The latest viral letter from LEGO made me a bit sad. The message is great, but reading it makes me sad because it was written in 1974, before I was born. Forty years ago LEGO wrote
To Parents.
The urge to create is equally strong in all children. Boys and girls.
It’s the imagination that counts. Not skill. You build whatever comes into your head, the way you want it. A bed or a truck. A dolls house or a spaceship.
A lot of boys like dolls houses. They’re more human than spaceships. A lot of girls prefer spaceships. They’re more exciting than dolls houses.
The most important thing is to put the right material in their hands and let them create whatever appeals to them.
But, today we still fight against these stereotypes. We still have the “pink” aisle in Target, and the “regular” LEGO sets are still separate, and they get their own aisle. When I shop with friends and family, I still hear things like “Barbies are for girls; Hotwheels are for boys.” Many of my recent columns have addressed how LEGO is moving forward (slowly) in the area of gender marketing, so it makes me sad that they had the right idea 40 years ago, but somehow, somewhere they lost their way.
This is important to me because these toys can be limiting and they can reinforce the stereotype in children. Girls are supposed to like shopping and fashion, while boys get to do the exciting stuff. I didn’t grow up with gendered toys; instead I had them all Barbies, Hot Wheels, Transformers, and, of course, LEGOs. I was spoiled, I guess, but at least I wasn’t limited to the “pink” aisle. I did, however, feel a lot of pressure from friends and from those outside of my immediate family to like certain toys or have certain interests. I remember friends who didn’t at all understand my fascination with Transformers. (I had Optimus Prime, which was all of the awesome.) I read this letter, which reflects how I was raised, and I wonder why we are always sliding backwards.
These stereotypes of what children and adults should like based on gender are everywhere, but people often don’t want to see the slippery slope that gender stereotypes can cause. These stereotypes bleed into the gaming world. In September we read that 52% of gamers are now women. But, the stereotypes persist, as women are evidently playing mobile games, and that somehow doesn’t count as “gaming.” (Or, at least, that seems to be how the argument goes.) I don’t play mobile games, but I don’t have anything against them either. We have all of this technology and a hugely diverse group of people interested in games and interested in making games. It makes me so sad that it’s 2014 and we still think “this” game/toy is for girls and “this” game/toy is for boys.
1974.
2014.
40 years.
When are we really going to “get” that gendered norms are socially constructed? When are we going to realize that girls aren’t born with a “pink” gene, and vice versa? I read comments under these articles and blogs that indicate a certain preference for toys is genetic. I find that argument utterly depressing and destructive. Even now, as an adult, I hear this. When I first got back into LEGO, someone close to me laughed and told me to go ahead and buy them and he would take them off my hands when I got bored. It’s been two years, and I’m not bored yet. Am I genetically flawed?
