Girls.... Researchers Find Barbie Is Often Mutilated By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Mon Dec 19, 6:02 PM ET 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." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051219...H7k0Wis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
My fiancee' tore the heads off her barbies when she was little, but that was just because she found it was easier to stick a head on a different body than to change an entire outfit...
it's just catharsis. you know, just like how i like to shoot the stray dogs that **** in my yard. makes me relieve tension without hurting anyone.
Yup, I used to cutt off all their hair and then use nail clippers to cut off the noses and toes. Don't know why!
Women mature from clipping Barbie's nose and toes eventually to the more advanced phase of ripping out men's hearts and stomping on 'em.
No... you're right. Not all of you. I think there is probably one girl in South Dakota that.... wait.... uh, yeah - it's all of you.
Do people still visit the homepage. I just have bookmarks to the GARM, NBA forum, and Hangout (and a bookmark for "Mark All Forums Read"). I haven't visited the homepage in months.
Sorry bud but I think not. That's like saying all men are cheating a-holes when clearly that wouldn't be true of all men.
I too popped their heads off. First of all, they were easy to pop off when you're brushing their hair. It just happened so it's not like I did it on purpose. As for the microwaving and other things, I never did any of that.
I didn't permanently mutilate one... like rubytuesday said, heads (and other limbs) may fall off just when you're playing with them. But I support the idea, since Barbie is an embodiment of the constrained role that society wants to put young women in. She doesn't bear much resemblance to most real people. When little girls discover that they're probably never going to be a skinny blonde model with a permanent smile and a limited range of thoughts or interests, they should be happy... and maybe they're just showing what they think.
Yeah, actually that's right. Okay,okay.... I'm just kiddin' around. My daughter (5 yr old) doesn't mutilate her barbies. At what age does the mutilation begin?
