Who else didn’t know how to play with barbies (or any doll)?

[Sabrina]

I just remember “playing” by talking to a certain doll while I tucked her in, and then leaving her sleeping beside my bed.

But Barbies, I had absolutely no clue. I remember arranging the ‘setting’ , organizing the house or the town where they were supposed to live, but when I was done with that, and my sister wanted to play, I used to say I had to do something else (I didn’t see the point).

 

[tree]

What else is there supposed to be?
Picking the doll up and moving it around,
while doing the voice?

That always seemed crude to me, when other
little girls wanted to play with dolls that way.

Dressing the dolls, arranging them in settings,
playing out scenes/actions in my head: those
seemed to me to be the ways to use my dolls.

Not clashing them together/making them dance,
cry, kiss, walk...etc. whatever. Not acting out
"parts" with somebody else.

 

[Butterfly88]

My mom tells me I used to carry my dolls by their hair. Not sure it that's an aspie thing but it's funny looking back.

 

[ksheehan88]

I never liked "baby" dolls. I had Barbies, but I used to cut their hair and draw all over them.

 

[Mia]

Used to take the barbies and place them in 'locations' usually outside. I'd build a small house out of sticks and grass, near a stream, I'd make their clothing out of grass and leaves and smear them with mud to protect them from insects. I'd sculpt their hair with mud, and then tie small tools or weapons or containers to their hands.

They remained that way, in a kind of staged diorama, where I went on adventures around the world. Scenarios changed with the seasons, sometimes they would be covered with leaf clothing, other times with grass and mud, sometimes with moss or cedar twigs. Went on the adventures myself, the dolls remained near whatever dwelling I built, ti-pi, grass hut, winter cabin, but I never carried them with me. They were like the start of the idea or the impetus to begin the adventure.

 

[Sabrina]

My mom told me that one time she came into our room and we (probably just me) had lined up all the dolls against the walls, and that she had gotten all excited about it (probably because finally we were doing something with them). Now that I think about it, what a waste of money (spent in dolls, that is).

 

[ksheehan88]

I used to line up my teddies on my bed. Then I would snuggle them while I slept in rotation, so the first teddy would sleep with me, then the next night that one would go to the end, they would all move up and the next would sleep with me.

Dolls never lasted long, I was quite destructive as a child apparently.

 

[Sabrina]

@tree , @Butterfly88 , @ksheehan88 , @Mia you guys are making my day, I’m laughing so hard! This is awesome, I feel like I’ve waited my whole life to read your posts

 

[kay]

I used Barbie to measure furniture that I tried to make with little boxes and tape. Sometimes I tried to sew her clothes but that wasn't very successful. Mostly I tried to melt her feet flat or put my mini barbie in an orange dump truck and crash her over and over.

Have you guys seen all the weird Barbie crafts and art? Apparently we are not the only ones who can't play properly with Barbie.

 

[kay]

A few more images.

 

[ksheehan88]

I used Barbie to measure furniture that I tried to make with little boxes and tape. Sometimes I tried to sew her clothes but that wasn't very successful. Mostly I tried to melt her feet flat or put my mini barbie in an orange dump truck and crash her over and over.

Have you guys seen all the weird Barbie crafts and art? Apparently we are not the only ones who can't play properly with Barbie.

Yeah I would make furniture with cereal boxes and stuff. And tried the making clothes thing.

I like that! I should look into Barbie crafts! Definitely my thing lol

 

[Ambi]

I had a couple of Barbies - my parents just wouldn't buy me too much in terms of toys, so I never got into them. I think I would more have just admired their outfits and stared at them - I didn't like role playing with dolls. My parents would instead buy me books, which was probably a very good move on their part!

Looking back, I bet I would have loved one of those super intricate dollhouses. No way my parents would have bought me that, but I bet I would have loved staring at one.

 

[Sabrina]

Helena, one of the clones in Orphan Black (my avatar is another clon, Cosima) also had another use for barbies

 

[ksheehan88]

View attachment 39192 View attachment 39193 Helena, one of the clones in Orphan Black (my avatar is another clon, Cosima) also had another use for barbies

Helena is my all time favourite sestra!

 

[Rasendra]

I did similar with mine also. Dressing up or setting up but that was it. Didn't really know what to do after or what the point was in some other sort of playing like making them talk.

 

[Gracey]

Never had a Barbie.

Had a dolls house my grandad made me.
Two floors, staircase, dividers between rooms, windows and a front door that actually opened and made a little click when closed.
It was the most amazing thing I'd ever marvelled at.

I would organise the furniture and repeat things I'd seen with the characters (meal times, bed times, walking up and down the stairs repeatedly, in and out the clicky front door)

I had a spaceship in the airing cupboard too.
Drew dials and buttons on the walls and climbed in. I don't think I ever got to the moon, I just liked pressing the buttons and turning the pretend dials.
I think I had an American accent too (not sure what I'd seen on the TV but spaceships had Americans in them )

Wasn't the same after my younger brother had been to the moon in my spaceship whilst I had to attend school.


Cardboard cut out dolls I had. Cut the clothes out of a magazine/booklet with scissors but don't cut off the fold over flap on the shoulders or the dress wouldn't hang on the doll correctly.

 

[dragoncat16]

I didn't like dolls of any type. I ended up getting a barbie doll just because one of my friends had one, but I didn't really know what to do with her. She had only one outfit and a horse (I really liked horses). When I moved school and moved away from that friend, there was nobody to play barbies with.

I liked building stuff way better. For Christmas, I always asked for the type of toys boys played with (remote control car, cars that went fast and did loops on tracks, a train set). It had nothing to do with gender identity, though; IMO those toys are simply way more intellectually stimulating and fun. Oh yeah, I'm not really fond of the colour pink, either, so maybe that's why I didn't care for dolls. Maybe because I didn't care to be "fashionable" and like everyone else, I just gravitated to toys that are actually fun instead of silly dolls that open their eyes and cry and poop (yeesh, how is that supposed to be fun anyway?).

 

[Rasendra]

I had a small dollhouse also and my favorite part of it was the fact that a little switch turned on lights in two rooms and trying to figure out how it worked lol.

 

[dragoncat16]

In my adult life I met another woman who was really into building dollhouses and she had a collection of them in her basement. She was a bit odd and possibly farther on the spectrum than I was. I had never even heard of the spectrum at the time though. I am not saying she was odd just because of her dollhouses; we actually got along very well together and it was certainly a novelty for me to be the "normal one". If I, as a kid, had known that building dollhouses was an option, I probably would have been more into dolls, though I'd probably be considered even weirder than people already think I am because no doubt I would have a whole city of dollhouses (I collect everything I am interested in).

 

[Warmheart]

No dolls, only stuffed animals.

People were altogether foreign to me, different from me, and tended not to like me. So, I strongly avoided any dolls given to me... never related to any dolls. If someone insisted I play with a doll, even as a toddler, I ignored it, held them upside down or sideways. I just knew that people routinely rejected me, (I was a somewhat self-absorbed, aloof baby who involuntarily stiffened when held) so as people drew back from my strangeness, surely, I felt, a doll would reject me, too.

Stuffed animals, however, “came alive” in my imagination, were safe to connect with in my imaginary play. I would let my stuffed animals have adventures, and they were my friends.