Satanic and Islamic Doll Panic

Annie Jacobsen mocks Muslim opposition to Barbie dolls:

“Barbie is an emissary of nudity and promotes moral corruption,” wrote the hardliner [Iranian] newspaper Kahyan. [In Saudi Arabia] the ban-Barbie effort was huge. The religious police, or Mutaween, hung colorful posters outlawing “Jewish Barbie dolls” in schools and hospitals across the country…

Such hysteria over a mass-produced American doll is surely a sign of morbid paranoia in the Islamic world; thank goodness the West is more sensible…

From Fox News:

A doll some are claiming utters pro-Islam and even satanic messages has outraged parents in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

People insist they can hear Fisher-Price’s “Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Cuddle and Coo” mumbling “Islam is the light” and “Satan is king,” according to KJRH.com and MyFOXKC.com.

KJRH has a recording of the doll, and a statement from Fisher Price:

The Little Mommy Cuddle ‘n Coo dolls feature realistic baby sounds including cooing, giggling, and baby babble with no real sentence structure. The only scripted word the doll says is “mama.” There is a sound that may resemble something close to the word “night, right, or light.”…

Back in 2006 I blogged on WorldNetDaily‘s promotion of Rape of the Soul, a documentary which claims that Catholic art contains hidden sexual and satanic images that incite priests to commit abuse. Then as now, the claims tell us more about the people making them than what is objectively there.

3 Responses

  1. Oh, the duplicity of the world.

    How many times did I sit in a sociology or cult studies class at university and hear professors rail about barbie dolls. It was considered progressive, in some sense, to speak against the promotion of that body image. While I have to agree with my instructors’ supposition, though not their ardor, I’m curious to see if there’ s any change in opinion now that a certain vein of religious fundamentalists are speaking out about the same thing.

  2. Thomas:
    “Oh, the duplicity of the world.

    How many times did I sit in a sociology or cult studies class at university and hear professors rail about barbie dolls. It was considered progressive, in some sense, to speak against the promotion of that body image. While I have to agree with my instructors’ supposition, though not their ardor, I’m curious to see if there’ s any change in opinion now that a certain vein of religious fundamentalists are speaking out about the same thing.”

    ——–

    Well there shouldn’t be, as one shouldn’t abandon views because they may be similar to those held by unpleasant people.

    But sadly that’s exactly what alot of people do today. Many on the Right support war simply because the left opposes it, and many on the left support hateful-athiesm like that of Hitchens and Harris simply because they dislike Pat Robertson and his ilk.

  3. […] Doll Hysteria Posted on January 2, 2009 by Richard Bartholomew October’s hysteria over a doll’s babblings continues unabated. From the Beaufort Gazette: A local woman went to […]

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