It is one of the most popular toys of all time, but the Danish company Lego is facing criticism for its new "Friends" range designed for girls.
Set in Heartlake City, the line features a pastel-coloured beauty salon, bakery, fashion design studio, vet’s surgery and an inventor’s workshop. Five pretty, curvaceous mini-doll friends come with handbags, a hair brush, hair drier, lipsticks, spoon, food-mixer and cupcakes. And gone is the Lego convention of building. The kit is put together in a few moves.
Professor Becky Francis, director of education at the Royal Society of Arts and a leading expert on toys and child development, said she expected much more from Lego.
“Given the efforts that are being made to re-engage girls with science, technology, engineering and maths, this is a real missed opportunity. Lego more than any other toy company is in a position to do something about it and instead played to every worst stereotype,” she told The Times.
“It is totally playing on the notion that girls are fashion-obsessed, social and creative. It is not half as technical and challenging as the products for boys.”
In previous generations, Lego marketed itself as a toy for girls and boys. In the past decade it has moved into more predesigned models with Star Wars and Batman. That meant it lost market share with girls. Over 90 per cent of boys play with Lego and only 9 per cent of girls.
In the US, more than 3000 people have signed an internet petition, while others have protested on the Lego Facebook site. In Britain, the campaign is getting under way.
Dr Laura Nelson, a neuroscientist who successfully campaigned for Hamleys toy shop to abandon its separate girls’ and boys’ floors in its central London store, said parents should be concerned: “I am very concerned about the message this sends to girls. It suggests girls are interested in domestic activities, creative tasks in a domestic setting, whereas boys are interested in the wider world, looking outwards and building things.”
Lego said the product was what girls wanted and combined girls’ desire for realistic role play while maintaining “the core principles of Lego construction play”.
“Lego Friends is one of the most heavily researched projects in company history, with concept development spanning four years,” the company said in a statement. “Our research shows that girls, around the age of 6 or 7, stop playing with toys like Lego, opting for creative and fashion play instead.”
“Feedback from parents and their children has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Source: The Australian - http://goo.gl/bnLxb
