As I wrote about yesterday, What Shall I Wear? A Fashion Game for Girls opened my eyes to the importance of dressing to the nines. I missed out on What Shall I Be? The Exciting Game of Career Girls, though. I didn't even know of its existence until a few years ago, when I found it at the WFMU record fair/nerd farm. I gleefully shelled out $40 on the spot to take it home and uncover its wonders.What Shall I Be? came out in 1966 (pre-dating What Shall I Wear? by three years). The game challenged girls to reach for the stars and imagine their futures--as ballet dancers, models, actresses, nurses, teachers, and airline hostesses. The most amazing and utterly hilarious part of What Shall I Be? is the object of the game. To become a career girl, you must collect school cards (nursing school, charm school, drama school, etc.) that match up with your personality cards. Not only do many of the "personalities" have absolutely nothing to do with personality, they are chock full of Bitchy McMeanGirl material. Here are a few highlights...
You are overweight. Bad for: Airline Hostess, Ballet Dancer, and Model (Better stick to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, fatties!)
You are pretty. Good for: Model and Actress (Help Wanted. Ugly nurses inquire within.)
Your make-up is too sloppy. Bad for: Airline Hostess and Model (What's up with all the ballerinas and their caked on foundation and clumpy mascara? Eeeew.)
You are a slow thinker. Bad for: Airline Hostess and Nurse. (So that's why I can't read good. It's okay, cuz I'm purty y'all. Slow teachers rule!!!)
Related: The Exciting Game of Career Women: You Can't Win
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2 comments:
That's absolutley ridiculous! Unfortunatley, that type of thinking still remains prevalent in our culture--the only difference is it's not expressed so overtly.
Eww!
--Ana Casian Lakos
I was born in 1961, and seeing that game again (for I played it CONSTANTLY as a child!) was a real RUSH, of a sort.
Yep. Those were the choices! I am actually a little surprised in retrospect that "housewife" wasn't a career.
I can just imagine the card:
Your PREGNANT! Kiss your career goodbye!
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