One of my favorite places on the internet is the LEGO Subreddit. Unlike some other subreddits, the one for LEGO fans is filled mostly with people who want to share and discuss their hobby. I’ve been following the LEGO subreddit for some time now, and I’ve found the space to be fairly consistently inclusive. Mostly the subreddit involves discussions of MOC (My Own Creations), rumors, reviews of new sets, showing off the hoard, and discussing organization and building techniques. The adult world of LEGO seems pretty open to anyone who wants to join the discussion. And even though I’m a lurker, I would feel more comfortable posting there than I would in many, many other internet spaces. Occasionally, a controversial subject will pop up, and people will discuss gender representation in LEGO or topics like the recent controversy with artist Ai Weiwei. I’ve even seen multiple threads expressing appreciation for the new LEGO minifigs that represent various disabilities. When controversial subjects do pop up, the discussion tends to stay civil and people discuss it and move on. I’m not saying it’s never happened, but I’ve never run across a truly angry discussion on the LEGO subreddit. Mostly, people are just interested in talking about the subject at hand: the love of LEGO.
Yesterday, I ran across this reddit thread, and had a moment (one of the few) when I thought “uh oh.” The thread is LEGO fans discussing this thread that popped up in the TIL (Today I Learned) subreddit. The subject of the TIL thread, “TIL hardcore LEGO fans use the phrase “One by Five” as a code name for hot girls, because those are rare in LEGO conventions and the LEGO company doesn’t make a five by one brick.” I consider myself a hardcore LEGO fan, and I had never heard of that. Or, so I thought at first. The poster in the TIL thread said he or she got the phrase from the documentary, LEGO a Brickumentary. I’ve seen the documentary, of course, but I didn’t remember that part at all. And, I’m pretty well versed in LEGO language. I have never seen reference to this on the LEGO subreddit or any of the other LEGO sites I frequent. So, I fired up the documentary to see the context of the “one by five.” Sure, enough, it’s in there. I don’t know how I missed it, except it’s in a short, strange scene where they guy almost seems to be using it to compliment his girlfriend. Unfortunately, the documentary goes on to actually show young women at conventions and talk about them as if they are unicorns. The argument being that women don’t like LEGO, and if they do, they probably aren’t hot. Honestly, I was almost afraid to read the comments on the thread in the LEGO subreddit. We already have to deal with this enough in video games. And, not to sound naive, but I like to think that there are at least some nerd spaces on the internet where people are more concerned about the hobby than they are about making sure certain people either can’t participate or will be uncomfortable if they try.
The LEGO folks didn’t let me down. I hate that I was surprised they didn’t, but thankfully they didn’t. I feel like I’m pretty conditioned from reading video game discussions on the internet (or really any discussion on the internet involving women) to expect the discussion to immediately devolve into how women aren’t really gamers or women don’t really play at all anyway, so why would we need to worry about all that, etc., etc., etc. Instead, the discussion looked more like this:
Exactly. Seriously, why would a community want to be seen as a “bunch of social outcasts who have never seen women before”? A few of the LEGO folks went over to the TIL thread to let them know that this is not a phrase used in the LEGO fan world. This comment, again, says it all.
I adore the LEGO community, and I really should get more involved in it. I thought about trying to do so last year, but ultimately I worried that I would find the same attitude toward women that we see in so many other places. I’m sure that attitude is present at least in some pockets of the LEGO community. The inclusion of the phrase “one-by-five” in the documentary proves that. But, as of now, it seems to be the exception, not the rule. Instead, by and large, the LEGO folks seem to just want to talk about LEGO with whoever will listen. I can totally relate to that, and it makes for a much nicer place to hang on the internet.
