diff --git a/meta/classes/gobject-introspection-data.bbclass b/meta/classes/gobject-introspection-data.bbclass
index b1bdd268e6..2ef684626a 100644
--- a/meta/classes/gobject-introspection-data.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/gobject-introspection-data.bbclass
@@ -3,7 +3,5 @@
 #
 # It should be used in recipes to determine whether introspection data should be built,
 # so that qemu use can be avoided when necessary.
-GI_DATA_ENABLED = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'gobject-introspection-data', \
+GI_DATA_ENABLED ?= "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'gobject-introspection-data', \
                       bb.utils.contains('MACHINE_FEATURES', 'qemu-usermode', 'True', 'False', d), 'False', d)}"
-
-