One of America’s most recognizable board games, Monopoly, has created a new version celebrating girl power. In Ms. Monopoly, female players start with $1,900, compared to $1500 for each male player. And when girls pass ‘Go,’ they don’t get the standard $200. They get $240.
So, just to get this straight: In Hasbro’s lame attempt to “empower” women, it’s selling the idea that women need a leg up in order to compete with men. Ergo, women and girls are not, in fact, as smart or as capable as men.
Okay, got it. Glad we cleared that up.
I can’t get my head around parents who would actually buy Ms. Monopoly for their kids, but they will no doubt regret it when their sons and daughters start to play the game and fighting erupts. Should a boy deign to play in the first place, he will rightfully point out over and over the unfairness of the game and how it’s rigged against him.
But then, I suspect that’s the point. I suspect it’s Hasbro’s way of teaching boys a lesson: that the game of life has been rigged against women for eons, and now it’s boys’ turn to feel it.
Aside from the fact that this is pure propaganda—American women are not oppressed—how on earth is pitting the sexes against one another as children going to solve what Hasbro believes is a real problem? On what planet would that actually turn out well?
Or perhaps I have it all wrong. Perhaps the game is designed so that no boy will ever want to play. Maybe the purpose is to just gather a bunch of girls in a room so they can start to think of men as the enemy and figure out how they can protect themselves from the opposite sex and take over the world.
If that’s the case, ignore everything I wrote. I’m sure the whole thing will turn out fine.
