Women's Rights Activists Protests New Line Of LadyFigs Legos Saying They Are Sexualizing The Toys And Demeaning Girls

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When you look at this toy, do you think it’s demeaning to girls??? Would you think that Lego is “sexualizing” their toys??? Well that’s exactly what one Brooklyn woman is arguing:

Plans for girl-themed Lego sets that feature bosomy figurines, a hot tub, a beauty parlor and lots of pink are sparking a backlash.

A Brooklyn girl-power activist has started an online petition that garnered more than a thousand signatures overnight.

“The new line of Legos is focused on girls getting their hair done and sitting at a cafe and hanging out at the beach,” said Dana Edell, executive director of the group SPARK.

“And they’re sexualizing the figurines.”

Lego figurines have always been boxy, almost gender-neutral forms. The characters from the new lines, LadyFigs, are taller and curvier, with noticeable busts.

They all live in Heartlake City. Construction sets include an inventor’s workshop, a splash pool, a “cool convertible,” a design studio and a dog show.

In a statement announcing the Lego Friends products, the Denmark-based toymaker said next week’s rollout is based on market-research interviews with thousands of girls and moms.

The company’s CEO told Business Week that “we want to reach the other 50 percent of the world’s children.”

Edell said the assumption — that girls don’t want to play with conventional Legos because they’re not interested in plain old building — is insulting.

The real problem, she said, is that the mainstay sets — heavy on Star Wars and other action-adventure themes — don’t have enough girl figurines.

Legos are marketed to boys and kept in the boy aisles at big stores, so girls don’t clamor for them, she said.

“What people want is what people are being sold,” she said. “Girls have been well-trained by the marketers to think this is what they’re supposed to want.”

She posted a petition Thursday on Change.org, the same site that helped convince Bank of America to cancel debit fees.

By Friday morning, she had reached the goal of 1,000 signatures and it was climbing by the hour.

“We want kids to think outside the box. Pink puts girls in a box,” one supporter wrote.

Edell said it’s unrealistic to think that Lego will cancel its biggest product retooling in a decade and a $40 million marketing campaign.

Her group, which wants to stop the sexualization of girls in the media and products, hopes Lego will rethink its marketing going forward.