Gender-Neutral Playing Cards – The Next Big Trend for 2021?

With all that has changed in the world over the past few years, the simple deck of playing cards is not immune. A person named Indy Mellink felt the deck of cards was racially and gender insensitive and needed an upgrade. Indy, A Ph.D. student based in Rotterdam, took it upon itself to come up and distribute a gender-neutral set of playing cards.

How It Happened

Indy was playing an innocent game of cards with a young cousin over the summer and thought to itself that the ranking system on a standard deck of cards was unfair, racist, and sexist. This just isn't an accurate reflection of the world anymore.

With so many countries being ruled by Queens now and gender equality being fought for all over in the workplaces, why should the King still be on top when it comes to a deck of playing cards. What makes a king more powerful than the queen or Jack, for that matter? With those questions festering in its head. Indy said, “Enough is enough; I will make a deck of cards that is fair to everyone.”

Indy, an avid card player, thought of replacing the king card with a royal couple of a king and a queen, the queen as a prince and a princess card, and the Jack card as a farming couple. As she thought more on the matter, a particular question nagged her. What would she call the couples?

Then it was brought up that the lack of racial diversity in the cards should be addressed since the face cards only depicted the Kings, queens, and Jacks as white.

The Idea was Born

Now faced with the task of creating a deck that's inclusive to everyone, the idea hit it in the head. What about using gold, silver, and bronze bars as the symbols for the cards? The gender racially sensitive deck of cards was conceived.

The gold, silver, and bronzed symbols are known worldwide because of such popular sporting events that recognize them as first, second, and third. Now free from any bias and already translatable in every language, it just seemed like a no-brainer to Indy.

Indy was able to launch the new cards in October of 2020. However, the movement was slow initially; the cards really started to gain some national attention after Holland featured them in their National Paper.

So far, Indy says that the response to the new playing cards has been mixed. With most people, the cards are a breath of fresh air, but you still have the other side, which is resistant to change.

The new cards were instrumental in the naming of the new playing cards, now known as the GSB playing cards. The new cards are now being dubbed the GSP playing cards; players can purchase them for $12 and red or black.

Since the launch nearly six months ago, Indy has sold over 1500 decks to two people worldwide, with the most Interest being and the European countries.