Researchers Find Barbie Is Often Mutilated

From the AP, scientists attempt to quantify the obvious once more: little girls like to torture Barbie dolls. We all did it. And yet, we didn't grow up to be mass murderers. It's a way of rebelling, denouncing our younger affections for the doll, freaking out our mothers, and learning more about convective heating, as well. It's totally normal.

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.

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.

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.

(Source: AP)