Board games are not free from gender

In Japan, recently there is a huge movement of board games so Candice and I can enjoy many different ones. We love board games 🙂

One day, we tried playing a board game called ‘Lady First’. 

Chihiro

Yay!! Let’s play!!

Candice

Ah… OK.

What’s wrong?
Anyway, I read instruction…hmm…
“Please play by one man and one woman“

… What?

きゃん

Yes… actually I watched instruction video on YouTube and they laughed a lot, saying “Please don’t dare to play this game by two men as it is the game of love!!”

･･･then, we cannot play this game?

きゃん

…maybe so…

…so, we stopped playing it.

 Actually, there are lots of board games which adopt such stereotypes. I can understand why. Board games should be easy to understand, and stereotypes are easy to understand too.

 … but, recently we found some exceptions.

 No.1: Topiary.
In this game, we can use four different Meeples. Each is gender-neutral (ex: blue meeple wears skirt but its hair is short, and red meeple wears trousers but its hair is long). 

No.2: Deja Vu.
This game challenges your stereotypes… or in other words your ‘impression’. You should stay away from your vague expression to win the game.

These games overcome stereotypes by

• making new designs without using them
• or taking advantage of their weaknesses.

 We really hope in the near future we can see more of such ‘stereotype-free’ games!!