Abstract
LEGO® construction sets are a staple in many children’s lives. Given worldwide distribution, generations of children have grown up playing with these brightly colored, interlocking plastic bricks. Historically marketed to all children, the LEGO® Group has begun targeting male and female consumers differentially with the introduction of product lines such as LEGO® City and LEGO® Friends. Although the packaging, marketing, brick colors, and characters have changed, little is known about whether these product series encourage differences in the way boys and girls play. This content analysis compared the play narratives of sets marketed to boys (LEGO® City) and girls (LEGO® Friends). Our analysis found distinct gendered messages that encourage boys to enact various skilled professions, heroism, and expertise, whereas girls are encouraged to focus on having hobbies, being domestic, caring for others, socializing, being amateurs, and appreciating and striving for beauty. Although LEGO® City and Friends sets offer opportunities for construction, they also promote stereotyped gender roles for enacting femininity and masculinity in play. Parents, educators, and practitioners often focus on the educational affordances of LEGO® construction. We recommend that they also consider the other lessons, both explicit and implicit, being taught through gender-specific LEGO® sets.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler, P., Kless, S., & Adler, P. (1992). Socialization to gender roles: Popularity among elementary school boys and girls. Sociology of Education, 65(3), 169–187.
Auster, C., & Mansbach, C. (2012). The gender marketing of toys: An analysis of color and type of toy on the Disney store website. Sex Roles, 67, 375–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0177-8.
Bandura, A. (1971). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought & action: A social cognitive theory. England Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Basow, S. (2006). Gender role and gender identity development. In J. Worell & C. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls' and women's psychological health (pp. 242–251). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bawden, T. (2011, March 5). Lego® bids to build a greater appeal for girls - after the Danish toymaker unveils a massive surge in profits, UK managing director Marko Ilincic explains the next step. The Observer. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/mar/06/lego-appeal-to-girls.
Bazzini, D., Curtin, L., Joslinn, S., Regan, S., & Martz, D. (2010). Do animated Disney characters portray and promote the beauty-goodness stereotype? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40(10), 2687–2709. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00676.x.
Black, R. W., Korobkova, K., & Epler, A. (2013). Barbie girls and xtractaurs: Discourse and identity in virtual worlds for young children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 14(2), 265–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798413494920.
Black, R. W., Tomlinson, B., & Korobkova, K. (2016). Play and identity in gendered LEGO® franchises. International Journal of Play, 5(1), 64–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2016.1147284.
Blakemore, J., & Centers, R. (2005). Characteristics of boys' and girls'toys. Sex Roles, 53(9/10), 619–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-7729-0.
Blickenstaff, J. C. (2005). Women and science careers: Leaky pipeline or gender filter? Gender and Education, 17(4), 369–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250500145072.
Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. (1996). Tools of the mind: The Vygotskian approach to early childhood education. Englewood Cliffs: Merrill.
Boyatzis, R. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Campbell, I. (2007). Chi-squared and Fisher-Irwin tests of two-by-two tables with small sample recommendations. Statistics in Medicine, 26, 3661–3675. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.2832.
Carrington, B., Francis, B., Hutchings, M., Skelton, C., Read, B., & Hall, I. (2007). Does the gender of the teacher really matter? Seven- to eight-year-olds' accounts of their interactions with their teachers. Educational Studies, 33(4), 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690701423580.
Chew, J. (2015, Dec 30). How Lego® finally found success with girls. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/12/30/lego-friends-girls/.
Clearfield, M. W., & Nelson, N. M. (2006). Sex differences in mothers’ speech and play behavior with 6-, 9-, and 14-month-old infants. Sex Roles, 54(1/2), 127–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-8874-1.
Connor, J., & Serbin, L. (1977). Behaviorally based masculine and feminine preference scales for preschoolers: Correlates with other classroom behavior and cognitive tests. Child Development, 48, 1411–1416.
Coyle, E. (2015). Influences on children's play with a STEM toy: Interactions among children, parents, and gender-based marketing (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). College Park: Pennsylvania State University.
Coyle, E., & Liben, L. (2016). Affecting girls' activity and job intersts through play: The moderating roles of personal gender salience and game characteristics. Child Development, 87(2), 414–428.
Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Rasmussen, E. E., Nelson, D. A., & Birkback, V. (2016). Pretty as a princess: Longitudinal effects of engagement with Disney princesses on gender stereotypes, body esteem, and prosocial behavior in children. Child Development, 87(6), 1909–1925. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12569.
Dittmar, H., Halliwell, E., & Ive, S. (2006). Does Barbie make girls want to be thin? The effect of experimental exposure to images of dolls on the body image of 5- to 8-year-old girls. Developmental Psychology, 42(2), 283–292. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.283.
Eliot, L. (2010). Pink brain, blue brain: How small differences grow into troublesome gas. New York: First Mariner Books.
England, D., Descartes, L., & Collier-Meek, M. (2011). Gender role portrayal and the Disney princesses. Sex Roles, 64, 555–567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9930-7.
Etaugh, C., & Liss, M. B. (1992). Home, school, and playroom: Training grounds for adult gender roles. Sex Roles, 26(3/4), 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289754.
Fishel, C. (2001). Designing for children: Marketing design that speaks to kids. Gloucester: Rockport Publishers, Inc..
Francis, B. (2010). Gender, toys and learning. Oxford Review of Education, 36(3), 325–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054981003732278.
Gerbner, G. (1969). Toward "cultural indicators": The analysis of mass mediated message systems. AV Communication Review, 17(2), 137–148.
Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., Signorielli, N., & Shanahan, J. (2002). Growing up with television: Cultivation processes. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 43–67). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Ginsburg, K. R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119, 182–191. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-2697.
Guerro, M., Hoffman, M., & Munroe-Chandler. (2016). Children's active play imagery and its association with personal and social skills and self-confidence. Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity, 11(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.1515/jirspa-2016-0004.
Hilliard, L., & Liben, L. (2010). Differing levels of gender salience in preschool classrooms: Effects on children’s gender attitudes and intergroup bias. Child Development, 81(6), 1787–1798. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01510.x.
Hudak, K. C. (2017). Deceiving or disrupting the pink aisle? GoldieBlox, corporate narratives, and the gendered toy debate. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 14(2), 158–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2016.1203966.
Inhelder, B., & Piaget, J. P. (1964). The early growth of logic in the child (classification and seriation). New York: Harper.
Jirout, J., & Newcombe, N. S. (2015). Building blocks for developing spatial skills: Evidence from a large, representative U.S. sample. Psychological Science, 26(3), 302–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614563338.
Jordan, E. (1995). Fighting boys and fantasy play: The construction of masculinity in the early years of school. Gender and Education, 7(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/713668458.
Kahlenberg, S., & Hein, M. (2010). Progress on Nickelodeon? Gender-role stereotypes in toy commercials. Sex Roles, 62(11), 830–847. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9653-1.
Kohlberg, L. (1966). A cognitive-developmental analysis of children's sex- role concepts and attitudes. In E. E. Maccody (Ed.), The development of sex differences (pp. 82–173). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Krippendorff, K. (2004). Reliability in content analysis: Some common misconceptions and recommendations. Human Communication Research, 30(3), 411–433. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2004.tb00738.x.
Larson, M. (2001). Interactions, activities and gender in children’s television commercials: A content analysis. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 45(1), 41–56. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4501_4.
Lauwaert, M. (2009). The place of play: Toys and digital cultures (Vol. 3). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Lego History Timeline (2017, October 18). Lego history timeline. Retrieved from https://wwwsecure.Lego.com/en-us/aboutus/Lego-group/the_Lego_history.
Lego Learning Institute (2002). Time for playful learning? A cross-cultural study of parental values and attitudes toward children’s time for play. Retrieved from http://www.playscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/Documents/TheLEGOTimeStudyReport.pdf.
Lego.com. (2015). LEGO® 2015 Highlights. Retrieved from http://www.Lego.com/en-us/aboutus/events/annual-result-2015.
Liben, L., & Coyle, E. (2014). Developmental interventions to address the STEM gender gap: Exploring intended and uninetended consequences. In L. Liben & R. Bigler (Eds.), The role of gender in educational contexts and outcomes (Vol. 47, pp. 77–115). New York: Elsevier.
Lillard, A., Lerner, R., Hopkins, E., Dore, R., Smith, E., & Palmquist, C. (2013). The impact of pretend play on children’s development: A review of the evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029321.
Maccoby, E. E. (1998). The two sexes: Growing up apart, coming together. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Martin, K. A. (1998). Becoming a gendered body: Practices of preschools. American Sociological Review, 63(4), 494–511.
Martin, C. L., & Ruble, D. N. (2004). Children's search for gender cues: Cognitive perspectives on gnder development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(2), 67–70.
Martin, C. L., Eisenbud, L., & Rose, H. (1995). Children's gender-based reasoning about toys. Child Development, 66(5), 1453–1471.
Miles, M., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Quantitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Miller, S. (1988). Parents' beliefs about children's cognitive development. Child Development, 59, 259–285.
Morgan, G. (1993). Content analysis: A guide to the paths not taken. Qualitative Health Research, 3, 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973239300300107.
Mulvey, K., Miller, B., & Rizzardi, V. (2017). Gender and engineering aptitude: Is the color of the science, technology, engineering and math materials related to children's performance? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 160, 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.006.
Murnen, S., Greenfield, C., Younger, A., & Boyd, H. (2016). Boys act and girls appear: A content analysis of gender stereotypes associated with characters in children’s popular culture. Sex Roles, 74, 78–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0558-x.
Pike, J., & Jennings, N. (2005). The effects of commercials on children's perceptions of gender appropriate toy use. Sex Roles, 52, 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-1195-6.
Rheingold, H., & Cook, K. (1975). The contents of boys' and girls' rooms as an index of parents' behavior. Child Development, 46, 459–463.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ruble, D. N., Taylor, L., Cyphers, L., Greulich, F., Lurye, L., & Shrout, P. (2007). The role of gender constancy in early gender development. Child Development, 78(4), 1121–1136. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01056.x.
Russ, S., Robins, A., & Christiano, B. (1999). Pretend play: Longitudinal prediction of creativity and affect in fantasy in children. Creativity Research Journal, 12, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1202_5.
Saldaña, J. (2009). Coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Sherman, A. M., & Zurbriggen, E. (2014). "Boys can be anything": Effect of Barbie play on girls' career cognitions. Sex Roles, 70, 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-014-0347-y.
SimilarWeb (2017). Traffic Overview of Lego.com . Retrieved from https://http://www.similarweb.com/website/Lego.com - overview.
Singer, D., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2006). Play = learning: How play motivates and enhances children's cognitive and social-emotional growth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, L. (1994). A content analysis of gender differences in children’s advertising. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media Psychology, 38, 323–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838159409364268.
Starr, C., & Ferguson, G. (2012). Sexy dolls, sexy grade-schoolers? Media & maternal influences on young girls' self-sexualization. Sex Roles, 67, 463–476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0183-x.
Sutton-Smith, B. (1967). The role of play in cognitive development. Young Children, 22, 361–370.
Sweet, E. (2014, December 9, 2014). Toys are more divided by gender now and than they were 50 years ago. Atlantica. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/toys-are-more-divided-by-gender-now-thanthey-were-50-years-ago/383556/.
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. General Assembly Resolution 44/25. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/1959-Declaration-of-the-Rights-of-the-Child.pdf.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Weisgram, E. S., Fulcher, M., & Dinella, L. M. (2014). Pink gives girls permission: Exploring the roles of explicit gender labels and gender-typed colors on preschool children's toy preference. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 35, 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2014.06.004.
Wohlwend, K. (2009). Damsels in discourse: Girls consuming and producing identity texts through Disney princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 57–83. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.44.1.3.
Wong, W., & Hines, M. (2014). Effects of gender color-coding on toddlers' gender-typical toy play. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(5), 1233–1242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0400-5.
Youngblade, L., & Dunn, J. (1995). Individual differences in young children’s pretend play with mother and sibling: Links to relationships and understanding of other people’s feelings and beliefs. Child Development, 66, 1472–1492. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131658.
Zigler, E., & Bishop-Josef, S. (2004). Play under siege: A historical overview. In E. Zigler, D. Singer, & S. Bishop-Josef (Eds.), Children’s play: The roots of reading (pp. 1–13). London: Zero to Three Press.
Acknowledgements
Partial funding for the present project was provided by UCI’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROP) Program. We greatly appreciate the assistance of Dorothy Kozina, Emily Dmytryk, and Ksenia Korobkova.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
This study involves content and discourse analyses of marketing materials associated with LEGO Friends and LEGO City sets. It does not involve human subjects.
This manuscript is not under review with any other journal and we take responsibility for the veracity of the content of the paper.
Conflict of Interest
We do not have any affiliation, financial agreement, or involvement with a company that could pose a conflict of interest to the publication of this work.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 22 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reich, S.M., Black, R.W. & Foliaki, T. Constructing Difference: Lego® Set Narratives Promote Stereotypic Gender Roles and Play. Sex Roles 79, 285–298 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0868-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0868-2