The Mary Sue: After receiving criticism for the serious dearth of female characters in The Lego Movie, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and executive producer Chris McKay all promised there would be more women and girls in the sequel. Back in 2014, Lord said “It’s important to us that the movie plays broadly and that we inspire young women as much as we inspire young men.” McKay told the Daily Mail, “I’m not sure our movie passes the Bechdel test entirely and I think that it’s important.” These kinds of open-minded, self-aware, non-defensive responses to criticisms regarding representation are unfortunately rare, and they’re heartening to hear.
12 comments:
I am very glad to hear that the sequel will have more female characters, but my hope is that there will be a female character as a lead. Quality over quantity. If this movie is done correctly, more and more girls could feel empowered to be their own person and find ways to change gender stereotypes. There is a lot of discussion about how girls and guys grow up differently, and hopefully, that movie can address them. The article itself had very little information beyond speculation, so I guess we will just have to wait and see how the movie addresses gender stereotypes in a few months.
I agree with Hannah on the quality over quantity hope. Legos are something that kids of all genders enjoy, and seeing that the next movie in the franchise could have a female lead would be a great example to set. We are starting to see more and more female leads that stand on their own, and it is nice to see that happening in family friendly movies as well as more grown-up films like Atomic Blonde or Wonder Woman. The article doesn't yet have all the details, so this is intact a wait and see, but hopefully those involved with the film are taking the importance of having female leads in movies that can inspire and support young girls who are often looking for examples and instances of female characters to relate to. Having female leads supports the idea that gender doesn't have to be a limitation, and something I hope continues to appear in all types of movies and TV.
I remember being shocked when I found out that Legos were a “boy’s toy”. I played with them all the time when I was little. It wasn’t until I saw an entirely pink set for girls that I realized that I was suddenly being marketed to. There’s a wonderful article in the Atlantic about why Lego has started marketing to girls. The gist of it is that they realized that 90% of their product was being bought for boys and they did a study about the difference in how boys and girls play- that both liked the building, but girls wanted to create a world and an interior to the structures. The new Lego line for girls is so dumbed down and stereotypical, that I hope that the movie not also follow that line. I hope it will deal more with the developmental differences and not the superficial ones.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/05/legos/484115/
I hope this movie bring attention to gender expectations rather than just discussing them. I guess I don’t know how much I trust a company that is responsible for pretty blatant gender marketing for pointing out a problem they at the very least reinforce and arguably (and I would argue probably) create. Even the idea of inherent difference in “how boys play” vs “how girls play” makes me wonder if the plot will be about him being frustrated about his sister wanting to play “girly” games. That isn’t to say playing in a way our culture ascribes to girls is bad, and there is a difference in the way boys and girls play as they get older (though I would argue this difference is almost entirely learned). I really hope this movie points out the problem with gendering toys, and, more importantly, I hope that Lego starts marketing their toys to children in general, rather than marketing them in a gender specific way.
I never saw or really heard much about the original Lego movie. So its interesting to heard from the creators about some of the social issues it completely ignored. I always admire when movies that are geared towards children try to tackle hard concepts, like gender bias. I am not surprised that Lego was targeting a male audience with the original movie, because that is who they associate with their demographic of buyers. Toys are a very particular thing that you can see a major difference in boys and girl gender targeting with the kinds of toys and the way they are advertised. If the movie is going to approach this topic I would be very interested in seeing how it is done. However, I was kind of disappointed reading this article and all of the people brought out who are creators of the upcoming Lego movie, are all men. That I think says something more than what they want to accomplish with the movie, if they can't even have a women working on their team, then how are they going to try to approach the topic of gender bias?
I am so excited that roles of positive and strong women are catching fire in all new film production companies. I have seen so many movies in the past year with strong female characters (including the LEGO Batman movie, which was awesome, by the way) and I have to say, it is nothing less that inspiring. I already consider myself fortunate from the way I was raised to be tough and strong and not outspoken by my parents and big sister, and strong female roles have definitely played into my life greatly over the years. However, I can’t really think of many women-in-power movies from my past besides Harriet the Spy, so seeing LEGO embrace the strong female characters is especially exciting because every kid everywhere loves LEGOs and will definitely be seeing this movie. I’m also interested to see how seeing strong female characters in kids movies will affect the young boys’ perspectives.
I cannot wait to see what Lego has in store for us. I cannot see this venture going particularly well. Lego is a company with a history of failing to market to girls (even though girls already play with “boy’s” Legos). The newest Legos for girls are awash with stereotypical portrayals of gender. The bricks are an inherently genderless toy (although gender is a social construct and gender norms/presentation vary from culture to culture – but that is another comment) that teach basic structures and allow children to explore the reaches of their imagination. Boys and girls play essentially the same way at a young age – differences only arise because parents encourage gendered behavior. A two year old boy is just as likely to play with dolls as a two year old girl. Girls are encouraged to play softly with narrative stories. Boys are nudged towards risk taking and physical play. I hope the new Lego movie reflects this rather than focusing on how the new sister character uses the Legos as dolls.
I'm happy to hear that Lego is aiming for more equitable representation in their films, but I'm a little worried about "exploring the difference in how boys play vs. how girls play" when there aren't any female writers on the team. Especially since Lego's line for girls is, at least currently, incredibly insulting and pandering. I grew up playing with Legos. They were my favorite toys for most of my life (and if I'm honest I still buy their sets today). I have never seen them as "gendered" until that distinction was forced on all of us when the Lego Friends line came out. I would love to see Lego poke fun at itself and actually discuss the biases it is perpetuating in a way that is insightful and helpful for young children to see. Lego has always been about creativity and building stories and the worlds we want to build and inhabit ourselves. I hope they acknowledge this and build a world in the film that is a kinder and more creative space to exist in.
I'm always happy to see that a franchise as big as LEGO is now trying to be more gender inclusive, but like many other people have already said I am very skeptical of the plot line. Boys and girls don't inherently play in different ways, it really just depends on the toys that their parents give them. When I was a kid my parents never bought me dolls and instead got me a lot of LEGO sets and other things along those lines. I never even realized they were marketed towards boys until I was a lot older, as my sister and I had both grown up building LEGO sets. Having the introduction of the boy's sister radically change the LEGO world in the movie definitely contradicts how I played with LEGO, but maybe that was just me. I also I'm not a huge fan of the fact that this movie has only male writers and is trying to market themselves as gender inclusive. If they really want to write a story that will appeal to female audience then maybe they should actually include a woman's perspective on their team.
I love all of the Lego movies that have been released so far, and I am very excited to see them take on some social issues. The Lego movies have a similar audience to Disney movies, since children love them, and the intelligent humor and storylines make the movies enjoyable for adults as well. I think movies like this are among the best possible ways to bring issues like gender bias to light, since it reaches such a wide audience, and especially because children will watch movies like these over and over until they know the entire thing by heart. I am very very excited to see what the Lego movie team does with this idea, and I truly hope it will not be too shallow. I think in a movie about toys, there is a lot that can be said about fundamental gender roles that exist for children (eg. Barbies vs. GI Joe), but I hope the movie is able to go even further than that. I am genuinely very optomistic about this, and I think this movie will be able to do a lot.
I think it's great that this group of 3 men want to try so hard but it is irresponsible that there wasn't at least one woman at the head of this to start. That's probably much of why there weren't many female characters, males just don't think about sexism the way that females do.
Also, as a gender nonconforming person, I would hope to see a space for kids who don't feel that they fit into the binary. I remember feeling very isolated from the marketing of Lego as a kid. I didn't feel like a boy and I didn't feel like a girl so I didn't really know where I fit in. I ended up just going and looking at the skyscraper section for adults. I think that children movies need to find ways to help kids explore gender because it is a scary thing to be exploring on your own.
Over the last few years LEGO has been trying expand their audience to young girls and break the stereotype that they previously had that only boys could play with Legos. They expanded their toy line and created a line that could be more appealing to young girls. This is a step in the right direction I believe, just like including more female characters in their next movie, but I think the expansion of their toy line is still stepping into the gender binary model of toys. Regarding the movie I believe that the conscious choice to include more female role models is a great step in the right direction. Not only will it expand their audience and thus forth their profits, but it shows girls that they can have strong role models in many places.
Post a Comment