Naja has a board game called Princess-opoly. It’s a spin-off of the typical Monopoly board game, but instead of properties, players are buying underaged princesses. Then, when other players “land” on the underage princess, they have to pay the “owner” of the princess a fee to “use” the princess. The only people who play the game are Naja and her grandfather. The two never found the concept of “buying princesses” unusual, but to Naja’s aunt, Alex, who happened to be a police officer, it sounded very much like human trafficking.
The makers of the game, however, have spun it differently. They advertise it as a way to “celebrate the imagination in all little girls and treats them all as princesses in their own right.” Players don’t buy princesses, they “collect princess friends and give those friends a crown”. I’m not sure who collects “princess friends” by purchasing them, although it may just be me being a bit sheltered.
I watched Naja and my dad playing the game together.
“Yeh-yeh, you landed on Princess Valerie. Do you want to buy her?”
“Okay, I’ll buy her.”
Then later, Yeh-yeh lands on Princess Jewel, a cute little blond princess. “Yeh-yeh!” Naja yells. “You landed on Princess Jewel! I own her, so that will cost you…four dollars!”
I imagine the designers of the game were old, perverted white guys with some money, but not enough to attend Jeffrey Epstein’s cocktail parties, and no original ideas of their own. They probably sat around one day, playing Monopoly while drinking poorly made old fashions with porn playing in the background. One of them probably threw out the idea of a tongue-in-cheek version of Monopoly where instead of property, each player can “buy” little girls and “rent” them out to the other players who happen to “land” on the girl.
Sounds like something I would’ve thought up in high school or college.
Not that I have any creativity now, mind you. High school/college was the height of my creativity. Now, I’m older, more conservative, more afraid of everything, including change and new ideas.
When I was in the eighth grade in junior high, I dressed up as a beggar for Halloween. I rolled around in the dirt in parents’ backyard, smeared mud on my face, because that’s what I thought they did. I wore my rattiest t-shirt, that had holes from years of wear. I went to school thinking I looked like a beggar when in fact, I probably looked more like Pigpen. I was stupid, ignorant, but I wasn’t afraid…well, less afraid.
Now, with a family to take care of, a mortgage to pay monthly, car payments, and a student loan, I’m afraid of everything. I want to keep the status quo, because it’s been working up until now, and I’m afraid that if I rock the boat, things will change for the worse. Even at work, I work for people like Eli (the Chief Scientific Officer) who doesn’t respect me or the work I do, but instead of speaking up, doing something about it, I kowtow to his and everyone else’s wishes, because I worry that if I don’t, they’ll let me go, and take away my only avenue to maintaining family, the mortgage, the car payments, and the student loan.
Each day though, as I put reframing into practice, I’m hopeful things will change. I won’t be so afraid anymore, because things won’t hold as much power over me. Eli will no longer be the tyrant who controls my livelihood. My beggar costume wasn’t just me being an idiot, but learning to see different viewpoints. And Princess-opoly is really about trafficking young girls.
I found the game was being sold at Walmart. One could say that instead of just being a greedy, corporate giant that’s focused on becoming your primary retailer for your essentials, they’re also branching out and providing the training tools for the next generation of human traffickers.
I’m really starting to like this whole reframing concept. I suspect it will be a part of my New Year’s Resolution.