FEATURE

War toys: setting the psyche for Reagan’s

invasion

By DAN KEETON

omewhere in the jungle an armored
figure creeps stealthily through the
undergrowth. Occasionally he pauses and
crouches in the darkened overhang of giant
trees and dense foliage, listening for sounds
that might betray a presence of something
other than the usual animal life. Satisfied
that no other humans are around, he moves
out. :
Even then, briefly exposed, he is almost
’ invisible. Only the briefest flickers in the
beams of sunlight that break though to the
jungle floor indicate his presence. In the
clearings, the multicolored splashes on his
fatigues can be barely distinguished from
the hues of the vegetation. —

He is halfway through the next patch of
jungle when he hears the first faint traces of
voices. He stops, abruptly. Excitement
tightens his throat while his moist finger
slips around the trigger of his semi-
automatic. He moves again, slowly,
towards the patches of light that indicate the
next clearing.

At the clearing’s edge, he pauses again.

His gaze sweeps the tall weeds until it comes °

to rest on the half hidden figures crouched

around a small fire. Their attention is on

_ each other, and he knows that now is the
time to act. '

The solitary gunman bursts into the
clearing, rifle raised and aimed directly at
the figures who start to rise. A moment
later, with the staccato reports of the gun
still echoing off the jungle walls, seven men
lay motionless on the red-stained grass.

The gunman stands motionless, his
mouth set in a grimace of quiet satisfaction.

He’s just dispatched seven terrorists in
the cause of freedom.

He’s G.I. Joe, and he’s done his part to

"preserve the American way of life.

He’s a small boy dressed in army look-a-
like fatigues, cradling an accurate plastic
replica of a real, army-issue rifle. He’s.also a
lifelike doll, complete with battle gear and
numerous scale model accessories. And,
according to the latest sales figures, he’s

_ going to appear under hundreds of thou-
sands of Christmas trees in the United
States and Canada Dec. 25.

G1. Joe is, of course, also quite real. And
whether or not he engages in John-Wayne
heroics, the possibility of his appearance, in
the flesh, throughout the countryside of
Central American nations such as Nicara-

gua and El Salvador is not so remote.

As many of those who criticize the recent
reappearance of G.I. Joe and several other

war toys have noted, the connection
between the child’s play and the aims of the
U.S. Reagan administration regarding Cen-
tral America — and other parts of the
globe — is not casual.
- The G.I. Joe doll was a popular item
when McCarthyism and the Cold War pre-
vailed. During a period which lasted until
the mid-60s, few of children’s playthings

’ escaped the war mania. At one time it was
possible to buy a “missile launching” rail-
road car for electric train sets that “demol-
ished” an accompanying boxcar.

Growing protests by parents, and the
Vietnam war, are credited with the large
scale disapperance of war toys from
department store shelves during the latter
60s, and throughout most of the 70s. Their

coincides with the fading of

reappearance
_ detente under the Carter administration,

lans

and its disappearance following Ronald
Reagan’s election to office in 1980.

While life has been less than kind to Rea-
gan’s third-world victims since. then, it’s
been more than kind to Hasbro-Bradley
Inc. According to the Wall Street Journal,
the multimillion dollar manufacturer of
G.I. Joe dolls tripled its revenue during the
third quarter of 1984 over the preceding
year. Net revenues, meanwhile, grew by 150
per cent in the same period.

“(Company chairman Stephen) Hassen-
field said sales of the G.I. Joe doll are also
strong and should producer $125 million in
revenue this year,” the Journal noted.

Hasbro-Bradley also produces the Trans-
formers, small robot figures that a child can
transform into replicas of various lethal
hardware. That product accounted for one-
third of the increase in company sales dur-
ing the third quarter.

As insidious as is the militaristic theme of
the Transformer series, the message is subtle
compared to the direct call to arms pres-
ented by G.I. Joe. The doll of the 80s is not
simply a U.S. soldier; he’s now described on

‘the package as a “freedom fighter against

terrorism.”

Stephen Schwartz, Hasbro’s marketing
‘vice-president, offers this definition: “The
G.I. Joe Team is an anti-terrorist force ded-
icated to preserving the American way of
life and protecting your right to your own
opinions. G.I. Joe symbolically represents
the American solider who has bravely
defended our rights...rights we so often
take for granted.” .

Considering last year’s U.S. invasion of
Grenada, the current funding of counter-

12 ¢ PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 19, 1984 |

f

revolutionary forces amassed against Nica-
ragua and the very real threat of invasion by
US. forces, it’s clear that the hard sell of
G.I. Joe and his counterparts is no coinci-
dence. That point was spelled out by another
Hasbro spokesman, Michele Litzky, who ,
said the toys have-been spawned by “the
whole new climate of patriotism.” "

In pursuing the profits to be reaped from
the “new patriotism” the toy manufacturers
have enjoyed a cozy relationship with the
military. :

A 1961 publication — no less relevant
today — entitled The Peace Race by Sey-
mour Melman (quoted in a recent pamphlet
from the Victoria branch of the Voice of
Women) attests to the relationship. Mel-
man himself quotes a June 21, 1959 article
from the New York Times that noted, “Tie-
ins between the armed forces and the two
manufacturers have been increasing sharply.
Both groups have found the operations
beneficial. The manufacturers find they can
market a toy that is an authentic copy of
times in the news and the armed forces
receive publicity and, at times, testing
models.

“The Army, Navy and Air Force have
special departments ‘to work with: toy
manufacturers in producing the play-
things,” the Times noted.
he paper reported that “‘frequently, toy

manufacturers need classified material
tocomplete their item and must keep in con-
stant contact with the agency to obtain the
blueprints as soon as they are declassified.”

Melman himself observed that “the

. effects of this kind of society-wide pressure

are unmistakably seen on the screen of your
television set. The air waves resound with

_fusillades and the sound of bodies being

smashed in a parade of violence that knows
no end.”

Hasbro’s G.I. Joe and Transformers
rank fourth and fifth respectively on the
1984 toy “hit parade” listed by the New
York based Toy:& Hobby World. But war
toys don’t dominate. Topping the list of ten
television advertised toys is Coleco’s Cab-
bage Patch Kids, and other top spots are
occupied by Kenner’s Care Bears and other
items that do not promote war.

"asserts.

__ ing negative concepts about humanity.

heroes of the master race are racist to boot:

Television is the key word here. Coupled
with the scenes of violence in serialized fic-
tion features and in the daily news, are the
toy manufactuers’ ads. They bely the claim
of Henry Wittenberg, president of the Can- —
adian Toy Manufacturers Association, that:
“We don’t promote violence. We sell toys:
that reflect a demand. We didn’t create that
demand.”

Wittenberg was quoted by Vancouver
Sun consumer columnist Nicole Parton,
who noted that in toy departments,
“Crowding out the Care Bears, the Easy

“Bake Ovens, weaving looms, and micro-
scope sets is an astonishing array of toys
with violent themes.”

Wittenberg goes on to state that
“Aggression is a natural tendency. ..For a
parent to deny a child total access to mil-
itary toys does not necessarily guarantee
that the child will not become a violent
adult.”

His response neatly sidesteps the real
question. The intense debate on toys with
violent themes by peace activists, educators
and child psychologists is still going on, but
no one argues that war toys alone will create
a nation of psychopaths. Rather, it is the
conditioning of people to violence — and
the cause that conditioning serves — that
raises objections.

“War toys are a symbol of horror which,
when purchased by parents and adult —
friends of a child transmits the message that
destruction of human beings is condoned,”
states a report from the Society for Children
and Youth of B.C.

Valerie Fronczek, director of the society’s
Children’s Play Resource Centre, said the
statement grew out of some four months’
discussions by child psychologists, educa-
tors, sociologists and others in panels
hosted by the society and: centre. q

Dr. Hannah Polowy, a member of the _
centre’ advisory panel and an education _
professor at the University of B.C., said —
adults provide models for much of child-

“ren’s aggression: :

“That constant exposure to violence —
really dehumanizes and desensitizes the
child. When he’s 18 or 19, he has a mindset
that war is O.K. Once children develop an
attitude, it’s hard to change,” Polowy

oting that the toy industry is “a great
money-miaker,” Polowy called the
promotion of war toys is “adults introduc-

“Tt teaches certain values — that human-
ity isn’t worth very much, that differences -_
aren’t to be tolerated, that we can solve our
differences and problems by conflict.” q

Polowy also cited racism as a message in ~
toys with violent themes. In several of these,
she said, the “enémy...never quite looks
like us. It’s often something not quite
human.” e *

The December, 1983, issue of Ms. Maga-
zine raised the same point in assessing the
impact of Mattel’s “Masters of the Uni- —
verse” set with its heroes He-Man and Ram- >
Man: “These futuristic blond, blue-eyed

the enemies they attack have bright red or
yellow skins.” :

. During the last few years, several
organizations — some formed for the
express purpose — have engaged in leaflet-_
ting stores urging parents not to buy war
toys, and have organized boycotts of toys ~
with violent themes. In Victoria and eastern
cities, the Voice of Women has been active
in leafletting local stores.

In Toronto, the Alliance for Non-Violent _
Action has been busy during the past two —
Christmas seasons urging others around the —
country to.set up local campaigns. -

ANVA, in urging local groups to declar
“homes, schools, day care centres” as
Toys Free Zones,” has targetted the G.I
Joe in particular. alee

G.I. Joe, the group warns, “Encourages,
acceptance toward the current state of gen-
eralized militarism and in particular toward
American aggression throughout the world.” »