Toy Tempest in a Teapot

When I was a kid, I loved LEGOs.

LOVED THEM.

Lincoln Logs, too.

I spent hours in our basement, building villages which Jon would smash to bits with his GI Joe tanks.

I didn't mind.  It gave me an excuse to rebuild, always bigger and better.

Jack loves LEGOs, too.

I have two complaints with the LEGOs and Lincoln Logs they make today.

The first is that they almost always come in sets.  You get just enough pieces to build a Jedi star fighter, a fire station, whatever.  Yes, you can buy a big tub of LEGOs but they don't come with all the figures and cool pieces that the sets have.

Way to stifle the imagination and create generation after generation of inside-the-box thinkers, toy manufacturers.

My second complaint is that until recently, most LEGO sets were marketed to little boys.

SpongeBob.  Ninjago.  Star Wars.  Cars.  Pirates of the Caribbean.

Yes, yes, I know.

Girls can like those things, too.  I know that because I loved Star Wars as a child just as much as my son does now.

Still, if given the choice between building a fortress that is being invaded by knights or a house where little LEGO girlfriends can tend a garden, I know what I would have chosen most days and I know what my daughter would choose.

Natalie enjoyed building and playing with the police paddy wagon set but man, a park café set would light her up!  The Madam is nothing if not a typical (stereotypical?) little girl who loves sparkles and frills.  After all, this is the girl who chose to rock the field in a hot pink soccer skirt.

So, when I came across a display of LEGO sets geared towards little girls and their interests, I was thrilled.

Finally, LEGO was making a product for little girls (and profiting from an untapped market whose well-manicured little fingers are reaching into Mommy's wallet on shopping trips far more often than their brothers' grubby hands.)

At last, my girls wouldn't have to make do with ninjas and knights.

Imagine my surprise when I was trolling Twitter (how bored was I?) and came across a rant from Grey's Anatomy's Shonda Rhimes in which she spewed hate for the LEGOs we love.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Preferably a pink one, thankyouverymuch.

There is a protest against the new LEGOs complete with online petition.  People are furious that LEGO is forcing little girls into gender stereotypes, pink boxes versus blue boxes, blah blah blah.

Huh?  Is LEGO refusing to sell the Star Wars sets to anyone without a penis now?

I think not.

Gender equality, a hard-fought battle that rages on, is not about neutralizing our femininity.  It's about having the CHOICE to do whatever you want as if gender is irrelevant.

Which, in most cases, IT IS.

Especially with toys.

Having LEGOs that look like themselves or their mothers isn't going to force little girls back into the dark ages where women were the property of their fathers and then their husbands or the nunnery.

No, having those LEGOs as an option says, "Have fun however YOU want to play and do it now before you have to go to school and get a job just like the boys only you will make less than they will for doing the same thing."

Hey, I didn't say LEGO solved all of the world's gender issues, did I?

So, LEGO, neutralize the color of the packaging (what group would get in a snit over a green box, I wonder?) and keep doing what you are doing well now.

*sigh*

What do I know?  I'm "just" a housewife.

And a huge THANK YOU to my foremothers who fought for my right to choose to be one.