Barbie’s Politics and Religion: ‘Glam-paign’ for US Presidential Elections is in spotlight
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump may be keeping the world guessing over their running mates, but Barbie has grabbed the spotlight with revealing its first ever all-female ticket for the White House.
Mattel is honouring US presidential race in the most meaningful possible way. Barbie is, apparently, throwing her “pink hat” into the ring, running a “glam-paign”.
Unveiling its latest President and Vice-President edition of the iconic doll, the world’s largest toymaker Mattel said it aimed “to inspire girls to become leaders”.
The doll is supposedly dedicated to inspiring women to run for office, and has earned predictable eye rolls from feminists.
“With just 39 per cent of girls saying that they want to be a leader, President and Vice-President Barbie will serve as an inspiration for girls to pursue their dreams and imagine what they can become,” the statement said.
Man is the only animal in this universe, who carries multiple identities. His voyage into the world of identity, in fat starts with his name, Then as time passes, he takes pride in the identity of his caste, creed, colour, religion and nationality to mention a few . man’s penchant for identity does not stop there . He even gets intoxicated with his professional identity. Someone is a doctor, someone else is an engineer, there are also other who flash and flush because they are either astronauts or scientists. He continues to look for additional identities!
Otherwise, how would you account for the controversy that revolved around the
Kali-fiction of Hindus venerate Kali- the consort of Lord Shiva and the Goddess of Destruction.
If Kali symbolises the triumph of good over evil, Barbie is a brand of doll made by Mattel representing a slim, shapely young woman, especially one with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. When used as noun Barbie means, especially a young woman, perceived as blandly attractive and vacuous.
It is here the Kali-fiction of Barbie fuelled all the brouhaha in the world anguishing innumerable Barbie fans got upset, because they could not simply bear the sight of their otherwise beautiful doll converted into a cannibalistic posture.
The Hindus fumed and fretted, because, they felt the Argentine artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini resorted to a cheap publicity stunt by giving Barbie the Kali makeover. However, there have also been others who defended the artistic freedom, unwilling to embrace the path of extremism.
They cited that the Argentine artists had made 33 dolls representing figures from Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism for exhibition in a Buenos Aire Gallery Show called ‘Barbie- The Plastic Religion’. So, they felt neither the Barbie fans nor the Hindus should get unsettled by the new-look-Barbie.
Be that as it may, it is my firm belief that everything in this world is inter-changeable including Barbie the doll and Kali the idol. If you have a doubt then take a look at the life of Adolf Hitler, the man who killed thousands even while adoring children! That confirms our mind is home to two persons, nay myriad!
- Somerset Maugham puts it better: “There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognise that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But, which is the real one? All of them or none?
No one could have explained better man’s identity crisis.
So it is not the varied reactions- in support and against the Barbie conundrum- that surprise me ; it is also not the exercise of the artistic freedom that went behind the Barbie re-creation. Instead what stuns me is the man’s obsession with identity!
It would not be an exaggeration to say that man today is threatened by intellectual pauperdom. It bestows him with an identity that emanates from inanimate objects to which he clutches tightly like a simpleton. But the man does not realise that he has virtually become the prisoner of a doll!
