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Full disclosure:  I didn’t play with Barbies when I was a little girl.  My mom tells me that she found them ugly and offensive, so she kept them at bay -- until my youngest sister wanted a Barbie.  I guess that by the time you have a third daughter all bets are off.  Her favorite pasttime was cutting their hair; she owns her own hair salon now. My family history aside, Barbie’s been entertaining and offending for generations.  Beloved by many, but despised by others, it’s not merely her shiny blondness that offends, but mostly her unrealistic body proportions. Research suggests that a healthy adult woman would need to drop six inches from her waist while gaining five inches in her bust if she was going to come close to achieving Barbie’s body.  Or, put another way, a 5’7” tall woman with Barbie’s proportions would have a bust-waist-hip ratio of  36”-12”-29”.  The probability of this body … [Read more...] about Barbie’s New Body

Source: Flickr Photos Should you tell your children the truth about Santa Claus? If so, when? What are the benefits for young minds in believing the myth of Kris Kringle? Often around the holidays, parents of young children feel torn between whether or not they should come clean to their children about the non-existence of Santa Claus. To many parents, perpetuating the long-cherished myth is one of the joys of parenthood. Others view perpetuating the myth of Santa Claus as a fib when they are trying to teach their children not to lie. It is a dilemma the majority of parents face.    Science Says Kids Are More Likely To Trust A Lie It seems obvious that young children will easily believe what they’re told. But, a study in Psychological Science examining trust in three-year-olds discovered that unless kids were given a clue that they were hearing a lie, they will repeatedly trust what an adult tells them. In the experiment, one adult put a sticker under a red cup, but … [Read more...] about If and When to “Spill the Beans” About Santa Claus

As much as we enjoy visually appealing avatars, or are entertained by following the exploits of brave superheroes, we know the difference between fact and fiction.  We can tell the difference between a real person and an imaginary character. Right?  Not always.  Apparently, when it comes to forging “relationships,” we are susceptible to mixing facts with fantasy. Fictional Friends Source: Image by Stefanie Reichel from Pixabay People who represent themselves online with an avatar instead of a 20-year-old photo are still seeking to promote an image that is more aspirational than accurate.  Yet in many cases, avatars express actual user characteristics, as I address in a prior article.[i]How do you select an avatar?  If you select a representation that embodies character traits you believe you have or wish you had, you are in good company.  And regarding identification, in person, where you (hopefully) … [Read more...] about Are Your Virtual Friends Real? Does it Matter?

Source: Letter, Block, X/Pixabay What’s so mystifying about the letter “X?” For starters, the swastika X—or cross—has come to symbolize the very essence of evil. And the letter, as signified by the skull and crossbones, portrays death by poison. Yet it also represents virtue and eternal life in being employed as an abbreviation for Christ in Xmas, and for Christianity generally. Such a curious dichotomy only hints at the many convoluted complexities of a letter seemingly “designed” to beguile us with contradictory connotations. In this post, I’ll attempt the unusually challenging task of organizing the various meanings of this strangest, and most alluring, of letters. “X” may take up less space in the dictionary than any of its 23 compatriots but, in terms of its diverse uses, it’s a letter that defines, well, overcompensation. For it seems, waywardly, to want to sprawl out in every direction imaginable. As such, … [Read more...] about What’s So Fascinating About the Letter X?