horse theme, but I was always upset that there wasn't a lot of material to actually build things...
I've always wondered about the red/blue for boys pink/purple for girls thing. As a kid i wanted ALL of the colors, not the ones stereotyped to my gender (i'm male). I grew up with all girl cousins who lived next door, and they played with legos with me and i played with barbies with them, mostly we played physical games outside though.
I watched both of these videos. I love legos myself and I also love these two videos. You make very good points. I just can't believe lego spent all that money on research and marketing when they should have just stuck with what they had! Thumbs up for you for being better than billions of dollars!!
feminist frequency, i just found your channel and this lego vid - and love your articulate and well composed argument. i appreciate your intellectual approach to making this important argument, very respectably done. looks like a lot of work went into it.
i will be subscribing and watching and sharing your links.
I'm wondering if they thought to include adults in on this study, considering how many I know (myself included) still collect them. I'll stick with the original Legos- I don't want any of this frilly pink junk.
lego would not have to design a line "for girls" if they didn't dissuade girls from playing with traditional legos by directing the advertising exclusively towards boys.
I work with preschoolers and we have Duplos (the chunky Legos for little kids). ALL of the children enjoy building and playing with airplanes, dinosaurs, towers, and even houses and families.
I think part of the problem is that Legos are typically stocked in the same aisles as action figures and other stereotypical boy things and parents are as gender-brainwashed as their kids will someday be.
My nephew is nearly three years old and his favourite colours are purple and pink. I wonder how long it will be until he starts absorbing the idea that these colours are "for girls" and he should be embarrassed for having anything in common with them?
It's funny that just before this media storm broke I had a bit of a revelation; I was in a Lego shop where they have a stand full of bits of Minifigs. You could make your own and buy them. An assistant (female) told me that recently that had run out of the girl (red mouthed) heads. That's when it hit me! Girls just want more female characters in the sets! If half of the heads were female, or had female faces on one side (there are double sided heads these days) girls would show more interest!
@FizzyMcPhysics I just had that same experience at the LEGO store, I was searching for female heads and the person working there told me they were all sold out. Clearly there is a desire for more female minifigs (in the traditional minifig style).
Urgh! It drives me mad! The wonderful thing about LEGO when I was a kid (and it was my favourite toy EVAR) was that it was so versatile. Because it was literally JUST BRICKS. You could do anything with it. And no one told us what or how to build and how to play with it.
That girl version of lego is an abomination. Why does it need to be special? What happened to having a big box of lego bricks where you could build whatever you want?
Thanks for this! I'm doing a research project for a class and this was sent in an email. I actually saw these when I went to the store to do my research. I used to play with plain legos when I was a kid. I have no problem with the Heartlake city theme except that it needs some diversity (women fire fighters, women police, etc)
I used to make whole worlds of lego, with pirates bay,an island of indians, witches castles, forts, military strongholds, caves etc. and it would cover my whole room and i keep them out for weeks. I never had any wish for any pink briks.........they would have lookd very out of place. I did have some, they never got used.
This is why when I have children, they won't be allowed to watch television until they're at least 7 or 8 years old. The way toys are marketed to kids is so heavily gendered it really disgusts me. Just let them develop their own identity! Plus I really don't like the way the media in general is geared towards children. It turns them into greedy little materialistic consumers.
I loved playing with lego when I was a girl! I did have a beauty saloon (This was about 30 years ago) but feel that the sets were probably less gender specific back then and I enjoyed making all sorts of things with the bricks and characters. I tried giving my 7 year old niece a lego set recently and she was not keen. Fisher Price sets were also more inclusive with female divers/ambulance drivers
I'm the youngest of four (two older brothers to boot) so most of my toys were hand-me-downs, meaning I had a SHITTON of Legos growing up. That on top of my mom's mentality of "If guys can do it, so can girls, no questions asked" means I tended to play more with "boy's toys" than "girls toys". All the while wearing brightly-colored tights and skirts and insisting on having ribbons in my hair every day. I turned out fine. Enforcing gender normativity does not help a child's development.
RE: Food and the Lego City, I at least remember there being a pizzeria set, which me and my brother built, then salvaged good parts for whatever spacecraft we were building.
But yeah, the whole idea that City and Heartlake City are separate entities with their own, segregated, unbalanced economies is kinda absurd. And I'm not usre how universal it is, but I know lots of girls who love Harry Potter, why not market that set to girls as well?
Why, Lego? Why? Unfortunately in this case, Friendship is NOT Magic.
I live in Orlando and I went to the LEGO store in downtown disney recently. The store was PACKED, and I noticed a pretty even split between boys and girls playing. Then, I walked next door into the gender divided disney merchandise store.
I noticed an even split shopping in the boy's section (toy story, pirates, etc), but mostly girls in the girl's section (princesses). This is marketing pushing a gender split to sell more.
I collected the majority of the original Harry Potter Lego sets. I always used to think out side the story surrounding the particular set, it's not impossible but I do agree with the majority of what you say.
I think the general lego trend towards playsets is ruining what was great about lego in the first place. They have become barbie and GIJoe set pieces. I think if you made something that would satisfy some gender neutrality and didnt have these bad features, it simply wouldn't sell. They do have to compete with Bratz, etc... and these girls are trained to want these things. It's sad, really
I used to play with beleville figures as a kid. Given that was when I was over at my cousins house and she's a girl and I'm raised as a boy. Don't know if I had a point really, just wanted to show that we cock owners also play with girly things I guess.
This is a truly great video. We tried a few months ago to make the same point, after a building store company in Holland, made a sexist commercial with and for LEGO. But this research video shows LEGO’s stereotyping brilliant. Looking at it I wonder about 2 things: can't LEGO be sued for there sexism :-) and does LEGO has female collegaes at all? Is Denmark from Mars instead of modern Scandinavia? Im going to link yr video to our blog: at talktoaletta.nu/blog/lego-vs-playmobil
OMG LOL, I loved the Paradisa stuff when I was a kid! I had an ice cream parlor and a horse carriage; granted, my parents also bought me stuff like Lego rocket ships and ATVs, so...
When I was young, I just used clay to make little wigs for my Lego figures, so I could have "girls" too. That way they could be badass astronauts too. Although most of my Lego sets looked like something out of a David Lynch film...
I asked my little sister the other week "unrelated to this Vid" what was lego friends her reply "its just shit" she is much happier with bog standard lego
As a girl I scorned all the girl-marketed toys since I prefer greens and blacks and monsters and adventure and HATE make up and hair-do. (I love that dino!!) But it didn't come without a deep sense of shame and wrongness. Even when I was little I knew that looking at the boy toy isle with all it's amazing action figures wasn't 'normal' and I imagined people's judgement. That kept me from asking for and enjoying many things, like comic books, that I only like now because I have adult autonomy.
And this is why I think when I have children, instead of taking them to their gender stereotyped toy aisles, I'll take them to their opposite sex toy aisle first. If my son wants a Barbie doll, wonderful, if my daughter wants a skateboard great!
Everytime I see the lego friends commercial I want to punch something. It's no different from any Polly Pocket toys, they should've bought Polly Pocket and spend less money.
out of the 1000s of minifigs i have; i have about 10 female characters ;l this aint right lego. We should see more boxes with pictures of girls building/going to space/hair dresser/painter EVRRYTHINGG any gender can do anythng uughhh !!! :'(
I know a few females that love Lego, and not the Paradisa (the brand from my timeframe) range, in fact they like making space ships and bizarre vehicles and machines just like the males I know that play with Lego. Lego appeals to creative children of any gender. Parenting style instils gender roles and toys at the very most complement that environment. Dressing your child in stereotypical outfits and accessories is a far bigger crime in the development of their identity, in my opinion.
The whole problem with the female LEGO set is that it exist. Why would you ever want to separate girls from boys? Just place both gender in each product, and you're set, no need to think about special products!
This is really peculiar, because the LEGOs that I had when I was a boy, a whole twenty years ago, even the specific sets meant to build things, were always very gender neutral. Castles and spaceports and the like. There was even a really neat monorail set that ran on solar power! This enterprise is kind of dispiriting, and I wasn't aware that LEGO has been marketed solely towards boys as of late.
LEGO (or the company that makes it) doesn't care whether kids adopt stereotypical gender roles. like all profit making companies in a capitalist economy, they have one objective - to make money. if there's a gap in the market, companies either fill that gap or lose ground to competitors who fill the gap. if promoting conventional construction style toys to girls is sufficiently profitable then they'll do it
Thank GOD! I swear when I was watching Cartoon Network with my little brother over Christmas break, and a commercial for 'girl' Legos came on, where girls could go to the beauty parlor/cook/shop, I was SO appalled! I thought Legos were a gender neutral toy, that both girls and boys could play with equally. I know I didn't have a problem with playing with regular Legos as a kid, building houses and ships and whatnot. It was so insulting, so thanks for making this video.
Well, I have to admit that I never really thought about it that way. But I am probably biased, as my 10-year-old half-sister plays very fondly with hogwarts lego - unfortunately the high prices somewhat inhibit me to add to her experience.
When I saw those new Friends sets I thougtht I was going to gag - but then I remembered how I used to love Paradisa and Belleville when I was younger. To be fair, I got into Paradisa because a male friend had Paradisa sets (among others). Also, the City series includes a Pizza Place. Incidentally, Belleville was originally a play suburbia akin to this new look, I was about 13 when they converted it to fairy tale land and I was INCREDIBLY disappointed. I went off Lego that day.
One year I got the Paradisa cafe set from my uncle. After the thrill of getting my own Lego set subsided (there are way fewer Legos in the girl sets and the large pieces are solid, ready-made pieces), I was bored out of my mind. So I built my brother's space shuttle with launch pad set that he had given up on.
I think the biggest issue with these girl-marketed Legos is the lack of building options. Most of the "building" in the new set is purely decorative (make flowers, add details, etc.)
I like this video a lot and really want to understand how their multi million dollar research campaign went wrong. I mean, they tried to hire the best market researchers they could find, right? I remember enjoying Legos as a kid, and I think there were female figures in some of the sets too.
Kudos to you for such in depth coverage on a really weighty topic; I really look forward to part 2. As someone who works in a toy store presently, it pains me to say that the Lego Friends line is easily one of our most popular and requested toys of the new year so far. I'm happy that it is providing a door for girls to walk through to get to lego, but worry it's leading them down a very very narrow corridor.
I had never even thought about Lego and gender inequalities. They always seemed like the "good" toy. Based on creativity and building. I played with Legos with my brother all the time, and I'm a girl. We would build houses and cities and pretend to be a construction firm. I think Lego is doing themselves a disservice by having this new "Friends" thing going on, as I think girls already do play with Lego. Or at least I did.
I build the same way boys do. I never got any female-designed legos. I think I remember the clikits, though...I always came up with my own stories, I never had the themed ones.
Another weird thing about that colour scheme is it seems to be mainly secondary colours. In high school we had to make a painting using only secondary colours (green, purple, orange) and it was really difficult to make something that actually looked good and pleasing. They've done a pretty decent job with that colour scheme here, making it look stylised and cohesive, but it has a really limited, muted feel. It's not exciting and colourful like standard lego sets - which seems kinda fitting!
I remember when I was younger, my brother said I "wasn't allowed" to play with his Lego. I'd show him this, but he'd probably baw that "sexism no longer exists" and we're just being whiney. Ugh
Regardless, great video as per usual. I always appreciate how much research you put into these
The weird thing is that I want to see Part 2 and want to be notified when it comes out, but subscribing to a channel called FeministFrequency is kind of... weird.
@InstrumentalityOne Why's it weird? I mean it's a channel about feminist perspectives on issues, like this one, and you're obviously interested - so go for it! If it's 'feminism' as a label, don't forget people have made a point of misrepresenting the subject to turn people away - have a look at the rest of the videos, they're all pretty great, and if they interest you and you agree with the sentiments then there's nothing weird about subscribing to a channel that shares your opinions, y'know?
Thank you so much! This has been something that has bothered me for my whole life. As a little girl I loved Lego! It was my favorite toy and really still is. I always wanted the cool sets. Town, City, Medieval, you name it. I don't remember Scala or Paradiso or whatever, probably because they didn't appeal to me then or now. The only thing Lego Friends makes me want to do is buy those sets for boys and the other sets for girls just to even out the gender binary.
Why do those freaky little "LadyFigs" have names? Do the other minifigs have dedicated names?
Honestly, all they needed to do was show girls in their advertisements. That's it. Just show girls in their commercials and ads playing with legos. Unfortunately, growing up, I always just saw boys in the commercials, so I'd argue with girls at school who insisted that legos were not a girls' toy. How much money did I waste to come to this conclusion? Nada.
And I really wanna play with the Hogwarts castle now. At least the girls that come with the Harry Potter sets actually look like lego figurines, not like Polly Pocket dolls. '-'
That HP set is very detailed but I want a Diablo III set , get on it Lego.
On topic, I agree. The new friend models are very detailed but they are really just focusing on a very small part of its potential, I would like to see a space dock for the Friend series as well or the whole city set evolve so both are compatible.
(continued) And these bastards know that, if they really think gender roles are natural and predetermined, why don't they start showing ONLY girls in their tradicional lego ads, and only boys in the new ads? If anyone even remotely suggested that I'm positive they'd reply that this would be discouraging boys to play with the tradicional legos. Weird how they know gender norms are constructed when it would exclude boys, but not when it would exclude girls.
You know what's biological? Wanting to fit in in your environment, wanted to be accepted and seen as normal by others, of course if the world media shows you as a kid all the time tells you that people abide by gender norms, you'll do it too. How many times can a girl still want to play with the tradicional lego after realizing that in all their ads not a single token female is shown, basically telling her these toys are for the boys, not her. (continues)
So glad you made a video about this! As soon as I saw the commercial I was immediately upset. Glad I'm not the only one! Great job! Looking forward to part 2!
I remember, I used to switch the heads of my Paradisa minifigs with the ones of the male figs. So I had a woman with red libstick going on adventures in her sensible outfit on a rafter, and a guy in a pink shirt who drank out of an empty cup (I didn't play with the guy a lot because drinking out of a cup is boring).
I literally facepalmed when I saw the "Lego Friends" thing. Seriously? I mean...seriously? This is LEGO, not a Barbie knock-off.
I'd really love it if they scrapped the Heartlake City and went back to making their things gender-neutral. The gender stereotypes are unbelievably countless.
Great video. As egregious as LEGO Friends is, it is only one part of the LEGO gender problem. Boys are sold a world of male gender stereotypes, where aggression & violence rule, as seen in lines like Heroica and Ninjago and associated advertising. The impact of the sexism in lines like LEGO Friends can also be seen in the "boys'" lines, where female characters are marginalized & website videos include dialogue like: "We're saving a girl? Is she hot?" LEGO has a LONG way to go on gender.
Be careful of what you wish for...If the bricks and characters are interchangeable with the standard Lego sets then I can't see why this set couldn't augment a standard set..There is no reason why the girls can't be firefighters, cook cupcakes and run a salon business on the side. Although there should be characters that reflect that.
Great video! The gaming industry has got the same problem. Always making super stupid games for girls and when nobody buys the shit they are all surprised . What they don't realize is that girls play the exact same games as boys.
This was really well done. I'm male and I remember buying the Paradisa sets as a kid. I liked them because they complemented the rest of my Lego Town sets. That they were awash with pink and obviously marketed to girls was a non-issue for me. Wasn't for my parents though who scolded me for buying "girl lego". Meh.
Well, yes this is a world based on a traditional view of gender roles. But, you can turn it around as well. The LEGOs marketed to boys are all about cars, ships, space and other things that traditionally boys are expected to be interested in. I find it a bit hypocritical that feminists only complain when companies promote a traditional view of women. Yes, I think this new series is too conservative... But, you forget the important question. Why do girls don't want to play with the old LEGOs?
Your points seemed incredibly obvious (and valid) to me, but I realized that it's probably because I work in a toy store. I have so many problems with the organization and classification of toys regarding any kind of gender specifications. Especially as a girl that absolutely loved normal Legos as a child. (I would sell a kidney for Hogwarts Castle today.) Regardless, thanks for addressing this. I also realized something was wrong when I learned the sales pitch for Friends earlier this month.
When I was young, I had a giant box of Lego pieces - a generic 1000 piece box, not a set, no special pieces, no mini-figures, even. I loved that box far more than any of the "sets", and I think the reason I loved it was because it was so neutral. There was no gender or "way to play with" it at all. Me and my dad and mum and brother all enjoyed it equally.
I don't see why Lego feels like it has to cater to boys OR girls - I think it would be a lot more popular if it stuck to that neutrality.
@RaineAtMidnight It would be awesome to be able to just buy a big bag of bricks with no instructions, just an opportunity to build and play and be creative.
@feministfrequency Yup, I had an unmarked bucket full of miscellaneous bricks that I had collected over the years, and it served me perfectly well! I spent so many hours with those LEGOs
@feministfrequency Some kids need instructions to start the construction. But I totally agree with you : I want to buy a big box of generic Lego of ALL colors!!
@RaineAtMidnight I agree. I recieved a pretty neutral set when I was little, it had characters and parts for houses, cars, garden, and an ideas booklet, and I never thought of it as something 'not for me'. It was the best gift I ever got, and I still have and love Lego.
They seem to be taking the easy (money-lined) way here, playing into and reaffirming established gender stereotypes. They seem to be stuck or perhaps even moving backward now.
@RaineAtMidnight Exactly! My brother and I had a tub of Lego bricks we could practically swim in. We and our friends hardly ever played with the pre-prepared sets, we would all (boys and girls) just dive in. I would make houses with nice gardens and my brother would work on his roof architecture. We didn't have any instructions, just a whole bunch of red bricks.
If you want a good laugh, Lionel trains tried marketing special trainsets for girls. Their solution: Make pastel trains in pink and blue. While the blue cars were interesting, the pink engine looked like a smoking, steel, monster, dildo, screaming down the track. The outcome was absolute failure, as one can imagine. However, in the process they created a collectors item, and based on that, have reissued the smoking, steel, monster, dildo, for those that missed it the first time around.
I really enjoyed this video! I grew up playing with both dolls and Legos, as well as race cars and skateboards (I'm a girl) and I really thought this was interesting. As a kid I never really realized how big of a separation there is, but it's shocking now. I'd love to hear what you have to say about American Girl Dolls, they were some of my favorite things to play with while I was growing up.
@xxmalidiaxx I actually never even knew American Girl Dolls existed until I read about them in Cinderella Ate My Daughter, I never had them as a kid and neither did my friends (possibly because I grew up in Canada). I'd check out her chapter on it though, it's a great analysis.
@feministfrequency The cool thing, I found, for American Girl dolls was that while it was marketed mainly for girls, they had girls who were farmers, pioneers, socialites, adventurers...they really concentrated on making the girls as characters set in their time period rather than specifically being "They're a girl so they like x y and z things". They made independent girls, social girls, rambunctious girls, hardworking girls - it was more about who they were. Nowadays...not so much.
I'm reminded of a time long ago when a nine-year-old me got in a fight at school because I refused to let a girl play with the Lego since it was made for boys not girls. I also remember being insanely competitive over who had the most Lego out of all my friends. You had to have the 'rare' pieces as well, certain blocks that were hard to find since they only appeared in certain sets. I gotta say, I'm with you all the way on this one, Lego (as long as I've known it) has always been a boys' toy.
The "pink is for girls" stereotype has done nothing but infuriate me since childhood. I went out of my way to avoid it, going so far as choosing my brother's blue bunk bed over my sister's pink one when they got new furniture. I hated pink passionately. I also went out of my way to steal my brother's legos to play with them. I didn't need a set "just for girls" to have fun with it. Excellent video, as always. Looking forward to part 2.
I was about to blow up your comments about not giving suggestions to fix said problems you identified, then you did at the end and now I think you are awesome :). Your whole video was very methodical and logically structured, and I agree with everything. The only thing I'd say is that it is probably extremely difficult to break down those stereotypes since most kids have already bought into it. All toys are segregated in this same way (I mean just flip on Nick during the day). Good job!!! :)
I have to ask isn't Star Wars, Harry Potter, Medieval market gender neutral? There are plenty of girls that are interested in this stuff so why is it seen as strictly targeted for boys? What is stopping girls (or maybe the girls' parents) from buying their daughter a LEGO Death Star?
Wow, I can't believe that Lego did this. I guess that just goes to show that the toy industry has got a loooong way to go in terms of creating diverse toys for girls.
Thanks for posting up this video and all your other videos for that matter, it's great to see some more feminist commentary on our modern media. :)
My sister had the paradisa set. we used to use it as a docking station for the spaceships, and turned the pool into pirate island. yeahhhhh. But i showed my almost 9 year old the lego friends stuff, and she looked at it and promptly asked if she was getting the knight bus to go with Hogwarts castle and the hogwarts express for her birthday.... then she exclaimed she could build her own house, but would like some pink and purple bricks to extend her colour set...
The last lego set I got was an old western town. It was good enough for me. I don't know why other girls wouldn't also love it. That was back in 2000. I'm sad that one of my favorite toys is changing this way.
I hate what LEGO has become. I grew up with LEGOs and had knights and pirate ships and other..random sets. Now of course they wasted 4 years and however million dollars to come up with "Stereotype it and pink it!"
Omg. Clickits was lego?? FAIL!! HAHAHA. I remember that commercial. I only liked the dancing and thought the rest was such a waste. My teacher in primary school bought us mechanical legos where you could build cars and moving machines ect... I loved it.
A disturbing theme in all the roles given to girls in the Lego sets is the lack of professional occupations that bring in money. The girls do not seem to have jobs to the same extent that the boys do. Sure, being a hairdresser, vet or baker are of course respectable professions. But the way they are portrayed in the ads they seem to be more leisurely activities. Like something a housewife would do to pass the time.
I can't say that being a policeman, fire fighter or astronaut is as ambiguous.
I actually reacted to this issue when I was about five, I was upset how there was no females in a knight set that they had at the time. My mum then emailed lego and said that her five year-old daughter had gotten upset about the lack of girls in the knight set and asked them why it was like that. Their answer was something along the lines of "check out Belville, for girls!" arrrgh, seems like lego hasn't changed a bit. Also, I loved this video, very interesting.
I'm upset that convential marketing methods IN GENERAL divide the genders artifically I Want the convention to be gender nuetral. I don't care about design, or how much money was spent I'm pissed that they think genders are divided naturall that these diferences are inherent and natural.I don't think our GENETICS dictates attraction to certain "Types of play" or "Toys" I don't see the evidence that gender isn't an entirely LEARNED concept
I find it very frustrating that most parents fall directly into this. I remember when I went to school, the other girls in class wanted to play with the bricks and trucks like the boys did, but the teacher would actually encourage them to walk over to the "Play Kitchen" and convince them that this was funner than the bricks. We built things and expanded our understanding of structures, while the girls were influenced how to turn the burner on, clean the oven etc... Very frustrating.
Color association is even older than the 1900s. During the days of Rome, during its rise and zenith as a world power...Romans associated the color pink with men due to its significance to bloodshed during battles, skirmishes, etcetera. The association existed even then that males were warlike creatures. For example, purple and its various sub-shades that are now considered more of a feminine color were predominantly associated with royalty (male or female). *Everyone knows this tidbit, right?*
I use to own the Horse Ranch from the Paradisa line. While ranting about Ninjo's (toy line and tv show) sexism I told my coworkers I loved my Lego horse ranch set when I was a child because the functioning-wheeled jeep and buildings could be made into different structures. I was also happy because there were female mini-figs, though I played with her bald.
When I first saw the Heart Lake City, my stomach turned.
I'm cool with them working on a set that girls will be more interested in... But I think making them incompatible at all (yes they click together) with the "boy" centered sets is wrong. I don't like that the figures don't look anything like any of the "boy" figures and as you stated in the video they only have society driven roles. I think what they are trying to do in theory is great but they have a long way to come, probably a whole new roll-out before I would buy any for my daughter.
Great video, but let me make a point: Lego is trying to dissasociate it's image from ther main product (the bricks) for a long time. It's label, a company, totally associated with only one product, and I think it's okay if they feel like it's time change. Maybe that's why they spent so much time and money with research.
But of course, I'm not saying they did it well. If they wanted to achieve a new type of consumer and innovate, they only mixed some brick elements with agressive girly stereotype
@FunkyBeccaBecca I had the Forestman's Hideout. That set was awesome. I was also thrilled to be able to get one almost a year after it was discontinued, but a lot of searching paid off.
Here's the problem with the marketing research; they are examining deeply established gender roles. Parents choose the toys they buy for their children, many often coerce their kids into 'gender appropriate' options. If researchers see girls playing with lots of pink tea sets, and having fun, the marketers assume that girls 'naturally' choose these toys, instead of their parents choosing for them or despite being groomed to like such toys.
@samiam2088 I mentioned this in Part 2 but it's important to remember that toy and media companies have been using aggressively gendered marketing for decades, they have been manufacturing desire and parents that are forcing gender stereotypes on their children have not been immune to this form of marketing.
@feministfrequency Well then this is a more depressing business cycle than I thought. The toy companies set the toy industry standard, the parents buy into it and groom children into their future gender roles. When the toy company wants to come up with something "new" that will sell, they observe kids acting according to the stereotypes the industry created, the marketers call it 'natural,' and create a toy that reinforces stereotypes, thus recycling the same old tired ideas.
@samiam2088 Yes, this partly true but on the filp side there are parents who usually buy things their kids asked for. They may ask for these things because that's what they think they should like as opposed to general interest. It really depends on the research was conducted. Were their parents even involved in the research? Did they allow the girls to make their own choices based on a wide variety? Did they allow "boys" toys to be an option?
When I was a kid, my parents frowned upon gender-specific toys for my sister & me. No guns or Tonka trucks for me, and no baking or tea sets for my sister. Lego was fantastic. In the early days, the building blocks were pretty basic. As manufacturing costs came down, more specialized Lego sets came out. I have definitely noticed the trend of more violent Lego sets. Disappointing. Thanks for the video! I will definitely be letting Lego know that I disapprove.
PatrickLevell 3 weeks ago 15
I loved my Hogwarts castle, and all my Legos. The lack of female minifigs didn't bother me. But then, I was a child, and I also basically wanted to BE a boy. A desire pretty much born from the fact that boys toys were cooler and more fun, as were boys activities and boys clothes. I grew out of that desire after my parents sent me to an all girls school because I was getting beaten up by the boys at kinder for trying to play with them.
MitholX 3 weeks ago
The Paradisa range co-incided with my childhood and I had a few sets from it. I also had a few from the regular (apparently) boys range. I honestly never realised the difference till you pointed it out. Playing with them was essentially the same - lots of little pieces; minifigures; instructions for one design; pictures of other designs for inspiration. The central idea was building and creating, and the complexity was identical to non-paradisa sets. Why on earth did they ever scrap that?
aspirateur 3 weeks ago
This video and especially part 2 of it, encouraged me to write to Lego about the issue which I am doing now and while one email may not grab their attention, I'm sure receiving many emails (or letters or phone calls, whichever you find more effective) will. So I hope everyone will do the same to bring back the gender-neutral Lego bricks that the new generation of kids should experience like we did, rather than having the male-oriented sets imposed on them.
DeeForDisaster 3 weeks ago 4
My Little Lego: Purple is Magic.
DrShaym 3 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos 2
Lego friends what a joke! Boys go to cafes and have friends too!
smooveau 3 weeks ago 9
I remember remember Belville :D Always played with the animals instead of the dolls.
Kyrmana 3 weeks ago
oh my gosh, i remember clickits. i had the set when i was like, eight... wow
TurqouiseTapioca 3 weeks ago
What bothers me about "female lego heads" is that all women/girls/etc don't wear red lipstick.. I feel like I did when I would watch 90s cartoons (where the female characters always had a HUGE pink bow or high heels.. so they couldn't do much. just cause she was "female.") XD
But I guess right now, we'll take what we can get, right? >.> I just wish there was a more expanded meaning to being "female." Than just "figure/lipstick/makeup." Sounds like a strictly hetero male's perspective of female.
YourDarkAccomplice 4 weeks ago 12
It bothers me that 95% of my minifigs are male, I've always wanted more female minifigs. LEGO is better in it's high end modular line in terms of gender equality, as these sets are not aimed at children like other LEGO products, LEGO would struggle to successfully apply gender to them without destroying the appeal of the sets and thus the figures included are a fairly even mix of male and female. it's a shame they feel this approach is inappropriate for children.
bobdeath94 4 weeks ago
I am female. I grew up with lego, it was a key part of my development as a child and I remember it fondly. I am so glad this awful "girly" lego didn't exist when I was young because I would simply have been disgusted if someone presented me this. I'd love my gender to be represented in lego but not as these helpless, sheltered, weak characters. I'd rather discover a new species than paint my nails. Mega bloks aren't any better in their girls department but I absolutely love their dragons sets...
choobaine 4 weeks ago 5
Good video. Good to see things from an other perspective.
Jmjager1 4 weeks ago
Part of me is wondering when the Harry Potter franchise became a 'boys thing' and why marketers, when adhering to silly gender stereotypes, always pass over medieval castles as a rather gender neutral theme. There are knights and kings, yes, but pretty princesses and horses! Do companies just not want to double their profit?
I'd also point out that toy marketing is now also aimed at adults, which does mean 'pink toys only' parents are more likely to buy lego, rather than eschewing it entirely.
Stormandfire 4 weeks ago
Your videos are simply awesome.
blancol 4 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Lego's management is just scum. All they had to do was add more female minifigs and show more girls playing with Legos, instead of the insulting crap they ended up producing. Kids don't need more mindless plastic crap that doesn't spur their creativitiy.
Missbeansontoast 4 weeks ago
"I just finished decorating my house!" lol What do girls do in their free time? beautyshop, house decor, and not Lego Friends
indigoandbluetoo1 4 weeks ago
Okay I agree with her on this one. I never thought Legos ever had to be segregated, my sister and I grew up with my legos when they were still labeled as Mania back in the early 90s. Though I don't see what's wrong with the Paradisa set, I'm a guy and I'd love to have that set. Even heroes deserve a vacation in the imaginagery world of Lego City.
tsukasa19 4 weeks ago
I remember when I was little I was always jealous of the boys in my class (I identify as a woman and am biologically female, btw) because they were able to play with Legos and I was nevr really allowed to; I was never told explicitly to not play with Legos, however I was never given the opportunity to play with them. The only Lego toys that my sister and I had while growing up was one based on a horse theme, but I was always upset that there wasn't a lot of material to actually build things...
halfcat7 4 weeks ago 5
haha holy crap I remember that click its comercial
YouSoundBored 4 weeks ago 2
I've always wondered about the red/blue for boys pink/purple for girls thing. As a kid i wanted ALL of the colors, not the ones stereotyped to my gender (i'm male). I grew up with all girl cousins who lived next door, and they played with legos with me and i played with barbies with them, mostly we played physical games outside though.
101011001 4 weeks ago 5
I watched both of these videos. I love legos myself and I also love these two videos. You make very good points. I just can't believe lego spent all that money on research and marketing when they should have just stuck with what they had! Thumbs up for you for being better than billions of dollars!!
britriv3r 4 weeks ago 3
feminist frequency, i just found your channel and this lego vid - and love your articulate and well composed argument. i appreciate your intellectual approach to making this important argument, very respectably done. looks like a lot of work went into it.
i will be subscribing and watching and sharing your links.
katbendyoutubization 4 weeks ago 3
*BLEEP* that pink crap! I played with my bothers lego's as a child and it was awesome!
Me = Architectural Technologist
MelaniaSuperHoney 4 weeks ago
I'm wondering if they thought to include adults in on this study, considering how many I know (myself included) still collect them. I'll stick with the original Legos- I don't want any of this frilly pink junk.
Chillazilla2 4 weeks ago
this is incredibly depressing.
opostell 4 weeks ago
I have not read all the comments yet, this is from my fb discussion on the video.
Part 1:
To quote the Beastie Boys:
And she said dark is not the opposite of light
It's the absence of light
And I thought to myself
She knows what she's talking about
This vlogger did her research and knows her stuff. A few caveats though.
There was a couple of missing attempts at cracking the girl market, or more so at least, with Fabuland in the mid 80'
shishkeblob 4 weeks ago
lego would not have to design a line "for girls" if they didn't dissuade girls from playing with traditional legos by directing the advertising exclusively towards boys.
lovelydisarray 4 weeks ago 8
WAIT...so they spent millions on this junk...and cancelled LEGO Universe?! Thanks for the one-two punch to BOTH my kids.
vespersongs 4 weeks ago
All this stuff is pre made, what is this shit?
dancedanceeyeah 4 weeks ago 4
I'm a girl and I always played with lego, just using normal lego. I didn't see the point in all this 'Friends'. I very much agree with you.
JessicaDoar 4 weeks ago 2
That's exactly what I thought about the ads and the LEGO original character's size.
Thank you for the great video, BRAVO !
IceFritzLanger 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I am so excited for part two!
(and I had both belville and clickits as a kid, they sucked massively. I only wanted to build space stations)
Misp0610 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Great vid!
xXbestefarXx 1 month ago
I work with preschoolers and we have Duplos (the chunky Legos for little kids). ALL of the children enjoy building and playing with airplanes, dinosaurs, towers, and even houses and families.
I think part of the problem is that Legos are typically stocked in the same aisles as action figures and other stereotypical boy things and parents are as gender-brainwashed as their kids will someday be.
kenwen4 1 month ago
My nephew is nearly three years old and his favourite colours are purple and pink. I wonder how long it will be until he starts absorbing the idea that these colours are "for girls" and he should be embarrassed for having anything in common with them?
ButlerWho 1 month ago 2
It's funny that just before this media storm broke I had a bit of a revelation; I was in a Lego shop where they have a stand full of bits of Minifigs. You could make your own and buy them. An assistant (female) told me that recently that had run out of the girl (red mouthed) heads. That's when it hit me! Girls just want more female characters in the sets! If half of the heads were female, or had female faces on one side (there are double sided heads these days) girls would show more interest!
FizzyMcPhysics 1 month ago 78
@FizzyMcPhysics I just had that same experience at the LEGO store, I was searching for female heads and the person working there told me they were all sold out. Clearly there is a desire for more female minifigs (in the traditional minifig style).
feministfrequency 4 weeks ago 31
Urgh! It drives me mad! The wonderful thing about LEGO when I was a kid (and it was my favourite toy EVAR) was that it was so versatile. Because it was literally JUST BRICKS. You could do anything with it. And no one told us what or how to build and how to play with it.
loewenzahn 1 month ago 80
That girl version of lego is an abomination. Why does it need to be special? What happened to having a big box of lego bricks where you could build whatever you want?
LEpicFails913 1 month ago 6
Thanks for this! I'm doing a research project for a class and this was sent in an email. I actually saw these when I went to the store to do my research. I used to play with plain legos when I was a kid. I have no problem with the Heartlake city theme except that it needs some diversity (women fire fighters, women police, etc)
MySmile012 1 month ago
I used to make whole worlds of lego, with pirates bay,an island of indians, witches castles, forts, military strongholds, caves etc. and it would cover my whole room and i keep them out for weeks. I never had any wish for any pink briks.........they would have lookd very out of place. I did have some, they never got used.
hezziattubeyou 1 month ago
This is why when I have children, they won't be allowed to watch television until they're at least 7 or 8 years old. The way toys are marketed to kids is so heavily gendered it really disgusts me. Just let them develop their own identity! Plus I really don't like the way the media in general is geared towards children. It turns them into greedy little materialistic consumers.
xxxBakeneckoxxx 1 month ago 3
I loved playing with lego when I was a girl! I did have a beauty saloon (This was about 30 years ago) but feel that the sets were probably less gender specific back then and I enjoyed making all sorts of things with the bricks and characters. I tried giving my 7 year old niece a lego set recently and she was not keen. Fisher Price sets were also more inclusive with female divers/ambulance drivers
soulfoodie1 1 month ago
God, where can I order one of those stegosaurus kits? Light up eyes, now that's cool.
username12120 1 month ago
hahahaha fantastic lego experience for girls... just imagine how would it look like... pink and 7 inch tall, cylindric shape thing :D
Petrhrabal 1 month ago
I would love to see you do a segment on Disney. I went to Disney World recently, and the whole "princesses for girls only" thing disgusted me.
washdog954 1 month ago 7
That was a really great video! When I first heard about Lego's stupid marketing ideas, I just facepalmed.
Xondar11223344 1 month ago
My little Lego: Friendship is Magic
gyrosplater 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I actually had the paradise set! Hah who knew.... but it was just incorporated into the rest of the lego
danielleandcoable 1 month ago
Where is part 2?
errorsinconduct 1 month ago
I'm the youngest of four (two older brothers to boot) so most of my toys were hand-me-downs, meaning I had a SHITTON of Legos growing up. That on top of my mom's mentality of "If guys can do it, so can girls, no questions asked" means I tended to play more with "boy's toys" than "girls toys". All the while wearing brightly-colored tights and skirts and insisting on having ribbons in my hair every day. I turned out fine. Enforcing gender normativity does not help a child's development.
katzgoboom 1 month ago
RE: Food and the Lego City, I at least remember there being a pizzeria set, which me and my brother built, then salvaged good parts for whatever spacecraft we were building.
But yeah, the whole idea that City and Heartlake City are separate entities with their own, segregated, unbalanced economies is kinda absurd. And I'm not usre how universal it is, but I know lots of girls who love Harry Potter, why not market that set to girls as well?
umusuuk 1 month ago
This is a really intricate, well done, non-angry video. Thanks so much for pulling this together!
reallifeprincess 1 month ago
Why, Lego? Why? Unfortunately in this case, Friendship is NOT Magic.
I live in Orlando and I went to the LEGO store in downtown disney recently. The store was PACKED, and I noticed a pretty even split between boys and girls playing. Then, I walked next door into the gender divided disney merchandise store.
I noticed an even split shopping in the boy's section (toy story, pirates, etc), but mostly girls in the girl's section (princesses). This is marketing pushing a gender split to sell more.
kingx101 1 month ago
I collected the majority of the original Harry Potter Lego sets. I always used to think out side the story surrounding the particular set, it's not impossible but I do agree with the majority of what you say.
DrWhoDamien 1 month ago
I think the general lego trend towards playsets is ruining what was great about lego in the first place. They have become barbie and GIJoe set pieces. I think if you made something that would satisfy some gender neutrality and didnt have these bad features, it simply wouldn't sell. They do have to compete with Bratz, etc... and these girls are trained to want these things. It's sad, really
Ozchuck 1 month ago
I used to play with beleville figures as a kid. Given that was when I was over at my cousins house and she's a girl and I'm raised as a boy. Don't know if I had a point really, just wanted to show that we cock owners also play with girly things I guess.
Stretchypantsmaster 1 month ago
This is a truly great video. We tried a few months ago to make the same point, after a building store company in Holland, made a sexist commercial with and for LEGO. But this research video shows LEGO’s stereotyping brilliant. Looking at it I wonder about 2 things: can't LEGO be sued for there sexism :-) and does LEGO has female collegaes at all? Is Denmark from Mars instead of modern Scandinavia? Im going to link yr video to our blog: at talktoaletta.nu/blog/lego-vs-playmobil
Thanks.
AlettaNu 1 month ago
OMG LOL, I loved the Paradisa stuff when I was a kid! I had an ice cream parlor and a horse carriage; granted, my parents also bought me stuff like Lego rocket ships and ATVs, so...
ToruKun1 1 month ago
When I was young, I just used clay to make little wigs for my Lego figures, so I could have "girls" too. That way they could be badass astronauts too. Although most of my Lego sets looked like something out of a David Lynch film...
TheAmpersand33 1 month ago
I asked my little sister the other week "unrelated to this Vid" what was lego friends her reply "its just shit" she is much happier with bog standard lego
MrDefHax 1 month ago 2
As a girl I scorned all the girl-marketed toys since I prefer greens and blacks and monsters and adventure and HATE make up and hair-do. (I love that dino!!) But it didn't come without a deep sense of shame and wrongness. Even when I was little I knew that looking at the boy toy isle with all it's amazing action figures wasn't 'normal' and I imagined people's judgement. That kept me from asking for and enjoying many things, like comic books, that I only like now because I have adult autonomy.
thewingedcroc 1 month ago 5
And this is why I think when I have children, instead of taking them to their gender stereotyped toy aisles, I'll take them to their opposite sex toy aisle first. If my son wants a Barbie doll, wonderful, if my daughter wants a skateboard great!
DaringCait 1 month ago 4
Everytime I see the lego friends commercial I want to punch something. It's no different from any Polly Pocket toys, they should've bought Polly Pocket and spend less money.
cosasdeandrea 1 month ago
out of the 1000s of minifigs i have; i have about 10 female characters ;l this aint right lego. We should see more boxes with pictures of girls building/going to space/hair dresser/painter EVRRYTHINGG any gender can do anythng uughhh !!! :'(
ALEG0Man360 1 month ago
I know a few females that love Lego, and not the Paradisa (the brand from my timeframe) range, in fact they like making space ships and bizarre vehicles and machines just like the males I know that play with Lego. Lego appeals to creative children of any gender. Parenting style instils gender roles and toys at the very most complement that environment. Dressing your child in stereotypical outfits and accessories is a far bigger crime in the development of their identity, in my opinion.
0incorporeal 1 month ago
The whole problem with the female LEGO set is that it exist. Why would you ever want to separate girls from boys? Just place both gender in each product, and you're set, no need to think about special products!
Pharanoise 1 month ago
This is really peculiar, because the LEGOs that I had when I was a boy, a whole twenty years ago, even the specific sets meant to build things, were always very gender neutral. Castles and spaceports and the like. There was even a really neat monorail set that ran on solar power! This enterprise is kind of dispiriting, and I wasn't aware that LEGO has been marketed solely towards boys as of late.
razieldumas 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
LEGO (or the company that makes it) doesn't care whether kids adopt stereotypical gender roles. like all profit making companies in a capitalist economy, they have one objective - to make money. if there's a gap in the market, companies either fill that gap or lose ground to competitors who fill the gap. if promoting conventional construction style toys to girls is sufficiently profitable then they'll do it
blahblahfeckinblah 1 month ago
Thank GOD! I swear when I was watching Cartoon Network with my little brother over Christmas break, and a commercial for 'girl' Legos came on, where girls could go to the beauty parlor/cook/shop, I was SO appalled! I thought Legos were a gender neutral toy, that both girls and boys could play with equally. I know I didn't have a problem with playing with regular Legos as a kid, building houses and ships and whatnot. It was so insulting, so thanks for making this video.
nerdishh 1 month ago
Still play with lego. Own the hogwarts castle. Pinch my brother's sets -:)
mangacatsanime 1 month ago
Thank you so much for tackling this crucial issue. Great video -- I look forward to part two!
mistaria 1 month ago
Well, I have to admit that I never really thought about it that way. But I am probably biased, as my 10-year-old half-sister plays very fondly with hogwarts lego - unfortunately the high prices somewhat inhibit me to add to her experience.
Enduriel 1 month ago
When I saw those new Friends sets I thougtht I was going to gag - but then I remembered how I used to love Paradisa and Belleville when I was younger. To be fair, I got into Paradisa because a male friend had Paradisa sets (among others). Also, the City series includes a Pizza Place. Incidentally, Belleville was originally a play suburbia akin to this new look, I was about 13 when they converted it to fairy tale land and I was INCREDIBLY disappointed. I went off Lego that day.
therealBlankety 1 month ago
One year I got the Paradisa cafe set from my uncle. After the thrill of getting my own Lego set subsided (there are way fewer Legos in the girl sets and the large pieces are solid, ready-made pieces), I was bored out of my mind. So I built my brother's space shuttle with launch pad set that he had given up on.
I think the biggest issue with these girl-marketed Legos is the lack of building options. Most of the "building" in the new set is purely decorative (make flowers, add details, etc.)
californiaswty 1 month ago
Wonderful video as always!
BilllyTrench 1 month ago
YES, a new video! I have been waiting for an update! Thank you!
TheMerrow3 1 month ago
I like this video a lot and really want to understand how their multi million dollar research campaign went wrong. I mean, they tried to hire the best market researchers they could find, right? I remember enjoying Legos as a kid, and I think there were female figures in some of the sets too.
hugesinker 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Kudos to you for such in depth coverage on a really weighty topic; I really look forward to part 2. As someone who works in a toy store presently, it pains me to say that the Lego Friends line is easily one of our most popular and requested toys of the new year so far. I'm happy that it is providing a door for girls to walk through to get to lego, but worry it's leading them down a very very narrow corridor.
ArcaneSky 1 month ago
I had never even thought about Lego and gender inequalities. They always seemed like the "good" toy. Based on creativity and building. I played with Legos with my brother all the time, and I'm a girl. We would build houses and cities and pretend to be a construction firm. I think Lego is doing themselves a disservice by having this new "Friends" thing going on, as I think girls already do play with Lego. Or at least I did.
CrayonInMyMouth 1 month ago
I build the same way boys do. I never got any female-designed legos. I think I remember the clikits, though...I always came up with my own stories, I never had the themed ones.
TheKcatty 1 month ago
DAMMIT!!! All they have to do is INCLUDE girls in their adverstising NOT make DOLLS and JUNK. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
Danceswithyewtube 1 month ago
Ha ha ha wow I remember seeing commercials for Clickits on TV...and even as an impressionable 13-year-old, I did not want that ugly plastic jewelry
melloe 1 month ago
Another weird thing about that colour scheme is it seems to be mainly secondary colours. In high school we had to make a painting using only secondary colours (green, purple, orange) and it was really difficult to make something that actually looked good and pleasing. They've done a pretty decent job with that colour scheme here, making it look stylised and cohesive, but it has a really limited, muted feel. It's not exciting and colourful like standard lego sets - which seems kinda fitting!
cactustactics 1 month ago
I remember when I was younger, my brother said I "wasn't allowed" to play with his Lego. I'd show him this, but he'd probably baw that "sexism no longer exists" and we're just being whiney. Ugh
Regardless, great video as per usual. I always appreciate how much research you put into these
LowBudgetLurker 1 month ago
Amazing work. Thank you for this!
scheshie1 1 month ago
The weird thing is that I want to see Part 2 and want to be notified when it comes out, but subscribing to a channel called FeministFrequency is kind of... weird.
InstrumentalityOne 1 month ago
@InstrumentalityOne ...it's more "weird" that you find it weird
rincewindsw 1 month ago
@InstrumentalityOne Why is it weird?
LowBudgetLurker 1 month ago
@InstrumentalityOne Why's it weird? I mean it's a channel about feminist perspectives on issues, like this one, and you're obviously interested - so go for it! If it's 'feminism' as a label, don't forget people have made a point of misrepresenting the subject to turn people away - have a look at the rest of the videos, they're all pretty great, and if they interest you and you agree with the sentiments then there's nothing weird about subscribing to a channel that shares your opinions, y'know?
cactustactics 1 month ago
@InstrumentalityOne Why?
pottsdam 1 month ago
Terrific work! Definitely your best video yet. I loved all the old commercials -- so much research! And you completely skewer LEGO's troll logic.
laurasha5 1 month ago
Thank you so much! This has been something that has bothered me for my whole life. As a little girl I loved Lego! It was my favorite toy and really still is. I always wanted the cool sets. Town, City, Medieval, you name it. I don't remember Scala or Paradiso or whatever, probably because they didn't appeal to me then or now. The only thing Lego Friends makes me want to do is buy those sets for boys and the other sets for girls just to even out the gender binary.
1ndustria 1 month ago
Why do those freaky little "LadyFigs" have names? Do the other minifigs have dedicated names?
Honestly, all they needed to do was show girls in their advertisements. That's it. Just show girls in their commercials and ads playing with legos. Unfortunately, growing up, I always just saw boys in the commercials, so I'd argue with girls at school who insisted that legos were not a girls' toy. How much money did I waste to come to this conclusion? Nada.
Rozax 1 month ago 4
I agree with UkeleleHill.
And I really wanna play with the Hogwarts castle now. At least the girls that come with the Harry Potter sets actually look like lego figurines, not like Polly Pocket dolls. '-'
dudewheresmydoctor 1 month ago
That HP set is very detailed but I want a Diablo III set , get on it Lego.
On topic, I agree. The new friend models are very detailed but they are really just focusing on a very small part of its potential, I would like to see a space dock for the Friend series as well or the whole city set evolve so both are compatible.
AetherSingularity 1 month ago
(continued) And these bastards know that, if they really think gender roles are natural and predetermined, why don't they start showing ONLY girls in their tradicional lego ads, and only boys in the new ads? If anyone even remotely suggested that I'm positive they'd reply that this would be discouraging boys to play with the tradicional legos. Weird how they know gender norms are constructed when it would exclude boys, but not when it would exclude girls.
x23biggestfan 1 month ago 3
You know what's biological? Wanting to fit in in your environment, wanted to be accepted and seen as normal by others, of course if the world media shows you as a kid all the time tells you that people abide by gender norms, you'll do it too. How many times can a girl still want to play with the tradicional lego after realizing that in all their ads not a single token female is shown, basically telling her these toys are for the boys, not her. (continues)
x23biggestfan 1 month ago 3
So glad you made a video about this! As soon as I saw the commercial I was immediately upset. Glad I'm not the only one! Great job! Looking forward to part 2!
Tennis4Life87 1 month ago 2
I remember, I used to switch the heads of my Paradisa minifigs with the ones of the male figs. So I had a woman with red libstick going on adventures in her sensible outfit on a rafter, and a guy in a pink shirt who drank out of an empty cup (I didn't play with the guy a lot because drinking out of a cup is boring).
781228XX 1 month ago
As soon as a I saw this on tv, I knew you would review it soon. Thanks!
eggyolksam 1 month ago 2
A brilliant piece of work!! Did you know that in a German LEGO catalogue from 1994, they say: "BelVille - with extra large parts for girls."?! ;((
enterolf 1 month ago
I literally facepalmed when I saw the "Lego Friends" thing. Seriously? I mean...seriously? This is LEGO, not a Barbie knock-off.
I'd really love it if they scrapped the Heartlake City and went back to making their things gender-neutral. The gender stereotypes are unbelievably countless.
alittletoocrazy101 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos 2
Great video. As egregious as LEGO Friends is, it is only one part of the LEGO gender problem. Boys are sold a world of male gender stereotypes, where aggression & violence rule, as seen in lines like Heroica and Ninjago and associated advertising. The impact of the sexism in lines like LEGO Friends can also be seen in the "boys'" lines, where female characters are marginalized & website videos include dialogue like: "We're saving a girl? Is she hot?" LEGO has a LONG way to go on gender.
AchillesEffect 1 month ago 4
actually, this video really reminded me of how much I once wanted the Scala and Bellville sets
Zelomakitoko 1 month ago
Be careful of what you wish for...If the bricks and characters are interchangeable with the standard Lego sets then I can't see why this set couldn't augment a standard set..There is no reason why the girls can't be firefighters, cook cupcakes and run a salon business on the side. Although there should be characters that reflect that.
army2k08 1 month ago
Great video! The gaming industry has got the same problem. Always making super stupid games for girls and when nobody buys the shit they are all surprised . What they don't realize is that girls play the exact same games as boys.
Jademyren 1 month ago 3
subscribed :)
georgemc25 1 month ago
This was really well done. I'm male and I remember buying the Paradisa sets as a kid. I liked them because they complemented the rest of my Lego Town sets. That they were awash with pink and obviously marketed to girls was a non-issue for me. Wasn't for my parents though who scolded me for buying "girl lego". Meh.
markiduval 1 month ago 5
Well, yes this is a world based on a traditional view of gender roles. But, you can turn it around as well. The LEGOs marketed to boys are all about cars, ships, space and other things that traditionally boys are expected to be interested in. I find it a bit hypocritical that feminists only complain when companies promote a traditional view of women. Yes, I think this new series is too conservative... But, you forget the important question. Why do girls don't want to play with the old LEGOs?
buugiman78 1 month ago
@buugiman78 That is a huge generalization of feminists, and actually entirely false because I talk about this point specifically in Part 2.
feministfrequency 1 month ago 26
Your points seemed incredibly obvious (and valid) to me, but I realized that it's probably because I work in a toy store. I have so many problems with the organization and classification of toys regarding any kind of gender specifications. Especially as a girl that absolutely loved normal Legos as a child. (I would sell a kidney for Hogwarts Castle today.) Regardless, thanks for addressing this. I also realized something was wrong when I learned the sales pitch for Friends earlier this month.
unbalancedOmega 1 month ago
When I was young, I had a giant box of Lego pieces - a generic 1000 piece box, not a set, no special pieces, no mini-figures, even. I loved that box far more than any of the "sets", and I think the reason I loved it was because it was so neutral. There was no gender or "way to play with" it at all. Me and my dad and mum and brother all enjoyed it equally.
I don't see why Lego feels like it has to cater to boys OR girls - I think it would be a lot more popular if it stuck to that neutrality.
RaineAtMidnight 1 month ago 77
@RaineAtMidnight It would be awesome to be able to just buy a big bag of bricks with no instructions, just an opportunity to build and play and be creative.
feministfrequency 1 month ago 49
@feministfrequency Yup, I had an unmarked bucket full of miscellaneous bricks that I had collected over the years, and it served me perfectly well! I spent so many hours with those LEGOs
muzzleddoxund1 1 month ago
@feministfrequency Some kids need instructions to start the construction. But I totally agree with you : I want to buy a big box of generic Lego of ALL colors!!
Imeon666 4 weeks ago
@RaineAtMidnight I agree. I recieved a pretty neutral set when I was little, it had characters and parts for houses, cars, garden, and an ideas booklet, and I never thought of it as something 'not for me'. It was the best gift I ever got, and I still have and love Lego.
They seem to be taking the easy (money-lined) way here, playing into and reaffirming established gender stereotypes. They seem to be stuck or perhaps even moving backward now.
67mobile 1 month ago
@RaineAtMidnight Exactly! My brother and I had a tub of Lego bricks we could practically swim in. We and our friends hardly ever played with the pre-prepared sets, we would all (boys and girls) just dive in. I would make houses with nice gardens and my brother would work on his roof architecture. We didn't have any instructions, just a whole bunch of red bricks.
miltigirl 1 month ago
Great video. Thank you so much for making these. You definitely help me to see and experience the world in a new way.
TheSailorGeek 1 month ago
If you want a good laugh, Lionel trains tried marketing special trainsets for girls. Their solution: Make pastel trains in pink and blue. While the blue cars were interesting, the pink engine looked like a smoking, steel, monster, dildo, screaming down the track. The outcome was absolute failure, as one can imagine. However, in the process they created a collectors item, and based on that, have reissued the smoking, steel, monster, dildo, for those that missed it the first time around.
ravenslaves 1 month ago
Awesome video!
I just noticed with one of my sets, it comes with pizzeria and a bike shop.
guess whos fixing the bikes? A man.
guess whos making the making the pizza? A woman.
Sound familiar? ':)
I'm a boy, and even I can for surely see the extreme sexism they brought in legos.
theextremebros1 1 month ago
Great video, looking forward to part 2!
NightlyNewsatNine 1 month ago
LEGO was so awesome for playing D&D with also. I wish we could just hand boxes to girls and have them build.
Benwoodruff 1 month ago
That commercial makes me want to burn things and I really don't think that would change if I was a woman.
GiantKukri 1 month ago
They market something for boys, so then mostly boys buy it, so then because mostly boys buy it, they make it mostly for boys.
Zaknafiein 1 month ago 18
@Zaknafiein hahaha, ya pretty much.
feministfrequency 1 month ago
I really enjoyed this video! I grew up playing with both dolls and Legos, as well as race cars and skateboards (I'm a girl) and I really thought this was interesting. As a kid I never really realized how big of a separation there is, but it's shocking now. I'd love to hear what you have to say about American Girl Dolls, they were some of my favorite things to play with while I was growing up.
xxmalidiaxx 1 month ago 6
@xxmalidiaxx I actually never even knew American Girl Dolls existed until I read about them in Cinderella Ate My Daughter, I never had them as a kid and neither did my friends (possibly because I grew up in Canada). I'd check out her chapter on it though, it's a great analysis.
feministfrequency 1 month ago 3
@feministfrequency Thanks! I'll definitely check it out :]
xxmalidiaxx 1 month ago
@feministfrequency The cool thing, I found, for American Girl dolls was that while it was marketed mainly for girls, they had girls who were farmers, pioneers, socialites, adventurers...they really concentrated on making the girls as characters set in their time period rather than specifically being "They're a girl so they like x y and z things". They made independent girls, social girls, rambunctious girls, hardworking girls - it was more about who they were. Nowadays...not so much.
katzgoboom 1 month ago
I'm reminded of a time long ago when a nine-year-old me got in a fight at school because I refused to let a girl play with the Lego since it was made for boys not girls. I also remember being insanely competitive over who had the most Lego out of all my friends. You had to have the 'rare' pieces as well, certain blocks that were hard to find since they only appeared in certain sets. I gotta say, I'm with you all the way on this one, Lego (as long as I've known it) has always been a boys' toy.
Wolfiewolfiewolfie 1 month ago
5:05. Big smile.
Knewscript 1 month ago
The "pink is for girls" stereotype has done nothing but infuriate me since childhood. I went out of my way to avoid it, going so far as choosing my brother's blue bunk bed over my sister's pink one when they got new furniture. I hated pink passionately. I also went out of my way to steal my brother's legos to play with them. I didn't need a set "just for girls" to have fun with it. Excellent video, as always. Looking forward to part 2.
Hikuya 1 month ago
I was about to blow up your comments about not giving suggestions to fix said problems you identified, then you did at the end and now I think you are awesome :). Your whole video was very methodical and logically structured, and I agree with everything. The only thing I'd say is that it is probably extremely difficult to break down those stereotypes since most kids have already bought into it. All toys are segregated in this same way (I mean just flip on Nick during the day). Good job!!! :)
parris154 1 month ago
I have to ask isn't Star Wars, Harry Potter, Medieval market gender neutral? There are plenty of girls that are interested in this stuff so why is it seen as strictly targeted for boys? What is stopping girls (or maybe the girls' parents) from buying their daughter a LEGO Death Star?
neosoontoretro 1 month ago
The female minifig faces are awful. If you want it really bad--look up the Lego Bible, especially the part where Lot's daughters have sex with him.
scottandrewhutchins 1 month ago
I'm sorry LEGO, you dropped the ball. Again.
leptonsoup337 1 month ago
Wow, I can't believe that Lego did this. I guess that just goes to show that the toy industry has got a loooong way to go in terms of creating diverse toys for girls.
Thanks for posting up this video and all your other videos for that matter, it's great to see some more feminist commentary on our modern media. :)
Harukurochan 1 month ago
My sister had the paradisa set. we used to use it as a docking station for the spaceships, and turned the pool into pirate island. yeahhhhh. But i showed my almost 9 year old the lego friends stuff, and she looked at it and promptly asked if she was getting the knight bus to go with Hogwarts castle and the hogwarts express for her birthday.... then she exclaimed she could build her own house, but would like some pink and purple bricks to extend her colour set...
emmpathy 1 month ago
Sad to say I saw their marketing direction coming a mile away.
cjiwakura 1 month ago
The last lego set I got was an old western town. It was good enough for me. I don't know why other girls wouldn't also love it. That was back in 2000. I'm sad that one of my favorite toys is changing this way.
CamillaCalamity 1 month ago
I hate what LEGO has become. I grew up with LEGOs and had knights and pirate ships and other..random sets. Now of course they wasted 4 years and however million dollars to come up with "Stereotype it and pink it!"
Maverynthia 1 month ago
Omg. Clickits was lego?? FAIL!! HAHAHA. I remember that commercial. I only liked the dancing and thought the rest was such a waste. My teacher in primary school bought us mechanical legos where you could build cars and moving machines ect... I loved it.
SellySeri 1 month ago
were is number 2 ???
is15land 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
A disturbing theme in all the roles given to girls in the Lego sets is the lack of professional occupations that bring in money. The girls do not seem to have jobs to the same extent that the boys do. Sure, being a hairdresser, vet or baker are of course respectable professions. But the way they are portrayed in the ads they seem to be more leisurely activities. Like something a housewife would do to pass the time.
I can't say that being a policeman, fire fighter or astronaut is as ambiguous.
kittenswithbows 1 month ago
Right ON. That is really a bummer.
californiabirdy 1 month ago
I actually reacted to this issue when I was about five, I was upset how there was no females in a knight set that they had at the time. My mum then emailed lego and said that her five year-old daughter had gotten upset about the lack of girls in the knight set and asked them why it was like that. Their answer was something along the lines of "check out Belville, for girls!" arrrgh, seems like lego hasn't changed a bit. Also, I loved this video, very interesting.
petnogakatten 1 month ago
Very interesting video. I just wish that the feminist frequency channel was more... frequent. :)
DaRunningMan 1 month ago
I'm upset that convential marketing methods IN GENERAL divide the genders artifically I Want the convention to be gender nuetral. I don't care about design, or how much money was spent I'm pissed that they think genders are divided naturall that these diferences are inherent and natural.I don't think our GENETICS dictates attraction to certain "Types of play" or "Toys" I don't see the evidence that gender isn't an entirely LEARNED concept
Fireinthedawn 1 month ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I find it very frustrating that most parents fall directly into this. I remember when I went to school, the other girls in class wanted to play with the bricks and trucks like the boys did, but the teacher would actually encourage them to walk over to the "Play Kitchen" and convince them that this was funner than the bricks. We built things and expanded our understanding of structures, while the girls were influenced how to turn the burner on, clean the oven etc... Very frustrating.
vroomvroompartystata 1 month ago
Color association is even older than the 1900s. During the days of Rome, during its rise and zenith as a world power...Romans associated the color pink with men due to its significance to bloodshed during battles, skirmishes, etcetera. The association existed even then that males were warlike creatures. For example, purple and its various sub-shades that are now considered more of a feminine color were predominantly associated with royalty (male or female). *Everyone knows this tidbit, right?*
1stbrasscaptain 1 month ago
I use to own the Horse Ranch from the Paradisa line. While ranting about Ninjo's (toy line and tv show) sexism I told my coworkers I loved my Lego horse ranch set when I was a child because the functioning-wheeled jeep and buildings could be made into different structures. I was also happy because there were female mini-figs, though I played with her bald.
When I first saw the Heart Lake City, my stomach turned.
GuardianOfMoon 1 month ago
I'm cool with them working on a set that girls will be more interested in... But I think making them incompatible at all (yes they click together) with the "boy" centered sets is wrong. I don't like that the figures don't look anything like any of the "boy" figures and as you stated in the video they only have society driven roles. I think what they are trying to do in theory is great but they have a long way to come, probably a whole new roll-out before I would buy any for my daughter.
UkuleleHill 1 month ago 4
Great video, but let me make a point: Lego is trying to dissasociate it's image from ther main product (the bricks) for a long time. It's label, a company, totally associated with only one product, and I think it's okay if they feel like it's time change. Maybe that's why they spent so much time and money with research.
But of course, I'm not saying they did it well. If they wanted to achieve a new type of consumer and innovate, they only mixed some brick elements with agressive girly stereotype
Linkhoodie 1 month ago
Medieval sets were the best because they had horses. and battleaxes.
FunkyBeccaBecca 1 month ago 7
@FunkyBeccaBecca I had the Forestman's Hideout. That set was awesome. I was also thrilled to be able to get one almost a year after it was discontinued, but a lot of searching paid off.
scottandrewhutchins 1 month ago
Hiya, Really enjoyed this video and it's a topic that anyone remotely feminist has been talking about recently. Will definitely share. Thank you.
ohallorandeirdre 1 month ago 2
Exactly.
Always bugged me as girls were the one to be segregated with all that "everything is pink" shit.
outformyown 1 month ago 7
Thank you for making this video, it really cleared up everything about the new "Lego for girls", so now I can be more clearly pissed about it.
I also REALLY want to play some lego now - specifically Hogwarts castle and that medieval market village...:)
orin12345678 1 month ago 4
Here's the problem with the marketing research; they are examining deeply established gender roles. Parents choose the toys they buy for their children, many often coerce their kids into 'gender appropriate' options. If researchers see girls playing with lots of pink tea sets, and having fun, the marketers assume that girls 'naturally' choose these toys, instead of their parents choosing for them or despite being groomed to like such toys.
samiam2088 1 month ago 43
@samiam2088 I mentioned this in Part 2 but it's important to remember that toy and media companies have been using aggressively gendered marketing for decades, they have been manufacturing desire and parents that are forcing gender stereotypes on their children have not been immune to this form of marketing.
feministfrequency 1 month ago 26
@feministfrequency Well then this is a more depressing business cycle than I thought. The toy companies set the toy industry standard, the parents buy into it and groom children into their future gender roles. When the toy company wants to come up with something "new" that will sell, they observe kids acting according to the stereotypes the industry created, the marketers call it 'natural,' and create a toy that reinforces stereotypes, thus recycling the same old tired ideas.
samiam2088 1 month ago
@samiam2088 Yes, this partly true but on the filp side there are parents who usually buy things their kids asked for. They may ask for these things because that's what they think they should like as opposed to general interest. It really depends on the research was conducted. Were their parents even involved in the research? Did they allow the girls to make their own choices based on a wide variety? Did they allow "boys" toys to be an option?
neosoontoretro