London, Dec. 19: Barbie dolls have become so ubiquitous that they have lost their value to children who maim, burn or microwave them to show their disgust, an academic study claimed today.

In a finding that will astonish many parents, academics at Bath University concluded that girls attack their Barbie dolls as a symbol of their rejection of the consumer society. “Barbie provoked rejection, hatred and violence,” said Dr Agnes Nairn, who led the research for the university’s school of management.

But Roland Earl, of the British Toy and Hobby Association, said: “Kids have always pulled things apart and dolls are still as popular as they ever were.”

Nairn said the research, which cost ?2,000 and was funded by the taxpayer, studied how advertising influences children, who spend an estimated ?3 billion a year in pocket money and have a “pester power” worth more than ?30 billion.

Researchers divided 100 children aged seven to eight and 10 to 11 into mixed and single-sex groups. They found the 12 most talked-about subjects and then asked them to say if each one was “cool” or “not cool”.

Most of the talk centred around sports celebrities and pop bands such as David Beckham and McFly. But of all the toys named, Barbie aroused the “most complex and violent emotions”.

“The girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity, and see the torture as a ‘cool’ activity,” the researchers said.

The mutilation ranged from cutting off hair to decapitating and putting the dolls in microwaves.

While boys had feelings of nostalgia for Action Man dolls, girls saw Barbie as “babyish” and felt that rejecting the doll was a “rite of passage”.