LEGO
building sets and toys are one of the top favourites of children from
all over the world. LEGO's flagship product is its famous 8 legged
interlocking plastic brick. These LEGO bricks can be assembled and
connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles,
buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be
taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects. The
child's imagination is the limit here, nothing else. As of 2013,
around 560 billion Lego parts had been produced.
In
1978, LEGO produced its first minifigures, which resemble humans as
well as animals and have since become a staple in most sets. These
minifigures, many a times called as "minifig" are small
plastic articulated figurines that have become hugely successful with
over 3.7 billion produced. Some of the figurines are named as
specific characters, (such as from Star Wars) or are of LEGO's own
creation. Most are unnamed and are designed simply to fit within a
certain theme such as police officers, astronauts and pirates. Even
simple everyday figurines of babies, girls and boys, moms and pops,
grandparents are also supplied with suitably named sets. They are
highly customizable and parts from different figures can be mixed and
matched, resulting in a large number of combinations.
Over
the years, LEGO figurines have become collectibles and are also sold
separately as keychains and magnets. LEGO executives have been using
personalised minifigures in place of business cards, with email and
phone details on the front and back of the torso, and hair and facial
features designed to resemble each executive. They also appear in
video games and short films.
LEGO's
construction sets incorporating minifigures have recently become the
battle ground for gender equality wars and the company is being
heavily criticized by feminists for having a biased view about gender
equality.
Until
1970's and 80's, LEGO's approach was strictly gender neutral and they
never targeted any gender as such. In those days, the posters showed
girls in baggy clothes holding complicated constructions with
catchlines like "Look what I built with Lego!" LEGO in
those days was a pure construction toy and was therefore very
inclusive. In 1990's, with sales plummeting, LEGO company feared
that the bricks would soon be obsolete. The patents were out of date
and a new approach was needed. LEGO company deliberately decided to
focus on stories like Star Wars and Harry Potter, which led them to
produce tie-ins with movies. This resulted into a “boys” specific
marketing approach, neglecting the girls.
To
correct this imbalance, LEGO introduced a new range of sets known as
“LEGO friends' two years ago. This range was aimed at girls and
featured five women figurines, who live in the fictional area of
Heartlake and includes a salon, a vet, swimming pool and convertible
car. The sets used pastel colours and life of leisure led by the
characters.
Company's
move has further angered the feminists as they feel the new LEGO sets
lack the educational "construction" element of equivalent
products aimed at boys. Toy shops all over the world often have a
girls' section devoted to dolls, craft and cleaning, and a boy's
section devoted to science, construction and war. With the release
of “ friends,” LEGO was criticised to follow this trend blindly
that creates stereotypes in the minds of boys and girls with young
girls cast in caring roles and boys in go-getting roles. Feminists
argue the emphasis has gone from construction to hair and beauty for
girls and risked turning girls off science and maths and that is not
healthy.
To
pacify the feminists and their criticism that LEGO produced endless
pink-branded items for girls and sexist child marketing, LEGO
released last week a new set called “Research Institute.” This
set was proposed by geoscientist Ellen Kooijman and backed in a
public vote on a Lego crowdsourcing website. The set features three
new Lego figures - all female scientists - a palaeontologist, an
astronomer, and a chemist. The set shows women doing intellectually
demanding jobs and their appearance has been purposely changed. They
wear trousers and look practical or punky rather than glamorous.
However, the characters still wear a lipstick and one of them sports
a pink scarf. This was supposedly discouraged by Ellen Kooijman, but
company has retained these make up features for the characters.
Another set in this range would be launched soon.
With “
Research institute” in the market, feminists appear mollified for
the present, but they still feel that there are still far more male
figures in action roles such as in the police and fire brigade.
However their main complaint is about the way in which LEGO does
marketing and does not show girls and boys playing together with the
same toy, the way they do in real life. LEGO has certainly become the
latest gender equality battleground
8th
August 2014
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