This morning, a friend of mine posted (from those fine folks at Buzzfeed,) a picture of a letter to the LEGO corporation, purportedly written by a 7 year old girl named Charlotte. In her charmingly-scrawled missive, she complains at the lack of representation of females in their product line (I might be paraphrasing here a bit.)
She points out that the girls found in sets in the pink aisle merely "sit at home, go to the beach and shop." She further elucidates that while these plastic females are gainfully employed, the boys get to go on adventures, work, save people, and even swim with sharks.
She concludes by asking that the company makes more female characters so that they too can go on adventures.
As the father of an extremely precocious little girl, who is as comfortable playing princesses with her little brother as donning her astronaut outfit and exploring strange new worlds, I am sensitive to the 'Pink Aisle Ghetto' effect.
Wiser men than I have commented on the strictly enforced gender boundaries in the toy store, and I too in the past have taken up plastic torch and pitchfork (actually, my little girl really has both of these,) and decry the blatant sexism inherent in the toy industry.
DOWN WITH THE MAN!
But I'm older now, and I realize some harsh truths. You see, there really is no sinister pro-male conspiracy. The pink aisle will never go away, not because of the desire of the phallocentric male oppressors (local #473) to ban the envaginated from all things awesome, but because of simple economics.
In other words, if you want to blame old white guys for this problem, point your fingers squarely at the benjamins.
Because companies are ruled purely by what market research shows will be profitable. Armies of angry girls are not lining up to buy these fem-friendly toys; previous attempts have shown that. For every strong little girl that demands an AR-15 accessory with her Barbie (or little boy who wants to buy Talkout™, the G.I. Joe sensitivity training specialist,) there are simply too many others who are paying money for the status quo. Making those figures is a poor investment (that's what the smaller, online specialty producers are for, and there are a ton of them out there.)
A business can't stay profitable by appealing to those few kids.
So here is my response to little Charlotte, and the LEGO corporation has my permission to use it (for a small fee, payable in LEGO sets.)
Dear Charlotte,
We at the Lego company understand your complaint, and we have always striven to maintain a strong message of equality of the sexes in our younger children's lines.
However, we are a business, and that means that to continue to be profitable (and stay in business making the toys you love,) we have to follow the demands of the market. To put it simply, we have to make toys that people will buy. As you pointed out, we do make a few toys aimed at girls, or that are highly inclusive of them, just as we have for years.
But over those years, we have learned that if we focused more on that ideal, we would lose significant amounts of money. Our product lines are driven entirely by what research shows will sell, NOT by our opinions on the value of little girls like yourself.
This, by the way is why you see the same gender disparity in the action figure and doll lines. There will always be more male action figures (even those of superheroes, where there are already plenty of heroines in the comics,) than female ones. Those toy producers have learned that it is not a wise investment to make that many female figures, because too many of them will sit on the shelf and never sell.
In contrast, although there are plenty of little boys who might like to play with baby dolls, or fashion dolls like Barbie, there will never be that many males (or male-inclusive lines) produced, because they too would lose money, gathering dust in the pink aisle.
In conclusion Charlotte, the problem you bring up IS a serious one in our society, but it is not in the power of toy producers, who rise and fall at the whims of the purchasing market, to fix it.
I hope you will understand our position and continue to enjoy our LEGO family of products. Of course, you could always take those female figures out of their boring routines and have them have adventures and swim with sharks, or even swap heads and hair and decide your favorite lego minifigs are female.
After all, they are toys, and it is your imagination that give them life.
Sincerely, LEGO
No comments:
Post a Comment