LEGO Bricks were one of the favorite toys of my childhood. I can’t wait until my son is old enough for the gear-filled LEGO Technic sets. I therefore enjoyed reading Business Week’s recent article on The Making of a LEGO Brick (thanks, Slashdot), which details the precise production process (“only 18 out of 1 million LEGO elements produced is considered defective”) and other fun facts (“just six eight-stud bricks can be arranged in 915,103,765 different ways”).
It seems like I’m developing a theme this week, looking behind the scenes at popular children’s toys and characters. (See my previous post on Thomas the Tank Engine.)
“What does any of this have to do with LGBT parenting or lesbian culture?” I hear you ask. I was going to answer, “Not much, except that LGBT parents are still interested in general parenting and kids’ stuff, too.” Then I realized how rare it is for a girl to have played extensively with LEGOs, especially the more complicated sets that make motorcycles and construction vehicles and the like. My love of LEGOs was probably an early sign that I wasn’t going to fit into a traditional gender role—which might have given me a clue about other things, had I stopped to think about it. Ten years later, though, and the LEGOs were in the back of a closet somewhere while I was coming out, peg-in-hole paradigm be damned. The history of my life, from bricks to chicks. There you have it.