Lego has taken another step toward going woke, announcing it’s eliminating so-called gender bias from its products.
The toy company did not specify what changes will be made but announced its products will be “free of gender bias and harmful stereotypes.” The move comes after a recent study found that girls are discouraged by an “unequal and restrictive” mentality towards creative activities and playtime.
The initiative comes after “researchers” with the Geena Davis Institute interviewed nearly 7,000 parents and children aged 6-14 in China, Czech Republic, Japan, Poland, Russia, UK, and the U.S. about their views on careers, sports, and toys.
Lego released the report to coincide with the United Nations “International Day of The Girl,” detailing that some parents encourage their daughters to play dress-up, cook, and take dance lessons rather than sports.
The toymaker stated that the “need for society to rebuild perceptions, actions, and words to support the creative empowerment of all children” is long overdue.
“The benefits of creative play such as building confidence, creativity, and communication skills are felt by all children and yet we still experience age-old stereotypes that label activities as only being suitable for one specific gender,” said Julia Goldin, Lego’s chief marketing officer.
But Bella D’Abrera with the Institute of Public Affairs says the Lego company’s latest move negates its own findings.
“It’s interesting that Lego is doing this now because it completely contradicts its own findings, which is we’ve known this all along, that there’s a biological difference between boys and girls,” D’Abrera told Sky News.
She said Lego did a survey several years ago where 4,500 girls and boys were questioned about how they play with Lego.
“Boys will imagine what they’re playing with, they’ll imagine that they are that,” D’Abrera noted. “And girls will make the toy more like them.”
She added, “Lego is not in danger of producing gender stereotypes or preventing girls from becoming engineers… it’s ridiculous.”
In order to make Lego “more inclusive,” the company also announced a new campaign titled “Ready for Girls,” which promotes female creativity.
Goldwin said, “At the Lego Group, we know we have a role to play in putting this right, and this campaign is one of several initiatives we are putting in place to raise awareness of the issue and ensure we make Lego play as inclusive as possible.
The Denmark-based company has recently launched several measures aligned with LGBT activism.
CBN News previously reported that Lego released its first LGBTQ set titled “Everyone is Awesome!” in May, just ahead of Pride Month.
And Lego collaborated with Netflix earlier this month to release a toy set for the show, “Queer Eye.”
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