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Mea culpa.
My apologies for doubling up on one of the WW1 pics in yesterday’s post. Here is the correct pic:
French Reserves from the USA, some of the
two million fighters in the Battle of the Marne, fought in September of 1914.
The First Battle of the Marne was a decisive week-long battle that halted the
initial German advance into France, short of Paris, and led to the "race
to the sea".
I should also have mentioned that clicking on those photographs will enlarge them. Keep it in mind for Part 2, which I will post next Sunday.
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In response to the Funny Friday segment on Barbie dolls, Byter Wayne sent me an email that said simply “Love it. What about Berkha Barbie?”
Funnily enough, back in 2009 the Daily Mail reported that as part of Mattel’s 50th birthday celebration for Barbie, a burqa clad Barbie had been designed for sale in a charity auction.
The article can be read at:
Some comments:
Barbie made her debut in 1959, being modeled on a German doll of a working girl known as Bild Lilli
As part of Barbie’s 50th birthday celebrations, various designers clothed her for an auction with proceeds going to the Save the Children fund. The exhibition and auction were backed by Mattel, with more than 500 Barbies auctioned.
Designer Eliana Lorena came up with various burqa clad Barbies:
According to a rep: “I think this is really important for girls, wherever they are from they should have the opportunity to play with a Barbie that they feel represents them. I know Barbie was something seen as bad before as an image for girls, but in actual fact the message with Barbie for women is you can be whatever you want to be. I have a Barbie in a wheelchair that was only out for six weeks.”
Critics such as Barbara Kay in Canada did not agree. She wrote in an article published in Canada’s the National Post newspaper “I have seen some pretty tawdry advertising campaigns in my time, but I must say this one takes the cake for insensitivity. What's next in dolls that are 'important for girls' to play with? ‘Illiterate Barbie’? ‘Forced-Marriage Barbie'?"
Burqa Barbie is not the first Islamic-styled doll for girls.
The United Arab Emirates based company Newboy released a doll in 2003 tat was dark eyed and wore less revealing clothes than the blue eyed Barbie, which Saudi Arabia the same year condemned as a “symbol of decadence to the perverted West.”
Known as Fulla, the name of a fragrant jasmine flower found only in the Middle East, she was designed to display Muslim values and has been quite successful in the Middle East.
Some of the Fulla range:
From 1996 Ammar Saadeh, a Palestinian expatriate living in Michigan in the US had been selling a doll named Razanne, which came with a hijab and was intended to help Muslim girls develop self esteem, however Fulla is much more popular and more effectively marketed in the Middle East.
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Does she come with explosive devices, complete with shrapnel and a fake passport?
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