More Children Mutilating and Torturing Barbie (Barbie Makes Kids Violent)

[matcom]

<snip>

SHE'S been derided as anti-feminist, denounced for causing eating disorders and dismissed as old-fashioned, but now Barbie is facing a new threat - children who love to torture, maim and decapitate her.

Tracey Thompson is the president of Australia's Barbie fan club and a collector of vintage versions of the doll, but her 13-year-old daughter Ebony takes great delight in destroying the plastic toys.
"I'm completely against altering Barbie in any way, but Ebony loves destroying them," Ms Thompson said. "She cross-dresses them, pierces them, swaps their body parts and melts the dolls to see how much Barbie's head will shrink."

Ebony is not alone. A British study of seven- to 11-year-old girls found they hate the doll so much they are driven to violence.

"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, author of the report.

"The types of mutilation are varied and creative and range from removing the hair to decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving."

Ms Thompson said while the thought of Barbie being violated that way upset her, she believed children, and particularly Ebony, had to be allowed to express their creativity.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17618863-13762,00.html

[Jamastiene]

1. Maybe they are on to something.

Now, if we could just get bush administration dolls and learn voodoo. :evilgrin:

[matcom]

10. i like your thought process

:P

[Bridget Burke]

2. This is new?

My nieces had Barbies--& even the Dreamhouse. But I remember the dolls lying on the floor, with their hair in disarray. I don't know that "mutilation" occurred--but the girls obviously did NOT consider Barbie a role model.

(Note: The nieces are all grown up & have turned out fine!)

[bicentennial_baby]

3. Oh please

I chopped my Barbies' hair off, dyed it, pulled off their arms and legs...and i'm not violent in the slightest. Maybe I was just railing against media driven false body image issues at a very early age. :)

[Misunderestimator]

4. Sounds like they are protesting the false body image to me too.

I'm proud to say that I NEVER owned a single Barbie doll in my life. I did have a "Crissy" doll once though... the kind where you push a button on the stomach and the hair can be pulled out longer. I pulled the hair all the way out then used the doll as a weapon flinging it around by its hair. I never got the hair to go back in again.

:hi:

[bicentennial_baby]

5. omg, me too!

that was one of my favorite dolls, and then, I got a little too enthusiastic with the hair, hehe. Never the same after that...but then, I dragged her along with me onto a garage roof, and got tar on her anyway, so that was the end of that. :P

weird, the things we remember, so many years later...i couldn't have been older than 5 or 6 when I had that doll...

:hi:

[bleedingheart]

6. there is a difference between violence and just plain crazy playing

first...all girls cut barbie's hair. Many girls will try and make barbie look like them...this happened a lot when I was a kid because most barbie's were blond and not dark haired.

Second...girls will pierce ears and even draw on extra makeup...it is part of play...kids have done it for years.

However...if a child of mine was doing really bizarre things like purposely decapitating or burning her barbie...I would be more worried about the psychological state of my kid. Sorry but no kid of Barbie playing age should have access to flames to burn the doll and if they are doing this...perhaps it is the first step toward something more violent...??

[jane_pippin]

7. Ah, then call me a crazy-player.

I tried melting my barbie's feet with my mom's lighter once. I was probably around 10, and I just wanted to see if they would melt. (The toes did a little, but I gave up pretty quickly). I wasn't using barbie as a fill-in until I could start lighting real people's feet on fire--just wanted to see if it would melt.

There was also one poor bald headed barbie whose head popped off. It became our "ball" for our mini-tennis game for a while. Why? Who knows. It was funny at the time. As a matter of fact, I still have the head somewhere. It was the "angel" on my mini-christmas tree for a few years. Why? Again, it was just funny.

I see your point, but "perhaps" is a key word. Perhaps it signals some violent tendencies. But perhaps it's just a kid screwing around too. If your otherwise normal kid likes playing with barbie heads once in a while, I don't know that I'd worry all that much about it.

[bleedingheart]

8. don't get me wrong...kids destroy toys as they play with them..

but as I said...if there seems to be something else going on...then the parent should be concerned..

[jane_pippin]

9. I see what you're getting at. You're right. I found my head too. See:

She's a freak!





No, really barbie, it's a good look for you. Other dolls couldn't pull it off, but on you--revolutionary!

[bleedingheart]

11. hahahaha...I used to dye all my barbie's hair with my mother's

creme rinse...it would turn it a freaky gray color....