{"id":7436,"date":"2023-08-08T09:58:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T13:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=7436"},"modified":"2023-08-09T15:24:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T19:24:51","slug":"religiously-themed-barbies-relaunch-amid-barbie-movie-craze-spark-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/08\/religiously-themed-barbies-relaunch-amid-barbie-movie-craze-spark-controversy.html","title":{"rendered":"Religiously Themed Barbies Relaunch Amid &#8216;Barbie&#8217; Movie Craze Spark Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7463\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7463\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7463\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/08\/religious-barbie_credit-Pool-Paolini-facebook-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7463\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pool Paolini \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The planned relaunch of religiously themed Barbie dolls in Argentina called \u201cJesus Ken\u201d and \u201cBarbie Virgin Mary\u201d has sparked global outrage, especially among Buenos Aires Catholic groups, the birthplace of Pope Francis.<\/p>\n<p>This relaunch comes after the international success of the \u201cBarbie\u201d movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie. It prompted the creators, local artists Marianela Perelli and Emiliano Pool Paolini, to reissue their controversial collection. Jam Press reported that the artists\u2019 original \u201cBarbie: The Plastic Religion\u201d exhibit in 2014 received severe death threats for representing essential religious figures, including the Virgin Mary and Catholic saints, as dolls.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the threats, at least one toy shop in Argentina has supposedly agreed to stock more models of the revived collection, with the artists planning the showcase the dolls in an art show in December, according to the New York Post. According to <em>USA Today,<\/em> the previous exhibit, \u201cBarbie, The Plastic Religion,\u201d drew anger worldwide. Priest Adrian Santarelli from St. Thomas More parish in Buenos Aires questioned the appropriateness of the dolls, saying their representation of sacred images may damage a child\u2019s understanding of the holy.<\/p>\n<p>It included Barbies depicted as the Virgin of Guadalupe and Joan of Arc, among others and Ken as Moses and Buddha. It avoided representing Muslim figures due to Islamic prohibitions of such depictions. In response to the controversy, the artists insist that the exhibit is purely artwork and not intended to offend. Paolini insists that the creations were \u201csimply the union of the two most popular elements of history: the Barbie doll and religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bJLSIP9TD3k\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrankly, we don\u2019t understand why we\u2019re being attacked,\u201d the New York Post quoted Paolini as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/08\/03\/barbie-virgin-mary-and-jesus-ken-creators-receive-death-threats\/\">saying<\/a>. \u201cReligion has always depicted virgins as the most beautiful women,\u201d he added. \u201cToday, the most beautiful woman is Barbie.\u201d According to the organizers, the exhibit reportedly planned for December is expected to draw about 400 visitors, with police presence to ensure security.<\/p>\n<p>Paolini said, \u201cThe reception to the revived collection is going well. We will take part in an art show with the stand dedicated to Plastic Religion where we will present 33 Barbie dolls, among other artwork.\u201d Paolini and Perelli created the idea after seeing Day of the Day celebrations in Mexico. They argue that if there are Barbies representing various professions, why not a religious one?<\/p>\n<p>The artwork has also provoked anger from Hindus in the past. Rajan Zed, a Hindu cleric in Nevada, criticized the \u201cBarbie-fication of Kali\u201d as inappropriate and out of place. However, Elina Aguilar, a retiree, and Hugo Fryszberg, an employee of the Buenos Aires government, defended the exhibit, noting that dolls of other religious figures have been sold without issue. Social media reactions to the revived collection are mixed.<\/p>\n<p>One user labeled it an \u201cinternational scandal,\u201d while another accused the artists of infamously seeking fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The planned relaunch of religiously themed Barbie dolls in Argentina called \u201cJesus Ken\u201d and \u201cBarbie Virgin Mary\u201d has sparked global outrage, especially among Buenos Aires Catholic groups, the birthplace of Pope Francis. This relaunch comes after the international success of the \u201cBarbie\u201d movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie. It prompted the creators, local artists&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":7475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1688,1685],"class_list":["post-7436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","tag-controversy","tag-religious-barbies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Religiously Themed Barbies Relaunch Amid &#039;Barbie&#039; Movie Craze Spark Controversy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The planned relauch of religiously themed Barbies by two Argentinian artists have sparked controversy among religious groups.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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