It may or may not be the next playground craze, but Super Strumps are a set of top trumps which aim to challenge sexist stereotypes of women.
Syd Moore and Heidi Wigmore wrote and illustrated the deck of cards for the Women of the World festival. I got in touch to ask them about the thinking behind the project, and what children's games can do for feminism.
How did you get the idea for Super Strumps?
Heidi: We started talking about the Essex Girl stereotype after a brainstorming meeting for the Women of the World festival. We began listing all the female stereotypes we could think of. Within the hour we had around 200. But what really got us thinking, was that we couldn't think up nearly as many for men. Why are there are so many negative labels for women? We wanted to see if we could, somehow, turn stereotypes around to find the positives aspects of what are, after all, complex multi-faceted female natures.
Syd: I've been rehabilitating the Essex Girl for a few years now. For instance, I'm identifying links between the Essex Witches and the victimisation of the Essex Girl. I'm also a part-time lecturer, and a few years ago I found out that a lot of my female students still felt stigmatised by the Essex Girl stereotype. One recalled an incident when she'd been harrassed in Turkey, purely because the local men found out she was from Essex. She was nine at the time.
Which stereotype was hardest to transform into something positive?
Syd: For me it was the It Girl. Who wants to celebrate a parasitic, superficial airhead? In the end, we did find positives in the stereotype and I like the twist Heidi brought with the visuals.
Heidi: As the artist on the project, my challenge was to seek out positive images of women and some were more problematic than others. If you try googling Essex Girl, for example, just see what you get - porn and girls losing their knickers. So I drew her as a defiant figure instead; as her own woman who doesn't give a damn.
How have people responded to your project?
Heidi: We've had an overwealmingly positive reaction to the cards from women of all ages and backgrounds. Men love them too! We launched the project at the Women of the World Festival and over the entire weekend maybe 3 women objected to the use of stereotypes in any shape or form. But we always intended the game to be a trigger for debate. We say, please read the back story, the subtext, take a good look at what the cards are really saying and then discuss.
When you're playing the game, which card do wish you hadn't been dealt, and which one is the game-winner?
Heidi: The best cards to have in your pack are The Feminist, The Superwoman and, generally, any of the older women. This is interesting as the women we consulted found the older women aspirational. We discovered women are crying out for older role models as women over 40 are increasingly erased from main stream media.
Super Strumps draws strength from being very funny, like The Spinster's ability to talk cat. Is humour the best way to confront these kind of stereotypes, or can it make this issue seem trivial?
Syd: Everyone knows what the negative connotations are with these stereotypes. What we're doing is celebrating their positive qualities that are usually overlooked. I think it's really important not to be too preachy about overturning these attitudes. Tell me I can have fun and change the world while I'm at it, and like most Essex Girls, I'm in there like a shot!
Heidi: We think humour is a powerful tool for debate. I don't think humour trivialises the seriousness of these issues, rather it reveals the absurdity of reducing women to simplistic labels.
