It's heartening to see that the criticism of the Lego Friends range for girls is rolling on. The following video, produced by Feminist Frequency, draws together some intriguing Lego ads from the 1980s onward that show the company's attempts to produce a range to entice girls to enter the world of Lego. It is dispiriting to realise that the collective picture of these attempts is that girls want to make jewellery, click together simple pieces that have pre-determined outcomes and fantasise about princes.
I'm looking forward to part two of this series, which promises to take us on a historical tour of advertisements for Lego featuring boys, including Zack the Lego Maniac.
1 comment:
Thank you for drawing attention to this! People underestimate the effect of toys on constructions of gender and identity.
I enjoyed the references to pink as a "girl's colour" and blue as a "boy's colour". I am currently teaching in Korea where pink is very much a boy's colour, even at the all boys high school where I teach.
There is nothing natural or innate about our notions of gender; everything is culturally constructed.
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