When LEGO Friends came out, I felt utterly betrayed.
Growing up, I never thought that LEGOs were designed for my brother instead of me – in fact, I played with them more. He preferred the Star Wars LEGOs and I was crazy about the Harry Potter sets. There were boy and girl characters, it was building, but it had a role-play element too. As I got older, I really came to appreciate LEGOs in the pink-washed isles as a toy that was designed for everyone. I’ve read that LEGO is a great, creative place to work and being a LEGO engineer is a highly coveted job. I was loyal to LEGO past the point of nostalgia because I could continue to appreciate them into adulthood without the controversy that clouded my other playthings.
When I first saw LEGO advertised like a Barbie commercial (complete with girls laughing in ponytails and shiny headbands) I was disgusted. As a society we have been working hard to move in a less gendered direction. Children’s toys have taken a lot of heat recently for the ‘pink aisle effect’. Boys get building things, cars, and science. Girls get cooking, taking care of babies, and dress up. We are segregated from the moment we send out colored invitations to a baby shower. It was disheartening to see a brand I felt so loyal to, a brand that I thought had such a progressive, creative atmosphere, take a huge leap backwards in time.
Do you want to know the worst part? When my little host sister got a new LEGO Friends playhouse, I helped her put it together…and they’re awesome. It has more cute little animals, more flowers, and more kitchen utensils. It has milk for the refrigerator and sparkly shampoo for the tub. It was a build-your-own pink dollhouse, and it was so fun to make. I would have loved it as a little girl – I love it now. They didn’t make the building easier for girls – thank god - but they are making the same awesome toys and painting them pink. A boy would also have loved to build a multi-story mansion out of LEGOs, but he won’t get the chance. Nobody will buy it for him and he definitely won’t pick it out by himself.
Don't get me wrong, it was a smart business move to make Frozen LEGOs. That money-making bandwagon is definitely worth capitalizing on. Making Disney LEGOs in general is great, just like the other movie franchises. I don’t object to having LEGOs that cater towards a wider variety of children. I object to the new brand, to LEGO Friends. It wasn’t enough to just introduce new sets, they had to set them apart more definitely. This is for girls, this is for boys. Never mind the awesome LEGO set that the Lion King could be… Pride Rock, I mean come on. It IS a Disney movie…but lions are cool, so will they be LEGOs or LEGO Friends? They will have to sort. They created a binary where there was no need for one. They created a false dichotomy to play on stereotypes, thereby reinforcing inappropriate cultural standards about how children of a certain gender are supposed to look, think, and act. I think THAT is disgusting.
But like, the toys are great.
