April 08, 2004

*That Pink Little Whore

A little over 45 years ago, Mattel's Ruth Handler wanted to develop an alternative to baby dolls. She had a young daughter named Barbara who liked to play with teenaged paper dolls.

While in Switzerland, Ruth came across a beautiful blond doll named Lilli. She brought Lilli back home and modeled her new doll after her.

Now what most people don't realize is that Lilli was an adult doll for adults. Specifically--she was for men. She was based on a character from a German comic strip.

The character was a hooker.

Posted by Jennifer at April 8, 2004 10:02 AM

Comments

No word from Snopes, but I did find a Salon article that backs you up:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1997/11/26harlot.html

Posted by: Harvey at April 8, 2004 10:18 AM

Now, some people have a problem with women playing football, but I wouldn't have expected this from you, Jennifer.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 8, 2004 03:26 PM

So I'm guessing "hooker" is some sort of weird Australian soccer lingo? ;-)

Posted by: Jennifer at April 8, 2004 03:28 PM

Soccer? Football, Jen, football.

As in Rugby.

See, for example, this page:

NAME: Samantha "Soprano" Perino
Year of Graduation: '06
Hometown: Guam
Position (as in rugby): Hooker
Major: bio or something like that

Or, more informatively, this.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 8, 2004 06:55 PM

The comments about football/soccer do raise a point. While the term was spread widely by troops in WWII (and later by police shows), even most US citizens have never heard of "Hooker's Army", popularized during our Civil War.

Posted by: John Anderson at April 10, 2004 06:53 AM

In some heavy industries, and also, I understand, in logging, a hooker is a person (typically male) who is teamed with a crane operator to make the actual connection with the load.

Posted by: triticale at April 12, 2004 10:15 AM


Jew