Jezebel 
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New York, 5:15 PM
Sun Nov 29
21 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/23/09
Hmm, now this is actually the justification that I've heard by Muslimahs and apologists, that it's just like any other garment(which I disagree with as it is uniquely restrictive and effacing)
11/23/09
Really? What makes the doll absolutely non-Muslim? Its coloring? Should we be launching a campaign against American Girl for selling Christmas and Hanukkah doll outfits independently of the dolls?
11/23/09
11/23/09
you'd be surprised by the manner of burkas one see's women wearing in europe and the middle east. everything from Fendi logos to gold embroidery head to toe and diamong and crystal studded ones for special occasions - the bright colors are not uncommon, especially at weddings etc!
good choice not become fox news fodder, though.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
@labeled:
11/23/09
11/23/09
Which isn't to say that I think this Barbie was a bad idea, or that women shouldn't be allowed to wear the burqa. Women should be allowed to make their own choices, especially about something as personal as how they dress. But we shouldn't ignore that this style of dress is, in fact, rooted in a patriarchal mindset.
11/23/09
11/23/09
Also, I think it would be very hard to find a form or style of dress that ISN'T rooted in some kind of patriarchal mindset. How much of the fashion in the US is rooted in that and "looking good" to attract men?
11/23/09
Though I do not practice this dress code now (my family moved to another state when I was starting middle school and there were no such churches in that area), I don't feel that there was anything wrong with the code itself. I've always viewed this dress as what I was always told: that it wasn't as much an attempt to cover up my body as it was a symbol of my faith to people outside and inside of the church.
I think that by simply stigmatizing the burka we are, in fact, looking at it very one-dimensionally and making the women who wear them out to be weak and almost infantile in that they don't really understand what their clothes mean and that they need us, women from the West, to tell them how to dress. Their clothes mean something very different to them than they do us in the same way that I have very different feelings about my traditional clothes than women I describe them to. The issue isn't the burka. It's violence against women. If a woman is forced to do something on threat of violence or death, be is wearing a burka or sexy clothing, that's the problem. The abusive society behind the clothes are the problem, not the clothes themselves because how we dress our bodies mean wildly different things to different, thinking women.
Some of us like to dress in order to show our skin to make a point (that our bodies are natural and beautiful) and some of us like to dress in order to cover our skin to make an equally valid point (that our bodies are devoted to our God and thus clothed in a certain garb). Neither is better than the other.
11/24/09
I agree that the society behind clothes is more of a problem than the clothing itself. If we stigmatize clothes based on the society they are prevalent in, we'd have nothing to wear. :) I think, for those in the US, it's harder to understand the reasons behind a culture that would wear something such as a burqa, just because it is so different than what you are accustomed to here. You said it well, neither is better than the other.
11/23/09
In my opinion, it reeks of orientalism to paint all muslim women who wear the burka, as being subjects of oppression and extremism.
When did every practice that is different from our own become evil and reviled?
This is not to say that women arent forced to wear the burka, but that many millions choose to by their own accord, and I dont think its fair to discount their religious beliefs/practices for daring to be different from our own.
11/23/09
I have a friend who—in uber-liberal Cambridge, MA, in Harvard Square—was attacked and had her coat, shirt, and headscarf ripped off of her by a mob of anti-Muslim ignorants shortly after Spetmber 11.
Feminism to me means that women should wear whatever the hell they feel like, be it a burka or a four-inch-long miniskirt, and not feel threatened, intimidated, or endangered walking down a street.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
I mean, doesn't everyone have a moment when they're jeans shopping when the idea of everyone just wearing a burka seem kind of appealing? To me it seems like the same idea that's behind school uniforms.
11/23/09
I mean, it's not like Mattel is suddenly going to start selling the things, a point that seems lost on some of the commenters to the other site.
11/23/09
Remember Barbie is the American version. I don't think it would be a stretch to say they localized dolls for different markets.
They do that for movies and video games...why not toys? Would it be so horrible for them to make a Barbie doll that tailored to the tastes and mores of the culture that plays with it?
11/23/09
Right now, it's just a one-off display and to fault Mattel is sort of like calling out paint companies because of offensive graffiti.
11/23/09
"Look at those dirty Jihad dolls"
Now if the art show had strapped mini bombs to these dolls we'd have another discussion.
It's just short-sightedness on NOW's part to assume dolls aren't already being made to fit similar tastes. And to be outraged over making a profit from them when we pour billions of dollars in oil money into that region is laughable.
NOW is missing the mark big on this.
I'm not a fan of xenophobic imperialism.
11/23/09
It appears that some of the people on the other site didn't get the memo because some of the commenters (and the article's headline) are calling for a boycott.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
I agree with Anna's advice. No reason to be Fox's pawn.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
That being said, I do think it's a sexist style of dress. I think it's wrong to see it as something inherently violent, though.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
It would probably anger me if it surprised me at all, but it doesn't. I just spent part of the weekend with my communications class at a Jordanian restaurant where people freaked out and refused to eat half the food because it had rose flavoring and looked weird.
11/23/09
11/23/09
and might I add, with their toes chewed into pancakes, and terrible haircuts.