This video does one of the best jobs of highlighting gender segregation within modern society and how advertising and marketing is used to divide the genders up further for the sake of money. both women touch on how there is a constant stigma towards products targeted to women as being weaker and how the way men’s products are marketed reinforces this idea that women’s products are inferior. One of the best examples of this is the new Lego which is targeted towards girls.
It reaffirms the stereotypes women are subjected to for girls at a young age. While boys can do anything they want (as long as its not ‘womanly’) girls can bake, get their hair done and play with cute animals. The girls are told what to do. The Lego for boys is interchangeable whereas the Lego for girls already puts them within boundaries. Feminist Frequency raises an important question when she says -So what happens when something in Heartlake City catches on fire? I guess you have to call the boys to put it out, similarly what happens when someone in LEGO city gets hungry? I guess you’d have to call the girls to bake them something. This is just absurd. This type of issue just highlights how misogynistic the Lego company has been in making this. and although the main video says that the revenue for Lego went up when the launched this, all they have done is to continue this deep rooted stereotype of girls and highlight the superiority myth boys are raised with.
Sources:
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/01/lego-gender-part-1-lego-friends/
criticalsloth 