Beautiful (Mutilated) Barbie?
My sisters and I grew up with one major goal: get more Barbie dolls.I treasured my Barbies, spending many hours doing all I could to provide for their comfort and happiness. I brushed their hair and made sure they were always fully dressed and properly accessorized with hats, gloves, belts, purses, and jewelry, right down to their tiny high heels. I even built my Barbie dolls a three-story condo from a cardboard box. I fashioned furniture and appliances from tissue boxes, and I made rugs for the floors and blankets, pillows, and bedspreads for the beds. I constructed a stairway (how else could they move between floors?), and I found pictures of handsome young men in magazines that I cut out, framed, and put on the walls and dressers. These were Barbie's "dates." I even arranged for flower delivery from Ken and her other boyfriends, and placed her lovely bouquets on tables and dresser tops.
When I was ten or so, I received a working toy sewing machine. My mother found several Barbie clothing patterns at a fabric store (do they still make these?), and I sewed an entire Barbie wardrobe from scraps of fabric I found around the house. We also had the Barbie Queen of the Prom Game wherein my sisters and I would discover who would get to date Ken and who would get stuck with the nerdy guy and who would have to stay home to wash her hair.
I bring all of this up because today in Yahoo In the News I found an article about the (still) best-selling Barbie doll and the "Voice of Reason." This rather confusing article discusses the ever-popular Barbie doll, how she continues to represent a distorted and unhealthy body image, and the surprising things little girls do to their Barbie dolls once they receive them. Is it possible that little girls do not idolize Barbie or desire to emulate her perfect body and "cool" lifestyle as we once did? When 100 young British girls were interviewed, it was discovered that many of them mutiliate their Barbies; that is, "Barbie torture (is considered) a legitimate play activity."
My sisters and I would never have dreamed of torturing our beloved Barbies. One reason may be the fact that I had no brothers. Boys are known for decapitating Barbie dolls and finding even more original forms of torture. (I know because my own daughter had to protect her Barbie dolls from her brothers, that is until she, being the oldest, roped them into playing nicely with her Barbies and her).
Also, back in the early sixties, Barbie was seen as a toy for older girls, so we didn't have Barbies until at least age eight. To us, Barbie time was serious playtime. We were mature enough to recognize the true value of the proper preparation of Barbie for a date with Ken, correct wardrobe management, careful accessory selection, and emulation through voice and thought projection and similar dramatic play-acting activities. Okay, we pretended a lot.
Besides, back then, little girls had baby dolls. Now, three-year-old girls have four or five Barbie dolls tossed across the bedroom floor. My theory is that present-day Barbie torture begins when a three-year-old can't dress or undress the doll (physically impossible at age three). The clothing becomes torn and eventually lost, the shoes get stuck in the heating vent. The hair starts to go reggae almost immediately, as the doll is dragged around naked by the feet. Eventually someone decides to add nipples and tatoos with a felt tip pen and the head pops off. And there you have it: girl-generated Barbie doll abuse.
I don't think it has anything to do with "Barbie-induced self-loathing" or any of the other social ills that have been blamed on her. In my case, had we mutilated even one Barbie, our parents would have been very unhappy and would not have replaced her. We weren't stupid.
Besides, when I was twelve, my father secured a job at Mattel toymakers. We now had access to all of the latest Barbies; a dream-come-true for girls of the sixties such as my sisters and me!My new favorite Barbie had plastic hair in the shape of a bun. This was so each of her three wigs could easily fit onto her head. She could go youthful with a brunette flip style, or she could be a platinum blonde bubble-head or a flirty curly redhead!
Now what could be more fun than THAT?
posted by Sandra Weston @ 1:12 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Snce we will never in person meet nor will I ask for your personal address or phone number, I can honestly speak Most were exposed to the same rugged treatment as my GI Joes. They were exposed to rain, snow, dirt, and dust. As I grew older, I made sure that the collector editions were taken care of better. Having no sisters, it was not acceptable behavior. The perception that some how a plastic toy would decrease my masculinity; cause gender confusion; or create homosexual tendencies was very evident in my parents and siblings thinking. However, this was unfounded on the fact that I being an individual with a strong sense of self would never be unable to differentiate the fantasy of a toy with the reality in which I exist. All toys are inferior to the real things. Toys only allow us to dream. Our actions determine what we will become. The shopping and accessories associated with how girls play with their dolls was not a part of my childhood. However, I did learn why it takes some females longer to get ready for dates, appointments, and so on. Therefore, I knew how to allow extra time for my dates to get ready to go out. There was no stress about how long it had taken because I understood the preparation needed for them to get dressed. For some reason, my sibblings expect me to be ashamed or embarrassed about having dolls from a preteen until now. The truth is that I am not. Nobody controls me like some puppet on a string. If you don't like it, then get over it. Telling little girls that action figures; toy cars or trucks; robots; or lego type toys are only for boys denies their indviduality and limits their creativity. I enjoy my toy diecast collection of ships and planes though in reality I cannot swim nor fly because of my fear of extreme heights. One has no bearing on the other. Though I have action figures with their extreme muscular bodies, that could never be attained by me in reality. So I do not waste my life trying to be like them.
Thanks for your insightful comments! It's interesting that you mention the subject of boys and action figures (not "dolls" of course!) I had three boys of my own and cared little about what other people thought. I bought them dolls from the time they were little. As a family we emphasized that it was just as important for my boys to learn to be good daddies as it was for my two girls to be good mommies. My sons each were given a Cabbage Patch doll at age two or three. They carried them around and changed their clothes and took them for rides in the car. Some of the relatives had strange reactions, but we simply reminded them that it might benefit their boys to learn about being good fathers too. End of discussion.
By the way, all of my boys are grown men now, are not gay, and my oldest has his own daughter and is a very excellent daddy.
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