The antediluvian hierarchy of face cards may dismay your values about card games. But there’s no denying the fact that in card games, the queen is less worthy than the king. And while queen is of less worth than the king, the jack is less worthy than the queen. So, this highlights a very important aspect of card games – the value of each face card in cards is different from one another.
Although some would agree that each game has its ranking, the highest ranking value of face cards is always regarded to the King. Even though it’s one classic instance of patriarchy, this fact is not justifiable especially in an era when women head countries and companies besides driving the economy. And then, you may say that the humble roots of card games date back some centuries when the king ruled the country. But in the 21st century, the cards still uphold gender inequality and binary.
The Deck of Cards And Its History
The emergence of playing cards is uncertain as multiple countries lay their claims for its discovery. However, China is believed to be the most legit record for its invention. And during Tang dynasty, it is claimed to have invented it.
Historical surveys also indicate that playing cards were noticed in Europe in between the late 1300s and early 1400s. In Italy, the face cards (then, known as, court cards) included the mounted King, the crowned and seated Queen, and a Knave.
Today, it’s known as Jack and ever since its advent, it’s considered as the royal servant. In some countries and cultures, this face card also represents the “prince, and thus, it’s better referred to as Jack in order to avoid any confusion with King.
Contrary to what has been narrated above, the Spanish adopted a versatile version of playing the card game. They replaced Queens with mounted Caballeros or Knights. Germans absolutely excluded Queens from the decks, and they divided face cards into king, upper man, and lower man (today’s Jacks).
Later in the 15th century, France spread the popularity of playing cards and invented the court (face card in cards) and suits cards that countries use presently.
How Did The Change Occur?
The year 2017 witnessed Australian living in the New York. This made Mark Gilray create first set of playing cards. And this is how the change occurred. In this deck of cards, female face cards weren’t outranked by the men. Recently, a project known as Queeng is launched by Maayan Segal, the Israeli teenager. Her prime motto is to renovate the classic cards to represent gender equality. The new deck of cards as used in the normal playing card decks!
What’s The Future of Face Card in Cards?
Gender discrimination in the cards might not have a direct link to the real life issues. But doesn’t representation matter? The problem here is gender inequality where it indicates a normative belief that men happen to be superior to the women. And thinking that such representations don’t have any impact on people is highly improbable. It has an adverse effect on people’s thought process and how they perceive the surrounding world.
And if consciousness is not spread amongst people to represent a better tomorrow, the societal burdens would make gender-equality a distant dream. So, it’s the thought process that needs to be changed before anything else.
And the challenges associated with changing a belief system is the fact that patriarchy has already penetrated to the smallest nooks and corners of the culture. Everyone needs to bring out inclusivity in the everyday discourse. For this reason, you need to be and make others more conscious about gender-neutrality. After all, it’s the part of the language you speak, the infrastructure you belong to, and the errands you perform daily.
Wrapping up
The most critical reason why every face card in cards is unequal is primarily because of the difference in representations. And everyone should take these representations seriously to make an equitable society.
Thus, new identification & representation should be looked forward to as it upholds the values of equity and equality. The value of the Queen is less, and that’s purely unethical to the equality ideals of the society!
