Barbie Burns on Cross at Berlin Protest of Barbie Dreamhouse Opening
Protesters picketed the opening of the life-size Barbie Dreamhouse Experience in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday, burning a Barbie doll on a cross as part of a demonstration.
"This dream world suggests that women can't be anything less than beautiful and slim," said Franziska Sedlak from protest group Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse. "And life is not about being beautiful all the time."
Women's groups are arguing that the Dreamhouse, which comes full of rooms and accessories designed to look just like Barbie's fictional Malibu home, is pushing the "cliché of the female role in society" and is a negative image for girls to look up to.
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NBC News reported that the new attraction has supporters in Berlin, with many of the city's toy stores filled with Barbie merchandise promoting the slogan "Pink Rocks." But protesters have started their own campaign called "Pinkstinks," which objects to "marketing strategies that allocate a limited gender role to young girls."
Organizers have described the life-size house as a "seemingly endless walk-in closet."
"It provides a completely new insight into the living interior and lifestyle of the most famous doll in the world," said Christoph Rahofer of marketing company EMS.
Protesters have found various ways to express their opposition to the Dreamhouse, however. Besides the burning Barbie on the cross, women have also gone topless while holding signs such as "Barbie is not my baby," "I will free you from the horror house," while a man in a pink dress and blond wig held a sign that read "Do you like me now?"
"Our protest is not directed towards little girls and their dreams," Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse member Michael Koschitzki said. "But, for us, this so-called Dreamhouse symbolizes the beauty craze and the discrimination of women in modern day life. It presents a cliché of the female role in society."
Reuters noted that security guards ejected the protesters from the site on Thursday. The Dreamhouse, which is expected to attract 3,000 visitors a day, is going to stay at the German capital until August and then go on a tour around Europe.
