jcstearns:

LEGO Responds To Concerns About Street Harassment Stickers

Last week I posted here about a set of LEGO branded stickers I found in a store near me. The stickers featured a set of construction workers, one of whom was waving at an imaginary passer-by, shouting “Hey Babe!” That post caused quite a stir as evidenced here, here and the new reviews here.

Now LEGO has officially responded. More on that below.

I grew up playing with LEGOs and have a huge affinity towards the diminutive building blocks. In fact, I just began introducing my son to LEGOs, which was why these stickers caught my attention. That’s why I was so disappointed to see the brand affiliated with a product that normalized street harassment and cat-calling.

However, while I was disappointed with LEGO, I was more disappointed by some of the responses my post sparked. A number of men took to my Facebook page to defend the sticker asking if “Hey Babe” really amounted to harassment and warning the “well-intentioned anti-harassment camp” that their outrage could alienate “non-extreme feminists.” Another said, “IMHO, dealing with uncomfortable advances is part of being a human being. I’ve been hit on my both men and women I had no interest in, and yes, it was uncomfortable, but you just take it as a compliment and move on.” Even when a number of women tried to tell their own story about harassment and cat-calling the men in the thread seemed to minimize their experiences.

Then this weekend I got an email from Charlotte Simonsen, Senior Director at LEGO’s corporate communications office in Denmark (full email below). The stickers were a licensed product produced by Creative Imagination and was discontinued in the summer of 2010. Creative Imagination went out of business in December of 2012.

Simonsen said they were sorry I was disappointed with the product and assured me that my feedback had been forwarded on to the LEGO licensing team for their “future evaluation of how we can deliver the best possible LEGO experience.”

The email was fairly standard, and didn’t reference the content of my concerns or the specifics of this product except to say “To communicate the LEGO experience to children we typically use humor and we are sorry that you were unhappy with the way a minifigure was portrayed here.”

This explanation of the cat-calling construction worker is problematic for a range of reasons. First and foremost, who would think that these stickers were a positive communications of the “LEGO experience?” Secondly, where is the humor in this? Especially if the goal is communicating with kids. I have followed up with LEGO for clarification and asked a few more details about how their licensing agreements are structured and whether they had a chance to review products like this.

I never intended to cause such a stir, if we don’t call out these things when we see them, then even the little pieces of culture, like a pack of stickers, can serve to normalize sexist behavior and harassment. If you care about these issues here are some great resources and organizations to follow and support:

• Hollaback - http://www.ihollaback.org/
• Collective Action for Safe Spaces - http://www.collectiveactiondc.org/
• Stop Street Harassment - http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/
• Ms. Magazine - http://msmagazine.com/
• Women in Media and News - http://wimnonline.org/
• SPARK Movement - http://www.sparksummit.com/
• Miss Representation - http://www.missrepresentation.org/

(UPDATE - LEGO responded to my additional questions. See their response here: http://jcstearns.tumblr.com/post/49367973405/lego-we-would-not-approve-such-a-product)

The full text of LEGO’s response is below.

From: Charlotte Simonsen/COM
Subject: LEGO Group response to criticism of Creative Imagination licensed LEGO product
Date: April 27, 2013 9:45:39 AM EDT
To: Josh Stearns

Hi Josh, We are very sorry to learn about your disappointment with this product made by Creative Imagination under a LEGO license.

At the LEGO Group we greatly value all feedback we receive and I’d like to assure you that we also do so in this case.

We know that constructive LEGO play fosters positive, lifelong skills that are valuable to any child.  We firmly believe in the play experience we offer, a system that lends itself to years of unlimited play possibilities for any child.

To communicate the LEGO experience to children we typically use humor and we are sorry that you were unhappy with the way a minifigure was portrayed here. This product was discontinued in the summer of 2010 and we have forwarded your comment to the LEGO Licensing team for their future evaluation of how we can deliver the best possible LEGO experience across our licensed products as well.

Kind regards,

LEGO Group
Corporate Communications
Charlotte Simonsen
Senior Director

Corporate Communications
LEGO System
A/S
Åstvej
7190 Billund
Denmark

And yet she’s wearing a cross which represents one of the oldest manifestations of the patriarchy.

(via m-e-s-t-i-z-a)

Reaction to pig Mark Sanford’s victory in South Carolina

the-one-you-will-hate:

Excuse me, but my  children will NOT NOT NOT be learning about RAPE or CONSENT in FUCKING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. NOT BY A LONG FUCKING SHOT YOU BITCH. YOU CUNT. NEVER INSINUATE THAT CHILDREN NEED TO LEARN ABOUT THAT SHIT THAT FUCKING YOUNG.

The funny part is that your children WILL be learning about sex and rape in elementary school. See, what you don’t understand about the progressive movement is that it always wins. Society always progresses, pausing only temporarily in times of great fear to wallow in Conservative drudgery (think The Dark Ages, The Era of European Fascism or The Bush Administration) before launching forward with a new renaissance. Children do need to learn about sex and consent in elementary school and they already do in most parts of the country (you can tell where because they’re inversely proportional to elevated teen pregnancy rates.) And you kick and scream and use inflammatory language, but progressives rarely stress about people like you, because we’ve seen how this movie ends and you always lose.

thegirlwiththepurpleglasses:

goodreasonnews:

ifistedgandhi:

goodreasonnews:

stillhidden:

Saxton, a junior studying classics and religious studies, said his sermon was meant to convey that “if you dress like a whore, act like a whore, you’re probably going to get raped.”

“I think that girls that dress and act like it,” Saxton said, “they should realize that they do have partial responsibility, because I believe that they’re pretty much asking for it.” (via Arizona Daily Wildcat: ‘You Deserve Rape’ sign causes controversy on UA campus)

Is there a better visual for the rape culture that this dude with his sign? (Kudos to the guys behind him. And thank goodness.).

holy shit the blackeye this guy deserves.

I think that dude fucking deserves an uppercut or two because I’m pretty sure he has partial responsibility for being a stupid asshole and he’s asking for it

I agree that he only bears partial responsibility because part of his worldview is tainted by religious faith, so Christianity in general shares the blame.

Uh no, Christianity does not share the blame. Jesus never said that it was okay to rape people, I don’t know what bible you’re reading bro, but it ain’t the holy one. Nobody deserves to be raped, no matter what they’re wearing or acting like. I find it really disgusting that some Christians and Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc. believe it’s a woman’s fault if she’s raped. Also people who have different or no religious belief’s still blame the victim. It’s not okay and it’s something we as a whole society need to work on. We need to start teaching our children that it is not okay to rape and it is not something that will be tolerated, it doesn’t matter how a man or woman acts or is dressed or whatever, rape is never okay and should never be tolerated under any circumstance. And most importantly, it is never the victim’s fault. 

There’s a ton of rape in the Bible. Here are three of my favorite examples:

    If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife. (Deuteronomy 22:23-24)

  They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera’s spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil.   (Judges 5:30)

    When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.   (Exodus 21:7-11)

Classy shit, Yahweh!

Translation: Fashion: Those who suffer from weak self-steam and lack of beliefs try to make themselves more appealing to others with fashion so they can hide their weaknesses.

Collection of Hijab Propaganda in Iran - Imgur

A few spring fashion tips.