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Boys Are Stupid: The board game
With cold weather and shorter daylight hours upon us once again, I have been putting extra thought into my winter season fathering of sons.
It is one thing to create fun and mind-enriching activities during favorable weather, but opportunities are more limited during cabin fever season.
We are working our way through board and card games – Yahtzee, Uno, Connect Four, Go Fish – and over the weekend bought a fresh copy of the classic “Sorry” board game at Target.
Then I saw this new board game – “Boys Are Stupid.”
Taking the “battle of the sexes” to the 10-12 year old market segment, the game is described as:
Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them—but first you need to collect the rocks
Do a wacky dare or answer an embarrassing truth to get 5 rocks and work your way home to win the game
The perfect slumber party game for girls of all ages
Also great for after a break-up or as an anti-Valentine’s Day gift
Wow. I think we’ll stick with Monopoly, the Star Wars edition.
Sci-fi capitalism trumps low-brow feminism any day of the week.
back to top38 Comments to “Boys Are Stupid: The board game”
Here we go again with boys being degraded, or down-sized mentally.
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How about a game where boys collect girl cooties?
They would need to collect enough cooties to repel girls?
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How about taking turns READING a book that is chosen by all from the local library? They could build with legos or draw/color while the reading commenses. And when you can’t be present you can record the reading.
How about putting on a play in the livingroom–Star Wars, What happens next?
Do the boys know how to COOK? It might be fun for some to knead bread or cut cookies. Cooking/Baking can be fun for kids. And great way to heat the house.
SCIENCE experiments can be fun–maybe using stuff in the kitchen. Some experiments don’t even use messy stuff–maybe straws, paper, pins, paperclips, etc.
There are probably more ideas at homeschool sites and education sites. We haven’t homeschooled for a long time so I am out of the loop, but I remember lots of fun stuff to do.
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I have a cold. It is raining. By 3 o clock I will need something to entertain a 6 year old boy with out touching or breathing on him.
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Prayer for you and 6 year old. KBELLS
You are a mom–suck it up and proceed without breathing.
How about cowboys and stagecoach robbery? You could wear a surgical mask to keep from breathing on kid? Or he could wear the mask to keep germs out?
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Kbells, News2Me mentioned Legos above. You can do lots with Legos.
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Legos are an excellent investment. Go and buy a bucket full. Several buckets full.
Make guns out of the legos and play cops and robbers–someone gets to wear the mask. If he plays the cop, then when he shoots you you could play dead for a while (just make sure you have a blanket over your shoulders while playing the evil robber to cover yourself with while playing dead–rest for your cold).
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What’s wrong with “Boys are Stupid?” I taught my daughter that when she was 7 years old and it got her through high school and college emotionally intact.
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“Sci-fi capitalism trumps low-brow feminism any day of the week.”
It should in this case! It is hard for me to believe that a toy manufacturer actually sat around the table with his/her staff, discussed this game and approved it.
That said, Metanoia, I learned from a friend’s mother in college that “All men are alike. If men were smart, they’d be women.”
The first part — all men are alike — I was never sure of until both my father and the judge, two men who couldn’t have been more different, both said “NJL, they took my pants” when they were in the hospital. They really are alike.
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That is so wrong on so many levels. Can I just tell you that as a mom with four daughters, we will never NEVER play a game like that ever?
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Well, I don’t know.
Are they using math in the game–like 10 little rocks will get you 1 BIG rock?
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Do they include a skill like how to make your own rocks using papier mache? Or maybe how to cut rock shapes out of paper?
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Has anyone seen it being advertised on TV?
Maybe during a show like THE VIEW?
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NJL, I once visited an elderly friend in the hospital (94 or something like that) who absolutely positively refused to let them take his trousers. So he was wearing a hospital gown and pants (don’t know if they at least got the belt from him).
Yes, this is wrong on so many levels–and it’s violent, too.
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Megan, we have mostly sons, but that game would not have been given house room here either.
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No. 8: Was her dad a boy or a girl?
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Now I know why all the girls used to throw rocks at me.
And I had always thought they were just trying to get my attention.
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I wouldn’t really characterize this game as feminists. It’s anti-feminist mind you (which to a pack of anti-feminists might be just as bad), it’s just not really feminist, at any level of brow!
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Sorry typo*** “It’s not anti-feminist…”
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In my long-ago experience, which was extensive, rocks were, like, almost romantic.
It was the shotgun blasts, the baseball bats with nails driven through them, and the canisters of mustard gas that caused ME to back off some.
Even though I was certain at the time that I was quite irresistible and that all the projectiles and shooting meant they were just acting coy.
Oh, those girls!
They sure made life DIFFICULT for guys like me.
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#16 Roger Patno; Her dad was a man’s man.Ask her and her mother.
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Simple test: replace “boys” with “girls.”
If the resulting description gives you pause, then you’re not being fair.
Think about why that is.
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I have four girls. I do tell my girls that boys are stupid. I tell them that sometimes boys never grow up and they remain stupid. However, if they do grow up, they become men. They will know when they have met a man because he will treat them with respect. He will be a hard worker. He will honor his parents. He will be a good friend. I tell them that men are a blessing but they need to avoid stupid boys at all costs. That said, i would never buy that game.
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I haven’t seen the game in question, but I would be willing to bet that the gameplay is just as offensive, if not more so than the theme. It’s a shame that so many board/card games that are available at department stores are so lame and gimmicky when there are so many excellent games coming out all the time. If you can find a decent game store (or shop online), check out Ticket to Ride, Agricola, San Juan, Dominion, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, or Stone Age.
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#24: I agree: I love Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Agricola!
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No game should call a group of people stupid or be played by throwing imaginary rocks at people. It is in poor taste, at the very least.
Really try to imagine a game for boys called “Girls Are Stupid.” People would be all over it with indignation and disgust.
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I despise the popular cultural denigration of males. And I really hate it when Christians join in the pile-on. I support neither feminism nor chauvinism, because I don’t think it’s God’s way for one half of humanity to be continually mocking the other half. And you don’t teach someone to respect themselves, by teaching them to disrespect others. Anyone who does this is doing their daughters no great favor.
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NETANOIA: If I read you correctly, does it not take a girl’s girl to make a man’s man what he is? And I am not saying you are one.
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Thanks DJ.
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Drill- Thanks for the humor! I laughed heartily at your posts… And DJ, your thoughts were agreed with as well.
Not sure where you can find them nowadays, maybe eBay?
So, my curiosity is why whoever makes the games up can’t capitalize on guys’ need to compete without relying on the lowest common denominator: meanness?
Oh, and for those looking for cool guy toys, my eight brothers spent literally weeks “fighting” G.I.Joes growing up… that and Legos were the mainstays. Yeah, I know the Joes had guns and looked rather brutal thanks to Mom’s red nail polish- most might object to that- but they were the honest heros that saved the world, er, basement… at least in their minds.
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Roger, While it takes a man’s man and woman’s woman to raise a man, the feminization of our culture reveals a stark misunderstanding of what a man is.
Many men, and Christian men in particular seem to be lost in defining manhood.
While I agree with most of what worthygirl1 has writen, those virtues of which she speaks are more effectively modeled by.a man to a boy, than taught by a woman to a boy.
Will explain further if questions, rebukes and rebuttals develop.
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I’ll agree with the others who have said this game is not about feminism in any way. It’s just dumb sexism.
However, it seems that white men are still safe targets for insulting “humor.” How many commercials and sitcoms can you think of that portray men as hopelessly inept buffoons, while the smart women around them calmly solve every crisis despite their men’s foolishness?
I hate it, but this game sounds like it’s just part of that mindset.
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Or a shorter version of my post in #32: What DJ said (#27).
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Conan, I think most of the dads (white and black) in commercials and sitcoms are portrayed as “inept buffoons” saved from their blunders by their savvy wives. No longer is it Lucy that has “some splainin’ to do”.
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Dominion, Endeavor (played it last night), Shogun, Race to the Galaxy, have been enjoyable.
Have a couple of friends that host a board game night, and its crazy how many other good games are out there.
Another favorite of mine is the Munchkin series, humorous and fun.
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When you are a young pre-teen the opposite gender appears to act a little confusing and weird. What’s seems normal to a boy may look stupid to a girl. For example; risking life and limb to show off. and visa versa, excessive giggling for no apparent reason. Lighten up folks. It’s a game.
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I can’t believe that a thinking person would actually teach their children that boys are stupid (#23). Such thinking sets the stage for some real inequities in relationships, and perpetuates the feminization of our culture in which girl=good/boy=bad. I find Worthygirl’s post sadder than sad. Stupidity is not gender specific; making it so sets the child up to become an abuser.
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DJ- oh my. Sadder than sad? Really? The child will become an abuser? Really? I think I was being a little bit tongue in cheek, but your response is too much.
Metanoi- I agree that it is more effectively modeled by a man, too.
Likewise, my girls see their father model what it means to be a man. They see a man who loving, kind, loyal, honest, hardworking, etc. They also see a mother that respects and adores her husband.
At one time my husband was a boy that did not think about anyone other than himself. I guess he wasn’t “stupid” because that implies that you can not “learn”. So he was “ignorant”. However, he grew up to become a man. An honorable man. I encourage my girls to avoid giving their hearts to boys that are acting in ignorance, but to wait until they meet a man like their daddy.
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