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Lego vows to get rid of 'gender bias' in its toys
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Lego vows to get rid of 'gender bias' in its toys

Woke culture has invaded nearly every corner of American society — and the toy department is no exception.

Lego — the company that creates plastic building blocks that can be fashioned into pretty much anything and sells those molded pieces at exorbitant prices — announced Monday that it would work to get rid of the "gender bias and harmful stereotypes" surrounding its toys, the UK Guardian reported.

No longer can parents find Legos "for boys" or "for girls," and the company's website does not let shoppers search for toys by gender, the Guardian pointed out.

And the company did not stop there.

What's happening?

Lego, one of the biggest toy makers in the world, made its woke announcement about ridding itself of gender bias and stereotypes following the publication of a study that it commissioned, which "found attitudes to play and future careers remain unequal and restrictive," the Guardian said.

Apparently boys and their parents are just to bigoted about the idea of playing with "girls' toys," so Lego is going to do what it can to combat such "harmful stereotypes."

From the Guardian:

Researchers found that while girls were becoming more confident and keen to engage in a wide range of activities, the same was not true of boys.

Seventy-one per cent of boys surveyed feared they would be made fun of if they played with what they described as “girls' toys" — a fear shared by their parents. “Parents are more worried that their sons will be teased than their daughters for playing with toys associated with the other gender," said Madeline Di Nonno, the chief executive of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, who conducted the research.

“But it's also that behaviours associated with men are valued more highly in society," said Di Nonno. “Until societies recognise that behaviours and activities typically associated with women are as valuable or important, parents and children will be tentative to embrace them."

The study found that parents still encouraged sons to do sports or Stem activities, while daughters were offered dance and dressing up (girls were five times more likely to be encouraged in these activities than boys) or baking (three times more likely to be encouraged).

Actress Geena Davis, who started the company that did the study for Lego, decried "how ingrained gender biases are across the globe."

Another "expert," professor Gina Rippon, a neurobiologist and author of "The Gendered Brain," warned of the dangers of gender biases within the toy industry — especially how it could hurt boys to not get them to play with dolls.

"We encourage girls to play with 'boys' stuff' but not the other way around," she told the Guardian, adding, "So if girls aren't playing with Lego or other construction toys, they aren't developing the spatial skills that will help them in later life. If dolls are being pushed on girls but not boys, then boys are missing out on nurturing skills."

In response to the study showing alleged gender bias in toys, Lego is working to be "more inclusive," according to Lego Group chief product and marketing officer Julia Goldin, the paper said, adding:

“Traditionally, Lego has been accessed by more boys, but products like [arts and crafts line] Lego Dots or Lego City Wildlife Rescue Camp have been specifically designed to appeal to boys and girls," said Goldin. The Lego mandate is now to promote nurturing and caring as well as spatial awareness, creative reasoning and problem solving.

The Let Toys Be Toys campaign was launched in 2012 in the UK to put pressure on children's brands to expand their marketing and include both genders, so that no boy or girl thinks they are playing with “the wrong toy". But progress is slow. A 2020 report by the Fawcett Society showed how “lazy stereotyping" and the segregation of toys by gender was fuelling a mental health crisis among young people and limiting perceived career choices.

Lego is all in on the woke agenda of treating boys and girls exactly the same.

"Our job now is to encourage boys and girls who want to play with sets that may have traditionally been seen as 'not for them,'" Goldin said.

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