LGBTQ+
Woman Creates Gender And Race-Neutral Playing Cards To Replace King, Queen, And Jack
“Play for equality. Game on.”
In a standard deck of playing cards, Kings are higher than Queens, who are then higher than Jacks. Thanks to the awareness on eradicating gender hierarchy and race difference, new decks of cards that are inclusive of everyone has now been launched. 23-Year-Old Indy Mellink, a Netherland-based, created GSB playing cards, featuring Gold, Silver, and Bronze cards instead of Kings, Queens, and Jacks.
Indy Mellink created GSB playing cards of Gold, Silver, & Bronze cards instead of Kings, Queens, & Jacks.
The idea for the project came in June 2020 when she was playing cards with her family during the lockdown. During this time, Indy had questioned why certain gendered cards are worth more than others. And with encouragement from her dad, she decided to end the inequalities equipped into the old-card system. So far, her friends and family members have accepted the first 50 pieces of the new deck.
More info: GSB-PlayingCards.com | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
The 23-Year-Old believes her new icons are a better alternative and are more inclusive.
The traditional playing card decks are believed to be sexist and racist.
Indy, a forensic psychology graduate, also noticed that the old playing cards were white royalty, which is also an inequality as it didn’t include any people of color. This was precisely what promoted the Gold, Silver, and Bronze playing cards, a hierarchy everyone is already familiar with due to sports. As expected, Indy’s project has received negative comments, but on the other hand, she can’t keep up with the orders from people worldwide.
Despite negative comments, Indy has been receiving a flood of orders from people worldwide.
She aims to spread equality by changing how people view gender and race hierarchies when playing cards.
However, Indy plans to start new projects to tackle inequalities using the profit made from selling her decks. She intends to venture into new games, workshops and possibly works together with charities. Similarly, she aims to spread equality as far and wide, and presently her way of doing this is through her brand of playing cards. And in her words, it’s ‘Play for equality. Game on.”
She equally wants people to feel comfortable using cards, no matter what their race or background.
So far, the forensic psychology graduate has sent out about 1.5k decks to customers in Europe and the US.
So far, she has sent out an estimated 1.5K card packs to customers in Belgium, Germany, France, and even the US. Berit Van Dobbenburgh, head of the Dutch Bridge Association. In all, Indy, who’s currently pursuing a Ph.D. feels motivated by all the attention, supports and deeply believes she’s onto something important, worth changing our world for the better.
Watch Indy’s GSB Cards Promo Video Here:
