Wow.
So the 'girl' version of board games thing goes deeper than I initially thought. I was compelled today (by this blog post, via cofax7) to look at the games more in-depth to see if there were any actual differences in the games themselves or were they just pinked up, which is what I had assumed. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
First of all, there are also now pink Tinker Toys. According to the box they were 'designed for girls' and you can make butterflies and flower gardens! WOO.
There's also pink twister, which has 'cool new style' and 'hot new colors.' Because those other colors were waaaaaaaay too masculine, y'all.
As for the games we were already aware of...Scrabble is the least-changed and mostly is just now 'fashionable,' which, honestly, not something I ever had a problem with with Scrabble. I think this sums it up, from the actual website: "It's the thrilling game you know and love, with a woman's touch."
Okay then.
The Game of Life - Pink has more drastic changes, and actually is probably the least offensive. It is a high school edition, first of all, so there's no marriage opportunity. You pick a girl playing piece and play as her throughout and then decide at the end whether you want to go to college or work. Kudos on that, Hasbro. The flowery-path board game and pink/purple coloring are obnoxious, but that's a personal preference thing, at least. However there is mention of a sweet 16 party and a few other things that set off my alarms, and I'm just left wondering why they couldn't have a general High School Edition instead of a girl-specific one.
The final, most offensively changed game seems to be Monopoly. Now, I know they have allllll different kinds of Monopoly games (like Dog-opoly. hee), but the girl-specific changes seem so...ugh. Like the game being stored in a jewelry box. And the pieces being high heels and cell phones. And the coloring, of course, being changed to more shades of pink/purple. And the buildings are now, amongst other things, ice cream shops and the houses and hotels are boutiques and malls. Guys - they made the dice pink. The dice. I just.
Sigh.
ETA: And I'm kind of torn, because I also believe that people should be able to like whatever they want. If a girl loves pink and shopping and those 'stereotypical' girl things, that's totally fine, and I wish her the best with her pink Monopoly. But I feel that putting it into early childhood games is leading our girls down that path so specifically, and wrongly. And I really DON'T understand what was wrong with the original versions. They were fine! Weren't they? Am I just naive? I played them all growing up.
I have nothing happy to end this post with! Um. Here, have a cute puppy. Awwww.
First of all, there are also now pink Tinker Toys. According to the box they were 'designed for girls' and you can make butterflies and flower gardens! WOO.
There's also pink twister, which has 'cool new style' and 'hot new colors.' Because those other colors were waaaaaaaay too masculine, y'all.
As for the games we were already aware of...Scrabble is the least-changed and mostly is just now 'fashionable,' which, honestly, not something I ever had a problem with with Scrabble. I think this sums it up, from the actual website: "It's the thrilling game you know and love, with a woman's touch."
Okay then.
The Game of Life - Pink has more drastic changes, and actually is probably the least offensive. It is a high school edition, first of all, so there's no marriage opportunity. You pick a girl playing piece and play as her throughout and then decide at the end whether you want to go to college or work. Kudos on that, Hasbro. The flowery-path board game and pink/purple coloring are obnoxious, but that's a personal preference thing, at least. However there is mention of a sweet 16 party and a few other things that set off my alarms, and I'm just left wondering why they couldn't have a general High School Edition instead of a girl-specific one.
The final, most offensively changed game seems to be Monopoly. Now, I know they have allllll different kinds of Monopoly games (like Dog-opoly. hee), but the girl-specific changes seem so...ugh. Like the game being stored in a jewelry box. And the pieces being high heels and cell phones. And the coloring, of course, being changed to more shades of pink/purple. And the buildings are now, amongst other things, ice cream shops and the houses and hotels are boutiques and malls. Guys - they made the dice pink. The dice. I just.
Sigh.
ETA: And I'm kind of torn, because I also believe that people should be able to like whatever they want. If a girl loves pink and shopping and those 'stereotypical' girl things, that's totally fine, and I wish her the best with her pink Monopoly. But I feel that putting it into early childhood games is leading our girls down that path so specifically, and wrongly. And I really DON'T understand what was wrong with the original versions. They were fine! Weren't they? Am I just naive? I played them all growing up.
I have nothing happy to end this post with! Um. Here, have a cute puppy. Awwww.