Girls Torture Barbie

[phoenix from the playa]

SF Gate Return to regular view
Researchers Find Barbie Is Often Mutilated
- By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 19, 2005

(12-19) 15:02 PST LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) --

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."

Researchers from the university's marketing and psychology departments questioned 100 children about their attitudes to a range of products as part of a study on branding. They found Barbie provoked the strongest reaction, with youngsters reporting "rejection, hatred and violence," Nairn said.

"The meaning of 'Barbie' went beyond an expressed antipathy; actual physical violence and torture towards the doll was repeatedly reported, quite gleefully, across age, school and gender," she said.

While boys often expressed nostalgia and affection toward Action Man — the British equivalent of GI Joe — renouncing Barbie appeared to be a rite of passage for many girls, Nairn said.

"The most readily expressed reason for rejecting Barbie was that she was babyish, and girls saw her as representing their younger childhood out of which they felt they had now grown," she said.

Nairn said many girls saw Barbie as an inanimate object rather than a treasured toy.

"Whilst for an adult the delight the child felt in breaking, mutilating and torturing their dolls is deeply disturbing, from the child's point of view they were simply being imaginative in disposing of an excessive commodity in the same way as one might crush cans for recycling," she said.

Manufacturer Mattel, which sells 94 million Barbies a year worldwide, said the doll remained the "No. 1 fashion doll brand."

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."

<img src="http://www.rainbowpuddle.com/images/torturebarbie.jpg" border="0" />

(ps, I'm being tortured by my thorough inability to post a photo. All I get is code!)

[spectabillis]

[blyslv]

Just for the record, the Commadante of the above pictured camp was the same guy who married my lovely wife and I on the playa. Since we first set eyes on each other across that sea of tortured plastic, things have never been the same.

There is absolutley no reason for you to commit this factoid to memory.

[phoenix from the playa]

[spectabillis]

There is absolutley no reason for you to commit this factoid to memory.

Unless you screwed up and did not make it.

sorry for that


ed: pheonix, is that something stuck to her butt?

[phoenix from the playa]

looks like someone stuck something UP her butt!

[Dr. Pyro]

Don't worry sweet denizens of Black Rock City. Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro will be back in 2006. I'll be putting up a dedicated Barbie Death Camp thread come springtime. And blyslv and elielieli's wedding was the most memorable one I attended last year. Or the year before.

[BoxaRox]

I've been ignoring these other threads for far too long.

It's time to spread the love.

[phoenix from the playa]

If Apoliptika is lurking around Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro, beware, they may attempt to cover the sex specific anatomy of Barbie & her friends. These aliens do not like nudity, threaten fish and verbally abuse dust balls, electrical wiring and water.

[BoxaRox]

If Apoliptika is lurking around Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro, beware, they may attempt to cover the sex specific anatomy of Barbie & her friends. These aliens do not like nudity, threaten fish and verbally abuse dust balls, electrical wiring and water.

Oh you poor misguided soul. The only "covering" that Apokiliptikans will do with Barbie's sex parts would be with flourescent pink highliter. We cherish all forms of nudity, both real and imagined.

We do no threaten fish, but they often find us threatening. Those with dusty balls more so.

We do not aim to shock, but strive to enlighten, and know that moisture often makes the lights brighter.

Please keep your facts straight.
And pull your pants up.