Legos are Sexist!

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

filed under: family

The famous toymaker is being slammed with charges of sexism. Read on for the scoop.

Does your daughter play with dolls and stuffed animals and your son with trucks and action figures?

The folks at Lego think they should -- and some people are mad about it.

According to Sweden's Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK), Danish toymaker Lego promotes outdated gender stereotypes by blatantly separating the boys from the girls.

ERK has condemned Lego for a recent catalog that features a photo of a girl playing in her pink room and a boy in his blue room. Under the girl's picture, a caption reads, "Everything a princess could wish for..." and shows a pony, a princess and a castle.

On the following page, a boy is featured playing with a fire station, fire trucks, a police station, and an airplane with the caption, "Tons of blocks for slightly older boys."

ERK says Lego promotes a "degrading " stereotype to boys and girls. However, Lego defends its advertising, saying other photos in the catalog show boys and girls playing together.

Tell us -- Do you think boys and girls should play with different toys?

8 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

My girls don’t play with Legos - but my son does. Can’t we accept that if Lego sells more toys to boys they can market towards them. Why are the sexist for making more “boy” toys or using boy models and not girls? As far as girls being in pink rooms and boys in blue rooms - let’s take a poll…bet we’d find that is the case for most boys and girls everywhere. Can’t we stop the PC madness.

- foxymama

Posted 10/22/08 12:38 PM

THIS IS INSANE!! if your main buyers are boys, you cater to boys, if its not, you dont!! how many BARBIE commercials have boys in them?

- muddin mom of 2

Posted 10/22/08 12:49 PM

My daughter has a pink room and plays will dolls and ponys. I dont think she should be playing with pretend powertools and race tracks anymore than I think a boy should have a pink room and play with dolls. Rather people like it or not there are differences between girls and boys. Lets not try to make them the same. That is why they are confused when they get to be teenagers and dont know which sex they should be attracted to.

- Anonymous

Posted 10/22/08 12:53 PM

First, the previous comment by anonymous is ignorant. Second, why are people so worked up about this? I have a very girly girl, but she still sometimes enjoys playing with trucks and legos that are (gasp) NOT pink. I’m certainly not concerned that the toys she plays with will determine her orientation. You know, little boys who play with dolls are practicing to be good daddies someday.

- good grief

Posted 10/22/08 02:32 PM

If my son picks up his sisters doll and mimics her, by no means am I going to snatch it out of his hands because he might become confused later on.( I tell him aww being such a good daddy).That comment by anonymous was plain ignorance! My daughter is girly girl as well, and omg she plays with her brothers trucks and stuff sometimes too..OH NO..These are kids..they see a toy and they find it interesting..it’s not a big deal..get over it!It’s ignorance like that, that fuels the PC madness!

- Second Motion

Posted 10/22/08 11:05 PM

I played with Legos and Kinex every bit as much as I played with Barbie. My son plays with tools as well as stuffed animals and a Raggedy Andy doll. He even has a baby doll that he takes care of. He’s interested in what he’s interested in and I’m not going to force him or take things away because his choices aren’t the usual. He spends the majority of his time dancing around and loves to play piano (he wants a new keyboard for xmas).

- birdsfly

Posted 10/23/08 10:27 AM

If legos are sexist for being geared for a male demographic, then I guess Barbie is sexist. People have too much time on their hands, and think they need to change every bit of the world to their liking.

- Trey

Posted 12/06/08 09:42 PM

Yes, Anonymous’s comment was indeed ignorant. I am not a mother, nor even an adult. My stepfather bought my younger brother pink crocs, which my brother wanted. My Mom’s family was freaking out. He wants them..big deal! My best friend, who is a girl, had a suberb collection of both action figures and barbies. She plays with both regularly. My room is blue, my Sister’s is green. Onto Trey’s commeny. Yes, barbie is sexist. Sexism and Stereotypes that are usually not true will always be here. With corperate media or without.

- A tween girl

Posted 06/15/09 10:15 PM