well, when i was a kid, my neighbor's GI Joe and Best of the West collection cowboy both raped his sister's barbie. his sister was NOT pleased to find her barbie in the position she was left in.
a couple later, my male neighbor found his GI Joe's face, hands and feet melted off. the cowboy was never seen again.
lesson: don't mess with a girl's barbies when her mom has a glue gun!
i guess the attitude must have carried over to her adult years, as in her home office she has a poster that reads "nobody ever raped a .38!" :o
seriously, though -- that did happen, btw -- but their mom had a talk with both of them over the incident. she used the "teachable moment" as a time to talk with both of her kids about reality vs. play and about how real people are expected to behave, etc. THAT was a smart mom.
btw, they both grew up to be very good people, despite both of them continuously having all kinds of twisted little "wars" between their various toys all through their childhood. despite the rather twisted episode with GI Joe, the cowboy and barbie, the brother, grew up to be a fine gentleman, one of the best human beings i know to this day.
we all played violent games as kids in my neighborhood. we grew up in a violent area, though, and THAT more than ANY toy is what made some people "go bad" while others got out and did fine. i have to think that us playing "cops and robbers" or "war" or what not helped us work out some of our aggressive energy in a way that was controllable and not destructive.
give a kid a stick, and if he (or she!) wants to play "war," like we did, they'll make a gun out of it. kids will make a doll out of a stick, too, if they want to play with dolls.
just let kids be kids already. :P
