Real? American? Hero? - An Autoethnography About Playing Creatively and Cathartically with G.I. Joe - Justin B. Hopkins

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel

An autoethnography examining how the author’s love of the childhood toy G.I. Joe shaped both creative play and emotional processing. The work reconciles an adult aversion to real-life violence with enjoyment of a fundamentally violent toy and considers how Third Culture Kid identity, growing up in Africa after being born in the United States, affected that play. Drawing on research, reflection, analysis, and narrative, it argues for autoethnography’s value in play studies.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Childhood play and adult pacifism

Third Culture Kid identity and play

Recasting “American” hero narratives

Toys, accessories, and parental concerns

A therapeutic model of catharsis

Real? American? Hero? An Autoethnography About Playing Creatively and Cathartically with G.I. Joe • Justin B. Hopkins In what the author calls an autoethnography, he examines two aspects of his love of a favorite childhood toy: G.I. Joe. First, because the author is a contingent pacificist and this military figure—a fundamentally violent toy—played so important a role in his life, he now seeks to reconcile his aversion to (real life) violence with his enjoyment of G.I. Joe. Second, he explores how his experience as a Third Culture Kid (TCK)—born in the United States, but growing up in Africa—was affected by his enjoyment of G.I. Joe. He combines research, reflection, analysis, and narrative in an account of how his experiences with G.I. Joe may have been manifested in his creativity and how they provided a therapeutic catharsis following his exposure to actual violent conflict. Hopkins also argues for the future use of autoethnography in play studies. Key words: action figures; autoethnography; cathartic play; contingent pacifism; creative play; G.I. Joe; TCK (Third Culture Kid); toy soldiers; violent toy play On May 7, 1989, I received my first G.I. Joe action figure—a gift from an older boy named Michael. I know the exact date because my mom filmed a home video and documented my excitement at my new acquisition. It may be my imagination, but I fancy I can hear in her voice that she is less pleased than I am about “a real G.I. Joe.” I do know that my parents shared the concern of many adults from that time that playing with violence-associated toys might make children become more violent people (Carlsson-Paige and Levin 1990; Best 1998; Chudacoff 2007) . G.I. Joes like mine—one from a series of 3.75-inch military-themed action figures and their accessories and play sets manufactured from 1982 to 1994 by toy company Hasbro and marketed as A Real American Hero—were a frequent target of such concern, a concern that might seem understandable given the potential impact of play in one’s life. Thomas Henricks (2014) sug- 277 American Journal of Play, volume 14, number 3 © 2022 by The Strong Contact Justin B. Hopkins at [Jhopkins@fandm.edu](Jhopkins@fandm.edu) gests that play is an act of self-realization: “Creatures who play seek to acquaint themselves with the character of the world in which they operate and to evaluate the personal standings they can achieve within that world”(197) . We play to understand ourselves and our surroundings. Even without knowing Henricks’s theory, parents could reasonably wonder how this military action figure might form a child’s belief about the character of the world and the best way to behave in it. And, in the case of their children playing with G.I. Joe, they might ask what the youngsters are learning about being a hero—or an American, for that matter. Both worries were relevant to my experience—the first, particularly, given my adult aversion to violence; the latter, especially, given my growing up in Senegal, West Africa, as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) . In this autoethnography, therefore, I explore the effects of my experience playing with G.I. Joe. Specifically, I show how being a TCK may have contributed to my playing creatively with G.I. Joe and how that play might have provided a sense of therapeutic catharsis following exposure to violent conflict during childhood. Ironically, given the toy’s Real American Hero moniker, my first G.I. Joe was neither American, nor a hero. The character’s codename is Taurus, according to the file card—the brief biographical dossier included in the packaging of each figure. The file card identifies Taurus as Turkish, an ex-Interpol agent, fluent ina dozen languages, and a circus acrobat, with a specialization in demolitions: Figure 1. Justin’s first G.I. Joe. Still photograph captured from home video taken by author’smother on May 7, 1989. Video available to view on Vimeo: [https://vimeo.com/597450335](https://vimeo.com/597450335) “He

FAQs

What two main aspects of the author’s love of G.I. Joe does the autoethnography address?

It addresses, first, how the author reconciles an aversion to real-life violence with enjoyment of the toy, and second, how being a Third Culture Kid shaped the author’s experience of playing with it.

How does the author describe the role of creative play in relation to violent conflict?

The narrative links the author’s experiences with G.I. Joe to creative manifestation and a therapeutic catharsis after exposure to actual violent conflict during childhood.

Why does the author question the toy’s “Real American Hero” framing?

The author notes that the first figure, Taurus, was neither American nor a hero by the figure’s dossier, identifying him as Turkish and giving non-heroic details such as a demolitions specialization and off-the-books team context.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel