I loved the part in Persepolis when Marx and Descartes are arguing. So much, that I decided to parody it.
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So to relate this to a current event( it feels odd to relate something not >100 years old to current events), I’m going to talk about a Barbie doll that has caused some outrage.
Her name is Fulla.
Fulla isn’t really a Barbie doll, not the ones we’re used to. She’s produced by a company called New Boy, not Barbie’s Mattel. More important than this difference, however, is that Fulla is designed to pettle a message. Fawaz Abidin, the Fulla brand manager for NewBoy, says, as quoted in the New Times article “Bestseller in Mideast: Barbie With a Prayer Mat”:
“Our advertising is full of positive messages about Fulla’s character. She’s honest, loving, and caring, and she respects her father and mother.”
This is an interesting notion. We want our kids behave a certain way, and so we provide role models that do just that. Then companies market the daylights out of it, because we still keep buying it.
Fulla has created quite a controversy, both in Europe and Stateside. Her commercials have surfaced on YouTube. Some of the comments talk about how demeaning and sexist the doll is.
Because America and Europe would never, ever, ever, ever do that, right? We wouldn’t materalize a perfect, impossible standard in a doll for our daughters (and brave sons) to play with? Especially since children are so impressionable. Oh, wait, that’s right……
We started it.
We live in a culture that objectifies and sexualizes women, at increasingly younger ages. Just the other day, for example, a sixteen year old girl (she might have been younger) uploaded naked pictures of herself on Myspace for her boyfriend. What’s worse though, is there is talk of trying her as a sex offender for distributing child pornography, even though she is still a child herself!
Back to Fulla. From what I understand (and I hope to learn more about this), the head scarf that has everyone in a tizzy is meant as protection and as a sign of respect for women; a way of saying “ I will not objectify your body, and respect you.” I think that too often we take the extremists out of the context of the rest of the population, which seems to be causing in part our xenophobia.
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Fulla Video Time!
hmm interesting, although I do think the Fulla barbie doll may be taken out of context by labeling it as “I will not objectify your body, and respect you.” and it could just be what it seems to really be…a middle eastern version of barbie..which in the majority of the the culture includes a prayer mat and veil. That is a sad story about the 16-year old girl. Part of me says well it is her fault, but I can also see the pressure that society puts on girls and says its the norm. I wonder what it will take until some girls have self-respect for themselves.
First of all, KUDOS on your Kant parody. OMG. I love it! 1,000 points!!!
Second, I’m catching your role model vibe and I’ll raise you one. In The Veil where Marjane’s mom is captured, via film, at a protest against wearing the veils-she feels ashamed afterwards and dyes her hair and hides herself so that people don’t know that it was her because in that period of time all you really had was your family’s reputation and God forbid you ruin it. I think Fulla represents what Marjane’s mother was ashamed of NOT being. You know, because traditionally-that’s what women ‘should strive to be.’
…not that any of that matters. DAMN YOU KANT!
I think it is interesting that you focused on the sexist part of the story. I definitely got more of a difference in social classes message, but I agree with you about the sexist part. And, as always, the cartoon was good.
I came away with a similar feeling of objectification in the book. I thought it was people in general as they didn’t seem to care how what they did impacted others. I definitely also saw the attitude toward women surface. In some ways, in the US we put a heavier burden on women that the cultures where they must cover the majority of their body (aside from political burdens, etc.). In our society women “must” be thin and showing their body off to be attractive. Those that do not have the stereotypical model body feel inadequate, when they should not be judged as such. The pressures that are placed on women and their looks are ridiculous. If people understood bodies and health better, what is beautiful to society at large might shift a bit…
I do believe you have a calling: to be the first REALLY good female political cartoonist!!!!