Now if they only made Mindstorms for girls....maybe there would be more girls in Computing Science and Engineering.
Okay, so Lego might have known women existed for a couple of years now. But they just announced a plan -- on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek, no less -- to try and get girls as into Legos as boys have traditionally been. Behold, Lego Friends:
These plastic ladies are a touch taller than the regular Lego mini-figs, and less blocky, more cute, and not as yellow. From the rather fascinating Businessweek article:
This is "Olivia's Inventor's Workshop," where Olivia does chemistry, robotics and complex math. Hey, the sets might be heavy on pink, but they are not condescending to girls. You can take your "Math is hard!" soundchip and shove it right in your ear, Barbie. (Via The Mary Sue)
 |
I'm sure some of you are pissed that these things are so traditionally girly, but I think it's pretty cool. Plus, there is this:Encouraged by what it had learned about boys, Lego sent its team back out to scrutinize girls, starting in 2007. The company was surprised to learn that in their eyes, Lego suffered from an aesthetic deficit. "The greatest concern for girls really was beauty," says Hanne Groth, Lego's market research manager. Beauty, on the face of it, is an unsurprising virtue for a girl-friendly toy, but based on the ways girls played, Groth says, it came, as "mastery" had for boys, to stand for fairly specific needs: harmony (a pleasing, everything-in-its-right-place sense of order); friendlier colors; and a high level of detail.
...
Lego confirmed that girls favor role-play, but they also love to build--just not the same way as boys. Whereas boys tend to be "linear"--building rapidly, even against the clock, to finish a kit so it looks just like what's on the box--girls prefer "stops along the way," and to begin storytelling and rearranging. Lego has bagged the pieces in Lego Friends boxes so that girls can begin playing various scenarios without finishing the whole model. Lego Friends also introduces six new Lego colors--including Easter-egg-like shades of azure and lavender. (Bright pink was already in the Lego palette.)
Then there are the lady figures. Twenty-nine mini-doll figures will be introduced in 2012, all 5 millimeters taller and curvier than the standard dwarf minifig. There are five main characters. Like American Girl Dolls, which are sold with their own book-length biographies, these five come with names and backstories. Their adventures have a backdrop: Heartlake City, which has a salon, a horse academy, a veterinary clinic, and a café. "We had nine nationalities on the team to make certain the underlying experience would work in many cultures," says Nanna Ulrich Gudum, senior creative director.
 |
More links from around the web!
116 comments
All LEGO needed to do in order to market towards girls was SHOW GIRLS PLAYING WITH LEGOS IN THEIR COMMERCIALS. Cost of time and money in research for this assessment: 0.
If anyone is wondering why people are so pissed about this, check out FeministFrequency's youtube channel. Don't let the name put you off; Anita puts a lot of work into her reviews. Or, if you'd rather see red at the sight of the word "feminist", go ahead and charge over there to watch the video andh then give her a piece of your mind.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
This is pretty cool. I always have a problem with a lot of the more "girly" stuff, not because it's feminine, but because "math is hard", or the entire history of novellas for girls focusing on how the most important thing in life is having a boyfriend.
I'll assume that blackboard has what I call "moon math". Simpler than most moon math, though. (This is a children's toy, after all.)
By the way, Rob, you're free to say Barbie can shove the soundclip up her physically-impossible-even-for-heroin-addled-anorexics ass. Most feminists have said something similar.
oh man! i always thought lego was cute, charming, creative and awesome to begin with... then i saw this and i was all fuck you lego for this bullshit! they already had girl lego people! fuck!then i saw the robot lab... and i was like ok, that is cool.. but where is her lab coat? what if she gets acid on herself?
As an almost nerd-dad i heartily approve. There are so many skanky girls toys i don't really want my kid to touch with a ten foot pole but i'm sure if i say that out loud would just increase the desire to. This is nerdy and looks like fun but not Bratz skanky or Barbie unrealistic.
I think they're research is right on. When I was a little girl, I loved Legos. But I built houses and made up stories about their inhabitants. It was all about the storytelling. And the little yellow guys were boring - Glamour Gals and Star Wars figures took up residence in my buildings. And once I built a house for a family of (actual) Mexican jumping beans.
I think they're research is right on. When I was a little girl, I loved Legos. But I built houses and made up stories about their inhabitants. It was all about the storytelling. And the little yellow guys were boring - Glamour Gals and Star Wars figures took up residence in my buildings. And once I built a house for a family of (actual) Mexican jumping beans.
Obligatory "the plural of Lego is Lego, NOT Legos!" comment that will be immediately ignored.
I was a little irked as I read...and then Rob showed me the picture. It's...a tiny Lego lab beaker...and a tiny Lego powerdrill...with a tiny Lego microscope. I am defeated.
This sucks monkey butt.
Why should the girls get s distinct figure-model when Lego figures have been standard for decades?
Lego will always be more popular among boys because building (and destroying) things is more popular among boys.
--
"This is 'Olivia's Inventor's Workshop,' where Olivia does chemistry, robotics and complex math. Hey, the sets might be heavy on pink, but they are not condescending to girls. You can take your 'Math is hard!' soundchip and shove it right in your ear, Barbie."
It's not condescending, but it is stupid.
How many people you know engage in chemistry, robotics, and math all at once.
It's like Lego is going out of their way to say "see? Girls are plenty smart, super-smart!".
So what if they made her have a clothing shop or a beauty shop? What's wrong with these things?
Why can't people admit that boys/men have their interests, and girls/women have theirs, and accept that.
Funny. I remember preferring the "boy" LEGO sets as a little girl. They were far cooler -dungeons, pirates, etc. I also really loved Mega Blocks because no matter what I bought from them, they showed a GIRL playing with the boys, even if it was what LEGO would've called a "boy" set.
It's a nice effort, but as a girl raised on Lego, there were two things I could never get enough of:
1. Minifigs with hair2. Basic blocks (as opposed to awkwardly shaped movie tie-ins that could only be used once)
I mean, I guess these are good toys. But the appeal of Lego is being able to do whatever you want with it. I wouldn't have wanted this as a kid, and it has nothing to do with any girls-can't-have-pink pseudo-feminist nonsense. If you're going to make girl's Lego, make it easy to build things. Otherwise, it's not really Lego.
That said, HOLY CRAP GUYS IT'S A LEGO WALL-E!
I second your #2!
I grew up on Legos in the 80's, almost exclusively Space System, and my procedure for a new set was always the same:
1. Follow the instructions and build the thing on the box cover.
2. Play with it until it gets boring.
3. Disassemble.
4. Build whatever the hell I want.
5. Disassemble.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 indefinitely.
The Star Wars and other themed sets came out long after I'd grown out of Legos, but still I look at them and think: "Who the fuck wants a Lego set you can only build ONE thing with?!"
XD
From what I heard on NPR this morning, this is the 5th time they've tried to do this (marketing for girls). Each time its failed spectacularly. I don't see why this should be any different...
Yeah...when I was a kid, every girl I knew already had legos. We either roleplayed with the existing lego figures (some of those are female already, right?) or just built cool stuff with legos and had other "girly" toys like dolls and little horses to play with. It seems oddly pointless to combine the two...but if kids end up liking it this time, that's cool.
It's the wonky minifigs. They don't jive proper! See Lego City from a couple years back...they tried wonky minifigs then too, and it was a disaster then.
I'm not crazy about a line specifically catered towards girls. I've never considered Lego to be a male-focused toy. it's all about creativity, and the fact that all of the pieces are standard interlocking bricks points to this. Bricks are not made to be "for boys" or "for girls." They are made to let anyone's imagination guide them.
Sure, some of the licensed sets are more popular with boys than girls, but that's only because there are more male fans of Star Wars (for example) than female fans. I'm sure that no one decided to make an X-Wing fighter because it is phallically shaped. They made it because it's an awesome fighter. Girls can like it just as much as boys (or in my case, men).
I'm all for Lego creating new lines. The more lines the better! What I don't like is that these are in a different scale than ALL the other lego sets that have been made. Why would they do something like this? Now you CAN'T mix and match sets. One of the great things about Legos in general is that you could build a set as instructed and then you could mix it with pieces from another set. Minifigures were all the same size so you could use a chair from a Lego Police set and attach it to a Lego Agents car. Your minifigures could still ride in it. With these oversized girl minifigures, you lose all of that. I just don't get it.
Having said that, the new sets do look pretty sweet. You can see pics of the upcoming sets here:
This was my first reaction too. I think one of the downsides is that the new sets are really hard to mix and match, so I don't see the line doing a whole lot to get girls buying other Lego lines, especially if they're shelved in different areas as the article implied. The whole gender issue I think goes way beyond anything Lego has done, and seems to be more about culturally reinforced gender stereotypes.
Because boys and girls have no genetic-based differences in how the play and what they like, right? Culture forces us all to play with certain toys.
ive seen some pretty sad shit in my life regarding this. once near easter at a wallmart i saw a man get in a fight over the boy wanting a lavender basket, poor kid was in tears as the dad insisted on blue. why did he even ask the kid in the first place if he was just going to insult a yell at him? or a little girl who wanted trains for christmas whose mother kept insisting she wanted a barbie.. why? why not just give the child what it really wants? i don't understand the mentality that you have to force a child to like something because their supost to...each person is different, why try to make them the same? its like forcing a square peg through a round hole.
Because every boy must like every manly, blue toy, and every girl must like every girly pink toy, right? Because culture forces girls to play with pink barbies and boys must play with legos or toy trains and cars. No one is different, everyone is the same, and no one has different cultural attitudes about anything.
Sure, buddy. And I'm the goddamn Batman.
So, you're ok with going after any demographic (age or franchise, etc...) as long as it's not gender-specific?
While we're at it, let's hate Duplo for being for younger kids! How dare they tell us what size blocks to use!?
How do you feel about the age ranges on the box, then? got any backlog of nerdrants hating on that discrimination to point to?
Do you have nothing better to do at -all-? Seriously, cut the shit out. It's not about business, it's about the fucking Lego sets, which worked much better as the size they were. Even so, the sets they're coming out with are neat.
Shove your indignant attitude up your ass and see how far it goes, because that's exactly what I see when you post: An asinine attitude berating others for not having the exact, same opinion as yourself, who cannot possibly think that the company is stupid for catering to a demographic they've done better research than last time on.
Drop the self-important attitude. Like seriously. Fucking drop it.
Um, that's a different thing entirely. Those age ranges are there because little kids like to shove things in their mouths and choke, and Lego would get sued. Also, small children don't have the dexterity to work with regular Legos.
Discriminating against babies is bad! Babies unite and figh-------- uhhhh, it's nap time and I have to drool.
These new minifig designs look really similar to my Doctor Who minifigs. New Companions! Score!
I think this is AWESOME, but unfortunate that the article chose the highlights of Heartlake City as being that it has "a salon, a horse academy, a veterinary clinic, and a cafe." Seems like the way these types of things are presented (in writing or advertisements) tend to cause more feminist whining than the products themselves.
Now all they need is a girl-lego spaceship and some police and stuff so that they can fight evil!!!, and this could be the best Lego town ever.
To be the best Lego town ever, they'll need to lasso a writer from Futurama to layout their chalkboards. But then it would indeed be the best Lego town ever, hands down.
Are there enough to keep Lego running? To pay for producing a whole theme? Are there enough to round out the sales numbers?
Doesn't seem so.
They have a SINGLE theme intended to draw girls who've not chosen many of the Lego themes already out there. The sales show the percentage of Legos being purchased to be more male. Obviously, if they want to expand their profit, they need to reach out to those who don't already buy as much, if any, Legos...who would that be?
Still not those girl nerds.
You apparently are not the target audience for these toys. Mayhaps you should find something you are the target audience for, and spend your whining effort there?
BORK, have you got NOTHING better to do than scroll down and harass nearly everybody who doesn't have the same viewpoint as you? I mean, seriously? We're talking about girls' Lego sets, for Christ's sake. GIRLS' LEGO SETS. Does this really get you so fired up? Please, this is starting to look embarrassing.
I don't recall Lego interest being gender-based, not if the sibling battles over the best parts at home and the Legoland stores activity areas were any indication, anyway.
But I suppose with all the Star Warts sets and such, Lego has moved away from it "build-anything by anyone" image.
Still,I don't think this pink-saturated "girly" approach will prove to be the best remedy...
I really don't know how to feel about this. I'm a girl, I'm a chemist, and I like regular fucking legos. I don't need figures with "curves and boobs." I'm glad the cool robot shop is there, but the other sets aren't exactly inspiring. I always thought of Legos as a gender neutral toy because there were lots of different sets that appealed to all kids. I guess it's good that Lego is branching out and trying to get more girls interested, but isn't there a different way they could have gone about it?
That begin said, I'm totally buying that robot shop.
In my mind, I now have a picture of Abby from NCIS decorating her lab with Olivia's superscience set.
I can't decide if that's appropriate, or part of the problem, but it's an awesome image so I felt like I ought to thank you for it. {g}
You can probably customize it and paint little black or brown working boots on her. That'd be cool. Then take a picture and send it to Lego.
It seems that the Olivia line will be the super awesome nerdy girl line. She's the one with the robot lab, and she also gets the treefort complete with telescope.
And that's great, but at the same time it seems like this is the line they're putting out so they can go "See! We support girls in science!" Why can't they just make regular Lego sets and include more female characters? Then she wouldn't have to have a goddamned pink microscope.
Yeah, I hate Barbie because it doesn't meet my interests properly too! Everyone must agree with us!!!
I always thought of Lego as pretty gender neutral too! My brother had his sets, mostly knights and space stuff, and I had mine, I loved my wizard! We would build our things and then play out scenarios together.
I'm not mad as these sets, they look pretty cute, actually. I just hope they don't discourage parents from buying girls regular legos too!
