Mattel, the toy company that manufactures Barbie® dolls, opened "The Barbie Dreamhouse Experience" in Berlin, Germany, May 16. Since then, the opening has garnered constant censure from 'feminists' and of late, the protests have been mounting, ruining the experience for Barbie fans.
A group of people have started a Facebook campaign, "Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse" inspired by New York's "Occupy Wall Street" protests. Apparently, they feel that the exhibition is promoting a 'formidable' image and have called it a 'sexist propaganda'.
Another protest group called "Pink Stinks" gathered outside the huge pink mansion, fashioned to look just like Barbie's Malibu residence, to protest against the extravagant promotion.
"There's too much emphasis on becoming more beautiful and on being pretty and that puts an awful lot of pressure on girls as well as wasting capacities which they could use to simply be happy or for school," Stevie Meriel Schmiedel, a founding member of the "Pink Stinks," said to Aljazeera News.
Other instances included a topless woman with "life in plastic is not fantastic" written on her chest, burning a Barbie doll on a cross and waving it around while she stood on the water fountain shaped like a giant pink stiletto pump.
Another male protestor wore a pink shirt and a short flimsy skirt matching it with a white bob-wig and hung a placard around his neck that read, "Do you like me now?" More placards had ""Dear Barbie - don't just bake cupcakes, eat them too!" and "I will free you from the horror house" written on them, reports New York Daily.
However, the protestors say that their rebellion is not an intention to spoil little girls' experience.
"Our protest is not directed towards little girls and their dreams. 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," Michael Koschitzki, a member of the Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse protest group, said to NBC News.
A feature at DW explores the much neutral, saner and logical side of the issue at hand. Lavinia Pitu, the author of the blog calls Barbie a "competent businesswoman" and urges people to look at it more like a marketing strategy, rather than taking it personally.
"With or without Barbie, little girls will always love lipstick, high heels and pink. Even though I grew up behind the Iron Curtain, where Babushka was fat and made of wood, I used to try on my mother's shoes and dresses. Even without Barbie as a bad role model, I made my own decision at some point to wear makeup and high heels - so I cannot blame her for my occasional back aches and sore feet," she writes.
The exhibition will last until August 25, after which the house will be dissembled, packed and taken away to tour other European nations.
Check out a video of the protests below:
