Playing with Fire: Enemy Dolls - Gonzalo Frasca
I found the bin Laden doll for sale on a street market in the Chinese district of Singapore. I was on the hunt for cool Asian toys and I must admit that this particular doll caught me off guard because I could not completely figure it out. Was this a real toy intended for children or a joke for adults? Ironic action figures featuring characters such as Jesus Christ or Sigmund Freud have been around for many years now. They are generally available in novelty shops or design-oriented stores, and are clearly marketed to adults as they are not sold in children’s toy stores. At first, the bin Laden toy did not look to me like a practical joke, mainly because it was being displayed among many children toys. But again, this was a street market, so the placement of goods was a bit chaotic. The doll itself was pretty well designed and bin Laden was easily recognizable even if the packaging did not explicitly identify his identity. I want to believe that the packaging was some ready-made box that was used for various sorts of different dolls. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why the cardboard was printed with little flowers. 
Because the doll was surrounded by other toys, my first reaction was to assume that it was a toy created for kids. I could easily picture a father buying one for his child in the same way that somebody can offer a G.I. Joe for Christmas. But again, I could have been misreading the cultural cues and the doll could have been in fact a practical joke aimed at adults. A joke that not many people in the States would find very funny. I wondered what would happen to a foreign visitor who ran into one of those George W. Bush dolls that mock the President, such as the Smash Bush doll or the Pull My Finger Farting George Bush Doll. It could be possible that the visitor could have assumed that the toy was meant for kids. This could have lead him to a similar outrage: “Oh my! Americans let their kids play with a character who is responsible for over 600.000 Iraqi deaths!” Certainly, the line between reality and irony is a thin and dangerous one. After all, children's games –particularly war games– have always been heavily political. Think for example about cowboys and Indians. Until recently, it was a totally acceptable game. Now, many people –out of political correctness or sincere historical concern– would frame such a game as a reenactment of a genocide.
|
