Confusing metaphor and physical reality

By Brian Clegg

There’s nothing the right-wing newspapers like more than a touch of wokeness-gone-mad – and back in February this was trumpeted by an article in the Daily Telegraph headlined Lego can be anti-LGBT says Science Museum (this is behind a paywall, but I was able to access it via Apple News). The story has since been picked up by many other news outlets.

The outrage in the press is based on a self-guided tour called Seeing Things Queerly telling visitors that ‘Like other connectors and fasteners, Lego bricks are often described in a gendered way. The top of the brick with sticking out pins is male, the bottom of the brick with holes to receive the pins is female, and the process of the two sides being put together is called mating. This is an example of applying heteronormative language to topics unrelated to gender, sex and reproduction. It illustrates how heteronormativity (the idea that heterosexuality and the male/female gender binary are the norm and everything that falls outside is unusual) shapes the way we speak about science, technology, and the world in general.’

A starting point here is to make it clear that, as is often the case, the headline gets it wrong. The same applies to many other outlets, for example The Times (Lego is anti-LGBT and promotes only two genders, says Science Museum). Perhaps surprisingly, Fox News gets closer with ‘Science Museum claims Legos push a “heteronormative” agenda in LGBTQ tour’.

However, there remains a significant issue with the tour wording. It is true that it is common to use male-female terminology to lots of things (plugs and sockets, for instance), with ‘male’ as the sticky-out bit and ‘female’ as recessed-in bit. And, these are indeed ‘topics unrelated to gender, sex and reproduction.’ But I have never heard the process of joining two Lego bricks described as mating. And no evidence is provided that the use of male/female illustrates the idea that heteronormativity is the norm and everything that falls outside is unusual. It is simply a useful metaphor. 

The objection is a bit like claiming that having a paint shade called ‘swan white’ involves cygnusnormativity because some swans are black. We still know what it means. The male/female thing is a useful metaphor, reflecting the majority of gendered organisms. The authors of the tour seem to confuse metaphor with reality. It seems, then, despite those misleading titles, there is something a little worrying about the wording used.

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.