Researchers find Barbie suffers mutilation, torture, by young girls.

[elehhhhna]

Lyndie Englund, anyone?

Researchers find Barbie suffers mutilation, torture, at hands of young girls
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer

(AP) - LONDON-Barbie, beware.

The iconic plastic doll suffers mutilation and torture at the hands of some 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 in contrast to other forms of play with the doll," 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."
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/12-19-2005/c9e8000f6ca870a6.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. When I was 10....

My cousin took my Malibu Barbie, cut off her hair, and removed her arms and legs.

Girl was a bit crazy

It's scary to see that kind of behavior spreading. :scared:

[soothsayer]

2. Well, that Barbie can be a real b*tch sometimes

Bizarre!

[LiberalEsto]

3. I knew a girl that scalped all her Barbies

and when she ran out, she came to our house and showed my daughter how to scalp her Barbies.

You spend a fortune on Barbies over the years, and you'd like to recoup at least a tiny bit by selling them for $2 each at a yard sale. But nooooo, our little weirdos had other ideas.

Now the girls are both 19. The original Barbie-scalper is quite a mess.

[acmejack]

6. Forty five years ago, my brother and I thought it was hilarious

to dismantle our Sister's Barbies. Just being mean to her, not thinking perverse thoughts (I swear!).

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

36. haha...

Me too! Just being mean - there was no genuine THOUGHT involved, as I lopped off Barbies head and twisted her limbs beyond recognition... and setting cats on fire was just a childhood prank. It was just like shooting up stopsigns with a .22 on a Saturday night, or backhanding my girlfriend when she "got out of hand" - it's a man's world...

Barbie is just a Doll - she has no emotional life, so one can act out one's aggressions, disdain and hatred without a hint of conscience!

Is it possible to throw up more than one's entire body weight? I think I am getting close...

[KansDem]

4. Man, if they do this to Barbie, just imagine what they would do to Ken!

I shudder at the thought!

[Warpy]

8. Ever take Ken's pants down?

There's nothing there to abuse.

[TrogL]

11. Um, yes, actually

and all my G. I. Joes.

I was sooooooooooo upset :cry:

[triguy46]

24. I saw Ken in drag quite a bit. A role model for tolerance. eom

[Tamarin]

14. My nephew swapped the heads of Ken and Barbie LOL eom

[Warpy]

5. The coolest kid I know

was simply not much interested in dollies. She got a whole bunch of Barbies the year she was 10 and was completely disgusted by them. She decapitated them and gave them Viking funerals on a local lake.

Honestly, I give her high points for reacting so negatively to a physically impossible stereotype of female beauty. Plus, I was never interested in dollies as a kid, either.

She's turned into a remarkable young woman 15 years later, educated and good company. Her "abuse" of those hapless Barbies may have alarmed child psychologists who are used to thinking in stereotypes, but it had nothing to do with her worth as a human being and certainly nothing to do with negatively affecting the woman she has become.

[hwmnbn]

10. I was impressed with ......

the Viking funerals on the lake. Sounds like she had an expansive consciousness back then.

[madeline_con]

46. Viking funerals rock. n/t

[BuyingThyme]

7. They didn't have to pay "researchers," I would have told 'em for free.

[graywarrior]

9. I got a Barbie when I was 6. My 4 1/2 year old brother dug his

fingernails into her little boobies and maimed her for life. I beat the ever loving shit out of him.

[ohio_liberal]

12. I chewed all their feet off

They apparently made good teething toys.

[jane_pippin]

13. I thought we all did that.

My Barbies had missing heads, bald heads, poked out eyes, ripped off limbs, cut up "skin," zits drawn on in marker...all kinds of terrible things happened to them.

My Jem dolls, however, remain unscathed.

[verse18]

16. I loved Jem

and the Holograms!!!!

[jane_pippin]

18. Well they *were* truly outrageous!

Truly

Truly

Truly

Outrageous!

:D

[Marie26]

43. Oh, Jem

I loved those too, even though I hated Barbie. Jem was cooler & had her own rock band. A much better role model!

[OnionPatch]

15. Well, our Barbies went through

a lot of dramas and traumas. I distinctly remember them flying down a rope out of our bedroom window because "their house was on fire." Of course their hair got all burned up so we had to cut it off. Sometimes they would get wounded in car accidents and need some merthiolade on their skin. A few times they were kidnapped and broke or "lost" and arm, etc. I think most kids do this kind of stuff. Look at what we were watching on TV at the time!! Anyway, I'm not sure if I would call it mutilation. It's a doll. A piece of plastic. We understood that clearly even at 6 years old.

[CAcyclist]

17. Haa!

That's what we did - although we did it to Ken,too. Took their arms and legs off and tried to rearrange the limbs.

[MisterP]

19. we have had a Barbie leg on our roof for like 10 years

in fact, it remained unmoved during a re-roofing: the roofers just apparently picked it up and set it back down when they were done.

[triguy46]

21. ROFL

I've had kids and can so identify with that!!!:rofl:

[ohio_liberal]

23. I can totally relate!

My kids put all kinds of neato things on the front porch roof. I found a wet blanket out there one day. LOL

[triguy46]

29. we've been cleaning aggressively of late

and last week my wife found a pair of Barbie capri pants in our bedroom behind a night stand. My daughter is 20 and hasn't played with Barbie for years, so a) we don't deep clean much, and 2) how the hell did they get there?

[OzarkDem]

37. Kids throwing stuff

With two boys I find things in the most unlikely places because, when they start wrestling and goofing around, they'll pick up any available (non-breakable) objects and hurl them at each other.

[triguy46]

20. I've noticed two things about barbies, over my 53 years...

One, after a short period, barbie rarely wears clothes. She spends much time au natural. Second, and smaller, are the attempts to "improve" barbie with hair cuts, painting of additional makeup. Observations only, no hypotheses yet.

[ohio_liberal]

26. True that, true that

My daughter, age 4, strips them all down. I have no idea where most of the clothes went.

[madeline_con]

47. Good points...

I always wondered if she was being punished or humiliated by kids who saw through the hype....

[Larkspur]

22. Never had a Barbie doll, but had an Angie and her brunette sister dolls

And I when I took a bath, I took them into the bathtub with me to decapitate them, then put their heads back on, and rip them off again. Never played them in the "feminine" way. I was a tom-boy and proud of it.

[Generic Other]

25. Girls aggression against Barbies' unachieveable "ideal"

The same anger later directed toward their own bodies in the form of eating disorders, low self-esteem and plastic surgery.

[warrens]

27. My daughter and a friend were having a Ken and Barbie wedding

Her friend was Barbie, saying, Ken, when can we get married?

My daughter, who was about 9, said, "Get a clue, loser. I'm gay."

I nearly lost it, coffee all over the dashboard.

[crispini]

28. This is news how?

My Barbies certainly did not survive my childhood unscathed. :)

[LiberalEsto]

41. My Barbie is in fairly good shape after 41 years

The only problem is that the hair is messy.

My mom wouldn't let me have a Barbie because she thought they were vulgar, so I got one of those bland, flat-chested Tammy dolls.
After I spent years begging and pointing out how many of my friends had Barbies, she relented and got me one when I was 12 and too old for dolls.

[NashVegas]

30. I Saw a 5 Year Old Clipping the Hair on All Her Barbies

At first I thought it was fucked up, and then I realized she was making Barbie look like her.

[Retrograde]

31. well, they were easier to dress

if you took off their heads first (at least with the doll clothes my grandmother made). The heads usually went back on.

Pre-barbie, when dolls were much bigger, about human baby size, we found them easier to drag around by one foot than to carry them. My sister used to chew their fingers and toes off. She also bit the heads off all the figures in a nativity scene one year, except for the Baby Jesus, which she apparently ate whole. Her kids turned out alright.

There are adults who do "Barbie Art", ranging from repainting to creative re-assembly.

[ohio_liberal]

32. Raging Hormones Menopausal Prozac Barbie

The eBay classic auction!

http://lundissimo.info/imgs/barbie/prozacbarbie/prozac-barbie.html

[Skidmore]

33. Never owned a Barbie, and neither did my daughter. She

refuses to buy them for her daughters and rules them out as gifts for them. Babies are okay, but Barbies are not allowed.

Ooops, forgot. My brother, rest his soul, once decapitated the three dolls I did own. I was about 4 at the time. He buried them under the rose bush in the front yard. He ratted himself out by coming in the house in tears because he had "killed" my dolls. They were ruined. We didn't have much money then so I didn't get another doll for a long time. We used to take old dishes and make mudpies decorated with corn kernals and rocks though. A delight to the eye, but not very tasty.

[The Stranger]

34. Did they use attack dogs? Water boarding? Hoods?

Was Barbie a P.O.W. or just an "unlawful combatant"?

It makes all the difference in the world, Geneva Conventions and all.

[Ezlivin]

38. Yes, dammit! What if a toy store was going to be bombed in 24 hours?

We need to expedite information retrieval from Barbie.

[madeline_con]

48. What do bored children do with Barbie....

in light of "bad things" being broadcast cocerning U.S. military personnel?



That's Barbie torturing a G.I. Joe, BTW.....

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

35. You All Are NOT Seeing The Big Picture

Sure, you can hash out the details of this 'non-story'. Go for it. But that isn't to me the most important thing we should be focused on here.

What GLARES out at me, above all else, is that with all the things wrong in this world there was a team of researchers that felt THIS issue was what their calling was in life and used actual funds, talent and time for this absosmurfly absurd study LOL

Now that, my friends, is a group of underachieving researchers :)

[InkAddict]

39. Yup, my kids had a variety of

handicapped Barbies - no arms, legs, decapitations, etc....and played w/them whole or not - just changed their life stories a bit.

[TimeChaser]

40. When I played, Barbie was the bad guy.

My animal toys were the heros. :)

[Tsiyu]

42. We now own Crack Whore Barbie

A friend didn't like the "sleazy look" of a Barbie she found in a box of second-hand toys and didn't want her four-year-old to play with the doll. My daughter (21) thought the Barbie resembled a geeker, especially when you turn her over and her legs automatically spread wide open.

So she has had a hair and makeup re-do, and is now an ongoing art project in our home.

Mind you, my daughter grew up with five brothers, so her Barbies lived dangerously.

I could write more about the "underlying issues" here, but I think I'll keep it light......:hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

44. Heh heh. I used to do that.

I never did actual damage to my toys - not anything that couldn't be undone, anyway - but I played out long complex dramas in which the Barbies were offed in various ways by an army of rubber snakes, crocodiles, plush tigers, etc. Some happy memories there. :)

[madeline_con]

45. Well, DUH....

I've never known a kid who had Barbies who didn't have at least one with horrible injuries.

[lumberjack_jeff]

49. Shit. Barbie, you think you got it tough? Try being GI Joe. n/t