Despite overwhelming controversy surrounding the 2012
release of LEGO’s Friends line, the mega-mogul toy company will push forward
with its upcoming release of an official set of female scientist minifigures. The figures will depict a chemist, an
astronomer, a paleontologist and other women in scientific professions.
The idea for the 13 female character set came last year from
Swedish geochemist, Alatariel Elensar. Elensar
confronted the LEGO Company through a fan-based design website called
CUUSOO. The website allows users to
design their own LEGO character sets and, with enough support from the local
LEGO community, have the set implemented as a limited edition release to the
public.
LEGO’s previous attempt at marketing and releasing an
all-girl line, called the Friends line, was met with great financial success,
but many women took to the internet to voice their opposition to the new set. With the popular hashtag #LiberateLEGO, women
expressed their disapproval of LEGO’s decision to stereotype women into being
carefree shoppers who wear pink… a lot of pink.
Seven year old Charlotte Benjamin captured the LEGO Company
and the world’s attention when she sent in a hand-written letter, asking that
LEGO “make more LEGO girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun.” Charlotte’s plea was in direct response to
the LEGO Friends line, where the female characters, in Charlotte’s words, “sit
at home, go to bed, and shop,” while the boys “went on adventures, worked,
saved people, and had jobs, even swam with sharks.”
Charlotte will be pleased to know that LEGO’s new female
scientist set will include women who hold some of the most adventurous jobs,
including oceanographer Sylvia Earle, who swam with sharks on many occasions.
LEGO hopes the new female scientist set will ease the
publics’ concern about how the toy company may or may not be including women in
their more adventurous sets.
Watch LEGO’s announcement of the new line here: http://bit.ly/1kGc84P
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