Still searching for just where Lego made the wrong turn

The Lego Friends maelstrom continues. Here’s an update.

These two videos thoroughly deconstruct gender stereotyping in Lego marketing:

Feminist Frequency

In part 1 of my two part LEGO and Gender series, I’ll explore how LEGO went terribly wrong with LEGO Friends and provide a brief history of LEGO’s ridiculous and slightly hilarious attempts to market to girls since the late 70′s.  In part 2 I’ll delve into LEGO’s intentional strategy to market almost exclusively to boys since the mid 80′s by developing and marketing sets that are male identified and male centered.  In conclusion, I’ll offer LEGO a couple of suggestions that they can consider when creating and marketing new products.

Meanwhile, Lego has apparently agreed to a meeting with Spark, the organization behind a petition that has received nearly 52,000 signatures.

Crystal Smith, author of The Achilles Effect, examines the disconnect between Lego’s claims about its company values and its contributions to children’s development, and its marketing: filled with violence and harmful gender stereotypes.

Meanwhile, some of the same sexist attitudes apparent in LEGO friends also apparently carry over into Legoland, where a female firefighter is portrayed, but not putting out a fire. No, she’s applying lipstick.

What I find quite remarkable is that Lego is based in Denmark, the country that ranked 7th in the World Economic Forum’s 2011 Global Gender Gap Report, which ranks 135 countries on measures of gender equality.

In Denmark, according to the report, women hold almost one third of the highest positions in government and business. Well, maybe Lego doesn’t fit in so well in Denmark. Take a look at their management page:

Management Board

	Jørgen Vig Knudstorp CEO/Chief Executive Officer Download high-res image
	Mads Nipper CMO/Chief Marketing Officer Executive Vice President Marketing Download high-res image
	Bali Padda COO/Chief Operations Officer Executive Vice President Operations Download high-res image
	Jørgen Vig Knudstorp Acting CFO/Chief Financial Officer Business Enabling

Corporate Management

	Product Group 1 Ulrik Gernow Senior Vice President
	Product Group 2 Poul Schou, Senior Vice President
	Europe Dirk Engehausen, currently Senior Vice President
	Americas Pacific Søren Torp Laursen, Senior Vice President
	Asia & Emerging Markets Jens-Peter Poulsen Senior Vice President
	Consumer Marketing & Innovation Per Hjuler Senior Vice President
	Shopper Marketing & Channel Development Skip Kodak Senior Vice President
	Corporate Affairs Robbert Nickolaj Stecher Senior Vice President
	Corporate Finance Lars Mikkelsen Senior Vice President
	Corporate IT Henrik Amsinck Senior Vice President
	Executive HR Simon Riis-Hansen Senior Vice President
	Europe Moulding and Europe DUPLO Jesper Hassellund Mikkelsen Senior Vice President
	EU Packing Carsten Rasmussen Senior Vice President
	Procurement Michael McNulty Senior Vice President
	Engineering & Quality John Hansen Senior Vice President
	Supply Chain Planning & Distribution Claus Flyger Pejstrup Senior Vice President
	Value Chain Innovation Maarten Tibosch Senior Vice Presid