The Blame Game

I know that this title might bring some attention to what seems to be overwhelming evidence that the board games targeted for strictly girls are clearly sexist, homophobic, and even racist. However I would question just how important these games are and were at the time of the article. A lot of my information will be speculation because I couldn't quite find any sold statistics on these board games, but just how popular were these board games? I mean how many little girls actually were fans of any of these games, in fact of the four I had only ever heard of one of them prior and that's because Sweet Valley High was popular on its own. Most board games I saw in every instance were classics that really were not too gender specific such as Monopoly, Life and Chutes and Ladders.

I don't know how well they sold but even if you just wanted to judge them solely based on whether they were negative or positive; do they reinforce negative stereotypes and promote chasing boys over intellectual pursuits? Absolutely. However, I think there's a bigger question here, should a gaming board or any sort of company be responsible for social causes. Were the games everything that feminism has tried to challenge? Yes, but it shouldn't be an industry's job to do what consumers should be doing. Every company is just trying to market what sells. There must have been a market for these types of games and someone must have been buying these games for their daughters. Yes, they're negative but the bigger problem is the consumer themselves reinforcing the stereotypes that their daughters will be exposed to in these types of games.

If the games had never existed the girls most likely would have been exposed and supported to follow those stereotypes through different media or entertainment. Making the idea that feminism needs to be challenged needs to start with the family at home, and not when that family gets to the toy store.