Why is it OK for little girls to love dinosaurs, but not OK for little boys to love Barbie?

Over the weekend I read an interesting article in the Times magazine by Lori Duron, author of Raising My Rainbow: adventures in raising my fabulous, gender creative son.

I'll be honest, I was confused. The article talked about how concerned Lori and her husband were when their son started expressing a love for all toys usually favoured by girls at a young age. From the moment he saw his mom's old barbie doll he was hooked. When he started dressing up in girls clothes they were concerned.

The article, and presumably the book it stems from, talks about how Lori eventually discovered online (where else?) that there was a label she could give her son: gender creative, or gender non-conforming. Somehow having this label made it easier for them. Her worries about whether or not he was homosexual were eased by the discovery of this label.

Her son is 7.

Confused?

Well I am.

You see, regular readers will know that my younger daughter, Little Miss George, loves dinosaurs, plays with cars, is obsessed with Spider-man, Batman, the Teenage Mutant Ninya Turtles, knights and battles and swords. She actively steers away from 'girls' toys, and only occasionally, when she sweetly feels that she'd like to wear an outfit in her wardrobe that she knows we like (she's incredibly thoughtful) she will wear a flowery dress. Otherwise it's leggings or jeans and Marvel comic or dinosaur t-shirts. She even has a shirt for parties.

Her best friends are all boys.

Am I worried that she's a lesbian?

Is Lego stereotyping? When did the gender divide arrive at Lego HQ?

Maybe it's my age and my nostalgic memories of creating my own little village of Lego when I was young that is clouding my judgement now.

Growing up I enjoyed building a couple of cottages, a bakery, police station, fire station, hospital, flower shop, bus station, school, fairground..... and supplementing this with the train tracks and a little Lego train, a Lego bus and numerous Lego cars.

Could you buy those things from the Lego shop at Legoland Windsor?

[  My review of LegoLand Windsor is here  ]

No you could not.  And it seemed to be very boy / girl orientated.  With, dare I say it, a predominance of boy angled products.  The front section was dominated by Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Dino, and Ninjago, Lord of the Rings, Kingdoms and Cars ranges.  Then there was a VERY pink corner with less lego and more Princess dressing-up products, hair slides and purses. 

The brand new Friends range is creating a big stir with my girls, but, not only is there not much in this range yet, I am also annoyed that the Lego girls in these sets are suddenly taller and thinner.  As if we didn't have enough overly slim role models?

The absolute joy of Lego when I was young was that it wasn't stereotyped.  It was neither for girls, or for boys.  The Lego people were differentiated only by subtle variations to hair, skin colour and clothing colours.  Now it seems that this openness is gone.  The colour scheme choices for the boxes aim to direct certain box sets towards girls or boys.  How incredibly typical is it that the Friends range is in pink and purple?

I had a browse of the Lego store website whilst writing this.  Along with the ranges mentioned above you've also got, Monster Fighters, Technic, Hero Factory and Racers - all of which are aimed almost exclusively at boys.  Are boys really all about the fighting and the monsters?  What about the Lego for girls?

The only theme that looked, according to it's initial theme logo picture on the home page, non-gender specific was Creator and there doesn't appear to be the types of sets I played with as a child available anymore.  You struggle to find a 'house' to make.  And then the site crashed on me... so I suspect that's a sign that I should stop turning into a grumpy old woman.

But, really?  Can't they release the classic 80s sets?  Couldn't you get little Carousels and such like?   Maybe that's an idea Lego?  A retro range!  Please!  Now I get more than £2 pocket money a week I could actually finish that village.  I'm thinking a post office, pharmacist, hair salon (multisex obviously), and church complete with church bells.

What Lego set would you want if you could select anything?
 

Or should it be Scatty Mummy?

It's no surprise that there's a general consensus that having children kills off your brain cells. Particularly if other Mummies have the same kind of daily experiences as me.

Today I hit the shops with the elder, 4yrs, in tow. Not wanting to browse around, as she was getting tired, and was likely to run down the aisles any minute, I asked a male sales assistant, where I could find the waterproof mattress protectors.

He duly led the way across the store to the correct section and I, trying to steer my daughter in the correct direction behind him, followed.  The elder immediately hid behind a display. I had to do the quick telling off, look up again, clock the sales assistant and continue following him.

He headed straight for the tills. He got in behind one of the tills. I stood next to the till. And he looked up and said, "Can I help you?".

I looked at him. Carefully. Thought about it. And turned around. Another sales assistant was stood slightly further back in the shop looking at me with a confused expression on his face.

I had, of course, managed to follow the wrong sales assistant after telling my daughter off.

You could have fried eggs on my face. Not a good look.

A very timid mummy followed the original sales assistant to the correct side of the shop for my mattress protectors, and tried to protest my innocence... mumbling about uniforms, etc... I didn't help myself.

Hence my apparent evidence in support of the brain cell theory. Doesn't 'distraction by a 4yr old' count as a defence?