Fulla or Barbie for Ramadan?
Thursday, September 13, 2007
RAMADAN is knocking on our door and parents are contriving to convince their children to observe fasting throughout the holy month. Promises of a new bike, the newest video game, to a set of new fashionable clothes for their Barbie are uttered unthinkingly. Barbie? Take a breather and think again.
Some parents in the Muslim world are promising their daughters the "Muslim version" of Barbie, known as Fulla. Unlike the blonde, wasp-waisted and large-chested Barbie doll, Fulla has dark hair, brown eyes and a small chest. Unlike Barbie who changes her clothes for any activity imaginable (from tennis to car-racing), Fulla wears the headscarves in colour that covers the whole spectrum, from black to the brightest purple.
Unlike the "promiscuous" Barbie who had, until several years ago, "cohabited" with the doll Ken, Fulla does not have a boyfriend. And unlike Barbie who power-dresses for the board meeting, Fulla does not even have a job; she is said to spend her time cooking, reading and praying.
This should ring the loudest alarm in any parents' mind. Psychologists and educators both in the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the globe have for years been giving out warning about the detrimental effects of giving our daughter a Barbie because that doll is sending the wrong messages about growing up a woman. Barbie's physique is telling our girls that they have to be big-breasted, sharp-waisted and blonde to be described beautiful and attractive. How many real, flesh-and-blood women are born with the proportions that Barbie is endowed with?
There have been attempts by researchers to link the messages of beauty ala Barbie with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, as well as the troubling distorted body image of girls today. Many parents have now abandoned the decade-old tradition of giving Barbie dolls to their daughters because they do not want to perpetuate the stereotype pushed by its American maker, Mattel.
But Fulla is not the answer to Barbie. If anything, it aggravates the misconception about what it is like to grow up a woman. The physical mould of Fulla is no more accurate a portrayal of a Muslim woman than Barbie is for a woman in the West. Neither Barbie's large chest nor Fulla's flat chest is the true depiction of women in the East or the West. Besides, who says Fulla portrays the Muslim women today by failing to hold down a job and spending her time cooking, reading and praying only? No Muslim parents in their sane mind would want their daughters to grow up with a headscarved-shell for their head, as dictated by the stereotype pushed by the maker of Fulla, the Syrian firm of NewBoy Toys.
Maybe it is true that Fulla's maker is merely seeking to fill any void left by Barbie in some markets, or to create a new market in the Muslim society where blonde hair is not usually seen. Indeed, there is a growing trend among Muslim-owned consumer-goods companies to begin to tap the Muslim market in the West and elsewhere. Since January, the Burqini, a full-coverage swimsuit made by Ahiida, whose founder is a Lebanese immigrant in Australia, has been sold internationally online. As the name implies, the polyster suits are a cross between a burqa and a bikini, and are designed in accordance with Islamic code of modest dressing. In fact, in the non-west society such as Indonesia, for instance, the burqini is gaining popularity very fast as well.
May be it is also true, as some hassled parents would say to avoid any whinging from their fasting little daughters, that "it's just a toy." What harm can it do? The answer would depend on whether the overall message to girls in their households are of positive, empowering nature, or ones that foster weak self image. Ultimately, however, we would have to be really sensitive that a gift as trivial as a doll may speak more volumes than thousands of words can, about what kind of a woman we want our daughters to grow up to be.
Some parents in the Muslim world are promising their daughters the "Muslim version" of Barbie, known as Fulla. Unlike the blonde, wasp-waisted and large-chested Barbie doll, Fulla has dark hair, brown eyes and a small chest. Unlike Barbie who changes her clothes for any activity imaginable (from tennis to car-racing), Fulla wears the headscarves in colour that covers the whole spectrum, from black to the brightest purple.
Unlike the "promiscuous" Barbie who had, until several years ago, "cohabited" with the doll Ken, Fulla does not have a boyfriend. And unlike Barbie who power-dresses for the board meeting, Fulla does not even have a job; she is said to spend her time cooking, reading and praying.
This should ring the loudest alarm in any parents' mind. Psychologists and educators both in the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the globe have for years been giving out warning about the detrimental effects of giving our daughter a Barbie because that doll is sending the wrong messages about growing up a woman. Barbie's physique is telling our girls that they have to be big-breasted, sharp-waisted and blonde to be described beautiful and attractive. How many real, flesh-and-blood women are born with the proportions that Barbie is endowed with?
There have been attempts by researchers to link the messages of beauty ala Barbie with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, as well as the troubling distorted body image of girls today. Many parents have now abandoned the decade-old tradition of giving Barbie dolls to their daughters because they do not want to perpetuate the stereotype pushed by its American maker, Mattel.
But Fulla is not the answer to Barbie. If anything, it aggravates the misconception about what it is like to grow up a woman. The physical mould of Fulla is no more accurate a portrayal of a Muslim woman than Barbie is for a woman in the West. Neither Barbie's large chest nor Fulla's flat chest is the true depiction of women in the East or the West. Besides, who says Fulla portrays the Muslim women today by failing to hold down a job and spending her time cooking, reading and praying only? No Muslim parents in their sane mind would want their daughters to grow up with a headscarved-shell for their head, as dictated by the stereotype pushed by the maker of Fulla, the Syrian firm of NewBoy Toys.
Maybe it is true that Fulla's maker is merely seeking to fill any void left by Barbie in some markets, or to create a new market in the Muslim society where blonde hair is not usually seen. Indeed, there is a growing trend among Muslim-owned consumer-goods companies to begin to tap the Muslim market in the West and elsewhere. Since January, the Burqini, a full-coverage swimsuit made by Ahiida, whose founder is a Lebanese immigrant in Australia, has been sold internationally online. As the name implies, the polyster suits are a cross between a burqa and a bikini, and are designed in accordance with Islamic code of modest dressing. In fact, in the non-west society such as Indonesia, for instance, the burqini is gaining popularity very fast as well.
May be it is also true, as some hassled parents would say to avoid any whinging from their fasting little daughters, that "it's just a toy." What harm can it do? The answer would depend on whether the overall message to girls in their households are of positive, empowering nature, or ones that foster weak self image. Ultimately, however, we would have to be really sensitive that a gift as trivial as a doll may speak more volumes than thousands of words can, about what kind of a woman we want our daughters to grow up to be.
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