LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
Oh LEGO, you made a rookie mistake. The plastic building blocks are for everyone. It's only your marketing people that think girls need their own “pretty” version.
In a bid to "win over" the girl market, LEGO recently unveiled the LadyFig line, a set of LEGOS geared specifically at females. This doesn't seem to take into account that a vast majority of girls and women were playing with LEGOS just fine without pastel colors, "girl friendly" sets and giant minifigs with breasts and miniskirts.
The Welcome Page for LEGO on Facebook (above) makes it painfully obvious who their toys are currently marketed at and perhaps gives insight into what would make LEGO think they need a line specifically aimed at girls.
However, this was not always the case, as you can clearly see from this ad campaign from the seventies.
So in response to this new direction, a grassroots movement in under way. Powered By Girl is asking everyone to take to Facebook with the above image and post it on LEGO'S wall with the following message:
"Forget the pink aisles and new girl figures with breasts, bring back beautiful!"
Check out more articles on BuzzFeed.com!
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43 Responses So Far
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- Alejandra Villa thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Ew
- bene5 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- theruski thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- susang6 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
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the little redhead built a beautiful kitchen
- rabindrap thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
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kitchen Lego
- Amy S. thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Not PC
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If a gay boy wanted the pastel LEGOS for Christmas and their parents said no, then that would be a problem.
- anyl thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- kayt4 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- kmdonohoo thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- rainbowcrab LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Geeky & Win
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this is about selling you 2 sets of legos instead of one.
- samuelestebancolni thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Ew
- rebeccam16 LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
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Something that my parents and I appreciated in LEGO was that all the people were yellow and raceless. No racialized features, no regional dress, not even a consistent hair type! This LEGO lady just has some stylish red lipstick, and she can do everything LEGO man can do. I loved original LEGO because you could be so creative with it, instead of building something prescribed by the box like a war fortress or cupcakes (which is another issue entirely). It always felt weird to be playing with some blonde-haired doll, knowing that I was supposed to want to be like her. As a non-white person, I sensed at an early age the commercial exclusion that happens with dolls, band-aids, and a whole slew of other products that utilize “flesh-tone,” i.e. Caucasian-tone. At age 6 I wouldn't be able to talk to you about the woes of normative white beauty, or how it's taken decades for advertising to even recognize that non-white markets do indeed have purchasing power, or why there is only have one kind of black girl in commercials (especially in yogurt commercials. they're always light-skinned with that springy-spiral hair that is just “soooo much more interesting than my straight hair. can I touch it ?!” ). HOWEVER, I could recognize that white was the standard. Without knowing anything about the history of race in this country, I knew that these people (toy companies, Band-Aid, even Crayola for a while) were telling me that other ethnicities were not worthy of recognition at all. A lot of things have changed dramatically in the last 25 years though, so that's why I'm upset about there being ANOTHER new girl. Version 1 is no doubt this blonde one, Version 2 a brunette, Version 3 an olive-skinned girl who can be either Asian or Latina — doesn't matter, and Version 4 will be black… if this product makes it that far. TL;DR I miss original LEGO, its lightly-gendered and highly functional people. I always thought they were raceless (I never thought of yellow people as being Asian…and still don't), and appreciated that. I wish LEGO would stop reducing the original toy into prescribed kits and markets.
- ht.ly readers just made LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun more viral
- hylar thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- jennk thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- forum.lush.co.uk readers just made LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun more viral
- noraf LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Ew, WTF & Fail
- stephanied18 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- malik thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- racheler thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- Floobity thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
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I fail to see what the issue is here. No one is forcing you to buy these for your girls. If they want pink legos, then get them. If not, no problem. Unless there's some type of Lego law I don't know about….
- wesleyd2 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
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Lego introduces a toy that caters to a new demographic… who cares? They're not MAKING you purchase this. Kids will choose which one they want: classic or girly.
- buzzrabbit LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Not PC & Fail
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Meh, no matter what color they are, they're all gonna get lost or sucked up in the vaccuum cleaner or hidden forever after pelting your brother with them while he sleeps. …Or was that just my house?
- tylere2 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
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“There already was LEGO for girls. It was called 'LEGO'”. A truer word has never been spoken. This is getting plenty of attention. Check out this story on it: http://www.news.com.au/technology/bring-back-beautiful-girl-friendly-lego-range-sparks-social-media-backlash/story-e6frfro0-1226229317138#ixzz1hKTo0WO6
- nicolev3 LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
- monitabairdb thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- Swtrktekt LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Fail & WTF
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My boys are very much boys, but they also love “girl” things like zhu zhu hampsters, monster high dolls, and little pet shop. It would be kinda nice if they made “boy version” of these toys, so i guess i can see where lego is coming from.
- eirene thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- lisasparklesw thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- lilya3 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is WTF
- delfinap LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
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I still play with Lego as an adult, and while I see the point of this article, I still feel no one choice fits everyone. For every girl who loves the original Lego, there is a boy who will want this new set. And I'm Intersex so I'll take one of each.
- johns31 LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
- mariec4 LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Win
- patrickowenf LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
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I'm all for the backlash, honestly. The legos were already in the “boy isle”… making girls feel unwelcome to begin with. Now that there are specifically girl legos, they are even less welcome. It encourages them to stick to the things they are “supposed” to like… mini-skirts, flaunting boobs, and frilly pink things. No, this lego thing is not a huge deal per se… but the more things like this happen, the more society perpetuates an environment where good boys are told they are clever and smart, good girls are told they are pretty and sweet. I consider myself lucky I had parents that were equally willing to get me a matchbox car or a barbie doll outfit. Not every kid is that lucky and I just think it'd be nice if society made it more okay for kids to like whatever the heck they want.
- Sarah C. thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- johnt20 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
- changita4011 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- WeasleyBiliusRonald thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- tmz.com readers just made LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun more viral
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It's business!!!! If you as a parent want to see your girls playing with the traditional lego sets then have at it. Why be offended that they are expanding their offerings? There is still value to building even if the blocks are now pink. This may open up door to girls who normally would not be attracted to legos. Sheesh!
- sophiagracet thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is WTF
- dinoraa thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail & Win
- alexismariel LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun
- LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun was rebuzzed by BuzzForPartners
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Shame on them for allowing people to also buy pink Lego. How dare they?
- c00k13puss thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
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this post is grossly misleading..
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So what if there's a “girly” kind of LEGO? It's not much different than the Hero Factory/Bionicle action figure LEGO toys that primarily interests (some) boys. There'll still be plain old regular LEGO for all and anyone. Buy your daughter a bucket of LEGO Creator and you'll have exactly the same as that last photo.
- LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is starting to go viral on Twitter Tweet It
- shell52383 LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Win
- bacon lovin' becca LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun and thinks it’s Fail
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Nothing about this says that girls can only play with the “girly” Lego sets. They're simply marketing to a new demographic. Girls that like Lego now have a choice of what type of sets they want to play and build with, and for that matter, so do boys! It's getting attention because this is the biggest move Lego has made in a long long time. I'm sure that there are plenty of girls that play with Lego as it is, but for the ones that aren't because it seems too boyish, Lego has made this. They are simply trying to expand their customer base. In fact, I bet that every single one of those new colors are going to make their way into the amazing custom building community. Good for you Lego, sorry the media is mishandling this.
- Amber K. thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Win
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IT'S LEGO, NOT LEGOS.
- Lana B. thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
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I had the pastel Paradisa Legos and I thought they were cute! It didn't mean I couldn't also play with primary color Legos and it didn't mean my favorite color had to be pink (it was forest green). The type of Lego set you have doesn't determine whether you'll be feminine or gender neutral. They're just plastic blocks.
- SajidaKajada thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
- Murphy_008 thinks LEGO For Girls Backlash Has Begun is Fail
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The “Lego girl” looks like a slutty playmobile doll.
