A feminist pick of slots

Let’s face it, women, we need to band together even with slots: It’s a man-centered world from Vegas to Boise, Idaho, and diversity isn’t any greater because we’re talking gambling. The bulk of slot themes are all action-adventure heroes and sports all of which portray mostly men flexing muscles or launching rockets.

For those slots that do portray women, they are of course, the most attractive and sensual of the litter and are almost always found either wrapped in red apparel or in a dress. Yes, there are women slots to pick from, only not hardly enough. There are women slots that involve queens, Cleopatra, geishas and princesses as representative of the female psyche in mind, but there is little to keep women spinning compared to the ample portions of male-generated games coming to market all the time. You may not be your typical girlie-girl and maybe the ‘Shopping Spree’ slot is not your cup of tea, or better yet, is a slam on your intelligence.

With all the mermaid slots riding high on the seven seas of slot fare, it may be that these depictions of sensuous sirens luring honest and noble men to their death are ways to continue to portray woman as tempter and antagonist alive. The comic book and cinematic heroes lay claim to a number of female heroines, but only a few have emerged like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, while male heroes take the lead from film to television to sports.

So far, there are sport slots that honor specific athletes – all men. Military slots are another popular slot theme with fighter jets or gangster slots and war and battle motifs. But if I was in the drawing room right now with Microgaming, I’d be working on these drafts: Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Julia Child, Ellen DeGeneres, Elektra (the comic-book heroine, not the mythic subject of Freudian theory), and maybe a Dream Girls slot.

To all the upcoming women-centered slots then! We look ahead to a future where equality and equanimity will be gained for all, both on and off the reels.

−written by Natalie Jaro