OK, she has long blonde hair, an impossible figure and would be 7 feet tall in real life. But has she really destroyed the self-esteem of the millions of girls all over the world who have played with her over the past forty years? Puh-lease!

Personally, I was a tomboy throughout my childhood. I wasn't remotely interested in girly things, never wore a dress and my opinion of dolls, be they baby or Barbie, was total contempt. My favorite pastime was playing wartime spies with my male cousins. We formed complicated plots, wrote notes in invisible ink and made elaborate replica guns out of timber. I always had to play the Nasty Nazi, since I spoke German, but at least that meant I got the best gun--a lovingly fashioned wooden Luger. I was, of course, a double-agent so I was really a good guy having to act like a Nazi.

It was all so much more fun than pretending to make Ken and Barbie "do it." Have I grown into a gun-wielding psychopath? I don't think so. I'm not even into S&M, despite my Nazi role-playing as a kiddie. Ironically, I now wear dresses occasionally, although I prefer 1940's vintage ones in drab grey and I still think Lugers are pretty sexy. And I recently discovered how much fun dressing up Barbie dolls can be, so perhaps I was way too harsh on the girly-girls back then.

Bottom line is that unless they already have some deep-seated psychological problems, kids know that play is play and can differentiate fantasy from reality. To blame problems on their choice of toys is so simplistic it doesn't bear consideration, and to target Barbie as a cause for serious psychological conditions such as anorexia is positively shocking. Barbie is a cultural icon, and a symbol for a certain type of All-American perfection. Even her recent high-achiever careers as UN ambassador, Olympic showjumper, etcetera reinforce her superhuman perfection. This was supposed to make her somehow a better role model--I'd argue that it it makes her even more of an impossible ideal. If, of course, I thought that a toy could be a role model.

I wanna be a giant Teddy Bear when I grow up. No, come to think of it--I wanna be Tickle-Me Elmo.