Therapists have had much success with this technique in diagnosing family problems and the like (Lord 82). Barbie sales have also done guite well--so well that Mattel estimates that two dolls are sold every second, somewhere in the world (Lord 7)! A Barbie hate group calling themselves the Barbie Liberation Organization arranged a protest against Mattels new Talking Barbies during the Christmas of 1993 (Lord 252). The group mysteriously switched the talking mechanisms in thousands of the Barbie dolls with those of Hasbros G.I. Joe Talking Duke action figures (Lord 252). Instead of their original feminine comments, the newly improved Barbie dolls screamed Eat lead, Cobra! Vengeance is mine! On the opposite side of the toy store, the once dangerous and masculine G.I. Joe characters innocently remarked Lets go shopping and Will we ever have enough clothes (Lord 252)? This little mix-up occurred in 43 states, but did not do much damage to Mattel. It did, however, make for some very frightened and unhappy customers.Though Barbie has caused much controversy since her creation, she has a confident outlook on the future. Equipped with a new body and a new focus, she has plans to become even more spectacular with many new adventures and many new friends. Barbies new look includes a wider waist, smaller hips, a less torpedo-like bust, and flat rather than pointy-toed feet (Bad Girl 3). She is also playing an active role in new research in prosthetics. Jane Bahor, a woman who makes replacement body parts, had experimented with the plastic knee joints in Barbies legs. She has found that they work well as prosthetic fingers for her patients because they are more realistic-looking and useful. So far, Bahor has provided the replacement joints for more than a dozen of her patients and has been extremely successful in her studies (Bad Girl 27).As Barbie gets ready to turn the big 4-2, it is unreal to think that she has completed her last ...
