Sunday, November 2, 2014

Religious Figure Barbie & Ken Dolls Upset Church

In September 2014, the artists Pool & Maria Lena launched their provocative art show showing their own vision of religious icons and what they may mean today.  With Jesus Ken and Virgin Barbie, they proposed a number of figures reinterpreted from scripture, much to the consternation of the Catholic church.*


Representatives from across the Catholic clergy protested as a mockery of their faith this "art installation" - one depicting a Ken/Martyred Saint Sebastian with the colors of the gay rainbow.  Citing the blaspheme of presenting such figures, a spokesman said, "We do not think its right for people to use likenesses in this way.  We don't care if Barbie and Ken are the most-sold figures in the history of mankind.  Clearly the toy industry is not taking into consideration the billions of cheap plastic figures sold right in St Peter's Square and in gift shops of the Virgin, the Holy Family, and pretty much every other figure in the gospels.  Not to mention at Christmastime, when you can even have a teddy bear holy family in your manger."
Another bishop added, "These dolls contribute to the loss of innocence of children the world over. Only those of us - men of the cloth - should be allowed to defile our church and the tender lambs in our midst."

As for the artists, they believe that they have served art well; through their figures, they openly ask if religion can be reduced to a few icons. In response, the faithful the world over just made a collective shrug of their shoulders -- indicating clearly, that they had no idea what these artists were on about... 
As one person put it, with no irony whatsoever, "Despite all our efforts and our global sales of literally millions of these items, we've got nothing on the Colosseum-it's still the most-sold item in Rome."


* While the artists actually depicted religious figures from many different faiths, it was pointed out that they neglected to produce a figure of Mohammed...

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