The holiday season is approaching, and already Lego is reporting that it may not be able to fill all of its orders in time. Spokesman for the Danish company, Roar Trangbaek, said this week that Lego will be able to fill existing orders but, due to the sheer volume, may not be able to keep up later in the year. Lego is now the world’s bestselling toy manufacturer, recently surpassing Mattel, which makes Barbie. “It is really extraordinary, and it has exceeded both our and our customers’ forecasts,” Trangbaek said.Lego’s recent growth is due partly to The Lego Movie, which came out last year, but that’s not the whole story. The growth is also due to Lego’s recent efforts to broaden a historically male-dominated toy’s demographic to include girls. And although Lego’s recent marketing efforts have been wildly successful, not everyone is excited about what the company has done.In 2014, Lego released an ad titled “Inspire Imagination and Keep Building.” The ad depicts a little girl playing with her various Lego creations: playing doctor over a Lego hospital stretcher, watching her pet hamster navigate a Lego maze, etc.
While some praised the ad for encouraging young girls to think creatively, others feared that the ad, by “dismissing the gender clichés that often overwhelm the children’s toy market,” discouraged femininity.To be honest, until I started reading about Lego’s recent marketing moves, I did not realize that the toys were considered a “quintessential boy’s toy.” I spent so much time playing with them as a child that I just assumed all little girls did. Apparently, although they were never marketed specifically to boys, and despite Lego’s best efforts over the past few decades, Legos have been historically unpopular with girls. Lego’s efforts certainly merit discussion. Any time you try to popularize stereotypically male activities among women, you run the risk of effectively sending the message that traditional femininity is somehow “less than.” Or in this case, that being a “girlie girl” isn’t good enough. But I really don’t think Lego has made that mistake with this ad, particularly because the ad showcases pieces from its new Lego Friends line—which, complete with a pop star recording studio and tour bus, is very specifically marketed to girls.
And, of course, not everyone is happy about these “Legos for girls” either. Pointing to a Lego ad from 1981 that depicts a redheaded girl playing with regular Legos and the caption, “What it is is beautiful,” detractors say that the toys, which used to be universal, now impose gender stereotypes. Among naysayers is the original redheaded girl from the famous ad, Rachel Giordano, who claims:“In 1981, Legos were simple and gender-neutral, and the creativity of the child produced the message. In 2014, it’s the reverse: The toy delivers a message to the child, and this message is weirdly about gender.”In my opinion, that’s not entirely fair. The fact of the matter is, despite that 1981 ad, the universal Legos were failing to attract the female demographic. And despite popular opinion, Lego Friends is not merely a manifestation of the tired girlie-girl stereotype but the result of the company’s in-depth market research. According to Adweek, Lego research reveals that whereas “males tend to build things in a ‘linear’ fashion—rushing to replicate exactly what’s on the box—females prefer a more personal, less rigid approach.
Girls create their own environments, develop personal stories around them, and even imagine themselves living inside the things they build.” Both genders enjoy the building aspect of the toys, but whereas boys tend to prefer a strong and predictable narrative, girls prefer the freedom to role-play. This kind of female creativity should not be squelched or ignored but encouraged.This is why I’m a fan of Lego’s recent changes. The company is not simply trying to spin an already existing product in a way that girls find interesting (although there is nothing inherently wrong with that either), but it’s actually producing a Lego—though functionally the same as every other Lego set—that caters to them. To create a product that draws more girls to innovate and build, that caters to the kind of creating girls tend to like, that utilizes the unique feminine imagination, is a good thing.I doubt anyone is saying that girls ought not to play with or prefer regular Legos. But the fact that not as many girls are into Legos as boys is not something we should be lamenting.
Nor is the fact that the type of Legos girls enjoy is different from the type of Legos boys enjoy. The goal of gender equality is not to make girls and boys indistinguishable but to encourage everyone to develop their natural gifts and pursue their personal interests. When it comes to breaking down gender barriers, the message is key. Are we telling girls to be more like boys? Or are we encouraging girls to be themselves? I think that what Lego has been doing for girls lately does the latter.Photo Credit: The Lego GroupPost by Rohmteen Mokhtari, Former HRC Coordinator, Family Project“I’m a fifth grade girl at Shorewood Hills Elementary. I’m not going to lie… I think Lego is pretty cool, but seriously?” This is the opening line of a letter to LEGO. The letter is one of many from students at Shorewood Hills Elementary School in Madison, WI who are troubled by what they found during a class project on marketing and stereotypes. Now it appears LEGO may be ready to acknowledge the problem.
It all started when the Madison Metropolitan School District turned to the HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools program and Gender Spectrum to help its schools become more gender-inclusive and address bias and bullying. In the three years since, educators and administrators at six pilot schools have received intensive training, support and lesson plans. One of those schools is Shorewood Hills, where 4th and 5th graders picked LEGO for their project on gender stereotypes in advertising to children.After compiling extensive data from over 600 LEGO sets, students found that most Lego sets were marketed almost exclusively to boys and included very few female mini-figures. And, as one student wrote, “if there is a lego girl, she is either covered in make up or a Damsel in Distress”. Among the exceptions were the “Friends” and “Princess” sets which were almost exclusively marketed to girls, included few male mini-figures and lots of gender stereotypes. As one 4th grader put it, “Lego Friends has tooooo much pink and purple”.
They were also troubled by the lack of cultural diversity, finding that in a sample of 407 human mini-figures only 27 represented non-European cultures. Having done the research, the students at Shorewood Hills were ready to take action. Inspired by Lego’s famous 1981 “What it is is beautiful” ad, they decided to create their own versions of the ads to remind LEGO that “diversity is perfect” and all children can play with LEGOs. But the students didn’t stop there. They also came up with suggestions for more inclusive LEGO sets and even tracked down the girl featured in the 1981 ad. Then they decided to share their findings and concerns with LEGO CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp through letters and artwork:This project is lovely because it gives the kids a voice as they talk about this and communicate via art, writing and research.” “They have learned so much and will learn by being teachers, too, as people look at the site.” Last week, it became clear that the students’ efforts, along with those of many others raising concerns about stereotypes in Lego sets, are not going unnoticed.
Last Wednesday, Lego announced a new set that included female scientists. The next day, students at Shorewood Hills received a letter from LEGO.“It’s true we currently have more male than female mini-figures in our assortment” a representative from LEGO wrote. “We completely agree that we need to be careful about the roles our female figures play - we need to make sure they’re part of the action and have exciting adventures, and aren’t just waiting to be rescued.”Welcoming Schools and Gender Sprectrum recently recognized Shorewood Hills’s outstanding work with a Leadership Award. Their efforts remind us that when students are allowed to think critically and express themselves without fear of stereotypes, what results is beautiful. And if we adults listen, there’s a lot we can learn. Read LEGO’s full letter below and find tools to avoid gender stereotyping from Welcoming Schools! Dear Michele and the children at Shorewood Hills Elementary School,
It’s amazing to see the outcome of all the time and effort you put into your analysis of gender and culture in LEGO® sets. I enjoyed reading the letters you posted on your website. We know we’re lucky to have so many loyal LEGO fans around the world and we’re always pleased to get feedback. When we develop a new LEGO set, we use customer feedback like yours – and most importantly, we ask children for opinions on every little detail. You’re the best play experts in the world and the toughest judges of what’s fun and what isn’t. It’s true we currently have more male than female minifigures in our assortment. We completely agree that we need to be careful about the roles our female figures play - we need to make sure they’re part of the action and have exciting adventures, and aren’t just waiting to be rescued. You say we should make female minifigures and sets for girls that look more like our other play themes. You’re right: we don’t expect all girls to love the LEGO Friends sets.
We know that each child is unique. That’s why we offer more than 450 different toys in various themes so everyone can choose what matches their building skills and links into their passions and interests. Our designers spend all day dreaming up new sets and ideas, and new roles continue to appear and old roles evolve for both male and female characters. Lots of strong women and girls live in LEGO City. They work as businesswomen, police officers and fire fighters. And THE LEGO MOVIE™ features Wyldstyle as a main character. She’s an awesome, inspiring character who’s also one of the best builders around! We originally chose yellow for the color of minifigures so they wouldn’t represent a specific ethnicity in sets when there were no characters represented. In this way, LEGO figures would be acceptable all over the world and fans could assign their own individual roles. However, in some products where we want figures to be as authentic as possible, such as movie characters, and others we plan in the future, some minifigures won’t be yellow to stay true to their characterization.