Posted on 12/19/2005 2:57:25 PM PST by rocksblues
LONDON - Barbie, beware. The iconic plastic doll is often mutilated at the hands of young girls, according to research published Monday by British academics. "The girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity, and see the torture as a 'cool' activity," said Agnes Nairn, one of the University of Bath researchers. "The types of mutilation are varied and creative, and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving."
Mattel U.K. said that despite the findings of "this very small group of children, we know that there are millions of girls in the U.K. and across the world that love and enjoy playing with Barbie and will continue to do so in the future."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Sometimes I wonder how I and everybody around me survived my childhood with limbs and eyeballs intact.
My sons used to mutilate my youngest daughter's "baby beans" dolls...
much sobbing ensued... another "baby beans" was provided, and then mutilated. Etc, etc,.
Amazingly, both boys managed to grow up to be normal law-abiding citizens, happily married, with kids of their own who now do the "etc" thing. What goes around comes around, I try to tell them.
Civilization takes time, and that means quantity parenting, as my sons now understand.
I liked the ending in Toy Story II when Stinky Pete meets the Barbies and she says "you'll love Janie, she's an artist" and then showing one side of her face all painted up.
I was a tomboy and didn't get as much into playing with dolls like some girls, but took care of the ones I had. I simply cannot imagine any of us mutilating our dolls.
To me, this is a sign of pathology, maybe not so much in boys, but certainly for girls. Even a small sampling of young girls who engage in such behavior I find disturbing. It does not seem normal at all to me.
I think we had a Toni doll phase where you could style their hair. I wouldn't even want to cut my doll's hair because, even as a child, I knew it couldn't grow back and would be irreversibly changed.
And $500 will be worth a dollar and seventy-five cents.
I wonder if anyone has made up a "Cretan Barbie" with the really great dresses.
With a Barbie Bull?
". . little green plastic toy soldiers."
I remember those little green soldiers - I had one favorite. I would tuck him into bed each nite, covering him with a kleenex. : - ) Doesn't pertain to anything - just a memory.
Ah dear old dad!!
Makes me think of the baby doll my youngest sister had. She always played doctor on that doll - had those toy syringes which she filled with colored water and other liquids. Found that doll later, and boy did it stink! I think it eventually fell apart. : - )
We acted out things we would never act out in real life. Because we knew these dolls were not REAL.
Those little green soldiers. Set them up and knock them down. I kept my sharpshooter separate.
Barbie will live on into the next millennium!
"Even a small sampling of young girls who engage in such behavior I find disturbing. It does not seem normal at all to me."
It isn't. Jackie Susanne, author of "The Vally of the Dolls" had a tendency to mutilate (after a fashion)her dolls. She grew up to be a bonafied weirdo.
One can hope. Yes, I'm sure Barbie will live on, and she came after my time. My girls had them. To be honest, I never cared for her much like I did the nice dolls I had. My Judy Garland doll with the pretty pink organza pleated dress and nice shoes and stockings I gave to a lady who collected dolls. I kept her in perfect condition. I now regret giving her away as the lady died and maybe one of her daughters has her.
We also had those storybook dolls and collected them.
I never read Valley of the Dolls so don't know anything about that, but the title and author's name are familiar.
I've got my mother's childhood doll with the china head that needs to be fixed, one tooth is chipped and her clothes are worn. I can't bring myself to sell it on ebay.
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