PITTSBORO, N.C. (AP) Barbie's being bad. The wholesome, if sometimes surreal, beauty of the iconic doll is taking on a different twist under the influence of photo lab owner Anne Baker. Baker has coerced Barbie and her friends to ditch the sequin gowns and pink roadsters for sexy outfits, outrageous poses and delinquent behavior.
Plastic dolls line four long shelves in Baker's store, called Annie B and the Black and White Guy.
There's a cross-dressing male doll with long hot pink hair and a tight miniskirt. A "Jailbait Barbie" stands behind bars, wearing a pink and white striped uniform and an identification number. An eight-legged black widow doll crawls up a spider web, with Ken wrapped in her webbing. "She's a man-eater," the sign says.
In a scenario that has its parallel in real life, Baker finds down-on-their-luck Barbies at thrift stores and from friends then introduces them to a world of sex, drugs and violence.
"I always loved Barbie," she said. "I don't know what led me to this. Barbie was too clean and she needed to be in the real world, so I put her in my world."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-10-04-bad-barbies_x.htm
Plastic dolls line four long shelves in Baker's store, called Annie B and the Black and White Guy.
There's a cross-dressing male doll with long hot pink hair and a tight miniskirt. A "Jailbait Barbie" stands behind bars, wearing a pink and white striped uniform and an identification number. An eight-legged black widow doll crawls up a spider web, with Ken wrapped in her webbing. "She's a man-eater," the sign says.
In a scenario that has its parallel in real life, Baker finds down-on-their-luck Barbies at thrift stores and from friends then introduces them to a world of sex, drugs and violence.
"I always loved Barbie," she said. "I don't know what led me to this. Barbie was too clean and she needed to be in the real world, so I put her in my world."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-10-04-bad-barbies_x.htm
