Feminists freak out over LEGO Friends: The *real* Stephanie

This blog is in response to a petition & spam campaign of a few feminists

Some radical feminist groups realized they can advance their own agenda by launching a "No pink aisle, bring back beautiful" social media campaign by claiming The LEGO Group offers no "gender equity" in the new theme "Friends" and its marketing. They created an online petition, then proceeded encouraging their followers to SPAM the LEGO Facebook page with one of TLG's own ads. Laced with false dramatic information, they convinced the petition site to include their "cause" in its membership mailing notice.
This blog sheds light on their omissions, skewed facts & images.

The real Stephanie

Stephanie -- no, not of the LEGO Friends character -- Stephanie Cole, co-creator of the petition against LEGO Friends. She's a 22-year-old who didn't play with LEGO bricks as a kid due to all the "assembly required" and who says "since when was Star Wars actually about violence, anyway?" Really? ... (what about the Lightsabers slicing through people, cutting off arms -- or exploding spaceships, bar fights with blasters & death, slaughtering of Jedi children, weapons smuggling, blowing up other spaceships with people on-board, and the Death Star!), have you actually watched it at all?
Stephanie is another RadFem not pursuing any gender-stereotype-busting career herself. It seems more and more common those females who scream the loudest in online hype actually have careers which are considered "stereotypically female" in their own assessments. Quite the hypocrisy!

Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because of the beauty shop set and its suggestion that girls actually care about their looks; YET, here's Stephanie at a Nail Polish party:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because of the Cafe because girls shouldn't like Cafes; YET, here's Stephanie enjoying time at a cafe:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like the LEGO Friends who care about puppies and animals with a Dog Show or Veterinarian scene; YET, here's Stephanie's cat:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends for all its Pink and girliness, and that message it sends to girls is wrong, according to her; YET here she is enveloped in pink:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends Fashion Studio because girls are more than that; YET, here she is being a "girl" that way too:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like that LEGO doesn't show girls as their "own" heroes; YET she has her own hero:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because it shows girls like to hang-out with their friends; YET here she is "hanging-out" with friends:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends not displaying box art of girls in non-stereotyped roles; YET she enjoyed at very "typical" girl activity as a Cheerleader:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because they aren't portraying girls in gender-busting roles; YET she dreams of entering very stereotypical roles herself:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because they don't show girls in other roles, like a Firefighter, Pilot, Construction Worker, Police Officer, or other "perceived" male stereotypes even though she herself is NONE of those -- she's a girl wearing a dress to get a diploma in History -- which is hardly a gender-stereotype-busting choice:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because of the "perceived" sexualization of girls ... YET, her own cover image is this:

And Stephanie Cole doesn't like LEGO Friends because it's her job at SPARK (nope, sorry folks, she's not a Firefighter, Adventurer, Pilot, Engineer, Police Officer, or Astronaut. How disappointing. :(

Well, well, well ... apparently Stephanie Cole wants other people to do as she "says" and not what she "does" in life.
[Note: All images embedded above are viewable as "Public" setting via her FB.]

LEGO bricks are about imagination building -- box art is just one possible configuration; it's a way to get new colors & brick elements into the hands of builders via new sets. LEGO will always sell basic brick buckets. Marketing of LEGO Friends is the choice of The LEGO Group. The Designer(s) of LEGO Friends are female. Many team members from research, product design & development, packaging, media, digital experience, events,and marketing are indeed females.

More female MiniFigs have already begun appearing in sets -- which means the planning for those was years ago; don't think for one minute your ridiculous "tainted" petition has any influence and try to gloat claim of such. SPARK tried to claim Astrid's Town Hall set as their influence. ROFL!

Just goes to show they don't comprehend product development-to-market timeline.

The fact that more girls are building with LEGO bricks today than before December 31, 2011 is proof positive that this new theme has great merit! In fact, the number of girls as LEGO builders went from 9% in 2011 to over 27% by 2013!

Build-on girls!

1 comment:

AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 11:13 PM
Hahaha, this is great!
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FACTS & Myths

FACT: Friends sets contain 'loose' bricks which must be connected together to build the model on the box-art (instructions included) or any other creation a girl can imagine with those bricks. The models seen in images DO NOT come out of the box pre-assembled.

Myth: LEGO Friends sets come pre-fabricated = a myth!

FACT: Pink bricks have been around for about a decade.

Myth: LEGO Friends set bricks are mostly pink = a myth!
(Only about 10% of the bricks found in each set box are of the color pink; the rest are comprised of Azure Blue {a LEGO Friends unique color}, White, Tan, Lime Green, Medium Lavender, Dark Lavender, Magenta {dark bright pink}, Red, Yellow-Green, Black, Brown, Light Aqua {new color to LEGO, due to Friends}, Orange, Yellow, Grey, Light Pink, Bright Orange, Bright Pink, and several shades of Green.)

FACT: Girls who where not already building & playing with LEGO bricks took part in the 4-year anthropological research study across the globe. They are the girls for whom the Friends Mini-Dolls were developed; those girls wanted a more realistic "avatar" to represent them. They were not interested in the classic yellow minifigure.

Myth: If only TLG made more girls as minifigures then more girls would be building with LEGO bricks and therefore no need for the Friends line = a myth!

FACT: In 2011 girls were only 9% of The LEGO Group's customers; after Friends release and by 2013 girls comprise 28% of the toy company's customers. Although many girls who built with LEGO bricks prior to Friends enjoyed other lines, such as Creator, Harry Potter, Architecture, the overall number of girls building was less than boys. Friends serves as a bridge by appealing to some girls to engage them with construction toy building -- then hopefully follow interests into additional themes, such as Modular, Monster Fighters, NinjaGO, Architecture, Chima, CITY and more ...

Myth: Girls have been segregated withing the LEGO building experience = a myth!

FACT: The LEGO Group had severe profit loss in 2003; then after releasing licensed tie-in (such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter) sets, their profits rose.

Myth: If TLG reverts to gender-less buckets of red, blue & green bricks, then everything will be just fine = a myth!
~This is a sentimental notion which does not take into account the very rapid growth of technology and competition for kids' attention in engaged play.

About Paradisa:

The LEGO Paradisa System for girls was introduced in 1992. These sets included parts for making buildings with pink and white accents. Many of these sets had either beach or riding themes. Therre were also a pair of basic sets, called “Freestyle” in 1995 that were in a box or a pink suitcase. These were very similar to the actually produced Paradisa System sets, except these were not model sets, but mainly spare parts basic sets.

There were a number of unique baseplates produced for the Paradisa line, many having beach and water features, and very light green grassy areas. There were also several parts not found in other systems in pink or dark pink. So some parts in these sets are somewhat rare.

The Paradisa System of sets were retired circa 1998, and other LEGO systems, such as the Scala System (dollhouse type sets) and Belville.

Paradisa Sets were sold in continental Europe, Britain, Australia, USA and Canada.

LEGO Homemaker sets Story

This was the beginning of the Homemaker series of sets, which were produced from 1971 until 1982. The early Homemaker sets from 1971-73 predated the first LEGO people, which were first introduced in 1974. Even after 1974 many of the smaller sets still did not have LEGO people included in the sets.

The first LEGO people were not the small minifigs that we know of today, but were large yellow 2x2x2 round heads and neck attached to a 2x2 brick. There were bendable arms that attached to the sides of the 2x2 bricks. At the end of each arm was a round hand with a hollow stud on top. This allowed the people to hold LEGO accessories. The remainder of the big head peoples’ body was made up of regular and sloped LEGO bricks. There were also LEGO hair pieces (male and female) as well as LEGO hats (male and female). The yellow heads had several different expressions painted on them. Some looked young with freckles; others looked old with glasses painted on. And there were several different hair colors and hair styles for the large heads. The hats varied in color and styles. There was even one American Indian set that had the heads made of red LEGO. But all other sets had yellow heads.

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This blog is in response to a petition & spam campaign of a few feminists

The *real* Stephanie

1 comment:

The real Stephanie