Subject:
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Re: Happy birthday, Minifig!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 7 Jan 2003 22:15:55 GMT
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Viewed:
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803 times
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Alrigh I know this is a really late response, and there may be little
interest, but I wanted to reply anyway. First off sexist is a label that has
been ascribed to me in the past, and I don't completely disagree, but I
don't think that this post qualifies.
In lugnet.general, Brendan Powell Smith writes:
> In lugnet.general, Nicole Drumm writes:
> > > My wish is to see more female faces, torso's and hair. Others have said
> > > before a 1/10 female to male ratio is not good.
>
> I'll drink to that!
>
> In lugnet.general, Scott Costello writes:
> > It's good if you're female, horrible for a male. :)
>
> Yes, I'm sure it's every female's dream to live in a society that is made up
> of 90% males. @8^)
I think I wrote that with the Bachelor tv show in mind, but I obviously
wasn't clear.
> So the WNBA is not as exciting as the NBA. Hmmmm... how could this change?
> Maybe if, oh I don't know, from a young age, females received as much
> encouragement to play basketball as males do. Maybe if when they played
> with their LEGO toys, they got female basketball players to play with as
> well as male players, it just might help curb the constantly reinforced
> stereotype that serious basketball is a males-only event.
Alright, just a quick note on female sports. Let’s examine the facts first:
- Females do not participate in sports at the same levels as males, I don’t
want to argue as to causes, but bottom line there are, with few exceptions,
more males at sport tryouts than females, title 9 be damned
- Females do not match up even physically with men, were this the case all
Olympic events would be coed.
- Sports are more watched by men than women
I am not trying to pass any kind of judgment by these statements just some
simple reasons why men’s sports are much more popular than women’s.
> This is, in your own words, "how it should be".
>
> > but the bulk of the themes
> > TLC has put out are fairly male centric.
>
> This, I would say, is a very sexist attitude.
Perhaps this attitude could be considered sexist but I just like to look at
it as a fairly accurate depiction of what is and was. For example TLC puts
out a firestation set, what is the real world percentage of male to female
firefighters. I actually like the early days of the minifig, where the only
difference between a male and female was the hair, because everyone was a
smiley, then came the lipstick females. Now granted we are talking about a
toy so I have no problem with including females to help encourage
inclusiveness, but a firestation full of females, or even 50/50 would just
not be representative of reality. Likewise with castle, having a large
number of female knights would fly in the face of history, and castles are
much more fun than peasant villages. If TLC were to come out with town, or
train sets that were weighted toward female minifigs I would be all for it.
> > I also hope this changes,
>
> What themes or subthemes would you suggest LEGO investigate in order to get
> a better balance of females to males? What themes or subthemes do you think
> would be best portrayed by having *more* females than males?
I think the most sexist thing TLC has done is not the skewed percentage of
male to female minifigs, but their belief that the only way to attract
females is by making pink and pastel bricks. I also don’t think that TLC
will attract more females by making the all woman pirate ship, or castle of
amazon fighters. You ask the question what theme should be heavier in
females, and I will reply with a set that I think would both be great
including females, and be exciting to females, and that is playhouse. In my
experience the most popular sets with girls now is Harry Potter, and I
believe that this is due to both the popularity of the movie, and the
modular, castle type sets. I think a small play house with a family of
minifigs would be perfect, then TLC could put out add on rooms and
playground sets, playmobil has a fairly successful line along these lines.
Look I am an old school kind of guy who believes that boys like GI Joe and
girls like Barbie. At the same time I believe Hot Wheels, Trains, and
construction toys are unisexual. I only offer my playhouse idea as something
that I believe would attract female fans much more than bellvue/scala etc.
Scott
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Happy birthday, Minifig!
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| (...) I'll drink to that! In lugnet.general, Scott Costello writes: (...) Yes, I'm sure it's every female's dream to live in a society that is made up of 90% males. @8^) (...) Granted, the pirate theme is rooted in history, but also in legend. (...) (22 years ago, 2-Jan-03, to lugnet.general)
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