The most optimistic reading one can lend the story is that these women are fighting fire with fire. Yahoo! News reports that women’s rights protesters in Berlin, Germany, disrupted the opening of a giant pink doll’s house — called the Barbie “Dreamhouse Experience” — claiming that it exploits women.
And how did the protesters make their voices heard? By stripping off their clothing above the waist and parading topless. In some quarters, their actions might be viewed as exploitative of women.
One of the partially clad demonstrators, a member of the Femen protest group, had the slogan “Life in plastic is not fantastic” scrawled across her bare chest. At one point, she set fire to a Barbie doll tied, for some reason, to a mini crucifix.
Stevie Meriel Schmiedel, a founding member of a protest group called “Pink Stinks,” is quoted as saying:
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.
We’re protesting because Barbie would not be able to survive with her figure and yet she is an idol for many girls and that’s not healthy.
Mattel Inc,. the manufacturer of the legendary doll and sponsor of the interactive exhibit, which will be on display through Aug. 25, encourages visitors to “play Barbie.” They can try on Barbie’s clothes, play in her kitchen, and even tinkle on her pink piano.
Related Articles
- German museum’s ‘Jew in the box’ exhibit stirs passions
- Topless women protest as Berlusconi votes
- HS librarian sentenced for sending pics of her naked breasts to student
- Today is 12th annual ‘No Pants Subway Ride Day’
- Latest feminist complaint: You never see the Virgin Mary breastfeeding Jesus
- AIDS activists stage nude protest at John Boehner’s office; arrests made
- Oreo ad of baby feeding on exposed breast slips past the censors
- San Franciscans stage nude-in, protest proposed law against baring all in public
- 6-year-old airs grievances over gender imbalance
- Women in NYC go topless for the revolution
- Bare-breasted activists parade through NYC for ‘Go-Topless Day’
