Just One of the Girls

Just read a piece by Brenda Laurel, founder of Purple Moon, about the rise and fall of the company. Purple Moon, you may recall, had as its principal goal the creation of games that would appeal to girls. Here's a quote:

In our research about girls, we explored the social complexities of girlhood and the recurring themes of affiliation, exclusion, secrets, and self-esteem. Our understanding of these phenomena formed the core of the Purple Moon’s fantasy world and drove the design of its characters. In a remarkable case of recursion, these themes showed up again and again in the social dynamics of the companies involved, as well as in the feminist response to our work.

We tell ourselves a story about how women are more "collaborative" than men. In our business dealings, especially in a female-dominated workplace, we value consensus, and we sneer at hierarchy and order. Yet what often happens in reality might be described as an excess of "democracy." Everyone must agree, everyone has a vote, and everyone must feel good about it all.

The feminist ideal of collaboration is not a great recipe for getting things done. On the contrary — without a clear authority structure, a faux-flat organization forces people to resort to the underworld secret alliances and covert operations in order to exercise personal power. Such an organization can expend far too much energy on the complexities of its emotional and political life.

So Purple Moon declined, was gobbled up by Mattel and has for all practical purposes vanished from the earth. A shame, really. Maybe some of you 670 alums will give the idea a second chance.