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Reader Feedback on "Quickies — Kiss and Mattel"
For some unknown but probably twisted reason (which didn't have the intent they wanted), my parents would only buy me female Barbie dolls. I had Malibu Barbie, Skipper, and Francie, plus versions of PJ, Miss America 1975, and yes, the Bionic Woman (Jaime Sommers). Growing up in the midst of the Cold War and overall disillusionment with life (poor economy, fuel crisis, disgust with Watergate and Vietnam, and so on), I figured Barbie and friends didn't deserve to worry any less than I did at ages 9-11. So...I played Post-Nuclear Holocaust Barbie. A bright orange pen provided radiation burns, and scissors shortened everyone's hair (which fell out from radiation also). The "shopping plaza" became the burned-out hovel where the gang lived. Everyday (after I got home from school), they'd be forced to scavenge in the local area for foodstuffs (mostly vegetables) and perhaps broken bits of technology that may or may not work (from the electronic pulse wave that made most items inoperative). Oh, what a struggle it was, those determined women ekking out a meager day-to-day existence. They eventually became almost like a little band of Bene Gesserits (from Dune), still feminiely wily, but tough as nails. Whatever happened to those good old days? Sigh!
--DCM
01/16 |
RIP --
Sorry, you are incorrect. Ruth and Elliot Handler, the founders of Mattel Corp, are American. Barbie was inspired by a German doll, "Lili". This playgirl was a regular in the comic strips of Das Bild, a German tabloid of similar repute as The Inquirer. The Lili doll, 11.5 inches with buxom breasts, was intended to be an adult male's sex pet and was sold in tobacconists and bars. The blond German beauty came in two different (sexy) outfits: the child-like baby doll lingerie look and the tight leggings/bare midriff bad-girl look. This doll was not meant to be a toy for children.
Mattel, by this time (1958), had become a leading maker of action toys for boys and saw Lili as a perfect way to even the market and collect more parents' money. After buying all rights to Lili and various studies of the market, they transformed blonde sexpot Lili into brunette Barbie, the paradigm for little girls.
--NG
11/09 |
Among my girl friends, we called our Barbie antics "slapping plastic." Unfortunately, I did not have a Ken doll so I simply sheared the hair of the Bionic Woman and made her Barbie's plastic lover.
--NG
11/09 |
When children and even young girls draw males or females, they rarely draw them in "suggestive poses" like the ones in the photographs of the Barbie shown here. In fact, they rarely draw them in any sexual context unless they have seen or experienced sexuality themselves, often improperly the sexual object of incest or advances from friends and strangers to the family. It would be sad, indeed, if the children of today were encouraged to, or induced to, think of their dolls in the context of sexuality instead. Once planted, it is very difficult to remove such thoughts from a child's mind and children, like adults, should be free to develop their own sexuality at their own time, and with whomever they feel comfortable, recognizing that it is the responsibility of adults to protect them from concepts, ideas, and activities which are age in-appropriate and which would distort what most adults agree is a topic with which children should not have to be concerned about, or faced with. Free expression is an important freedom in America we uphold so that we will not be tormented by the problems of not being able to speak. It was never intended to be a license to market sex to children as viable options appropriate for their lives. The decision to abuse free expression or support that abuse in others simply steals the childhoods of innocents - for profit or due to ignorance of the developmental needs of children and how impressionable they really are.
--pbr
10/02 |
Historical Note,
The lady who invented "Barbie" is a heavy chested woman from Germany.
She was very embarrased about her large breasts as she came into "womanhood."
Later, when her and her husband started a novely store in California, she came up with
"Barbie" as a way for young girls to become comfortable with their soon-to-change bodies
(which is why the figure is so pronounced). Her purpose was along the lines of sex ed; the
doll just happened to turn into a commercial success.
It is based on a female doll men used to hang from their rear-view mirrors in Germany when
she was a child.
--RIP
10/02 |
Ahh..Barbies! My Barbie always managed to somehow fall off the third floor of her Dream House and break a leg, thereby requiring Ken to rescue her and then wait on her hand and foot while she reclined in her pink plastic barcalounger. I guess I was lazy even then
--Kali
10/01 |
Who was that new doll who challenged Barbie on the perfect looks?
God, it seems like it was a year ago I was reading about her. I can't remember her name.
--EB
09/30 |
I never owned a doll, except a Gay Bob doll that was given to me on my birthday as a gag gift, so I never knew what girls would, or could, think of as they played with their Barbie.
Very funny and very interesting. Also, very imaginitive.
No, I don't play with Gay Bob. He's in the closet until he becomes more valuable.
--BB
09/26 |
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