Culture

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. more >>

Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, is making a name for herself when it comes to philanthropy.

Jobs lost her husband in 2011. The Apple innovator was behind game-changing devices such as the iPad, iPod, and iPhone.

Among the many legacies Jobs left behind, the innovator also left behind a vast fortune. His wife's net worth is $11.5 billion, making her the ninth wealthiest woman in the world, according to Forbes. more >>

John Mark and Pamela Crawford are suing the state of South Carolina for performing sex assignment surgery on their adoptive infant three months prior to having legal custody of the child. This is the first lawsuit of its kind in the nation.

Their child, known as M.C., was born with both male and female reproductive organs, otherwise known as a special needs child that has an intersex condition. When M.C. was 16 months old and a ward of the state, under the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services, doctors and department officials decided that M.C. should undergo sex assignment surgery to make M.C. a girl. The child's biological mother was deemed unfit and the biological father was considered to have abandoned the child. The decision about the child's sexuality was left to the state.

M.C. is now 8 years old, identifies as a boy, dresses as a boy, and refuses to be called a girl. M.C.'s surgery is irreversible. Left with female genitalia, his parents say that he feels like he has always been a boy and he has announced to his school and church community that he is a boy. more >>

Matthew and Sarah Harms are the parents of four girls; the oldest aged six, Elizabeth, has Turner Syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality, and the youngest, Ava, passed away on her first birthday on May 24, 2012. Despite their grief and bewilderment, they trusted in God's goodness and faithfulness to comfort and provide for them.

The Harms were devastated when they learned that their first daughter had Turner Syndrome, a genetic condition in which a female does not have the usual pair of two X chromosomes; one of her sex chromosomes is missing or has other abnormalities. Girls with Turner Syndrome generally have non-working ovaries, absence of a menstrual cycle, and are sterile. Concurrent health concerns may also be present, including congenital heart disease, hypothyroidism, diabetes, vision or hearing problems, and autoimmune diseases.

Despite overwhelming grief, Matthew Harms shared in the video, "at that point we loved God and trusted God and knew that he was good but there were days that I started questioning that and there was definitely a point where we had to reassure ourselves every day that God was good… and we started to see how God was taking care of us." more >>

Editor's Note: The new "Faith & Work" series will profile Christians who are influencing the culture in their professions. The series will examine how Christians can apply the Gospel into their lives and develop a Gospel-centered worldview to positively influence the common good and better serve their profession and industry.

Holly Hoffman, a finalist who finished fourth in CBS's reality television show, "Survivor Nicaragua," just released a new book, Your Winner Within, Own your Power, Your Attitude and Your Life, to help others "survive in the real world."

"What I learned from being on the reality show, I have been able to apply to the real world of survival," she says. From her experience on the show, she learned what really mattered to her – her faith, her family and friends, and finding an inner strength she didn't know she had. "Life is not always fair," she says. "My faith makes me realize that there is always a reason [for a life experience] and if God brought you to it, He will get you through it." more >>

Bea Arthur would have been 90 yesterday, and to celebrate, a painting of the former "Golden Girls" star fetched $1.9 million at a Christie's auction, setting a new record. Arthur died in 2009 after several years of battling cancer.

The painting, done in 1991 by John Currin, caused quite a stir. It features a topless Arthur staring at the viewer and was considered radical for its time.

"It's historically significant. It's radical to sexualize someone people think of as asexual. The painting has a visual toughness to it, but it's also fun," Christie's spokesman Koji Inoue said in a statement. more >>