I’ve been surfing Arts & Letters Daily today and came across this interesting story from Times Online about girls and their dolls.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only little girl who did damage to her doll. According to the article, researchers have found that violence and torture against Barbie is quite common. Mind you, I never had a Barbie or a Sindy myself (my childhood was much too deprived) but only one doll, which was large and clumsy looking and had short curly hair. It was the one and only doll that my Mother ever bought me and, in my opinion, looked much better with a shorn head, its face adorned with black marker pen and minus a few limbs. It flew out of the bathroom window (where I had undertaken the Extreme Makeover) in a very satisfactory manner, I seem to recall.
I really can’t agree with all this over analysis of childhood behaviour though, there really wasn’t anything sinister about it – children are much more straightforward than that – I just didn’t like dolls.
Fascinating what disturbing images you'll find on flickr if you do a search for 'Barbie' - and I bet most of the photographers were adults - heh.
2 comments:
Weird. But interesting article. And it makes me reflect on a few lines from one of my own poems, "At the Harry Potter Launch":
Striplight on,
striplight off, he can play for hours, Barbie’s beehive
stretched and twined round the ceiling fan..
Now how on earth did that image drop into my head? I never had a Barbie and yet I still may harbour subconscious desires to torture one. Although I hope not.
That's one of my favourites of yours (along with 'Sketching the Moors') - not sure what to think about being drawn to sinister poetry...
As for you, perhaps it is a glimpse into the future when you become evil dad, steal the Barbie from your pretty little daughter's hands and fulfil your long suppressed violent desires. Heh.
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