TUTORIAL: Gender Equality

[Quichybo]

Greetings!

I hope this isn't too obvious, but i haven't read a thread that proposes this so far...

If you want to have more women among your minifigures, here is a quite simple way how to even the scales, especially for those who don't have the ressources for bricklink or pick a brick.

All you need is the following:

- A couple of classic LEGO-Heads (most of you will have plenty of them)

- Black and Red permanent markers

Simply enlarge the eyes for the illusion of eyelashes and draw the lips, voilà!

To make it easier, stick your classic heads together and just paint those in the center, so you can always touch those at the ends without destroying anything.

If you did something wrong: Use toilet paper and lighter-fuel to erase the permanent marker from the head.

Maybe you wont use them for the protagonists in your creations, but this technique serves quite well when the face is behind a visor of a (now female) knight in your army:

The faces may not be the most beautiful among your minifigs, but i think they are comparable to these:

How do you (try to) achieve gender equality among your minifigures (if you are aiming at it)?

EDIT: Damn, I should have set a "TUTORIAL: " in front of the title of the topic... would a mod do this, please?

Edited March 25, 2012 by Quichybo

[Sandy]

A commendable topic, even though I'm not a modder myself.

I'm glad that after years and years of AFOL feedback, TLG has started to produce more female figs and sell them in the cheaper sets as well. I'ts very telling that there were only two female minifigs in the Collectable Minifig Series 1 while the newest series both include five female figs.

How do you (try to) achieve gender equality among your minifigures (if you are aiming at it)?

Like I said, I'm not a modder, but I buy female figs from Bricklink. A LEGO set also has more appeal to me if there's a (new) female fig involved, an example being the Car and Camper set which I probably would not buy if there wasn't a new female torso in it.

[Scubacarrot]

I dont see the point, to be honest. I always viewed the common minifig face () as a gender-neutral thing.

[Quichybo]

That is another point of view I can understand, I've thought of it, too. But over the years the faces got more and more detailed so you would be able to recognise not only sex / gender but also real existing persons (like Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones or Cate Blanchet as Irina Spalko). Often it are the accessoires that make it possible to recognise the gender. But in many cases a minifig wears a helmet and has a neutral torso. There are very few torsos with a plate mail that hint at a female owner, the only one I remember is Princess Storm:

Of course, in real life there are men with long eyelashes and remarkable lips and women that don't have either of these... so you could see the common face as neutral. But many things in LEGO are quite stereotypical. Men often have a mustache, a full beard or at least strong jaw bones. Almost every woman has eyelashes and pronounced lips. So this is not free of sexism, but at least it can be made equal on both sides. Among my minifigs there are only few that maintain with a "common" face. In real life there are also people that look like everyone else and have no remarkable spots, so why not transfer this to LEGO? But I for my part define these as male.

I think that is my point...

Edited March 25, 2012 by Quichybo

[Wardancer]

I have this problem with my elven army. Only 1 of 60 is female.

It sort of depends on the standard you set. in Most cases, would not suffice for me to have a female head and hair, I think a female fig needs to have female shapes.

Heads I would not customize, for there are lots of female heads available.

It is true, there are not many fighting, not princess-like women in historic themes.

There is a nice female torso in tan colour though. Also Angelica from the Queen Anne's Revenge has a very nice and boobed torso, but this is very expensive.

The CMF Series 7 is a game changer in that respect. The valkyrie introduces a female torso which is neutral enough for knight, elves, pirates ets. The helmet has female hair, but is kind of limited to viking aesthetics, I hope i can cut if off and use it with other helmets, too. All that for a cheap price.

Also, the LOTR elven hair will make great female elves, so this problem will cease to exist for me soon.