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LEGO To Release Female Scientist Figurines
A trio of female scientists—an astronomer, a paleontologist and a chemist—are coming to the LEGO universe later this summer. The series was selected as the latest LEGO Ideas winner, which allows fans to submit and vote on ideas for upcoming sets.
The upcoming "Research Institute" is the brainchild of Dr. Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist and LEGO fan from Stockholm.
The motivating behind her submission, she explained on her blog, was that "as a female scientist I had noticed two things about the available LEGO sets: a skewed male/female minifigure ratio and a rather stereotypical representation of the available female figures. It seemed logical that I would suggest a small set of female minifigures in interesting professions to make our LEGO city communities more diverse."
This echoes a sentiment popularized earlier this year when a seven-year-old girl wrote a letter to LEGO complaining about their sterotypically gendered sets. She asked that they "make more LEGO girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun ok!?!" And now they are doing just that.
Read More: http://mentalfloss.com/article/57127/lego-release-female-scientist-figurines
Thank you LEGO for finally recognizing women and girls!
16 replies
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Women in science are taking one tiny, plastic step forward after Lego announced on Tuesday it will launch a series of female scientists and their lab tools.
The science-themed project was selected as the latest Lego Ideas winner, and is set to hit shelves in August 2014.
The series – notably devoid of pink – includes an astronomer with a telescope, a paleontologist with a dinosaur skeleton and a chemist in a lab.
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The toy company has been criticised in the past for its gender-based marketing tactics, and in particular, over a line of building blocks geared for girls called Lego Friends, featuring slim female figurines that lock into pastel-painted settings such as a beauty salon and bakery.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/04/lego-launch-female-scientists-series
Thanks MadrasT
