Subject:
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Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.dear-lego
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Date:
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Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:38:26 GMT
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Building equality one female minifig at a time. (My apologies in advance for
those of you that have already heard this rant.)
Dear Lego,
I have always been impressed with TLC's ability to provide quality products as
well as sustaining valuable input towards the educational process (Dacta,
Mindstorms, etc). This is not something I expect from every toy company, in
fact many fail miserably in this department.
After bringing it up (once again at the most recent brick event) I do understand
that the company is aware of the overwhelming unbalanced gender biassed when it
comes to male figs vrs female figs and that you are working towards balancing
that favouritism.
While Im not suggesting I will buy less of your product, nor trying to even
suggest that I know what is best for the company I do feel this is the perfect
forum to say "I am not convinced you are doing enough."
Frankly, bringing female figs into a few choice sets, such as some of the new
(non-emergency type) "town sets" really isn't enough. Perhaps your market
research has show that little boys toss the female fig back into the bin, but I
would think that a few discarded figs, would be a acceptable action to for a
company that has always prided themselves in excellence. Females being left out
of so many themes promotes a very negative message to both genders.
Just a bit of food for thought. A better alternative to respecting gender
equality would be to draw more females into wanting to build, and stopping with
the mentality that there are building sets that you "deem" for males only. Boys
already desire your products, but many girls are on the borderline, instead of
ignoring them and catering to an already existing audience, consider opening the
market up. I am convinced that one female fig is not going to stop "Johnny"
from asking his parental units for set "unnamed" for his birthday, but the lack
of female figs does keep many young girls from asking for any Lego at all.
I want to promote the idea of "Yes Virgina, girls can, do, and will build, and
many of them do it very well" and I feel right now, Lego is promoting, "Yeah,
ok. Girls can build a few sets too."
At events we host, repetitively I am told by parents of girls that they are
shocked and discouraged by the lack of female figs, and without a doubt that
adversely influences the enjoyment of your product with a huge amount of
potential customers.
There is plenty of research (1) to prove that "manipulatives" such as building
blocks builds skills needed for a successful future of math literacy, spatial
understanding and science education in both males and females.
I think its time that Lego continues their excellence in educational efforts and
rises to the challenge of providing a progressive approach to both genders. It
takes a good company to be socially aware of the subtle sexual discrimination
that is going on in current product development, and a smart company to actually
do something about it.
Sincerely,
Janey Red Brick
Not only a fan, but one of many female adult builders, and a parent, teacher and
educational advocate.
1. http://elmo.shore.ctc.edu/eyh/EncouragingWomeninScience.htm (re:Factors That
Influence the Underachievement of Girls in Science and Math)
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570026_6/Intelligence.html (section C
-Sex Differences)
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/Story?id=448153&page=1
Etc.... etc.... etc.
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Message has 13 Replies:
 | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) I pretty much concur with everything that you wrote. And I would be really curious to see what the sales figures (dollar wise) are for girl-oriented lines such as Paradisa, Scala and Clickits. Or even some trend lines. Or I'll settle for (...) (17 years ago, 28-Jun-07, to lugnet.dear-lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) Well of course you'd say all of that; you're a girl! Hardy har har. IMO you're right on the money with pretty much everything you wrote. I can think of no real justification for failing to include female minifigs in a much broader range of (...) (17 years ago, 28-Jun-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) <snip> This gets me thinking, what is it that defines a 'female' minifig? Personally, when I populate a scene I try to get a good gender balance and there are a variety of things that define 'female' A definitively 'female' torso A (...) (17 years ago, 28-Jun-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) I would like to request a very specific female minifig. Batgirl. She's historically one of the more important and recognizable members of the Bat-family (even moreso than Nightwing, IMO), and she's still going to be absent going into the third (...) (17 years ago, 28-Jun-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) I heartily agree. I have always thought that females were sadly underrepresented in LEGO sets. I would like to see more female minifigs in med-large sets alternate female heads and headgear in the majority of sets. I'm not worried so much (...) (17 years ago, 28-Jun-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| Hey, I highly agree. In my own theme-of-choice, castle, we get about one female fig for every 50 male figs. Of course, part of that is due to the over-emphasis on action and conflict, where most castle figs are knights and soldiers (traditionally (...) (17 years ago, 29-Jun-07, to lugnet.dear-lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) Surely we fans have lamented about this before, but like all classic topics, it is worthy of bringing up again every now and then so newer members of the community can share their thoughts. I also feel you presented yourself well, and the (...) (17 years ago, 1-Jul-07, to lugnet.dear-lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| Great points Janey, and nice to see some interesting and friendly debate here on Lugnet. I think there are two related issues here: One is whether LEGO, as a company (and quite frankly a cultural institution in certain parts of the world), has a (...) (17 years ago, 1-Jul-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| (...) I quite agree. Magnus has a point about what will sell, so I think the aim should be to make a few changes. I don't think the demand is for a perfect 50:50 split between minifigs across the range, but to start with a few changes. For example, (...) (17 years ago, 3-Jul-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
| | | Re: Building equality one female minifig at a time.
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| I have to laugh because this was my hobby-horse 10 years ago. There has been some progress, but things are still pretty bad. I notice that Lego Designer/Pick-A-Brick includes one female head, 3 male heads, and 2 neutral heads. It also includes 2 (...) (17 years ago, 14-Jul-07, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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