Up in Arms Over Lego

Brooklyn residents are up in arms over a new Lego set that the company has planned.   As Dana Edell of Brooklyn, the executive director of the activist organization called SPARK explained, “The new line of Legos is focused on girls getting their hair done and sitting at a cafe and hanging out at the beach.”

Change to the Lego Design

While Lego figurines have always been boxy and quite gender-neutral in look, the characters in the new line will have noticeable curves and busts.   The line, called LadyFigs, has them living in Heartlake City and the rollout scheduled for next week comes, as Lego explained it, after interviews with thousands of girls and moms.

Lego’s CEO Jorgen Knudstorp recently explained to Business Week that they are creating the new line because,

“We want to reach the other 50% of the world’s children.”  

However, many people like Edell find this assumption insulting. Girls play with “regular” Legos, she asserts. The real problem as she sees it, however, is that the traditional sets don’t have enough girl figurines in them and they are aimed at boys.

Creating Petition

Edell’s organization posted a petition on Thursday on Change.org and had 1200 signatures by Friday.

Some parents don’t see what all the fuss is about. Dana Edell and the 1200 people she got to sign the petitions, however, aren’t planning to back down.