World News for Students of English

27-01-2021 07:00

A 23-year-old Dutch psychology student and designer has created a gender-neutral card deck in which the images of a king, queen, and jack are replaced with gold, silver and bronze bars.

After noticing that card decks value kings more than queens, Indy Mellink decided that it was time to break with the centuries-old tradition of sexual inequality in playing card decks that rank men above women. Mellink hopes to raise awareness about sexual inequalities and how that influences people in their daily lives.

Mellink has been testing the cards out on players who said that they had never been aware of this issue before. Mellink has sold around 1,500 packs; however, some Dutch card players are skeptical about her creation. Hans Kelder from the Dutch Bridge Association said that he had been playing bridge for 36 years, and he never heard that a woman or a jack would feel undervalued.

Difficult words: gender-neutral (something that is not associated with either men or women), sexual inequality (a social or cultural situation in which men and women are treated differently), skeptical (doubting that something is true or useful).

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