Pinkwashing Board Games

“Boys get cool stuff, girls get pink stuff” is the title of a recent article on salon.com.

While I haven’t used the search tools on a toy seller’s site as the writer of that article did, I have to say that the pinkwash I’ve seen of previously neutral toys is really appalling. I first noticed this trend last Christmas when my son asked for the game Jenga, and all his grandfather could find was the pink “Girl Talk” edition of the game.

Yes. In their infinite wisdom, the powers that be at Toys R Us decided that it would be a good business move to become the exclusive seller of a pink version of Jenga. But it’s not only the colour they changed. The game has an “ultra-chic stacking sleeve” and silly questions on each block, like: “Name someone you have a crush on right now.”

Not to be outdone by the Jenga people, other game manufacturers got in on the feminizing trend. Here are a few examples:

• The Monopoly Boutique edition is “all about the things girls love”. Instead of hotels and houses, players buy boutiques and malls in translucent pink and purple. Properties include Jillian’s Jewelry Store and Savannah’s Super Spa. Players pay their cell phone bill instead of the utility bill. They get instant message and text message cards. Everything is pink, including the dice and money, and the entire game is stored in a “keepsake box” that doubles as a jewelry box.
• Twister comes in a pink edition, with “ultracool” plush carrying bag.
• The Ouija board is also available in pink. Like many of these other toys, it includes a pink carrying case. Girls are encouraged to ask important questions like: “Who will call/text me next? Will I be a famous actor someday? Who wishes they could trade places with me?” In contrast, in the marketing for the standard Ouija board, only the first question is used as an example. I guess only girls are vain enough to care about who envies them.
• Life, a game I played endlessly as a child, now comes in a High School Edition, also called the Pink Edition, in which the board has a “funky, flowery path”. To its credit, the girl characters can play varsity sports and go to university.
• Even Scrabble has a “Designer’s Edition”, an “upscale pink edition” with “feminine accents”, like faux leather, pink pearlescent tiles, sleek racks and a pink score pad.

These games raise so many questions. Why is it necessary to feminize board games, especially classics like Twister and Scrabble that have served generations well in their more gender neutral versions? Why can’t girls just play with an unadorned version of a game instead of editions that are accessorized and made “pretty”? Why are we letting toy makers get away with stereotyping girls in this manner?

Although it is probably too late for this Christmas, I hope parents in future will think twice about succumbing to the dictates of toy marketers who seem determined to equate femininity with all things superficial and shallow.