Legos for Girls?

My apologies for not posting more earlier this week, but with starting the new job and with Blogspot misbehaving, I just didn't have time to worry about it that much. Also, I apologize for my blog taking a somewhat feminist bend the past couple posts, it just seems to be on my mind recently.

While looking for ways to stay awake at work until midnight, I got to perusing around the Lego website. I've adored them since I was a child, and remember vividly playing with both the "boy" themed sets, and their line of pink horse ranches for girls. Admissably, I probably didn't play with them the way the Lego pople intended. The little horse whip that came with the riders had a loop at the end so it could double over itself. I realized that the hole was the perfect size to slip over around one of the Lego guy's heads, so my girls would ride around on their horses, dragging the boys around by their necks.



Needless to say, when I was looking on their website by category, I clicked on the girls section of the website. While I wasn't necessarily looking for something girly, I remembered there was a good number of cute horse farm sets when I was a child, and I figured with all the girl geeks nowadays, there would have been a push to make more girl-friendly Legos.



Hrm... well, that's not a whole heck of a lot of different sets (for reference, Lego has about 40+ different "themes" right now). And there was only one set listed under the "Belville" set of Horse Stables! Of course, the one set there was was geared for girls around the age of 6. I remember the sets that I had as a child were fun to play with even at 10-12, and had a lot of pieces, similar to the "less girly" sets available at the time. The other sets are likewise aimed for younger girls - around the age of preschool girls.

I've seen several instances where parents have contacted Lego, and Lego has basically said that a large percentage of their sales in the US is for boys, and that due to the amount of countries/ethnicities they market to Internationally, it's not practical for them to market to absolutely every demographic in every country they're sold in.

Ok. That's fine. While I think it would be super awesome for them to have huge horse ranch sets for girls of all ages, pink robots, and pink race cars, that's just what I like. I understand that a set that's specifically geared for girls probably isn't going to have the sort of market that a "Star Wars" set would.

I decided to start searching outside of the "girls" category, to see what sets are out there that might appeal to a girl. Having a specific category for girls is kind of silly, as different children have different likes and interests. Although there will be some parents that only look at that one category, I'd like to think that most would be inclined to search the other categories as well.

For those of you who aren't "in the know" regarding Lego, they have rights to produce toys for a ton of different popular franchises - Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia, Cars, and Spongebob Squarepants to name just a few.

I started with the Pirates of the Caribbean playsets. Elizabeth Swann is a pretty strong female character, who becomes more and more independent as the three movies progress. I was really disappointed to see that there was only one playset featuring Elizabeth. Surely it's something cool, like celebrating how Elizabeth was a Pirate Captain in the third movie? I mean, that was pretty fricking cool, wasn't it?



Oh... well... that's a missed opportunity I guess. There's mermaids in the set for the newest movie, but the only thing that they are there for is so they can be captured by a net flinger. Ho hum.

Let's move on to Star Wars. I mean, Padme Amidala wasn't a character of Leia proportions, but she was pretty major in the first three movies. I mean, she had a cool space ship, I'm sure that warranted a set?

Oh... I guess it didn't. In fact, I looked on their site for a playset that actually included Padme and I couldn't find one. And there were only two that I saw that included Leia, the hard-to-find Tantive IV ship that Darth Vader pursued before capturing her, and the Death Star that includes like 24 different minifigs.

Their Kingdoms sets at least come with female minifigs from time to time, although some of them are milkmaids.... who you get to protect from the evil Dragon Knights! While there is a Princess minifig... she doesn't come with the Castle! It's just the King and his Knights! Where's the Princess? Oh, she is in the Prison Tower, waiting to be rescued.

Alright, alright. Medieval times weren't exactly known for being empowering to women. Let's check out Harry Potter. Hermione was a pretty empowered girl, I'm sure that there's a playset where she's making a potion or something, right? Well she doesn't get her own set, but at least she's included in a good majority of the sets. And Ron didn't get his own sets either, so I guess that's fair.

I dunno. It's alright that they don't make a bunch of pretty princess sets, but it would be really nice to see Lego step up and try to present more of the female characters in their pop culture sets in more empowering scenarios.

The Issue of "Geek Chick"

The issues of who (or what) a geek chick is has been debated for several years now, but seems to be a particular hot topic for blogs and Twitter recently. I figured now would be a good time to weigh in on the subject. I'm going to try and backtrack and cover some things that other writers have mentioned in brief for my readers who might not be as savvy on the topic.

I admit, like I discussed in my previous blog, Female on Female I never really considered myself a "Geek Chick" - or to be honest, anything "special" at all - until someone told me that I was a Geek Chick. I think that my problem with the label was that there was a stereotype at the time. Geek Girls were fat, anti-social, and bathed infrequently - or at least that's what popular culture wanted me to believe.

When I was with the Geek Squad, and was presented with the opportunity to represent the company at public events, I jumped on it. Here was my chance to try and dispel the rumors, to prove that it was possible to be socially capable, well groomed, and "girly" but still to possess the better qualities of geekery. At around the same time, a lot of girls that you wouldn't traditionally call "geeks" started realizing that geek chicks were desirable to a certain segment of the population. Suddenly, girls who had seen Star Wars once as a child were branding themselves as geeks girls, and worse, women with minimal technical credentials realized they could get a job easier by marketing themselves using the diversity angle.

I was torn. Despite the fact that I knew that I knew enough, I almost felt like I was "taking advantage" of my gender - and in some cases, I surely was. I backed away from the "geek" moniker entirely, tried to make my screen names and blog names gender neutral, and avoided any content that could be viewed as feminist. I wanted to be respected purely on my abilities, opinions and skillsets, and avoid the peril of being considered an "ewhore." This was especially prevalent when I was playing WoW competitively, and any hint that you might be female would be used against you. Some guilds wouldn't entertain my applications at all, because they'd been played by women who traded nude pics for achievements and items in the game. I avoided telling my gender on guild apps, and avoided vent interviews if at all possible, not letting them know that I was female until I had proven myself in game. I sat idly at work while the "cute" girl in the low cut tops and mini-skirts became the boss's favorite, figuring that eventually I'd be recognized for my talent and ability.

Since then, I've obviously switched back to my old screen name, "thatgeekchick." It's one that I've used on an off since 2006, and it's one that I feel truly represents me as a person. I think that as a geek, and as a woman, I've had to come to terms with a few things in life.

1. You can't pretend to be someone you're not: This works both ways. My attempts to "mainstream" and pretend not to be a geek were often quickly found out. I'd dress in designer clothes, spend all my my time talking about how "wasted" I got last night, and how hot the guys at work were. But inevitably, I'd quote an obscure Star Wars line, or when one of th guys talked about how cool he thought Scully was, I'd say "Wow, she was my IDOL as a child!"

As I said, this works both ways. "Poseur" geek girls will generally quickly be rooted out. The girl that gets by on looks and charm alone will be revealed, and will be gone. And if she isn't... well perhaps the problem isn't HER so much as it's the work/social environment. Any job/social group that can be fooled that easily probably isn't worth being part of. Eventually, the game will get old, or someone will get tired of it.

2. Well... actually... you can pretend: This almost directly contradicts what I just said, but it's an important tangent. When I was in Catholic School, I once asked a religion teacher how I could "become" a good Catholic if I didn't believe. her answer? "Pretend until you believe.*" There are girls out there that want to capitalize on the geek chick phenomenon. There are also girls out there who weren't raised to be geeks, and who really, genuinely want a part of this culture. Perhaps their boyfriend is a gamer, or they've grown sick of hanging out with girls that just want to gossip about boys and clothes all the time. If a girl really wants to be part of the scene, and is playing the part, it's possible (and hopefully LIKELY) that at some point, she will have genuine geek cred.

Remember - the key aspect of geekhood that separates us from non-geeks is passion! Just because someone wasn't raised geek doesn't mean it's too late to convert! Perhaps you can be the lovely lady who guides the neophyte into more genuine geeky pastures?

*Passion is necessary in this endeavor. No matter how hard I pretended to be Catholic, it never really caught on with me, because it wasn't in my heart.

3. You don't have to give up girlyness to be a geek: One of the great things about being a geek chick is the fact that we can sort of choose which facets of "girl" and "geek" appeal to us. For many years, I assumed that "geek" meant that I had to wear baggy, nerdy clothes, eschew makeup, and avoid pink at all costs. In more recent years, I've realized that I enjoy the freedom - I can wear geeky tee shirts one day, pink frilly dresses the next. I can make geek clothing fashionable through the use of trendy accessories, and I can make designer clothes geeky by using geeky accessories. The only problem with this is that it can make it hard to pack for trips, or to budget one's finances. Do I pack two laptops and a hair dryer, or one laptop with my dryer and straightener?

4. We as human beings seek to classify things: It's normal to label, to assume, and to stereotype. It's just how we as human beings manage a huge volume of information. There's nothing wrong with embracing a label. There's definitely nothing wrong with defying others to expand their pre-existing beliefs by presenting them with something they haven't seen before.

5. There are ups and downs to every classification: Anything that can get you ahead in life can hold you back as well. I no longer feel bad listing myself as a diversity candidate for tech positions because there are some opportunities that won't become available to me because of my femininity. Like after I watched SeaQuest DSV, I fell in love with their Chief Engineer Katherine Hitchcock. I was so disappointed when I realized that naval submariners generally speaking can't be female :-( When I wanted to be an inhome agent for the Geek Squad, a lot of managers didn't want top "jeopardize" a young female by sending her into strangers homes. For every time I've "gotten something" because I was a girl, there was an opportunity that I missed because I was a girl.

6. That said, it's a thin line to tread...: It's one thing to embrace your femininity. But there's a thin line between embracing that what makes us unique, and... well.... whoring out. While whoring out nearly always works in the short time, it generally fails in the long term. Too often, you become a victim. Also, this is one of the quicker ways that I have seen to alienate other geek girls.

7. First and foremost, we are fighters!: Life is rarely easy on geek chicks. A lot of us are very possessive of our "geek girl" culture, and will fight if we disagree with something. As a whole, culture doesn't really know what to do with us, and the teenaged years were hard on many of us. Don't be surprised if we get defensive if we feel threatened, and if we immediately start to fight dirty. It's one thing we excel at.

I think that was the large majority of my thoughts on this matter. I'd like to think that I'm not your typical, die hard feminist, and that my viewpoints on the matter are pretty moderate.

Female on Female

In preparing for PAX, the BF and I came up with a short list of the panels that both of us wanted to attend. Of course, one of the events that I was initially tempted by was the panel focused on female gamers. Initially, I felt as though I was obligated to go. I mean, it's like 6th Grade Health Class, at some point in time you segregate off the girls and explain to them about monthly bleeding and other fun stuff like that.

Un/fortunately, it conflicted with something that the BF wanted to see, and when I considered it, the panel he marked sounded more interesting to me as well. It was something I was interested in, not a duty or a burden.

After having read some other women's perspectives on the matter, I find myself glad that I did not attend.

Let me start off with a little backstory.

I don't think I ever had a conception of "gender roles" as society views them until I was nearly a teenager. As a child, I had pretty dresses, but I had overalls and jeans as well. Sure, I adored my stuffed animals and my Barbie Dolls, but I also loved my computer games, toy cars and Lego kits. And looking back, I didn't necessarily play with Barbies like most girls. Yeah, I dressed them up and stuff, but half the time Barbie realized that Ken was boring, shot his stupid ass with a miniature gun, and then went to race her Ferrarri.


Another aspect of this was that my best friend during those formative years was a girl who was just as much into dragons and X-files and Star Trek as I was. Because there were two of us, I never really felt that I was "different." Yes, other kids weren't geeky. That I understood. But those other kids were male and female alike.

It wasn't until I went to an all-girls school when I started to hear it. "You can do whatever you want to be, despite the fact that you are a woman."

Waitaminute. Despite? That's new...

Very few of the other girls likes the things that I did. Sure, some if them read fantasy books, and liked science, but no one loved computers and Sci-Fi and Dungeons and Dragons and things of that nature.

At this point, at the beginning of my teenaged years, I realized I was different.

At first, I embraced it. Not yet interested in what the male members of the species thought of me, I said "screw it" to the general "female" accoutrements. No makeup or dresses for me! No sir! Baggy nerd tee-shirts and jeans are the way to go!

Of course then, as more and more girls started dating and hormones did their thing, I realized that boys really liked girly girls. That was odd. I suffered through this for a year or so before meeting guys outside of the Catholic School circle. Nerdy guys. Guys that would trade their right arm and half their anime collection for a girl that liked the things they did.

I rode this high for years, even realizing that if I could be geeky AND girly that I would be an all-new level of super awesome in their eyes. So I started trying again. Bought cute clothes. Dressed up when I started going to college. I made a lot of geek guy friends there, and felt bad for the fact that I knew so few geek girls for them to meet.

It only became logical from that point that I started participating in female-centric events. Various employers I had and classes I went to wanted to establish different ways to encorporate girls into their fold. Diversity was the big push!And the geeky pursuits didn't have enough of it. So there were think tanks, and media and I ate it all up. I thought it was my duty as a woman to try and convert women to the Dark Side of Geekery!

And I felt this way for _years_. I don't know when it changed. Perhaps it was when I heard of capable men being turned down for women with no skills but who has two matching x chromosomes. I doubted it more when men started telling me that they "never really though about it until someone mentioned it."

And then I remembered. I never felt like I was a "minority" until it was pointed out. But then again, I was never told how to be in the first place. My parents didn't stress being pretty, or owning the best shoes, my parents stressed finding something that made me happy and doing it well.

Worse, because these campaigns were stressing how equivalent women were to men in technical regards, men started to become suspicious. Men innately know that when a woman says something over and over again, there are generally two reasons, and they're usually connected. The first is that she is lying. The second is that she doubts herself, and if someone else believes it, then she will as well. Getting back to the original point, my friends who went to the PAX panel on Females felt that many of the women there were doing more to hinder our place in the gaming world than they were to further it. And it scares me. I wonder how many more of these initiatives will fail, and what the end result will be.

I don't know what the solution is for getting women in technology. What I do know is that women who proselytize and take "advantage" of their "difference" often do more harm than good. I also know that the "gender issue" is one that I still think of every day. Do I list myself as a Diversity candidate because I am the minority in my field? Or is that too "easy"? How do I find the right balance of my geeky pursuits, and my feminine ones (as both clothes and video games are quite pricy....)? How do I dress in the workplace so I will be taken "seriously" as a technician while at the same time still balancing something that looks decent and is utilitarian as well? Because let me tell you, women's dress pants are not designed for climbing under desks all day.

Even in titling this blog, my initial thought was to title it something that encompassed both geekiness and girliness. But while yes, both of these are a part of me, I'd like to think that I will have a lot to say that applies to men as well, and I don't want to ostracize those readers.