Lego goes woke as new gender neutral toys introduced

The new products will push ideologies onto children who aren't old enough to understand the complexities of gender theory, according to Professors Dr Kevin Donnelly AM and Reverend Peter Kutri.

In October 2021, Lego revealed that they would be removing gender bias from products following a survey which suggested that gender roles caused shame among children.

Donnelly, a Senior Fellow at Australian Catholic University's PM Glynn Institute said people should not be oppressed for who they are, however removing gender roles is not the answer.

"I don't believe that people should be discriminated against or attacked for being LGBTQI+, but at the same time human biology is pretty binary - it's not a social construct," he told Daily Mail Australia.

"A lot of this gender theory is very abstract and very confusing, and I would argue - as a lot of parents have that I talked to - just let children be children.

"My fear is that it's not just Lego, there's a significant movement globally towards what I call 'radical gender theory'."

He added that he doesn't believe the "sensitive stages" of development for young children and teenagers is the time to introduce questions of sexual identity.

"I would suggest 8, 10, or 12 year old children normally wouldn't have any concept of LGBTQI+, and adolescents go through a period of uncertainty in terms of their own identity," he said.

LEGO Group's Head of Product Marcia Marks Laursen said a huge amount of research prompted the company's push towards inclusivity.

"We wanted to invite both genders equally to this franchise so it's important that everything we developed would resonate with boys and girls equally," she told the Herald Sun.

Director of the culture, prosperity and civil society program at the Centre for Independent Studies, Reverend Peter Kurti added: "They’re aiming it at parents who are themselves wanting to play down gender stereotypes and impose non-conformity on their kids.

"Lego is doing this because they see there’s money in it. They’re not a charity, they’re a company and they think that there is money to be made in exploiting this market."

The new animated series features a group of friends that use their imagination to go into a Dream World and defeat the Nightmare King.

A LEGO Group spokesperson said: "Our new theme, LEGO® DREAMZzz™, does not explicitly feature any gender-neutral characters or toys. We hope it can hold universal appeal for all kids.

"At the LEGO Group we strive to create characters and storylines within our playsets that represent real people. It's important to us to showcase a wide variety of traits and characteristics so that children can see themselves represented in the toys that they play with."