Meet Fulla. According to the local paper, she is a big hit in Egypt, Syria, and other Muslim countries. Fulla is a good girl. In contrast to slutty Western Barbie, Fulla dresses in modest clothing, with skirts below the knee and even a proper black abaya for going to the mosque. Our paper featured “Evening Prayers” Fulla, in a sparkly pink hijab rather than full on black abaya and shayla, but this may just be her everyday wear.
Parents think Fulla is a good role model—she wants to be a doctor or a teacher, unlike Western Barbie who appears to want to be a rockstar. Fulla prefers spending time with her family to other, riskier, social activities. And most importantly, Fulla does not have a boyfriend, much less an ambiguously straight Ken companion.
Of course, in the very same paper touting the virtues of Fulla, Giselle Bunchen graced the social page under the heading “role model”. Somehow, having both these females simultaneously as role models creates a hardware melt-down in my head. If I have to choose, I’ll probably go with Fulla. What would you choose?
Parents think Fulla is a good role model—she wants to be a doctor or a teacher, unlike Western Barbie who appears to want to be a rockstar. Fulla prefers spending time with her family to other, riskier, social activities. And most importantly, Fulla does not have a boyfriend, much less an ambiguously straight Ken companion.
Of course, in the very same paper touting the virtues of Fulla, Giselle Bunchen graced the social page under the heading “role model”. Somehow, having both these females simultaneously as role models creates a hardware melt-down in my head. If I have to choose, I’ll probably go with Fulla. What would you choose?
6 comments:
Whatever happened to regular Barbie? I thought Mattel was going to fix Barbie's proportions so it would be closer to humanly possible.
omg, i cant believe they have a Muslim barbie, that is hilarious!!!!
That would be amazing--future generations could be saved from the body-dismorphia-complex current Barbi has helped create!
if you take her clothes off she is still barbie. At least the supermodel is anatomically correct! lol!
Wow, this is one baby I don't want to split. On the one hand, I do think Barbies make girls crazy (let's all remember that the original doll is based on a german porn doll) but I don't think muslim barbie is for me either.
Where is happy medium barbie?
Hey -
I'm going to be in Dubai from the 16th to the 25th. If you are in town, I'd love to grab some lunch. I want to try that one thing you described in the blog . . . fatteh(?). You can get my email address from one of the triumvirate in DC.
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