Adult Fans of LEGO or AFOL’s represent a very active, creative community of people who love to build with LEGO bricks. I like to spend time browsing through their creations on Flickr and Reddit, and recently I stumbled across this thread on Reddit, promoting Lego artist, Mariann Asanuma, as the “first female LEGO artist.” The description confused me. How are we defining “first” and/or “artist” here? I did a little Googling, and it seems, in this case, “first female artist” refers to the first one to make a living as a LEGO freelancer. (It’s possible she means she was the first female designer employed by LEGO, but on Twitter her bio reads, “I am a former LEGO Master Model Designer and I am now the World’s First and only female Freelance LEGO Artist.”
My intent here is not to take away from Asanuma’s accomplishments; frankly, her work is incredible. But, I wondered what “first female LEGO artist” meant for other women who are also arguably producing quality LEGO art. Last year, I wrote about how Ellen Kooijman’s role as the designer of the LEGO Research Institute set was eclipsed by the narrative surrounding the letter seven-year-old Charlotte wrote to LEGO. That is, many of the blogs and articles credited the letter with persuading LEGO to finally create a set with female scientists, largely ignoring that the set was already approved before the letter was written.
I’ll admit, I haven’t thought much about who the particular designers are, in most cases. So many of the fan-created LEGO builds are amazing, and I usually just get caught up in studying the build. My favorite LEGO-themed art books are Mike Doyle’s, Beautiful LEGO and Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark. I enjoy flipping through the intricate designs, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the LEGO Idea Bird project, which I first saw in Beautiful LEGO, later realized as an actual set. I picked up these books yesterday and flipped to the contributors’ list to see how many women were represented. While it’s difficult to come up with a definitive number, between them Beautiful LEGO and Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark list fewer than a handful of female contributors. In another collection, Extreme Bricks, Sarah Herman showcases a few women who are building with LEGO bricks, including Alice Finch who created the amazing Harry Potter display. But, Herman’s collection is still very much male dominated.
I know there are more than a handful of female designers, so back to Google I went. In my research, I found this blog showcasing 5 female LEGO designers. I was discouraged, but not surprised to read that one of the designers, LegoMyMamma, “has personally dealt with struggles in the community because of her gender.” I hate to think that the notion of “LEGO is for boys” would bleed into the AFOL community, but I guess it was naïve of me to assume it hadn’t. I also found blogs discussing the need to hide having LEGO as a hobby, mostly because LEGO bricks are really just “toys.” Admittedly, I have seen that same sentiment in some of the more male dominated discussions, but I wondered if the stereotype of “Lego is for boys” makes the feeling stronger in female LEGO fans.
Some might be tempted to argue that the perceived lack of representation actually stems from a lack of interest among women but, of course, there are many female builders creating exciting projects. In addition to the women featured in the above blog post, I found several more interesting projects. For example, this page describes PinkVision: Art Science and Bricks, an exhibit which showcases “45 female artists and scientists who used LEGO bricks to freely explore and interpret the word ‘building.’” I would love to get involved in a project like that. And, in on of my hesitant attempts to get involved a couple of years ago, I went to Brickworld Layfayette, and while it was a pretty male dominated event, I remember talking to female designers. So the women are out there, and they are building incredible LEGO models.
Ultimately, LEGO as a company suffers from a gender problem demonstrated through its Friends sets and lack of female minifies in some of its more traditional sets, which is something we have discussed more than once in this blog and on our podcasts. Its disappointing to see such a male dominance in the AFOL world. But, the women are out there; they are on Flicker and Reddit; They are posting in various LEGO forums. I would like to see their work more equally represented in conventions and mediums such as LEGO-themed art collections.
