In Defense of New Lego

Legos are a battleground. Not just figuratively in the world of our imagination, but literally. Conservatives hate their populist message. Liberals are disgruntled that the girlification takes away from the engineering. Some of the argument is understandable, since Lego did drift away from a gender neutral start, and is now very heavily invested into quite segregated product lines.

Now that the children have attained the ages of 5 and 7, we have moved into the thick of Lego building. As they are girls, we have focused on two sets: Lego Friends and Lego Elves. Oh, and a third set, Disney’s Frozen, but that feels like an extension or combination of the other two. The girls have a smattering of other sets, including Batman, Spiderman, and Lego Movie vehicles. There are also a couple of our large older sets that have hung around, including the USS Constellation and the Space Shuttle/Hubble set.

But the Elves and the Friends are here in force. To be honest, I was apprehensive. These sets were not the ones I grew up with. But I shouldn’t have feared for a couple of reasons. New Legos are awesome, and here’s why:

The Weird Emasculation of Giving Away Tools

Lucky for me, I’ve never had need to fully rebuild the engine of a car. While cars are not a hobby for me, I’m confident in my ability to repair pretty much anything on a car, given time. It would need to be a lot of time, probably. But the need has never been there. Any big car repair happened when a car was so vital that I spent the money to get it fixed fast. And now our car is not driven enough to rack up enough charges that would put me in a position to do any myself.

However, I had a complete toolbox ready for the job. And if it wasn’t an engine, I could build a wall or dismantle a lawnmower or fell a tree. I inherited, bought, traded, and accumulated a this massive pool of steel. The box was red of course. It included a full set of ratchets in metric and standard for three sizes of handle. Various wire cutters, pliers, wrenches, and screw drivers were in there. A jigsaw. A cordless drill. Chisels, stud finder, and a particular kind of wedge used to crack paving blocks. Wire bristle drill bits, Dremel bits, and a few random drill chucks.

So many tools.

The important part is that it was my toolbox. I gave it away. In the seven years that I have had daughters, and the three years that raising them has been my full time job, my sexuality and masculinity have been questioned. A lot. In ways great and small. But there has been nothing quite as emasculating as giving away a box of tools.