By Sandra Barr
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| Bild Lilli "Sex Doll" |
This article was
written for Sovereign Independent Ireland, for their April issue. Link
.jpg)
Lilli
This 11 ½” bit of moulded plastic is Lilli, the German sex bomb,
in post war Germany Lilli was sold to men in smoking shops and bars, her large
breasts, small waist and long legs coupled with her expression, were apparently
sexually gratifying to Germen men.
On Tuesday 19th February the “Lilli” shown here was
auctioned at Vectis Auctions Ltd, pre auction she was expected to fetch £1,800
- £2,200, on the day she was sold for £2900!
Lilli was the creation of cartoonist Reinhard Beüthien, she was originally a cartoon
character for the tabloid Bild-Zeitung in Hamburg Germany. In 1953 Bild-Zeitung
contacted Max Weissbrodt from the toy company O&M Hausser in
Neustadt/Coberg with a view to creating and marketing a Lilli doll, two years
later in 1955 Lilli was launched, she remained on sale until 1964. Between 1955
and 1964 up to 130,00o were produced and Lilli dolls are now much sought after
by collectors.
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| Elastolin figures glorifying Mein Fuhrer and the rest of the Nazi war machine |
O&M Hausser who produced Lilli also used the trademark “Elastolin”,
prior to and during WWII they produced toy soldiers that represented every
element of Hitler’s war machine, they produced little replicas of everyone from
the Nazi youth to the SS, the Nazi Party and Mein Führer himself.
These mass produced toys were sold throughout Germany, and were a part of
the overall social conditioning that the German people were subject to at the
time. They glorified the Nazis and depicted Hitler as a strong and noble leader
who would lead them to glory and restore their country to economic and
political victory after their First World War defeat and humiliation.
Was it a coincidence that this company, so famed for serving the Nazis
and propagating their doctrine and mind manipulation, was chosen to produce
Lilli?
The very name “Lilli” derives from the demonic entity Lilith feared and
revered from antiquity.
She first appears in Sumer around 4000 BC, where she appeared in a class
of storm demons or spirits as “Lliltu”. By 700 BC she was known as Lilith,
Isaiah 34:14 refers to her as a “Screech Owl”.
The Alphabet of Ben-Siri is an anonymous work written in Hebrew and
Aramiac between the 8th and 11th centuries, it claims
that Lilith was the first wife of Adam, and she left Eden in a strop after
refusing to lie beneath Adam during sexual intercourse, Adam in turn refused to
lie beneath her. According to their
commentary she took refuge on the coast by the Red Sea, she took on many demons
as her lovers and had countless children.
At the behest of Adam, God summoned
three Angels to bring her back to Eden, when she refused to return they
threatened to murder a hundred of her children daily until she complied, she
responded with a threat of her own, and she vowed to torment the children of
Adam and Eve for eternity.
Her children are known as the Lilin, and still a hundred are said to die
daily, as mentioned, Lilith’s retaliatory threat also still stands.
Lilith moves with the wind and she brings disease, misery and death, as
we will see, the German Lilli also crossed oceans, she cannot be directly
blamed for causing death, but she has certainly influenced nations.
When Lilli was
launched in 1955 German office workers earned approximately DM 50 – DM 75 a week,
the 12” Lilli cost DM 12 and the 7 ½” doll DM 7.50, so she was by no means
cheap. She was the first doll in history to hold a patent, and in all held 3
patents. She was marketed to adults as a joke or gag gift and was not
considered appropriate for children. In “Female Chauvinist Pigs” author Ariel
Levy refers to her as a “Sex Doll”. Obviously men could not have sex with
Lilli, but just as porn provides stimulation to get the engine running so to
speak, so to did Lilli!
Lilli’s cartoon
character first appeared in the 24/6/1952 issue of Bild-Zeitung, from the onset
Lilli was a new breed of woman, she had a job, she had no reservations talking
about sex, and her quips were loaded with sexual innuendo, for example when a
police officer told her that two-piece swimsuits were banned, Lilli quipped
“Which piece do you want me to take off”. She was never a nurturing female
concerned with settling down and having children, she was money hungry
concerned only with fashion, clubbing and the trinkets that money could buy,
she prostituted herself to balding old men for money and is famed for her quip
“I could do without balding old men, but my budget couldn’t”. Her ideal was to
find a rich and handsome man, but rich and ugly would do as rich was her main
priority.
Lilli was also a
party animal and not adverse to clubbing all night long “The sunrise is so
beautiful that I always stay late at the nightclub to see it”, her interest in
politics started and finished with what politicians wore, “Of course I’m
interested in politics, no one should ignore the way some politicians dress”!
The last Lilli cartoon appeared on 5/1/1961
They say that if
you throw a frog into boiling water it knows to jump out, but if you put it in
a pot of cold water and bring it to the boil, the frog will remain until death,
and so it was with Lilli, at the onset she was considered a little outrageous,
and not a suitable toy for children, however within a decade her image became
more palatable and acceptable to the point that parents bought their children
Lilli dolls, she was exported to many countries, including Italy, the USA and
Scandinavian countries.
Incredibly this
gold-digging, fickle clothes horse of a woman exerted an influence that was to
travel far and wide, her ethos was to become global, and in the Western world,
we have all been touched by Lilli!
BARBIE
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| Ruth Handler |
“Every
little girl needed a doll through which to project herself into her dream of
her future. If she was going to do role playing of what she would be like when
she was 16 or 17, it was a little stupid to play with a doll that had a flat
chest. So I gave it beautiful breasts.” Ruth Handler”
Ruth Marina Mosko
was born in Denver on November 4, 1916 right in the middle of WW I. She was the
youngest of ten children. Her parents were Ida and Jacob Moskowicz who were
Jewish-Polish immigrants; Jacob was a blacksmith who had deserted the Russian
Army. When Ruth was 19 she went on
vacation to Hollywood and wound up staying, her high school sweetheart Elliot
Handler followed her and they were married in 1938.
In 1942 Elliot
and his business partner Harold Matson formed a small company which
manufactured picture frames, combining their two names “Matt” and “El” they
called their company “Mattel”. The business was initially run from the Handlers
Los Angeles garage.
Using scraps from
their picture framing business they made doll house furniture, this proved more
profitable than picture frames and so they moved into the toy market.
In the 1950’s TV
was in its infancy, and the Handlers were quick to learn the benefits of TV
advertising, in 1955 Mattel offered to
buy a years exclusive sponsorship of ABC’s “The Mickey Mouse Club”, the show
was a hit and Mattel’s profits soared. Ruth Handler was cited by The Economist
as saying “I was a marketing genius”, her boast was hardly an exaggeration.
In 1956 Handler
was on vacation in Europe, while in Switzerland she purchased a number of the
Bild Lilli dolls, she was later to claim that she did not know it was a “sex
doll”, I expect the large breasts, long legs flame red nails and pout all
seemed innocent enough to her!
On March 9, 1959
Barbie made her debut at a New York toy fare, she was 11 ½” high, and her
improbable figure if translated to a woman 5”6 would be 39 – 21 – 33! Handler
is quoted as saying that the whole point of Barbie was to show little girls
that they could be anything they wanted to be, she failed to add that the
figure could only be achievable if they could afford a great deal of cosmetic
surgery!
In the first year of production 351,000 Barbie’s were sold at $3 each,
it was three years before Mattel could keep up with demand, by 2002 over a
billion Barbie’s had been sold in 150 countries. Those first Barbie’s now
command up to $5000 each!
In 1961 a boyfriend was created for Barbie,
and Ken was born. Barbie and Ken were
named after the Handlers two children Barbara and Ken. Ken like his girlfriend
is a teenager and his main preoccupation in life is fashion. In 1964 Mattel
acquired the rights to the Bild Lilli doll and production in Germany of Lilli
ceased.!
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| The real life Barbie and Ken |
By 1975 the
Handlers were forced out of the company they founded and were charged with
fraud, officially they resigned, unofficially they were pushed out.
In 1978, Ruth and
several other former officers of Mattel were indicted on charges of fraud
conspiracy and false reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission. She
pleaded no contest to the charges, which investigators said resulted from
attempts to influence stock prices, she was fined $57,000 and her 41 year
sentence was suspended for probation of 5 years during which she was required
to perform 500 hours community service per year. When stock holders then sued
them they lost 2.5 million of their shares in Mattel.
After Handler’s
mastectomy she had difficulty finding a suitable prosthetic breast, choice at
that time was limited, so she teamed up with expert craftsman Peyton Massey and
between them they designed a range of realistic artificial breasts, fashioned
from foam and silicon. Her product was called “Nearly Me”, and she formed the
Ruthon Corporation to sell it. Considering this woman’s part in giving
prepubescent girls an unrealistic roll model of the figure they could wish to
have as a young woman, I’m tempted to say “Karma’s a bitch”.
Handler died on
April 27, 2002 aged 85, she died from complications after surgery for colon
cancer. Elliot died ten years later aged 95.
In Handler’s
obituary there was no mention of her Jewish faith, nor does any of her
biographies mention her faith, in October 2008 film maker Tiffany Shlain
released her film “The Tribe” which in an 18 minute film which looks at Barbie
and the modern American Jewish woman, Shylain also ponders why this blonde blue
eyed example of the perfect Aryan was created by a Jewish woman. Given Lilli’s
history and the fact that she has direct links to Nazi Germany there is more than
Shylain who questions Handler’s motives.
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| Ryan with wife Zsa Zsa gabor |
The man who is
credited with designing Barbie and Ken was Jack Ryan, he died in 1991 aged 65,
and according to author Jerry Openheimer in his book “Toy Monster: The Big Bad
World of Mattel”, he claims that Ryan was a kinky swinger with an insatiable
desire for sex. He had “A manic need for sexual gratification”, he surrounded
himself with Barbie clones, used the services of high class call girls and
street walkers and threw wild orgies at his luxurious Bel-Air mansion according
to Openheimer. Ryan’s friend Stephen Gnass told the author that listening to
Ryan recanting how he created Barbie, was like listening to someone talk about
a “sexual episode”. Ryan was married five times and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was
one of his wives.
Openheimer’s book
also reveals that the real life Ken, son of Barbara and Elliot handler, was in
fact a closet gay. Ken was married and had 3 children; by all accounts he was a
wonderful husband and father, in 1990 Ken was diagnosed with AID’s and his
secret “Gay life” was exposed, he died from AID’s in 1994.
Officially Ken died of a brain tumour after contracting
encephalitis in Africa. In a 1989 interview with People Magazine he said of
Barbie:
“Barbie should care
about more than going to the beach and having a good time”. “She should care
about poverty and suffering in the world”.
According to Openheimer’s expose, as the real Ken grew older, he
became increasing self conscious about the wealth and fame which Barbie and Ken
had brought to his family. He was also disturbed about the negative impact that
Barbie had on little girls, he refused to have the dolls in his home, or let
his two daughters and one son play with them.
Ken died in his family’s stately town house in Greenwich, New York
age 50.
At Barbie’s 30th birthday party in 1989, the real
Barbara, now Barbara Segal had this to say “It seems a joke at this point, much
of me is very proud that my folks invented the doll, I just wish I wasn’t
attached to it”. Her daughter Cheryl, then 26 said at the gala that she had
never had a Barbie!
In 1999 the UK
doll market was worth £77 million, and Barbie’s holding share was over 75%! In
1976 the US celebrated its bicentennial year, a time capsule was buried which
contained a Barbie as she was voted America’s favourite doll of the century.
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| Sindy: Photo credit Sindy Fashion.Com |
Meanwhile
over the pond in the UK, Pedigree Dolls and Toys, impressed by Barbie’s success
thought they would produce a similar teenage doll and on 6/9/1963 Sindy (Sin-Die) was launched.
Pedigree
thought they would go for a little less raunchy fashion doll, so her breasts
were just a little smaller than Barbie’s, and her clothes were supposedly
designed to be more “girl next door” than glamour Queen. Like her American
counterpart she had a boyfriend Paul, and her main preoccupation in life was
her clothes and acquiring more and more of them.
Between 1968 and 1970 she was
the best selling toy in the UK. By the late 70’s ownership of Sindy had moved
to Hasbro who attempted to make her look more like Barbie, sales plummeted and
Mattel sued them for copyright infringement, Hasbro again remodeled her face
and sales again increased, however by the 1990’s Sindy sales were diminishing
and her license was returned to Pedigree who re-launched her in 1999. Sindy’s
target audience was pre-school girls.
When
Pedigree first began developing Sindy, Mattel offered them a license to produce
Barbie, they refused and instead modeled her on another American doll Tammy,
owned by Ideal Toy Company. However the resemblance between Lilli, Barbie and
Sindy is unmistakable, most notable is the eyes always glancing to the right, the early models of Sindy and Barbie like
Lilli never looked straight at you, she always had that sideward glance as if
she feared a big bad wolf was about to sneak up on her.
When
Sindy was launched in 1963 London retailers were sent a 45 rpm record to introduce her, below is some of the
marketing text that was included:
“Sindy is the free, swinging girl that every little girl longs
to be. Sindy has sports clothes, glamour clothes, everyday clothes — a dog,
skates, a gramophone — everything... Every genuine Sindy outfit is a child's
dream come true. Each one is designed for today's fashionable young women by
today's leading women designers. They are authentic miniature replicas of the
latest adult clothes.”
Sindy sure was
the girl with everything! Lots and lots of things…no husband mind, and never a
mention of her wanting a baby, but lots and lots of plastic things, and this is
just what Sindy influenced little girls to want, she had lots of wedding
dresses, but never a husband, she had a little sister Patch, but never a baby,
and nor did she hanker after these things, she wanted to travel, see the world,
have boyfriends and buy lots of clothes, an outfit for every occasion to suit
her hectic social life and activities, gym outfits, ballet outfits, beach wear,
an outfit for every occasion!
During the 1960’s
up to 70% of the profits from Sindy were due to the large range of Sindy
accessories, it’s not the hardest thing in the world for the unscrupulous to
exploit a 5/6 year old, and convince them of what they must have in order to be
happy, and the Sindy advertising bandwagon convinced them that they must have
every new accessory! Prior to the 1960’s very few people had televisions, and
little girls were happy enough with a rag doll to play house with, after the
television, sophisticated marketing was brought into the center of the home,
and for the first time parents were put under pressure to supply the trinkets
on offer.
In Sindy’s first
40 years nearly 100 million were sold, on 6/9/13 she celebrates her 50th
birthday, and a whole new range of merchandise is expected for this momentous
occasion. She now has her own web site which encourages 6 year olds to get to
grips with computers, and no doubt encourages them to hanker after more and
more things. They can also read her secret diary, and no doubt be encouraged to
keep their own.
Social Change and effect of Lilli, Barbie and Sindy
Previous to
reading this article I expect you have hardly given a thought to these so
called Fashion Dolls and the wide ranging impact they have had on society as a
whole. Previous to their invention,
Europe and the West had been controlled and dominated by the various Christian
factions, their social and moral dogma ruled Europe for hundreds of years,
women were subjugated, sex was sinful and dissenters were murdered. In a
classic Hegelian Dialectic (Problem reaction, solution) manipulated situation,
the chaos of WW II left the masses ripe for major social and moral change. And
within a few short decades society moved from one extreme to another. Under the
iron fist of the church sex was dirty and sordid it was sinful and all children
were born in sin because they were the product of that cardinal sin.
Women had no
rights, they were treated as second class citizens, women were rightly
demanding equal rights. The women’s liberation movement is the USA was founded and
funded by the Rockefeller foundation, and the move towards equality was steered
by organizations like the Rockefeller’s, what began as a demand for equality
quickly turned to “burn your bra” and “free love”, in post war Europe and
America who would have guessed that sexual morals would so quickly be turned
from one extreme to another. Sex should be a sacred act between a man and a
woman, the people who manipulate society at all times aim for the imbalance of
society as a whole, people divided and unbalanced do not pose much of a threat
to the ruling elite.
The church had
created the extreme where sex was sinful and sordid, the 60’s revolution
created an equally unbalanced approach to the sexual union. Porn became
commonly available, sex was cheap and easy to find, by the 80’s/90’s it was
sold as nothing more than a bit of fun, the media was used to full effect to
influence us all and dictate what the new social norms should be.
The “programming”
for the new breed of citizen started young, and Barbie’s place in that
programming cannot be underestimated. In mind control programmes the person
under mind control is controlled by “a handler”, one has to wonder just how
aware Ruth Handler was of the impact her creation would have in molding the
minds of impressionable little girls.
To give you a
rough idea of Barbie’s Empire, it is estimated that the average girl in the US
aged from 3-11 owns 11 Barbie’s, in the UK and Italy 7, and in France and
Germany 5. Annual sales total $1.6 BILLION! Every year 150 new Barbie’s are created,
there are Barbie fan clubs, conventions, magazines, web sites and exhibitions,
she has a huge cult following, as Mattel say “She is more than just a doll”.
She is the most successful toy in the history of toys. If the excess of one
billion dolls that have been produced so far were to lay toe to head, they
would circle the globe more than 7 times!
I was born in
1961, my first dolls were all baby dolls, you looked after them, took them for
walks in their pram, kept them clean and nurtured them, the nurturing instinct
in most females is innate, and
traditionally girls wanted to grow up get married have babies and a family of
their own, by the late 60’s I had a Sindy, and I remember bothering my mother
because I felt I should have all the accessories that were on offer. We were
fast moving into a con-sumer-ist society and at every turn we were bombarded
with all the things we needed. On either side of the pond Barbie and Sindy
played their parts, they had clothes, lots and lots of them; top designers made
them, and the TV instructed what we should get next for our doll.
These dolls did
not have husbands, they had boyfriends, Sindy had a big double bed and wore
sexy negligees, having babies was never on their “to do” list, everything they
done was self serving, new clothes, new household appliances, holidays, exotic
jobs, and little girls wanted to grow up and be just like Sindy and Barbie. Had
we of been given a doll that wanted less things, and was happy to be a mother,
then that is what we would have been influenced to be.
Over the course
of my 50 plus years I have observed the disintegration of the family unit, the
mother was from antiquity the pivotal point in a family, over the last four decades the mass media has
derided the mother, we have Disney films that rarely feature a Mother, Sindy
and Barbie had all manner of friends and siblings, but no Mother, and we are
constantly fed a stream of “bad mother” stories from the media. I come from a
generation that was taught that above all else in life, you value your Mother
and family, an individual has strength and support from within a strong family
unit, the disintegration of the family unit has not been by accident, it has
been by design, and from the invention of Barbie, little girls have been
trained to be money hungry, materialist clothes horses, obsessed with how they
look.
Barbie’s whole marketing focused on giving little girls a doll that they could emanate and hope to be like, they might as well of given them a manual, and said this is what you should be like when you grow up:
Barbie’s whole marketing focused on giving little girls a doll that they could emanate and hope to be like, they might as well of given them a manual, and said this is what you should be like when you grow up:
1. Fashion conscious, always strive to have the latest fashion,
this may sink you in debt, which will in turn effect your health and well
being, but maintaining the very latest in style should be your number one
priority.
2. You must have industrial strength bleaches applied to your
teeth so that your smile is as white as Barbie’s, this will of course destroy
the tooth enamel, but then you can get new veneers and crowns, they will be
very expensive, but if you work, work, work you will be able to afford them.
3.. Your natural hair colour will not be acceptable, at all
costs keep your hair as chemically toxic as is possible, use as many products
on it as can, all these products will destroy your hair, but again if you work,
work, work, you will be able to afford extensions to achieve the Barbie look.
4. White is not a good look, your natural skin tone will be
“unfashionable”, you must maintain an all year tan like Barbie. This will take
up a great deal of your time, and the toxic ingredients in the fake tan will
ride on the back of the nano particles in the tanning solution, straight into
your blood stream. These chemicals are known to cause cancer and infertility,
but that’s a risk you will have to take, being white will not be an option if
you are to maintain the look.
5. Body hair will also be unfashionable; again you must use all
products available to illuminate your body hair. Pubic hair has a function; it
acts like a wick and draws toxins from the endocrine system in the groin,
keeping this area hair free will take up a great deal of your time, and you
will suffer from ingrown hairs and other related complaints, but don’t worry
about that, we will supply you with more toxic products to help you maintain a
hair free body.
6. It is highly improbable that you will have large perfectly
formed breasts when you grow up, so from about 14 onwards try and think up ways
to generate enough money for fake breasts, borrow money if you have to, you may
be paying them off until you are near 30, by which time you will need new ones,
but believe me they will be worth the time, money and risks to your health.
7. By the time you grow up all make up will have titanium and other
nano particles which can penetrate the skins natural defense barrier, every
chemical on the ingredients list of your make will be able to ride on the back
of these nano particles straight into your blood stream, the more you overload
your system, the more chances that you will suffer the ill effects of these
deadly chemicals, cancer and infertility to name but two. But hey who cares,
Barbie does not want babies and she never grows old, so be sure that you never
go out without your make up. Cleansers with nano particles and more toxic waste
will be available for removal of the make up.
8. As it is highly unlikely that you will have Barbie’s perfect
features, surgery will be available, you can have your lips made bigger, your
cheek bones altered, and all manner of other procedures to make you look
perfect.
9. Getting old! Unfortunately we have not yet devised a way to
stop people getting old, but we will have available to you all manner of
products to disguise the effect aging will have on you. Botox is a neurotoxin
made from botulinum, it has a paralyzing effect, and will instantly erase your
wrinkles. It may travel and cause respiratory problems and paralyses elsewhere
in the body, you may end up with a droopy eyelid, blood poisoning or
neurological conditions, you may even die, but wrinkles are not an option so
you will take the risk.
10. Keeping up with the above fashion needs and beauty demands,
you may sometimes feel drained, or empty, anti-depressants will help you deal
with these feelings, and regular shopping trips will give you a quick fix. No
one said that looking like an 11.6” bit of vinyl was going to be easy.
I wonder if the Barbie’s and Sindy’s
of the 60’s and 70’s had come with the above manual would parents have bought
them for their children?
A German brochure from the 1950’s
stated that Lilli’s wardrobe made her “The star of every bar”, in the first
Barbie commercial they said :
“her dancing outfit rings a bell, as hard
as she
will cast a spell”.
A witch casts spells, and to be sure that the spell is
unbroken, at least once a year a Witch Barbie is on sale!
Right: Black magic Barbie, no kidding, they actually have a Black magic one!
Cathy Cline, vice president of
marketing in the US for Mattel told the New York Times:
“One of the greatest things about
Barbie is that she continues to push the envelope”, “Barbie does not care what
other people think”.
Barbie will continue to influence
little girls and weave her spell, until people realise that she is not just a
harmless bit of plastic!
The mass mind bending of little girls
caused by Barbie has been addressed in this article, the knock on effect on the
male of the species has had an equally devastating effect, but that is another
article I feel.
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| A small selection of the many Barbie "Witch" dolls! To ensure that the spell is unbroken, they issue at least one a year! |
Sandra Barr
LINKS
Ruth and
Elliot Handler biographies: Link
Toy Monster, available to read online: Link
Ruth Handler biography: Link
Tiffany Shlain: Link
Botox dangers: Link
Sindy turns 50: Link
Ken Handler biography: Link
Barbara Handler Segal quote: Link
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