Criminal #34 LEGO "Legooooonoooo"

I played with LEGO a lot when I was a kid. My second eldest brother, Greg, loved the stuff. I think he must have gotten LEGO for every present-giving occasions under the sun. LEGO for Christmas, LEGO for his birthday. It was great because he really had (and I assume still does) an eye for building in the 3D. We have an infamous LEGO city in our basement which regrettably was destroyed when we moved. Not sure if any pictures of it still exist.

So yes, as a girl, I loved played with LEGO. No, I wasn't really a tomboy. I mean, I wasn't girly by any means, I didn't really fit in anywhere on the scale. I loved LEGO.

Now, not so much. Take a look:

Dinosaur, plane, tank, ship. Ignoring the fact that right off the bat I can think of two LEGO sets that actually allow a person to build a plane AND a ship, making the three or four block creations redundant, here's my beef.

Those four things are male oriented. Now, as always I know what you're probably thinking. "But Kathleen, you're the one who stresses that kids should be able to play with any toys no matter what gender! What's stopping the girls from playing with the tanks?"

Nothing at all. The problem is the average mind isn't going to think "Oh my gosh! I have breasts and I love that dinosaur!" Society has, once again, created such a firm image of what girls and boys should play with, that I'm almost positive the average girl would scoff at the thought of playing with a tank or a dinosaur or a plane. Why should they? I loved it. What is stopping LEGO from easing into a new free-thought-gender-free toy campaign? Why not have a castle in there? Something that either gender could play with? Knights in shining armour, princesses. Granted, it still plays up the age old stereotype but at the very least, the ad would appeal to boys and girls alike.

It gets worse. I was googling some LEGO ads, hoping I could find proof that LEGO aims for young boys far more than girls (all I could find was the following, and seeing as it was the ONLY one I could find, it doesn't really validate my point.)

In my e-hunt I discovered the following three ads which made me more than a little uneasy.

(Click for bigger images)

Let's get one thing straight. There is a time and place to teach your child that the world is cruel. Through an advertisement of a loveable childhood toy would be the WRONG way. In what world is that acceptable at all? Disaster, famine, destruction? Should those really be mixing with innocence? Do you want you child to believe that the world can be so easily rebuilt with a few blocks? I guarantee you those people escaping genocide and famine don't consider it easy. Those are serious topics made mockerys. In no way should people stand for that sort of shit; it disgusts me.