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$\"wpid-Photo-20140922082043.jpg\"$ <\/p>\n

I\u2019m much more interested, for obvious reasons, in the creative combination of religious and science fiction iconography. But it seems to me that this example actually gets at something much deeper. If we look at historic depictions of religious figures like Mary or Jesus in art, we see them conformed more to ideal types in the artistic realm of the respective culture, than to historically plausible appearances from their own time. And so there is a real extent to which the Barbification of Mary is just one example of that.\u00a0Indeed, perhaps the most noteworthy thing is that\u00a0these religious\u00a0figures and popular toys can be so readily interchangeable, with little or no adaptation of their features felt to be necessary.<\/p>\n

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