German backlash to close down first Barbie fun land
Plans to open a giant version of the Barbie Dreamhouse in Berlin are facing protests from Left-wing campaigners who say the world's most famous doll promotes a degrading stereotype of women.
The Dreamhouse Experience is being decorated with more than 20 pounds of glitter and 100 gallons of pink paint Photo: Mattel
Jeevan Vasagar in Berlin 5:28PM BST 01 Apr 2013
The Barbie Dreamhouse Experience, a giant pink doll's house due to open in the German capital next month, will feature a cupcake kitchen, catwalk, karaoke stage and walk-in closet. Barbie fans will have the chance to try on the doll's outfits, and hundreds of Barbie dolls and other memorabilia will be on display. There will be animations and inter-active games featuring Barbie's friends, family and pets.
The youth wing of the Left Party (die Linke), the far-left group which succeeded the former east German communist party, has warned that the shrine to Barbie will face demonstrations when it opens.
Left Party activist Franziska Sedlak told German newspaper die Tageszeitung: "Barbie represents a completely unnatural image of beauty – a woman with her figure would snap in the middle. She is also a reactionary, by suggesting that it is the sole job of women to be beautiful, to wear high heels and always have fresh cake in the oven." The Barbie Dreamhouse was a 'symptom of the oppression of women' Ms Sedlak said.
The wage gap between men and women and the burden of unpaid domestic work keeps women economically dependent on their husbands, and makes them vulnerable to domestic violence, she argued.
Campaigners have also criticised Barbie for presenting just two career options for women – model or pop star. "They present an image of cooking, primping and singing, as if it were in some way life-fulfilling," Michael Koschitzki of the Left Party's youth wing told Der Spiegel.
Opponents have launched a Facebook group, Occupy Barbie-Dreamhouse, which has been used as a platform to organise protests against sexist advertising, such as men's deodorant ads which feature a woman's bare legs.
Christopher Rahofer, chief executive of EMS entertainment, which has created the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience in partnership with toymaker Mattel, said the life-sized doll's house was intended to entertain rather than educate. He said: "This is just about having fun. I think the protest is totally unnecessary."
The Dreamhouse Experience, a 26,000 square foot space, is being decorated with more than 20 pounds of glitter and 100 gallons of pink paint, and will be on show in Berlin for three months before going on a European tour. An enormous image of Barbie is already on display on a billboard at the construction site in Alexanderplatz, once at the heart of communist east Berlin.
Women in Germany have become increasingly vocal in criticizing sexist behaviour in recent months. In January the Twitter handle aufschrei, coined in response to a politician's crude overture towards a female journalist, triggered an avalanche of tweets. More than 60,000 women tweeted in response, many of them with accounts of everyday harassment.
The pay gap between men and women is wider in Germany than anywhere else in Europe, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Full-time employed women earn 21.6 per cent less on average than German men working full-time, compared with an OECD average of 16 per cent.
Though the country is led by a woman, Germany also fares poorly in comparisons of female leadership in business. Women occupy just 4 per cent of top corporate jobs in Germany, against an OECD average of 10 per cent. In Sweden, France and Finland, the proportion of women on boards is between 15 and 20 per cent.
