Yahoo Lifestyle Seven-Year Old Accuses Lego Of Sexism
The letter to Lego from seven-year old Charlotte Benjamin.
A seven-year old has inadvertently ignited the gender debate after penning a ‘Dear John’ letter to Lego.
Charlotte Benjamin was clearly perplexed after discovering that the toy company divided its Lego into two sections: one for girls and one for boys. Even more puzzlingly, the boy “Legos” were clearly more successful and having a much better time.
“Today I went to a store and saw legos in two sections the girls pink and the boys blue,” she writes. “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.”
Much to Charlotte’s chagrin, there were also less girl Lego options on the shelf than boy options, indicating an obvious gender bias.
"I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok!?!" Charlotte demanded of the company.
Charlotte’s mother, who clearly saw the potential in the letter, submitted it to The Society Pages website, which then released it onto social media. A photo of the letter has since had over 2,000 retweets.
But while Charlotte’s words may seem innocent enough, they hint at a much wider gender stereotype, says the Independent UK.
“The child has tapped into wider criticisms of toy manufacturers, with the Education and Childcare Minister warning in January of the risk of turning girls off careers in science and math by producing gender-specific toys,” reported the newspaper.
In response, Alatariel Elensar, the figure’s creator, said: “Although recently Lego has started to design and add more female figures to their sets, they are still a minority. I have designed some professional female minifigures that also show that girls can become anything they want.”
Only time will tell if more Lego options for girls start hitting the shelves, but Charlotte has definitely put things into motion.
Related: See how we transformed four prominent Australian women into "men" and asked them to reflect on how gender has shaped their lives.
