guys and dolls
Sep. 9th, 2008 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfield"I have a hammer. I can put things together! I can knock things apart! I can alter my enviroment at will and make an incredible din all the while! Ah, it’s great to be male!"
- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
As posted on the Drudge Report today, courtesy of the U.K. Daily Telegraph, the American company HeroBuilders.com is now manufacturing Sarah Palin action figures*. (Given her sociopolitical philosophy, it might more accurately be called a "reactionary figure.")
*I take no pleasure or amusement in the lurid sexualization and sexism inherent in the "Sarah Palin School Girl" variety, or even the micro-miniskirt that appends the Super Hero Action Figure. Put her in a bearskin pelt or a Quimby-esque "Mayor Palin" pageant sash, though, and then you'll have some satire.
When I was growing up, there was an adamant distinction between "action figures" and "dolls," although no boy or girl could ever adequately explain what the precise difference was. You could say that the distinction could be drawn through its usage, in much the same way a candlestick could be considered a deadly weapon. If your G.I. Joe is scaling Mount Sofa to detonate Cobra Commander's enemy lair, he was an action figure. If he was wearing a makeshift apron and serving tea to Strawberry Shortcake, he became a doll.
By the time I was a little kid, at least the G.I. Joes had shrunk to a size different than Barbie and her emasculated metrosexual companion/accessory Ken. This did not stop my dad from gently teasing me about playing with "dolls," as if anything could be more masculine than racking up thousands of remorseless casualties in a long and productive playing career.
It wasn't until the late 80's that I started to feel a little weird about it, when I asked for an Inspector Gadget 12" Figure for Christmas and even I thought it was discomfitingly doll-like.
Of course, I don't play with dolls any more. Now I occasionally harbor "collectibles," as if anyone is ever going to pay more than spare change for my George Bush Bobblehead or my Sigmund Freud Action Figure (with advanced cigar action!). Though if my mother had purchased two of every action figure she ever gave me and kept the extra one in its package, she probably would have made a tidy little profit. (That is, if I hadn't found the extra figures and constructed an elaborate "cloning" plot.
At nearly $30, the Sarah Palin action figure is a bit out of the acceptible price range for a collectible, and not terribly accurate or appealing enough to make up for it. I am interested in HeroBuilders.com's create-your-own action figure option, though. I happen to think I'd look pretty good in a schoolgirl outfit.
- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
As posted on the Drudge Report today, courtesy of the U.K. Daily Telegraph, the American company HeroBuilders.com is now manufacturing Sarah Palin action figures*. (Given her sociopolitical philosophy, it might more accurately be called a "reactionary figure.")
*I take no pleasure or amusement in the lurid sexualization and sexism inherent in the "Sarah Palin School Girl" variety, or even the micro-miniskirt that appends the Super Hero Action Figure. Put her in a bearskin pelt or a Quimby-esque "Mayor Palin" pageant sash, though, and then you'll have some satire.
When I was growing up, there was an adamant distinction between "action figures" and "dolls," although no boy or girl could ever adequately explain what the precise difference was. You could say that the distinction could be drawn through its usage, in much the same way a candlestick could be considered a deadly weapon. If your G.I. Joe is scaling Mount Sofa to detonate Cobra Commander's enemy lair, he was an action figure. If he was wearing a makeshift apron and serving tea to Strawberry Shortcake, he became a doll.
By the time I was a little kid, at least the G.I. Joes had shrunk to a size different than Barbie and her emasculated metrosexual companion/accessory Ken. This did not stop my dad from gently teasing me about playing with "dolls," as if anything could be more masculine than racking up thousands of remorseless casualties in a long and productive playing career.
It wasn't until the late 80's that I started to feel a little weird about it, when I asked for an Inspector Gadget 12" Figure for Christmas and even I thought it was discomfitingly doll-like.
Of course, I don't play with dolls any more. Now I occasionally harbor "collectibles," as if anyone is ever going to pay more than spare change for my George Bush Bobblehead or my Sigmund Freud Action Figure (with advanced cigar action!). Though if my mother had purchased two of every action figure she ever gave me and kept the extra one in its package, she probably would have made a tidy little profit. (That is, if I hadn't found the extra figures and constructed an elaborate "cloning" plot.
At nearly $30, the Sarah Palin action figure is a bit out of the acceptible price range for a collectible, and not terribly accurate or appealing enough to make up for it. I am interested in HeroBuilders.com's create-your-own action figure option, though. I happen to think I'd look pretty good in a schoolgirl outfit.
