‘Barbie Death Camp’ at Burning Man Inflames Controversy, ADL Steps In

Burning Man is an eight-day hippy dippy baccanalia with music and art that takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock desert every summer. The uber-wealthy decide to “rough it” for a week, by driving in a fleet of RVs, and bringing their sushi chefs along. Drugs are technically forbidden, but since they’re as plentiful as candy at Halloween, enforcing that particular law is problematic, to say the least. Art is a major theme, with UFOs and flaming race cars being pro forma, but this year’s “Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro” exhibit pushed the envelope to breaking. Jewish News Of Northern California:

…the display at the “Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro” was controversial, offending some “Burners,” as festival attendees are called, and even sparking an altercation on Aug. 31 that led to an arrest and a smashed vehicle taillight, a camp leader said.

Photos sent to J. show a large-scale diorama that one person described as “Auschwitz-themed” made with Barbie dolls. A sea of nude Barbies is seen moving toward three full-size kitchen ovens. Some are “crucified” on bright pink crosses. Other photos show toy soldiers with semi-automatic rifles “marching” the Barbies from the rear. A banner strapped to an RV proclaims the Barbie Death Camp “the friendliest concentration camp” at Burning Man. Another reads “arbeit macht plastik frei,” a reference to the message over the Auschwitz gate meaning “work makes you free.” It also says the camp is presented by “Auschwitz Inc.” and “The Mattel Co.” […]

Some people, particularly experienced Burners, saw in the Barbie Death Camp a bit of boundary-pushing gallows humor, social commentary, or even a daring critique of American materialism. Others, though, saw baffling tone deafness, sheer insensitivity or worse. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so offensive,” said one Bay Area festival attendee who was shocked by the display. He asked not to be named because he said he is a witness in an ongoing criminal case involving the broken taillight.

There’s more broken in this story than a taillight. The guy who put together the exhibit is Jewish, the son of a WWII pilot who was shot down over Berlin and captured, and he’s been doing it for years, he says. And he says it’s a turn on to people — literally.

Jacoby said he got the idea for Barbie Death Camp from a National Lampoon joke. He also said, oddly, that part of the reason he’d kept it up over the years was “because it just worked.” The display, he said, has proven itself a sort of aphrodisiac (or at least an ice breaker).

“It’s a chance to meet people and have a friendly conversation,” he said of the concentration camp-themed display, to which Burners often bring their own Barbie dolls. “A couple of guys have gotten laid because women come and stop.”

“It’s a rather sexually charged atmosphere,” he said. “You get a chance to engage people.”

I don’t know if the “it” he refers to is Burning Man, or his particular exhibit, but if he’s talking about the latter, and people get hot and bothered by that kind of stimulation, then that is major mental illness, in my humble opinion.

Plus, it won’t surprise you that a political component raised it’s head, over the controversial display.

Jacoby said he was accused of being a “f***ing Trump supporter” and a “Nazi white supremacist.” That is “nonsense,” he said. “We’ve been doing this since Clinton was president.” Others took photos of the camp, which they said they would be sending to the ADL. Some did.

On Aug. 31, the confrontation turned violent. Jacoby said protesters who were leaving the festival in the afternoon “began to smash our property” and threaten him. In the fracas, Jacoby admitted, someone with the Barbie Death Camp smashed one of the protesters’ car taillights with a mallet. He was arrested and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and Jacoby bailed him out. […]

While some Burning Man attendees were put off or deeply offended by Barbie Death Camp, others found it to be firmly within bounds, particularly since Burning Man bills itself as a “laboratory” for pushing the limits of social acceptability.

“There are a lot of potentially offensive things at Burning Man,” said Ron Feldman of Berkeley, a longtime Burner who this year went to Shabbat services at Milk and Honey, a well-known Jewish-themed camp. He said he did not hear any talk there of Barbie Death Camp. […]

Feldman, who said he donates to the ADL, thinks claims of trivializing the Holocaust are spurious. He referenced depictions of the Holocaust in art, like “Springtime for Hitler,” the parody from the musical “The Producers.” “It’s ironic. It’s political critique and commentary,” he said. “It’s definitely not anti-Jewish in any way.”

I don’t see how this exhibit trivializing the holocaust can not be perceived as anti-Jewish, and nice Jewish frat boys defending this imagery is so bizarre that it’s beyond my contemplation.

Jacoby said he is sensitive to the possibility that the Barbie Death Camp might be offensive. But that is part of the point.

“We certainly don’t want to trigger anybody,” said Jacoby. “But Burning Man is not a safe space. It’s not Yale University. You don’t get to run and hide from something you don’t like. There’s 1,100 theme camps. If you don’t like ours, go to another one.”

“We started off small,” Jacoby said. “Just 11 miserable Barbies stuffed into an Easy-Bake Oven.”

I love gallows humor, but I don’t see it here. I see tastelessness. I was friends with a holocaust survivor, a man named Ara Sevanian, who ran a famous hamburger stand in the San Fernando Valley for decades, “Ara’s Armenian Hamburgers.” He showed me the number tattooed on his arm and told me about sleeping on the shelves and how the Nazis tried to bury him alive at one point. This is not fodder for comedy, I’m sorry. But the “artist” is standing by his work.

Said Jacoby about his project: “Is it a little dark? Yeah, it’s a little dark.”

“Part of the magic of [Burning Man] is that it’s not vanilla, Disneyland, pro-family,” Jacoby said. “There’s a lot of nudity. A lot of sex. A lot of drugs. It’s not a family-friendly environment. And our camp isn’t, either.”

Sounds f**ked up to me, folks. I doubt if I’ll be patronizing Burning Man any time soon, but if I chance to do so, I won’t be supporting “Barbie Death Camp. The ADL says it’s received “a lot of complaints,” and “Certainly individuals have a right to free expression. But using that free expression to trivialize the Holocaust for the sake of political, social or artistic ends is still deeply offensive and inappropriate.” To say the very least.

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