Barbie vs Fulla, Cultural Clash

Barbie, the sex kitten of little girls’ dreams, profoundly represents the secularized, sexualized Western culture so well personified with the U.S. The Arabic world version of Barbie is named Fulla, and she is a huge hit. Both dolls are made of the same material; they are the same height, 11 ½ inches; and they come with a variety of clothes. If you look for additional similarities, you won’t find them. While Barbie favors suggestive clothing and lots of skin exposed, Fulla wears either a head-to-toe black abaya or “indoor clothing” of a white head scarf and an ankle length coat. Fulla has black hair, auburn eyes and flattened breasts, as compared to Barbie. Fulla is fully accessorized including a prayer rug. Naturally, Fulla does not have a boyfriend, but her manufacturers plan to add a protective brother in the future. No mention was made of a husband, the product of an arranged marriage. Read the news item on Fulla here.

Barbie and Fulla represent either ends of a spectrum, between which most of the rest of the world resides, to one degree or another. Both dolls represent deep and pervasive cultural values. The Arabic/Muslim world takes great offense with the Barbie message, and we are not talking about just the Islamo-fascist minority. And, we are not just talking about Muslims in the Middle East. There are serious reasons why Muslims continue to wear the traditional body-concealing garb even while living amongst the Western culture. They are offended by the display of the human body. Those values may play well in Muslim countries. But, they bode ill in the West where a culturally offended Muslim is not likely to an inclusive member of society.

Each of us chooses to be or not be offended, but it is not a simple matter to disregard cultural biases, which are instilled from birth. And, if a person lives within an environment steeped in what offends him, various coping mechanisms or isolative sub-cultural practices may or may not be sufficient to insure that the person deals with the frustration in a manner healthy for society. Given suitable numbers or sufficient motivation, a frustrated sub-culture may strike out against the dominant culture. More importantly, an isolative sub-culture provides a far greater opportunity for Islamo-fascists to hide and plot in the comfort of a protective community than does on all-inclusive society.

There are many things that Muslims find offensive about the Western culture that is invading and literally destroying the Muslim world, as it has been known for almost 2000 years. If you expect the Islamo-fascists to sit around and do nothing about the Western cultural invasion, you must be visiting from another planet. These people intend to convert or kill you. What do you think that the dominant culture should do about it?