A Trip to Toys R Us

To help me think about the state of the world, as Janet Jakobsen asked us to do, I took a trip to Toys R Us. If, as a good feminist, I believe that cultural conceptions of gender as well as discursive and iconographic representations reshape the experience and meaning of war and militarism, and if I think that war and militarism are terrains in which gender is negotiated and that the preceding occur effectively through the mechanisms of a consumer culture, then what better place to conduct fieldwork during times of terror than Toys R Us? Certainly Barbie would offer some insight.

I do not mean to be flippant about these militarized and violent times. And my trip to Toys R Us was indeed sobering. As the United States prepares for yet another war, toy companies reap profits from such "war on terrorism"-inspired toys as "Clay Ramsey, U.S. Counter-Terrorism Advisor," "American Freedom Fighters Live from Afghanistan," "Command Headquarters Tent and Tunnel Combo," and the Osama bin Laden head offered by Protect and Serve Toys "to allow enthusiasts to enact what it may be like when we finally catch him." The "World Peace Keepers Battle Station" for children ages 3 and up is a "peace keeper" surrounded by grenades, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and a set of sandbags. None of these peacekeepers/warriors are women.

I did, however, find a version of Barbie - or the absence of Barbie - and I brought this toy with me because I think it makes some feminist points. This toy, called the "Forward Command Post" for children ages 5 and up, is a bombed-out version of Barbie's dream house.[1] For those of you who cannot see it, Forward Command Post is a two-story house designed to look like an "all-American" suburban home with pale yellow walls, checkerboard floors, and charming, wood-framed windows. Yet this is Barbie's bad-dream house. The glass panes are cracked; bullet holes decorate the walls. On the balcony stands a helmeted soldier in battle fatigues clutching an assault rifle. At his feet, a rocket launcher is poised - where a pot of geraniums should be - with its muzzle aimed at all who approach.

Janet Jakobsen wrote to panel participants, "The basic question for your panel is Why? Why is the world in the state that it is in?" I do not know if I can cover that task in 15 minutes. What I will do is use the Forward Command Post toy to make a few points about militarism, why the world is in the state that it's in, what policies have led us to the current historical juncture, and what feminist analysis brings to the current public debate.