"Hey Gurl! Get yer 6 year old, padded-bra-wearing, fat cupcake-baking butt over here and join me in the hottub for skinny 'ritas! Don't forget - we are gettin' our waxes at the salon after. See ya beotch!"

“I am completely aghast about Lego joining the pinkification/princessifcation of our young girls with their new “Friends” line. I think they really missed the point. Girls do not need minifigs with boobs and big hair to engage with the engineering, mathematical and spacial benefits of lego play. I had hoped that such a classically beloved toy would herald in some progress rather than crimp creativity. Hey girls – be pretty and pink first … then maybe a little creative. Kay? Mwah.”

That was my Facebook update today. I wanted to expand on it. If you agree, you can join (as of this moment) 35,000 43,000 other parents people who care about girls and think Lego Friends are ridiculous.

I do like girly stuff. Seriously. There is nothing more adorable than a little girl in ruffles. I think that girls can be told they are pretty without it doing years of irreparable harm. I don’t think you need to dress your children gender-neutral in order to drive a point home. I am pretty damn moderate.

Admittedly, I am not a particularly girly-girl myself, pink is not a great color on me. I don’t wear ruffles, even ironically. But I have long hair and wear lipstick and love shoes. I have great boobs thanks to two pregnancies. I love being a woman. But I am also 38 years old. I have a lifetime of filtering through crap to decide who I am.  I am a feminist in that I believe in equal rights, equal pay, general equality across the board. I pretty much believe that I could do anything that a man could do – with the exception of peeing while standing and even then I am sure I could manage something if necessary. I have been the bread-earner. I have been the stay at home mom. I am a wife, a daughter, a sister and a mother of two very different girls. One who would be labeled a “girly girl” and one who would be labeled a “tomboy.”

Girls and boys are different. Yes. Duh. And different marketing will appeal to different genders. Duh. I get that.

I just hoped that Lego would take the high road. Market to girls by integrating their playsets, less delineation between blue and pink. Creative building is NOT the realm of boyhood. Both genders naturally gravitate towards it.

A lot of people will think this is an overreaction. They will think “what is the big deal?” They will wonder, why not go after all the other pink and insipid twit toys out there? The answer? I do. My dollars have power and I chose not to spend them on craptastic plastic toys that will limit creativity.

The toy store is like the grocery store – Just because it is on the shelf, it does not mean it is good for you. As a parent, we have so much influence and we are giving it away to marketing. Yes, sugar cereal looks awesome but nutritionally, it offers nothing to a growing body or mind. Lego Friends is like sugar cereal. It is fluff and air and palatable until somebody stands up and says, hey – this is total crap.

And it is.

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Do you have an opinion on how girl-marketing is eating the brains of our children? You are not alone. Check out some of these (and many others) below:

• Princess Free Zone and on FB
• The Brave Girls Club and on FB
• Adios Barbie and on FB
• Miss Representation and on FB
• She Heroes and on FB
• Pigtail Pals – Redefining Girly and on FB