Oh My God.

by Isabel

I probably threw up in my mouth about 8 times while looking at this.

Fashion!
Fashion!

The sight of my beloved Scrabble bedecked in bubblegum pink, and ornamented with goddamn flowers is enough to make me retire my vocabulary and subsist on grunts and monosyllables for the rest of my days. Fucking FASHION? Seriously? Every word is a winner? Obviously some words are blatantly more valuable then others. That is how you win at Scrabble. It is a game of skill and strategy. Why bother selling boardgames at all? Just hand out pink, glittery, Participant gemstones that come with a passcode to play a computer game where you get to dress the gemstones up in trendy prom gowns online. After all, as long as it involves dressing up and looking pretty-pretty-pretty, then girls HAVE to like it, right? Everything else is superfluous!

Ugh!

27 thoughts on “Oh My God.

  1. I know! What a disgrace, to women, girls, and the much loved game!

    Why is it women can’t want anything unless it is all puuuurdy w/ pink and sparkles and dripping w/ stereotypes (fashion!).

    I also liked the Ouija board, except that until I saw the picture of that pink one I hadn’t seen a Ouija board for sale at a toy store in a long time. I so want one. Now that it’s pink it’s OK?

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  2. My (non-pink) Scrabble board also says “Every word’s a winner.” My eleven-year-old sister pointed out the other day just what you did: that “xi” is better than “is.”

    None of which makes the pink=girls=fashion! thing less annoying.

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  3. “FUN GAME”. They dumbed down ANY sort of half-smart marketing ploy to say, “fun game”? There are so many things they COULD have said. Apparently women and girls are only supposed to have a 3 word vocab: fun, game, fashion.

    Grosssss

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  4. The original also says “fun game” in scrabble letters on it.

    Still, it’s disgusting, but some of the “offensive” things people are pointing out are on both versions…

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  5. i think it says “fashion” because its the DESIGNERS edition. and the fun game part, and the every word’s a winner is on other versions as well.

    no where on the packaging does it say “scrabble…for girls!” it just says its the designer edition and its pink…so therefore we ASSUME its for girls? hm..

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  6. Ugh. SERIOUSLY?!
    And Fatima: Of all the men you know, have ever associated with, and have even crossed paths with throughout your life, how certain can you be to say that this designer version of scrabble is marketed towards THEM? it’s obviously marketed towards women, because the companies all figure that anything pink and sparkly and pretty attract women. I don’t see too many men picking up a pink scrabble box.

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  7. So? Do they have a game specifically geared towards men with stereotypical male colors and designs? I am not offended that a company purposefully tried to appeal to women and that they believed (correctly) that pink is popular with women.

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  8. my initial reaction was similar to yours, but then I thought…if they find a way to make a game that builds knowledge more attractive to young girls…why not?

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  9. hilkman
    true, but i’ve seen non-pink sparkly scrabble boxes that say “fun game” on them. my point was it’s not original to the pink flowery edition.

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  10. But what I want to know is WHY are the makers of this game trying to encourage women to play scrabble? Women prefer games of chances that aren’t distracting and don’t require attention so they can sip their tea and gossip with their friends. That’s the real travesty.

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  11. @Joy-Mari: That’s a good question! Why would making something pink ever encourage girls to buy it? I don’t think even Milton Bradley knows. In my view, it’s a crazy, untested idea that’s never been tried before – so that’s pretty bold of Scrabble .. but let’s see how it pans out for them.

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  12. Don’t get me wrong- I’m against all this sort of insanity, but did you happen to notice the “available only at Toys “R” Us” sticker? I think this is targeted at 8-12 year olds.

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