Guignol · Posted Mar 27, 11:14 AM by Todd Babiak
I bought a dollhouse for my daughter’s birthday. She now has two, after a supplementary Christmas present. We call it the village. There are two sets of people in the village, hand-carved people from the lovely wooden dollhouse her grandmother bought and the tiny plastic figures that came with my inferior dollhouse.
The hand-carved people are giants. We have since added two finger puppets, Jim and Connie, a ballerina that was molded into a hunk of hand soap from the farmers’ market, and a set of plastic food. This morning, the tiny plastic people — stand-ins for our family — tied into a pizza big enough for them to dine on for three weeks.
Since I am a boy, I did not have a dollhouse when I was a kid. Now, I find myself suggesting the dollhouse to my daughter, who recently turned two. If she wants raisins and we’re out of raisins, I’ll say, “We should see what Jim and Connie are up to.” And while my daughter cries for raisins in the kitchen, I rush off to the village and manufacture a drama. Connie tried to swallow some pizza crust and needs medical attention! Perhaps the ballerina and that panda can take her to the hospital in the baby carriage. By the time my daughter has finished mourning the absence of raisins, Connie has already been resuscitated by Dr. Guignol, the huge marionette we bought in Strasbourg.
Last week, I was alone in the house. Everyone was in Whitehorse. I would be working or reading in the eerily quiet evenings and Jim would call out, from within the barred-up village. “I have a dentist’s appointment,” he would say, “and the ballerina really wants to dance. Guignol is gnawing on the panda, which is, quite frankly, scaring the shit out of me, Todd. Open the dollhouses. Compromise your masculinity and open the dollhouses.”
I only did it twice. No, three times, after I made sure there weren’t any neighbourhood spies on 86th Avenue. Can you blame me? Guignol is a naughty, naughty marionette.
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Wow, it’s like the NY Times article said: boys will only play with “girl” toys if they think no one (especially their fathers) are watching:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/magazine/10wwln-lede-t.html
— Mari Mar 28, 03:16 PM #
Well I knew with our family history it was going to happen to one us sooner or later, Congrats CT on being the first one to go insane.
— CB Apr 3, 11:19 AM #
Too be fair I meant completely insane, sorry Kirk.
— CB Apr 3, 11:25 AM #