Lego to remove Gender Bias from it's products
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  Lego to remove Gender Bias from it's products
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Author Topic: Lego to remove Gender Bias from it's products  (Read 707 times)
NewYorkExpress
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« on: October 12, 2021, 10:46:37 PM »

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/lego-gender-bias-toys-study/index.html

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Lego has announced plans to remove gender bias from its products, after a study commissioned by the brand found that girls are hindered by "unequal and restrictive" attitudes towards creativity and play.

Although the Danish toy maker did not outline specific changes to its products or marketing, it announced Monday that it has committed to ensuring they are "free of gender bias and harmful stereotypes."

The move comes after researchers interviewed nearly 7,000 children and parents in seven countries about their views on careers, extracurricular activities and toys. The study, which was conducted on Lego's behalf by actress Geena Davis' eponymous research institute, found that 76% of parents would encourage their sons to play with Lego bricks while just 24% would do so with their daughters.

Published to coincide with the UN's International Day of The Girl, the report also found that parents were almost five times more likely to encourage girls to play dress-up than boys, and around four times more likely to encourage girls to dance or cook and bake. Conversely, parents were far more likely to encourage boys to play coding games or partake in sports.
Lego said in a press release there was a "need for society to rebuild perceptions, actions and words to support the creative empowerment of all children."


"The benefits of creative play such as building confidence, creativity and communication skills are felt by all children and yet we still experience age-old stereotypes that label activities as only being suitable for one specific gender," said Julia Goldmin, Lego Group's chief marketing officer, in a statement.
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shua
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« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2021, 02:29:54 PM »

Legos already have both male and female sides.  I guess now they will just be flat?
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Nathan
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« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2021, 11:40:45 PM »

Legos already have both male and female sides.  I guess now they will just be flat?

Good one.

In seriousness, this is a little less ridiculous imo than such moves from big toy companies generally are, in that Lego seems more gender-specific now in many people's minds than it was when I was a kid, a bizarre development that the company is well within its rights to try to reverse. I didn't know until a year or two ago that playing with Legos is seen as "a boy thing" now, and honestly I wish I still didn't.
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afleitch
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« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2021, 06:34:53 AM »

Legos already have both male and female sides.  I guess now they will just be flat?

Good one.

In seriousness, this is a little less ridiculous imo than such moves from big toy companies generally are, in that Lego seems more gender-specific now in many people's minds than it was when I was a kid, a bizarre development that the company is well within its rights to try to reverse. I didn't know until a year or two ago that playing with Legos is seen as "a boy thing" now, and honestly I wish I still didn't.

I agree with this. If you find a scanned toy catalogue from twenty or thirty years ago everything from bricks to toy kitchens were bright primary colours. Adverts showed boys and girls playing with them. Now everything 'for girls' is called that and is some combination of pink or lilac.

We bought toy bricks for my nieces to help with co-ordination, counting, colours etc and had the same issue; pink shades of bricks marketed to girls. We opted for the 'boy bricks' because they were different colours even if they were marketed like a f-cking razor and bodywash gift set.
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muon2
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« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2021, 07:15:30 AM »

Both of my children (one of each gender) and my wife are huge fans of Legos. Mini-kits still show up at Christmas even though our kids are in their late 20's. They were and still seem to be one of the most gender-neutral toys on the market.

As I read the article, the gender bias seems less about the toy and more about parents' preferences for their children: "the report also found that parents were almost five times more likely to encourage girls to play dress-up than boys, and around four times more likely to encourage girls to dance or cook and bake. Conversely, parents were far more likely to encourage boys to play coding games or partake in sports." The surveyed parents are making gender-specific choices and that is showing up in children's behavior.
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DaleCooper
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« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2021, 08:55:30 PM »

I think a big part of why Legos are seen as so gendered is because they became a niche toy for fandoms of big franchises. At some point when I was a kid, Legos stopped being a completely creative sandbox and became another arm of the Star Wars franchise. Then to appeal to girls, they started selling pink Lego playhouse sets. Whatever happened to creativity?

Good on Lego for doing this. There's no reason for toy companies to try and widen the already troublesome disconnect between the genders.
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Samof94
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« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2021, 06:04:32 AM »

The movie’s theme song was sung by Tegan and Sara, who are androgynous lesbian.
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Pres Mike
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« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2021, 10:30:44 AM »

Unlike other companies, this isn't silly and make sense. Lego has always marketed itself as a creative and educational product used by anyone. Besides, their products are now franchises (Star Wars, Batman), educational (Nasa, fireman), or for adult collectors. A buddy of mine just finished a 4000 piece Manchester stadium

That said, there pre school sets should stay gender segergated
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Adam Griffin
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« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2021, 10:52:52 AM »

They could just stop selling those overpriced cookie-cutter themed sets with a bunch of useless parts inside each of them and just go back to selling big buckets with tons of creative pieces inside them (I know they still do this, but go to any store and you'll find 20 of the former for every 1 of the latter).

Working out some way to sell individual pieces in stores would be awesome, too (like they do on their website).
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T'Chenka
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« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2021, 10:02:01 PM »

Seems like a nothingburger to me...
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