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Globalization, a development that has changed lives with the help of
media and pop culture to unify a world divided. From the 1960ʼs Marvel hero, Spider Man, to the invention of the Mattel Barbie Doll in 1959, these are American toys/characters that children throughout the world grew up admiring and desiring to become. Spidey Meets Barbie is a show attempting to address a cross- cultural language of identity, and religious imposition on traditional values and norms by two Asian artists who grew up playing with Western pop cultural icons. For a woman born into a politically feminist family, pop culture icons once again are embraced to address issues of human rights. The Barbie Doll, though used historically by many to portray an unobtainable and an unrealistic image and character, is also an icon that is idolized by many. A transformation from the free Western woman, Barbie becomes a woman that in the West is often viewed as discriminated, submissive being. With this juxtaposition, cross-cultural dialogues revolve around Western fashion idealism, Western fear of Islam and finally Islamic discrimination against women.
