How Female Supreme Court Justice Legos Were Almost a Thing
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Over the past few years, there's been a push for more female-targeted toys. Writer and editor Maia Weinstock tried to improve the problem by creating Legal Justice League Legos, which include Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg figurines.
"This set of custom-designed lego minifigures, U.S. Supreme Court replica, and SCOTUS library/study aims to celebrate the accomplishments of women in the legal realm, and to encourage girls and women to work toward high positions in the U.S. judicial system," Weinstock writes on her website. "For 192 years, the constitutionality of United States law was decided by men alone. Then in 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Three women have since joined O'Connor in representing the female half of the U.S. population on the Supreme Court bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993), Sonia Sotomayor (2009), and Elena Kagan (2010)."
Though the Internet went nuts over the cute lego set, LEGO the corporation wasn't so receptive to the project. Weinstock added in an update to her website post that her figurines aren't on available for purchase, as LEGO Ideas rejected her creation for violating their "no politics or political symbols" policy.
Rules are rules, but it's not like today's lego options are perfect. Two years ago, University of Canterbury Associate Professor and self-proclaimed Robot Expert Christoph Bartneck said lego expressions appear angrier than they once did. "We cannot help but wonder how the move from only positive faces to an increasing number of negative faces impacts on how children play," Bartneck said in a statement.
Mean and scary-looking figurines aside, little girls also want to get in on the lego fun, and what better way to foster this progressive interest by giving them a set like the one above?
