Bawdy Barbies Draw Interest

WEST PALM BEACH (AP) - The girl's gone wild.

Just under the retail radar, Barbie tries on black silk bustiers and garters, red kewpie-doll lips and dollops of mauve eye shadow. She dons tartan knickers to take tea "en suite" and black fishnet stockings when working as a French maid.

She comes in half a dozen lingerie-only versions, part of Mattel's adults-only Barbie Fashion Model Collection.

"They're so sleazy it takes my breath away," says M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll. A recognized authority on the iconic toy, Lord says, "These are the 1950s sexual fantasies of middle-aged men. The nurse, the French maid, that creepy Asian fantasy doll. And there is definitely something going on with the riding boot and that little whip."

Heading into the holiday shopping season, the familiar pink and blonde Barbie doll's merchandise empire seems strong: For the fifth year in a row, the doll tops girls' wish lists, according to a poll commissioned by the National Retail Federation. Barbie Girls MP3 Player is listed as one of the season's 12 Hottest Toys by Toy Wishes magazine.

But Barbie also has a dark, lacy side: one designed to be appreciated by adults, not kids.

"Barbie Collector dolls labeled for 14 and over are not designed for children younger than 14 years old and are not appropriate for play," spokeswoman Michelle Llorin says.

Barbie always has been about The Body. Ever since Barbara Millicent Roberts made her blonde and bosomy debut in 1959, America has been taking the measure of the doll. Her measurements have been the subject of Ph.D.s and the source of endless speculation: If real, would she be 6 feet tall, weigh 100 pounds and wear a size 4? Or perhaps she would be 7 feet 2 inches tall? And with those tiny feet and torpedo-sized top, would she tip over?

Despite the focus on her doll's physique, Barbie creator and Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler famously insisted that the appeal laid elsewhere: "The doll sells the clothes and the clothes sell the doll."

In fact, collectible Barbie clothing can put couturiers to shame: Gold beads and rhinestones are sewn into the sleeves of the Dior Barbie's brocade gown. The sword of the $174.95 Pirate Barbie is engraved. A Queen of Hearts Barbie wields a Flamingo croquet stick.

Barbie wardrobes have included lingerie almost from year one, and the original doll was clad only in a one-piece bathing suit. But the pink nightgown set of 1959 was described as "cute" by Mattel and came with a stuffed animal. Another ensemble included hair rollers.

Updated, and sensual, wardrobe

That was before 2000, when Mattel debuted the Barbie Fashion Model Collection, sometimes referred to as the Silkstone dolls. Changes started at the top. The faces are less the open smile and saucer-eyes of Malibu Barbie than the runway-ready pout and "come-hither" sideways gaze of the very first doll.

That pony-tailed Barbie is a softer version of Bild Lilli, a raunchy German doll fashioned after a bawdy comic strip character: "I could do without balding old men but my budget couldn't!" she proclaimed in one cartoon. Her wardrobe made her "the star of every bar" according to one brochure. And the Barbie wearing black lace lingerie "looks exactly like Lilli," says Lord, who owns one of the rare German dolls.

Some of the Fashion Model Collection might give Lilli a run for her money. An early Scottish Barbie, for instance, wears a floor-length plaid dress. The 2006 Highland Fling Barbie is not as worried about Scottish winters: She's wearing a plaid bra. The 1973 Barbie cheerleader wears jersey tights and a long-sleeved sweater. The just-released collectible Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Barbie wears the team's body-baring uniform that accents leg, navel and cleavage.

Then there are the Lingerie Barbies, a half-dozen dolls wearing hose and garters, bustiers or slips, high heels - and not much more. Here's one description: "Barbie exudes a flirtatious attitude in her heavenly merry widow bustier ensemble accented with intricate lace and matching peek-a-boo peignoir." They are the only collectible dolls on the Mattel collectors Web site where the doll's picture is confined to head and shoulders.

This sensuality is not an afterthought, and it is not confined to the Lingerie series. Mattel refers to "the sweet, sultry girls of the golden age of pin-ups" in its Barbie Pin-up series. The Hula Honey Barbie's bathing suit is described as "alluring." The cowgirl in short-shorts is a "unique cowgirl combination of wholesomeness and sex appeal."

"They are not sickeningly sweet and frou-frou," points out LaDina Ivins, manager of Dream Dolls Gallery & More Inc. in West Palm Beach, an 8,000-square-foot doll store and museum.

As for the lingerie, says one fan, "The basic dolls are sold wearing lingerie because that's what 'glamorous' women are usually wearing before they get dressed in their fancy outfits."

Other dolls also increasingly sexual

So who's buying?

"Men and women alike," says Sandi Holder, owner of Union City, Calif.'s Sandi Holder's Doll Attic Inc.

By some estimates, 20 percent to 25 percent of adult collectors are men. On the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Web site devoted to holiday sales of Barbie items, four customers submitted e-mail comments on Mattel's Cher look-alike Barbie, whose sheer black body stocking is just this side of X-rated. Two buyers identified themselves as being older than 55. Two were men.

"I think people generally like to re-create a very happy portion of their childhood, and Barbies seem to play a big part of that," says Holder, even if the boys' fun consisted of "killing off your Barbie or decapitating it or all those fun things brothers used to do."

Sharon Lamb, a psychology professor at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vt., and co-author of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes, says, "I have a friend who has two basement rooms full of Barbies." He creates tableaus using the dolls in their hundreds of outfits, which can range from Wizard of Oz Barbies to Queen Elizabeth I Barbies.

Lamb is less concerned about sales of Mattel's adult-oriented collectibles than the fact that dolls across the board are increasingly sexual. Polly Pocket has a bust line. A Baby Bratz doll wore a black lace thong under her skirt. Some of Haute Doll magazine's collectibles cannot be displayed - or even described - in newspapers.

"It's as if no childhood is allowed," says Lamb.

Mattel declined to comment on specific Barbies but emphasized that its collectible line was never intended for children. Many of the dolls carry cautions that they are suitable only for buyers aged 14 and up. The Barbie collectors Web site and the Barbie.com girl-oriented Web site are separate. Try to enter the collector's site from the Mattel girl-oriented site and a friendly pop-up Barbie stops you in your tracks: "It's our Web site for grown-up fans of Barbie. Have mom or dad check it out with you."

The message: Young eyes should not go in here alone. Teenagers do sometimes show interest in the clothing of the Fashion Model Barbies, says Ivins, but adds, "This is not a kid-friendly doll."

Still, the adult-oriented Barbies can wind up in the hands of very young girls.

Take the newly released Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Barbie collectible. The Texas Legislature once entertained a ban on similar costumes for high school cheerleaders. Meanwhile, in Wal-Mart's online holiday gift guide, the Barbie and her barely there uniform is suggested for children ages 5 to 7.