By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
Every once in a while something fun happens on the world scene, something that makes me smile.
Last summer two Italians visited Israel. They went for a vacation and for the purpose of creating art.
The two were photographers, so naturally, they brought their cameras. They also brought Barbie and Ken. And then they took pictures of the dolls against the backdrop of the great sites of Israel. Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, the Western Wall.
Those photos are now on display. They have been featured in very popular Italian fashion and art magazines and even in Vanity Fair.
What makes this an even more interesting story is that in Iran, Barbie and Ken are outlawed because they are Western influences.
They were officially banned in January of last year. And just yesterday the Iranians outlawed Buddha so that it is now illegal to sell any doll of Buddha in Iran.
Barbie was created by a Jew woman named Ruth Handler on March 6, 1959. Handler was the co founder of Mattel. She named the doll after her daughter Barbara and then, in 1961, when Ken came along she named him after her son.
It is intriguing to see that dolls can have such an impact on the world that one country bans them while another takes pictures of them and publishes those pictures as art.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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