As a teenager, I knew this weird girl whose mother used to make 'art' with Barbie dolls. She'd put them into bondage gear & photograph them in mock acts of fornication. The Barbie dolls, that is. Perhaps it was meant to be shocking. It certainly was amusing -- though when the artist talked about her art, she spoke with great earnestness.

It was really her earnestness which was the most shocking thing about what she was doing. Lighten up, funny artist person!

Apparently Mattel has now lodged a lawsuit against someone called China Barbie. China Barbie is not, to my knowledge, the artist I met in my youth. Her name was Brenda -- according to the current affairs story I saw on her art.

In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Manhattan, Mattel said the website for an adult entertainer named China Barbie has tried to benefit from Mattel's success with the 48-year-old line of dolls, which includes Barbie's sister, Skipper, her best friend, Midge, and Skipper's boyfriend, Kevin.

Gods!! Wait, not Skipper, too! Thou unholy wretch...