As a child I would’ve been absolutely stoked to go to Legoland. In my head, it’s always been a place filled with so many primary colored bits and pieces that the sky is the limit — where you could build something that exceeded the constraints of your lesser Lego collection at home. Truly epic possibilities!
My father would’ve been the one to take me, had I gone. If we’d been faced with the choice of Physical Play and Girls Play, I would’ve set right off for Physical Play (looks like the Legos I had at home) and he would’ve grabbed me by that annoying handle part of the Osh Kosh B’gosh overalls and set me down in the Girls Play area. He would’ve said something like, “Your mother wouldn’t want you rough housing with a bunch of boys.” After all, that’s the connotation of “physical play”, no? (Later that night I would’ve declared that day The Worst Day of My Life, to my army of stuffed animals, many of them pink.)
By setting up Girls Play as the contrast to Physical Play, they’re suggesting that girls need a safe, subdued alternative to stimulating boldly colored exciting adventure that requires construction hats. They’re also saying that all boys are rough-and-tumble and into the same thing. They don’t have to say “Boys Play”. It’s a given to many misguided parents. That’s why Santa brought me the pink bike with the streamers and the basket and crap tires, and my brother who didn’t even want a bike got the cool metallic blue off-road one that could take a beating. It’s why my best girlfriend couldn’t go fishing with us until they discovered the pink tackle box with the glittery neon pink rubber tadpole bait. It’s why my coworker’s husband wouldn’t let their toddler son wear a pale yellow sweatshirt someone had given him.
Boys and girls go to school together, and have recess together, and play kickball in gym. They read the same books in class, do group projects together, play in the same orchestras, sing in the same chorus groups, build sets together for plays that boys and girls will perform together. And someday they will work together in Grownupland, so why in the world shouldn’t they play together in Legoland?
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