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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 7969
[Religious]
Date Posted:
9/10/2003
10:41:54 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 9,775
RSS: 0
Comments: 32
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Saudi Police Say Barbie Dolls A Threat To Morality
Author: AP Source: CNN
Title: SAUDI POLICE SAY BARBIE DOLLS A THREAT TO MORALITY
Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy -- already banned in the kingdom -- are offensive to Islam.
The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the religious police are officially known, lists the dolls on a section of its Web site devoted to items deemed offensive to the conservative Saudi interpretation of Islam.
"Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful," said a poster on the site.
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Community Thoughts: There are 32 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Is This For Real? | Sep 11th. at 8:20:52 am EDT |
by Rhionnach (Glasgow, Scotland) - wc_xemail
I thought that the Saudis banned any images they considered inappropriate and censored magazines etc if they showed women in unacceptable clothing? How come this article claims that there is a whole website displaying to the public what cannot be shown? And that there is a display in Medina?
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| I Had No Idea | Sep 11th. at 7:05:47 am EDT |
by Kayla WhiteFeather (Cleveland, Ohio) - wc_xemail
that Barbie was Jewish. I had the camper, the plane and the health club, and the dream house. Mom never bought me the church/synogogue/mosque. I will have to call her and ask her why not!?!
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| Can't Say I'd Miss Her If She Disappeared | Sep 11th. at 1:08:54 am EDT |
by Wynnen (Calgary, Canada) - wc_xemail
But personally, I would object in Canada to the governement banning Barbie. However, Saudi Arabia is a sovereign nation. It is not our job to police them, as long as the people of Saudi Arabia wish it to continue, then I say let it. And yes it is true there are some who will be bothered by it. And when there are enough they will change things. Until then. byebye Barbie.
But then again my favourite thing about Barbie was Barbie-Q's.
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| I Love Her | Sep 10th. at 10:45:30 pm EDT |
by staci (az) - wc_xemail
barbie was everthing to me as a girl. when i was beat down, she was strong. when i couldn't talk, she knew the right words. when i had no friends, there she was. she could work magick long before i ever knew i could. did i think i would grow up to look like her? no. did i want to be her? yes. she could do and be anything. thank the goddess for barbie! plus how many other dolls are so pagan friendly? not only do they have faerie's, goddess' , and witches, they also have the 4 elemental barbies. yeah barbie!!!
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| Barbie Is What You Imagine Her To Be | Sep 10th. at 10:27:39 pm EDT |
by Stormwind (Halifax) - wc_xemail
While Barbie's figure may be unrealistic, she herself is simply an icon--children will imagine her to be whatever they want her to be, and that is what she will represent to them. Barbie broke the old "baby doll" mold where dolls were "children" and children were "parents" in play....Barbie represented an adult, giving kids a chance to play out being an adult. My Barbies spent less time being princesses and swimsuit models, and more time being airplane pilots and Xena-type warriors on horseback....
Oppressive societies won't last forever because people will eventually demand their freedom....the existence of a black market indicates there are things these people want, and will take the risk to get.
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| An Obvious Threat | Sep 10th. at 10:10:15 pm EDT |
by Rhymer (Ann Arbor, MI) - wc_xemail
She's not covered, she's not retiring and shy, she could conceivably choose more than one sexual partner, who wouldn't control her life and intellect (sorry, Ken.) She won't be dominated in her society.
Heck, a society as backwards as ours has become (in sections) would see her as a threat, never mind a strictly controlled social environment like Saudi Arabia...
Jon Ashcroft must be asleep at the switch...she's as big a threat as Elian Gonzalez!
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| What The...?!?! | Sep 10th. at 9:43:43 pm EDT |
by Danika (Perth, Western Australia) - wc_xemail
I'm not even gonna START on what I think about this subject...but I will say this. What on earth do they mean by "Barbie's Shameless Poses/Postures" (whatever the word was!) . She stands just like you and me, and every single Islam in that country....so whats so wrong with that??? Geez, what is this world coming to? People are beginning to blame faults on plastic dolls, right.....
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| It's A Doll... | Sep 10th. at 7:29:41 pm EDT |
by Malachesque (Oklahoma) - wc_xemail
A small piece of plastic could possibly bring an entire religous regime to it's knees? Wow.
For those who mentioned that Barbie may have been pulled to protect the Saudi girl's self-image...what about the full body coverings that their religous leaders insist on forcing on them? How about the constant reinforcement of the image of women as evil? Nasty, but necissary things that must always be hidden, lest an honest, Godly man be driven to madness? Worthless things that can never be as good as the worst man alive? Of course this can't be what the average Muslim really believes...but the average Muslim isn't in control of Saudi Arabia. It's the Muslim fundies.
How can a Barbie doll *possibly* be worse for a girl's self image than what these God-police are pushing?
About "forcing" Westernization on other cultures...y'know, the entire world votes on products the same way we do here in the US/Canada...with our money. If America doen't want Product A, America doesn't *buy* Product A. If there wasn't a market in Saudi Arabia, Mattel woudn't be there...neither would McDonald's, Nike, etc. Evidently, enough Saudis like Barbie and Big Macs.
Please remember that too often, we can only hear the very vocal minority in other countries. The average person, no matter where you go, is exactly like the average person anywhere else.
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| Not All Arabs Are Saudi | Sep 10th. at 6:14:24 pm EDT |
by Rhymer (Ann Arbor, MI) - wc_xemail
I would be hesitant to make any comments calling Arabs anti-Jewish. Obviously, this section within the Saudi society is anti-Jewish... (the comment is quite unequivocal) ...but please watch the generalizations.
As for Barbie, even though many here see her as a step backwards for women, to a backwards religious police minister, she is probably way too far forward of the Saudi female tolerance curve.
It may be of some consolation to the Saudi religious police, that just like their one of their princesses, Barbie's head detaches easily.
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| Thankful To Live In The USA....so Far.... | Sep 10th. at 6:08:30 pm EDT |
by Lori (New England) - wc_xemail
My first thought when I read this article was, "oh, how awful!" Then I read all the comments and gained a different perspective. I don't blame the Muslims for not wanting any part of Barbie. It's their culture, and if they don't want it westernized, that's up to them (I'm referring at this time only to the Barbie thing, not the way they treat their women) . I have never been a Barbie fan. Had I had a daughter, I would have allowed her to have Barbies if she was interested, but I wouldn't sit back and allow Barbie to dictate her self-image. I think a whole lot of people place way, WAY too much emphasis on Barbie. What happened to parental guidance? Can't we impart values to our children, and not just sit by and allow their values to come from whatever toys they have?
HAVING SAID THAT.....we also need to let this matter be a reminder to us that it could indeed happen here if we let it, as someone noted a few posts ago. There are a lot of things wrong with this country, but thank the gods that having the religous police confiscate your toys is not one of them. Yet. People, keep your eyes open and look what is happening. Your government should not be in the business of dictating your morality.
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| But... | Sep 10th. at 5:59:56 pm EDT |
by paegi (usa) - wc_xemail
while i'm not a huge fan of Barbie, she's basically harmless. I have three girls, and i think about 12 Barbies (not counting the one tossed into the gutter) . I talk to my kids, and they know that real people have different body types, and that Barbie is just a doll. Furthermore, no matter what career Barbie starts with, in my house, she ends up being a mom or a sister. In fact, my youngest insisted she needed a Ken doll, so they would have a daddy. No matter what society says, the first teachers every child has is its' parents. if we teach our children that looks don't matter, it doesn't matter what Barbie looks like, they just won't care.
As a side note, regarding the anti-semitism comment. Arabs cannot be anti-semitic, because they would be anti-themselves. Semitic refers to the biblical descendents of Shem, and the Semitic races are those people from the Arab pennisula. Arabs and Israelis are both of the Semitic peoples.
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| When Moral Controls Come From "Things Externa | Sep 10th. at 5:41:58 pm EDT |
by karrie9 (USA) - wc_xemail
... Then anything is a threat to morality, even Barbie dolls.
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| Yuck. | Sep 10th. at 5:18:49 pm EDT |
by Lupa (Pgh) - wc_xemail - Web
Besides promoting the unhealthy anorexic look, Barbie also promotes teaching girls to rely on their looks (which only remain "youthful" for so long.) Plus the plastic is not environmentally friendly--same goes for the various dyes and other chemicals that go into making your average Barbie blob. Finally, the sheer amount of advertising just goes to further the brain-dead materialism that's rampant here--"More, Mommy, I want more toys/clothes/etc.!!!!!!" followed by a screeching wail if the kid doesn't get her way.
Oh, and as far as the tolerance of paganism goes--let's talk witch wars (remember the letters in Green Egg?) . Let's talk the supposed persecution of all pagans by all Christians. Oh, and while you're at it, try mentioning, oh, say, Chaos magick to your average Lllewellyn fluffybunny Wiccan. See how tolerant pagans re then*. We have NO room to talk.
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| Barbie's Origins... | Sep 10th. at 5:11:18 pm EDT |
by Moondaisy (Pittsburgh, PA) - wc_xemail
"Mattel may try its best to tell us that its intentions are good, that Barbie is a pure-blooded, wholesome American giro, and that she is Everyrace and Everyclass for the benefit of the comsumer. But a closer examination of the icon's inception and Mattel's economic motives reveal a very different Barbie.
But she isn't the historyless girl who Mattel likes to pretend just poppsed up one morning in 1959. Barbie's precursor was a 1955 German comic character Lilli. Lilli the two-dimensional character became so popular that within a year of the comic strip's debut, an eleven-and-a-half inch, three-dimensional, blond-ponytailed doll was manufactured. She was a pornographic caracature, a "gag gift for men."12 A brochure that came with the doll states, "You should take Lilli with you everywhere. Lilli promises a swift ride."13 Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, saw the doll on a trip to Europe, and decided that it would be a profitable investment to bring the plastic doll over to the United States and sell her. The average consumer, however, never hears about Barbie's sexual origins."
Taken from the following site (the first site I came across linking Barbie to Lilli; there are many others) : http://wso.williams.edu/ sleung/cs105lab1_2real.html.
I actually found out about Barbie's racy past from a documentary on the Barbie doll--this info can be found through various sources on the internet and has come straight from the horse's mouth: the creator of the doll, Ruth Handler (co-founder of Mattel) .
Any daughters I have will *never* own one of these trashy plastic abhorrences :-P If you approve of them, that's your prerogative. I happen to find them disgusting.
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| Actually | Sep 10th. at 4:41:35 pm EDT |
by Zillah (Alaska) - wc_xemail
Barbie and Ken dolls were created by the owners of mattel (A woman and her husband - whose names I dont remember) for her two kids, her little girl (at the time) Barbara, and her son Ken. They were not originally sex toys. The same woman, her husband created G.I. Joe, and with those two series of toys is how mattel got its start.
Just FYI
Zillah
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