Researchers Find Barbie Is Often Mutilated By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer
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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."
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."
I'll admit, my Barbies also met painful deaths. I never really cared for them much anyway. My grandma bought me this 3 story cardboard Barbie house that had an elevator. Well, when you yanked really hard on the string for the elevator, Barbie would go flying. So when I played with Barbies, the storyline almost always ended up with her flying through the air from an elevator malfunction. When it came to dolls, I prefered She-Ra.
But I would guess that the majority of the girls who "dispose" of their Barbies are not doing it because "she was babyish, and girls saw her as representing their younger childhood out of which they felt they had now grown". I would guess that she's a symbol of perfection like the models in magazines. Girls hit puberty and realize that they're not going to be like Barbie. There's always a girl that's pretty than them, and Barbie ends up feeling the wrath.
That's one thing I never did: I never cut my Barbie's hair. I did have a couple of generic Barbies that you could take their heads on and off, so they switched heads a lot!
My brother didn't mutilate Barbies but he did have big battles with his Army men. He mutilated many tubes of my mom's lipstick trying to make realistic battle wounds.
