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BS @ trend. Go back 50 years and it was dolls and toy guns. Nothing has changed, boys still like building and destroying, and girls still like caring about thi

BS @ trend. Go back 50 years and it was dolls and toy guns. Nothing has changed, boys still like building and destroying, and girls still like caring about things and craft things. You can try all you want to make boys play with dolls, and girls play at killing each other, but they won't in general, because it's not in their biological makeup to do so.

deleted 15y ago
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- maximusprime 15y ago
  I agree, but I really don't understand how or why scientifically minded people could claim that they believe male and female brains to be absolutely biologically identical. We evolved to have specific gender roles. We have obvious physical differences related to those roles. We have obvious psychological differences as well. I can only imagine that to some people, the truth is inconvenient to them in their "everyone is absolutely identical" utopia.
  - lemming 15y ago
    I'm no proponent of "everyone is absolutely identical", but I would go with "everyone is absolutely much more similar than the cliches pushed by e.g. the toy industry". The role of cultural influence in this is enormous and impossible to separate from intrinsic biological differences. I'm from New Zealand where (at least in my peer group) gender roles are not too clearly defined. However I live in Spain where they absolutely are - are New Zealanders biologically less sexist than Spaniards? Of course not. There's another interesting discussion to be had around brain plasticity and whether people raised in cultures which promote differences are actually more different, but I'm not aware of research in this area. It would be interesting to see.
  - einhverfr 15y ago
    Right, but before WWII, pink was a boy's color and blue was for girls. Few here are saying that brains are entirely identical, but the fact is you cannot overlook cultural aspects. These aspects are at best only loosely tied to biology and many are purely arbitrary (such as color preferences).
- pyre 15y ago
  I think that the general idea is that if a girl wants to play with 'boy' toys, people shouldn't look at her weird like there's something wrong with her. If boys and girls in general will trend to certain types of toys, that's ok. It's the "Billy is playing with dolls, let's make fun of him" or "Billy is playing with dolls, let me beat the crap out of him because I don't want no gay son" attitudes that we want to discourage.
amitparikh 15y ago
I think the point here is that Lego is fondly remembered as -- and maybe even should be -- a gender-neutral toy. There was never anything inherently male or female about Legos. In fact, I remember playing with my younger sister often -- I'd be building a spaceship on one side, and she'd be putting together a house on the other. The problem is that Lego has gotten away from being a gender-neutral toy and is now marketed specifically to boys. And the travesty is, they've dug themselves such a deep hole that the only way to get back any female users is to pander to their lowest common denominator.
- maximusprime 15y ago
  BS. Utter BS. It is marketed to everyone. (Speaking as a father of a daughter who has a massive Lego collection and plays with it lots). It's depressing to see so many comments that seem to believe we're all powerless to go against marketing and advertising. YOU are the problem. If you're a parent, BUY YOUR KIDS SOME LEGO.
- recoil 15y ago
  It's not marketed specifically to boys though... Sure, some of the sets are obviously more male-oriented (perhaps even the majority), but there are also sets that are either specifically designed to appeal to girls, or which appeal more to girls for whatever reason. This trend is really nothing new, either. More than 20 years ago I wanted the Lego spaceships, and my sister got pissed off at me for making wars against her happy little Lego town people. Even 20 years ago there were more sets that appealed to boys than girls, I'm reasonably sure. We also had a pile of the plain old "gender-neutral" bricks, which either of us might have employed to augment our various constructions.
lubutu 15y ago
"boys still like building" "girls still ... craft things." I think this says everything that needs to be said: children like making things!

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

maximusprime 15y ago
I agree, but I really don't understand how or why scientifically minded people could claim that they believe male and female brains to be absolutely biologically identical. We evolved to have specific gender roles. We have obvious physical differences related to those roles. We have obvious psychological differences as well. I can only imagine that to some people, the truth is inconvenient to them in their "everyone is absolutely identical" utopia.
- lemming 15y ago
  I'm no proponent of "everyone is absolutely identical", but I would go with "everyone is absolutely much more similar than the cliches pushed by e.g. the toy industry". The role of cultural influence in this is enormous and impossible to separate from intrinsic biological differences. I'm from New Zealand where (at least in my peer group) gender roles are not too clearly defined. However I live in Spain where they absolutely are - are New Zealanders biologically less sexist than Spaniards? Of course not. There's another interesting discussion to be had around brain plasticity and whether people raised in cultures which promote differences are actually more different, but I'm not aware of research in this area. It would be interesting to see.
- einhverfr 15y ago
  Right, but before WWII, pink was a boy's color and blue was for girls. Few here are saying that brains are entirely identical, but the fact is you cannot overlook cultural aspects. These aspects are at best only loosely tied to biology and many are purely arbitrary (such as color preferences).
pyre 15y ago
I think that the general idea is that if a girl wants to play with 'boy' toys, people shouldn't look at her weird like there's something wrong with her. If boys and girls in general will trend to certain types of toys, that's ok. It's the "Billy is playing with dolls, let's make fun of him" or "Billy is playing with dolls, let me beat the crap out of him because I don't want no gay son" attitudes that we want to discourage.

amitparikh 15y ago

I think the point here is that Lego is fondly remembered as -- and maybe even should be -- a gender-neutral toy. There was never anything inherently male or female about Legos. In fact, I remember playing with my younger sister often -- I'd be building a spaceship on one side, and she'd be putting together a house on the other. The problem is that Lego has gotten away from being a gender-neutral toy and is now marketed specifically to boys. And the travesty is, they've dug themselves such a deep hole that the only way to get back any female users is to pander to their lowest common denominator.

maximusprime 15y ago
BS. Utter BS. It is marketed to everyone. (Speaking as a father of a daughter who has a massive Lego collection and plays with it lots). It's depressing to see so many comments that seem to believe we're all powerless to go against marketing and advertising. YOU are the problem. If you're a parent, BUY YOUR KIDS SOME LEGO.
recoil 15y ago
It's not marketed specifically to boys though... Sure, some of the sets are obviously more male-oriented (perhaps even the majority), but there are also sets that are either specifically designed to appeal to girls, or which appeal more to girls for whatever reason. This trend is really nothing new, either. More than 20 years ago I wanted the Lego spaceships, and my sister got pissed off at me for making wars against her happy little Lego town people. Even 20 years ago there were more sets that appealed to boys than girls, I'm reasonably sure. We also had a pile of the plain old "gender-neutral" bricks, which either of us might have employed to augment our various constructions.

lubutu 15y ago

"boys still like building" "girls still ... craft things." I think this says everything that needs to be said: children like making things!