Dunn House, a Medford, Oregon, women's and children's shelter, refused a gift of 300 hand-sewn Barbie outfits, because "Barbie represents a culture that objectifies women as sex symbols," according to Maggie Jordan, director of victim services. "She tends to represent the shallow sexism of our culture."

77-year-old Armella Wharton, grandmother of 14 and great-grandmother to six, said she spent months making the tiny clothes from scraps because she had no dolls of her own as a child growing up during the Depression.

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