Why isn’t Kamala Harris in the Women Who Dare block set?
The number one question your Uncle Goose has received since November 14, 2020:
“What is wrong with you? Why isn’t Kamala Harris on the Women Who Dared Block set?”
To answer question number one would take a long time. You don’t want to know everything that’s wrong with us. Let’s just say we’re flawed human beings, and we’re doing the best we can.
But let’s address question number two. Why isn’t Kamala Harris on the Women Who Dared Block set?
Uncle Goose debuted the Women Who Dare blocks in 2017. When we first started to design this historic set, Harris had yet to become a US Senator.
Today, of course, Harris is the Vice President of the United States. It’s the highest office ever held by a woman in our country’s history.
So is Kamala Harris a woman who dares? Absolutely!
However, the Women Who Dare is a 32 piece block set with a basswood case. The case holds 32 blocks.
Further, each block is a puzzle piece. Adding Kamala Harris would mean that your Uncle Goose would have to evict another woman who dares.
In 2020, Harris introduced a plan to prevent evictions during the pandemic. Harris also proposed that tenants get 18 months to pay back any missed payments.
We honor Harris by refusing to evict another woman in her name. Check back with us 18 months after the pandemic has ended.
Because believe it or not, it actually takes time to design a comprehensive and elegant educational block set! Your Uncle Goose just doesn’t start throwing blocks out there all willy-nilly.
Public figures like Hillary Clinton (living) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (now deceased, but alive at the time of inclusion) don’t need to give approval for us to legally use their name and likeness.
But we wrote to get each woman’s approval, anyway. It’s the right thing to do. They’re public figures, and they’re also real human beings with real feelings.
How do they feel about being on a block set? Are they OK with being included alongside other notable women in history? Did they drag their feet at the notion of being included?
So what about Kamala Harris? Have we approached Harris about using her name and likeness on any of our block sets?
No. Not at this time. We could be wrong, but we suspect that she has more pressing issues on her long list of things to do.
Beyond gaining approval, we also need to draw a likeness of each woman, make sure it can be painted on wood, find appropriate quotes, write a biography, and make sure the block fits the context of the other 31 in the set.
In other words, a lot of care and thought goes into designing an Uncle Goose block set. Block design is literally multi-faceted. It’s more than slapping a name and image on wood and calling it a day.
At Uncle Goose, we aim to be thoughtful and considerate with our product design. Uncle Goose fans would have it no other way.
