
FROM “Wilhelm Reich: The Dean of the Sexual Revolution,” (2005) by Marvin H. Clark, Jr., Esq:
The effects of Barbie are hard to over state. A Jewish businesswoman, Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc., spotted in Switzerland a naked little sex doll named “Bild Lilli.” The sex doll was being marketed as an amusement for men. “Bild Lilli” also was a cartoon character, known for her sleazy sexuality. Men would buy the little sex doll and present it to their “dates” when they wanted to suggest “something.” Like Reich, when he noticed children’s great interest in any sex subject, Ruth Handler noticed that children immediately went for the little doll with big breasts. She returned to America determined to sell it to our kids.
The little sex doll met with opposition at Mattell. It also was rejected by the toy industry. Worst of all, American parents objected. But this was the new age of television, and Ruth Handler knew that the product needed to be marketed to the real customers, children, not parents. Television was a powerful new medium that enabled her to usurp parental control and to present the product directly to children– whether the parents objected or not. So that was what Ruth Handler did. And she relied upon the kids to nag their weary parents into submission.
To help the kids along with the job of selling their parents, Ruth Handler hired a Viennese “psychologist” at the Institute of Motivational Research to help her overcome parental objections. Earnest Dichter was a specialist in planning how to get people to buy things that they really don’t want, and Ruth Handler paid him $12,000.00 in 1958 to help her sell this little sex doll to our kids. Dichter noticed that American moms wanted their daughters to catch good husbands, so he suggested the marketing line, “This doll will help your little girl get a guy; the doll is a learning tool to teach her how to catch a man.”
Then Ruth Handler went to Jack Ryan, who was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor. He was known for wild beach parties that featured lots of scantily clad pretty girls. Jack Ryan dressed up “Barbie” for her new job. The results were devastating.
One woman of “40-something” age, stated on a 20/20 documentary, “When I got Barbie it was like getting heroin.” Another said, “You want to be in that world (where Barbie lives) and do what she’s doing.” Yet another stated, “Barbie was my way of figuring out how I wanted my family to live.” Imagine selling our kids a sex doll that has that kind of affect on them.
Barbie’s mate, “Ken,” on the other hand, “was a palpable idiot,” who even got a big “bump” to represent his genitals. Ken became known for playing “giggly, naughty games” with Barbie. When Ken would move on to someone else, as new dolls came on line, there always seemed to be a new “idiot” friend to take his place with Barbie. Barbie became a “queen” with men merely transitory in her life. (more…)