Lego and Gender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYW_zEYtXeQ
I want anyone who is reading my blogpost to watch the video i have posted on top first. Where do I even begin? growing up LEGO was my favorite toy to play with even though LEGO was designed exclusively for boys. I hated Barbies and I hated pink and I never even thought about LEGO being a boy's toy. But when LEGO announced this year that they are expanding the LEGO franchise for girls I was excited to see what they had in store. Sadly "Heartlake city" was what it was in store for us which focused on the live of 5 friends Olivia, Mia, Emma, Andrea and Stephanie. All I was thinking was what happened to LEGO city? what? now that the toy is created for girls there has to be a new city built with pastel colors gender segregated stereotypically female suburban paradise. Oh and not to mention the fact that the LEGOs have only colors pink and purple. Don't get me wrong purple is my favorite color but really? is that the only two colors they could have chosen for girls when boys have green, blue, black, gray, orange, yellow, brown etc. in all different shades?
The huge difference that annoyed me the most about this new creation was the new LEGO person they created. Minifigs are the traditional LEGO person and if you google them you will see what I am talking about and they are the center piece of the whole LEGO francise. But the "girl" ones are called Ladyfigs and they are taller, curvier and they wear mini skirts. EVERYthing the Ladyfigs do are traditional female tasks like baking at the city park cafe, getting hair done at the butterfly beauty shop and homemaking at Olivia's house. But the awesome LEGO city I played with had police, firefighters, construction, space port etc. So what happens when theres a fire at Heartlake city? better call the boys from LEGO city to solve the problem. and what happens when the boys at LEGO city are hungry? better call the girls from Heartlake city to bake something for them.
We always talk about different products in the market that do the same but LEGO being the number one toy i grew up playing pushed my buttons to a whole entire different level. Good thing I'm a business major and I could have a small role in changing this in the future.