Charlotte's Lego feminist activism (article)

[heavenlyboy34]

LOL :D
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/lego-responds-to-7-year-old-girl-s-awesome-letter-204212972.html

When a 7-year-old would rather write a letter of complaint about her toys than play with them, you know there's a problem. Last week Charlotte Benjamin spotted inequality in an aisle of Legos and did something about it. In a handwritten note to the Lego company, she expressed concern over the large number of "Lego boy people" and the limited options for girls at her local toy store. After her letter went viral, Lego posted a response Monday evening (http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/response/LEGO%20Group%20commentary%20on%20its%20Female%20LE GO%20Minifigures%20offering), claiming to be "very focused on including more female characters and themes that invite even more girls to build.”
More on Yahoo: Warner Bros. Already Working on Sequel to ‘The Lego Movie’ (Exclusive) (http://yhoo.it/1c1ax1q)

It's not often a letter-writing campaign gets such a quick response, but most letters aren't as succinct as Charlotte's. The note — originally sent to the website Sociological Images by Charlotte’s father and posted to its Twitter account (https://twitter.com/SocImages/status/428264365943316480) — reads:

Dear Lego company:
My name is Charlotte. I am 7 years old and I love Legos but I don’t like that there are more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls.
Today I went to a store and saw Legos in two sections — the girls' pink and the boys' blue. All the girls did was sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, and they had no jobs but the boys went on adventures, worked, saved people, and had jobs, even swam with sharks.
I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun, ok!?!
Thank you.
From Charlotte Since the letter first arrived on the Internet last Tuesday, it's been retweeted over 2,000 times and shared on Facebook by over 5,000 users. On Twitter, lots of people seem to share Charlotte's opinion.


continued at link...our stupid world...

[cajuncocoa]

Good for Charlotte. At least she didn't write to Obama to ask for his help with what she sees as a problem in her little 7-year old world.

[Suzanimal]

We love Legos and I've noticed they've really started gearing a lot of stuff towards girls. As a matter of fact we go to the Lego store once a month for the free monthly build it (1st Tuesday of the month, we were there last night) and over the past year I've noticed more and more "girl" builds.



It continued: "While there are still more male characters than female, we have added new characters to the LEGO world to better balance the appeal of our themes." Lego says it's had female characters including “a warrior, a surgeon, a zoologist, athletes, extreme sports characters, rock stars and a scientist,” but its current offerings don’t seem to include the role models Charlotte and others are seeking.

Probably because they didn't sell well. The Lego movie has lots of female characters and last night I noticed a lot of them still in the store. Unfortunately, for Charlotte if the girl sets and minifigs don't sell, they won't expand them.



There’s Emmet, with his exclusive construction helmet, Wild West Wyldstyle, the Master Builder and the rest of the cast: President Business, Scribble-Face Bad Cop, Marsha Queen of the Mermaids, Abraham Lincoln, Velma Staplebot, William Shakespeare, Panda Guy, Gail the Construction Worker, Mrs. Scratchen-Post, Wiley Fusebot, Calamity Drone, Larry the Barista, Taco Tuesday Guy and “Where are my pants?” Guy.
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Minifigures-The-LEGO-Movie-Series-71004

For the Lego Movie 6 out of 16 are female, Wonder Woman is also in the movie and I think Bat Girl is too. That's a pretty good gender mix for typical boy toys, I can assure you the doll aisle doesn't have that kind of gender diversity.


Last week Charlotte Benjamin spotted inequality in an aisle of Legos and did something about it.
...
The note — originally sent to the website Sociological Images by Charlotte’s father and posted to its Twitter account — reads:


I wonder if Charlotte was actually shopping for Legos or egged on by her parents... If she was actually disappointed in the Lego selections it seems her father would've sent her letter to Lego or posted it on their FB page.




More on Yahoo: Warner Bros. Already Working on Sequel to ‘The Lego Movie’ (Exclusive)

YAY!

[Occam's Banana]

Call me cynical, but I strongly suspect this "note" was not spontaneous or unprompted.


I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun, ok!?!

So let me get this straight - Lego is responsible for "letting" this girl (via "Lego people") "go on adventures and have fun?"

And is there some rule that you can't mix-and-match parts of Lego sets for your own purposes?

Why doesn't she just use one of the available "Lego people" (whether a "girl" or a "boy" or whatever) to "go" on whatever adventures she can devise?

It's a thing called "imagination" ... (which, apparently, is now a thing to be hitched to the wagon of Political Correctness ... SMGDH)

[Snew]

good for her.

[TruckinMike]

I agree with that little snot. They need more kitchens, expectant mothers, female dolls with doll houses, and cute ponies with long manes. Whats not adventurous about child birth, cooking, or ponies?

And more importantly....Why will the ^above NOT be taken seriously? Pavlov? PC police? Yahoo news? PBS? MSNBC? Dewey? Suffrage? Rockefeller? Marx?

[Philhelm]

It's not like she can't do a simple head swap. When I was that age, I made a custom Darth Vader many years before Lego came out with Star Wars figures. I used:

-Blacktron body;
-Solid black head (from their old ghost figures);
-Black sallet helm from Castle figure;
-Black cape from Castle figure;
-Black handle, hinge-piece-thingy with three prongs for lightsaber handle;
-Translucent red pole for lightsaber blade (from Space Police set).

[Philhelm]

It's not like she can't do a simple head swap. When I was that age, I made a custom Darth Vader many years before Lego came out with Star Wars figures. I used:

-Blacktron body;
-Solid black head (from their old ghost figures);
-Black sallet helm from Castle figure;
-Black cape from Castle figure;
-Black handle, hinge-piece-thingy with three prongs for lightsaber handle;
-Translucent red pole for lightsaber blade (from Space Police set).