Is complaining about pink LEGO counter productive?

The discussion around LEGO ‘for girls’ and whether Friends is too pink seems to have died down somewhat of late, but the Spectator have a new think piece to add to the debate. Andrew Watts makes his case on the magazine’s website for why pink LEGO sets are not as problematic as campaigners looking to eliminate them believe.

Watts argues that alongside LEGO Friends, 21110 Research Institute was released, which scientists have used to demonstrate women in the scientific fields.

It is not surprising that female scientists are keen for girls to play with Lego. Studies have shown that they can build cognitive skills as well as caltrops, and that the gender gap in spatial skills, for example, is virtually eliminated if girls play with Lego (and similar toys) as much as boys do. The fact that items like Lego came to be considered ‘boys’ toys’ is one reasons why young women are not making the impact they should in science and technology, which rely on these skills.

Colorado, USA - Feb. 18, 2015: Studio shot of a line of Lego Friends girls in front of line of minifigure boys. Lego minifigures and bricks are a popular line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Denmark.

lego

He goes on to argue that in a world that is not ideal, girls playing with gender-orientated LEGO sets is better than them avoiding the toy at all.

As such, the campaign against pink Lego was the worst form of counterproductive virtue-signalling: demanding what sounds like equality at the expense of actually improving women’s life chances. In an ideal world, girls and boys would play equally with Lego in nice primary colours; but what do you do if your daughter comes home from nursery saying she has decided that she can’t play with Lego because it’s a boy’s toy? Do you say, ‘Here’s a copy of Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender — I’d like you to read it, paying particular attention to her remarks on neuroplasticity’? Or do you say, ‘Look! This Lego is pink!’?

As Lise Eliot, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Chicago’s Rosalind Franklin University, puts it, ‘If it takes colour-coding or ponies and hairdressers to get girls playing with Lego, I’ll put up with it, at least for now, because it’s just so good for little girls’ brains.’ Lego is a toy we want our children to love. And that’s why many middle-class parents, despite insisting that their children should only watch CBeebies so they are not exposed to commercials, will willingly take them to the Lego movie.

It’s a topic that will continue to stoke debate, and we would love to hear from our readers in the comments, on Facebook and on Twitter @brickfanatics.

Author Profile

Graham
Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education.

Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

Graham

Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education. Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

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