Hear ye, hear ye, the King has been stripped of his power, for his position and race promote inequality, and he cannot be allowed to rule our society any longer.
Deciding to put an end to what she believes to be a “subtle inequality,” a 23-year-old woman came up with a new set of playing cards that see the king, queen, and jack replaced by gold, silver, and bronze.
As forensic psychology graduate Indy Mellink said in an interview with REUTERS, she doesn’t believe that a king should be worth more points than a queen.point 410 |
She also finds it racist that all of the figures on the cards are white.point 58 | Therefore, she came upon the idea to substitute them with gender-neutral objects that don’t imply that men should be ranked higher than women.point 180 | 1
“If we have this hierarchy that the king is worth more than the queen then this subtle inequality influences people in their daily life because it’s just another way of saying ‘hey, you’re less important,’” the 23-year-old insisted. “Even subtle inequalities like this do play a big role.”
While her idea started small, the demand for gender-neutral playing cards prompted Mellink, who is from the Netherlands, to make and sell as many as 1,500 sets in a matter of months. She not only gets orders from several countries but she allegedly also received offers for her cards to be featured in various game stores.
In an interview with Bored Panda, Mellink went a step further to defend her idea by suggesting that she only wanted to “design something more inclusive for those who think like me and want that and offer more choice.”
“There are bigger problems and better ways to tackle this demon, and we should focus on those. I just happened to stumble on this subtle inequality problem and happened to think of a solution as well and decided to spread it to those who want it,” she told the publication.
“I do not identify myself as a strong activist and try to tackle sexism and racism with my simple cards, I just wanted to provide an alternative, a small solution to a small problem.”
While she’s happy to provide an alternative to “sexist” and “racist” playing cards that have been around for centuries, Mellink insists her intention is not to polarize people but merely to provide an alternative.
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Replaced!