My Message for Barbie
During the process of writing this, I realize I didn’t pause to take a second to understand my relationship with her, mostly because the whole thing feels so distant. If I remember correctly my first introduction to Barbie was through her movies. ‘Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses’ is one that will always have a special place in my heart as it was one my first introductions to ballet. Many of the Barbie movies I watched growing up played a big role in cultivating my interest for the arts. One of the drawbacks though was the lack of racial representation.
I remember my sister and I wanting a Barbie doll that was based off the film ‘the 12 Dancing Princesses.’ The two of us begged my mom at work for the doll and she promised she would buy it for us. So when she returned and opened the bag, my sister and I felt a quiet pang of disappointment. The two of us wanted the white Barbie doll and my mother, being smart, brought us home the black one. We never vocalized this to our mother, afraid of sounding ungrateful and over time we learned to love her, but the memory stays with us as a reminder of how whitewashed our world was.
To this day, I don’t hate Barbie. Any self-esteem issues that I developed surrounding my race or body were a result of an entire society that deemed the Margot Robbies of the world the most beautiful. Because I was lucky enough to have parents that grounded me in my identity as a black West African woman I can recognize how she helped perpetuate a problem but also cultivate an artistic side that allowed me to dream of a life in that industry.
So I would like to thank her for being that role model for me and making an attempt at increasing the diversity of Barbies across Barbieland, so little black girls can see themselves in the worlds they want to be a part of.
Spoilers ahead!
Intro
As someone who has very little faith left in the rapidly declining quality of Hollywood content released by major studios, Barbie was supposed to be the exception of what is becoming a rule. But instead of leaving the theater with the satisfied excited feeling you get when you know you’ve watched something that changed your life, I left with a heaping pile of conflicting emotions.
The film is the coming of age story of Stereotypical Barbie (SB). Played by Margot Robbie, Stereotypical Barbie lives in Barbieland, a matriarchal paradise run by the many versions of herself. In this alternate reality, Barbie has helped little girls believe they can do anything they want, eradicating sexism in the real world. Everything is perfect, especially in Barbieland…until it’s not.
When Stereotypical Barbie begins to experience a reality that is less than perfect, including thoughts of death and flat feet, she’s encouraged to seek out the wisdom of Weird Barbie. The unfortunate result of being played with too hard, Weird Barbie lives away from the rest of society ostracized for her psychedelic hair and personality. She explains to Stereotypical Barbie the reason for the loss of her perfect doll-like traits was because of a rift between the real world and Barbieworld that must be fixed by going out into the real world and finding the girl who is playing with her.
So Barbie and Ken leave for the Real World and discover it’s far from perfect. Where Barbie experiences catcalling and mockery, Ken experiences respect and authority. On top of that, the girl she thinks is playing with her (Sasha) believes she’s a fascist who damages little girls' self-esteem by representing unrealistic expectations of beauty. Barbie is left feeling distraught and confused about her purpose and place in the world.
While Ken leaves reality to go share his discovery of patriarchy with the other Kens, Barbie meets the woman who’s been playing with her, Gloria, Sasha’s mother. After a high-speed car chase by Mattel who is seeking to imprison Barbie, they leave the chaos of the real world to return home. But by the time they do, Barbieland is now Kendom and all the Barbies have been seduced out of their positions of power (and their dream homes) and are now girlfriends, servants, and ditzy cheerleaders.
Now Stereotypical Barbie doesn’t just have to save Barbieland from a rift in space-time, but also from patriarchy. When they succeed, Stereotypical Barbie is still left feeling confused about her place in the world. With the help of the creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, she decides to leave Barbieland become human instead.
With stunning visuals and costumes, Barbie definitely has its strong moments. The setup was very hilariously brilliant and I wouldn’t be surprised if the gigantic, statuesque figure of Stereotypical Barbie will be a scene referenced in pop culture for years to come. But there are plenty of other areas where the film fell flat.
“Hi Barbie!!”
One of my main issues with the film is its blatant and on-the-nose tone. Although it contributed heavily in boosting its comedic appeal, it left no room for nuance or interpretation. Considering the fact the movie was marketed as a win for feminism, it didn’t do much to contribute anything new to the conversation. Barbie’s negative effect on young girls was touched on, continuing a discussion that had already been thoroughly explored and had a resounding message of “women are great and men suck.”
I understand it was presented that way to comedically make a point of how women are reduced to more ore less useless companions of men. But considering the fact this has been a sentiment used to delegitimize the feminist movement for years, I’m not sure playing into it was the smartest move. When all of Barbie's power had been restored and one of the Kens asked if could hold a spot on their Supreme Court, President Barbie rejected his request, stating that maybe someday they could have a lower circuit court. This, I believe, was a missed opportunity to show an egalitarian world where both the strengths and weaknesses of men and women are played to and acknowledged as important.
On the other hand, my discomfort with the lack of power held by the Kens may just be my reaction to living in a world that caters to the fragility of the male ego and the insistence to make men feel important. When I begin to consider how men have made it very clear they’re not interested in sharing society in any real egalitarian way with women (including the recent overturning of Roe v Wade), maybe Greta and the writers of Barbie were right to deny the Kens any real power. Especially when you take into account that the moment they had it, they weaponized it against the Barbies.
The satirized misandry of the film has caused an uproar amongst conservatives but I think they missed the point. First of all, Barbie is a film that plays into the world of Barbie created by Mattel. Mattel is a company that has built its fortune, reputation, and marketing around catering to the interests of little girls. Since we’ve built a society that limits boys' interaction with dolls to action figures, there really isn’t a reason for Mattel to emphasize the importance of Ken in the world of Barbie. Ken was created as a romantic companion to Barbie in order to appeal to the romantic idealism of their consumer base. Because the film is based on the world of dolls, it reflects that.
Additionally, I don’t think the satirizing of masculinity in the film is meant to be satire at all. Masculinity appeals to men’s desire to, in my words, peacock. The alpha male content popping up on Youtube and TikTok is an exaggerated example of what kind of behavior men are expected to model in society. This typically means asserting either economic, social, or physical dominance, success in the realm of money and women (which is interesting considering how many of these alpha males hate women), and either an air of overbearing confidence or quiet intimidating stoicism at all times.
The film does an excellent job of stripping this down to the bones, pointing out how funny this version of masculinity really is. Ken's understanding of patriarchy and manhood resembles that of an Andrew Tate loyalist. Potentially dangerous but also completely out of touch. Ryan Gosling struting around in a mink coat and singing to Barbie in an obvious attempt to impress her and show off is one of the funniest parts of the film.
While a part of me believes Barbie missed its opportunity to show the equal-sex society as it could be, I also think it did a brilliant job reflecting the world as it is. One that is dominated by a single-sex that only allows equality for the other in small increments.
“The Real World”
One of the things I was really hoping to see in Barbie were the touching moments that made me fall in love with movies in the first place. When I first saw the montage of the little girl Stereotypical Barbie is set to find, it set me up to think about the emotional development the characters would undergo through the story. So I was really disappointed when that wasn’t the case.
One of the first mistakes the movie made was not allowing SB to stay in the real world for a longer period of time. Sure we get a scene of her sitting on a bench and fully embracing the human experience, even calling an older woman beautiful, but for a film that is almost two hours long, one scene isn’t going to cut it. On top of that, most of the experiences SB has in the human world are negative. She’s arrested several times for stealing, is catcalled, called a fascist by Sasha, and is almost kidnapped by Mattel. Why on Earth would she want a world that completely demolished her worldview and identity?
What should’ve been done was to allow Barbie more time to bond with Sasha and Gloria in the real world, giving her some positive experiences to draw from while also working to change Sasha’s perspective on Barbie and who she is. So when SB whisks Gloria and Sasha off to Barbieland, Sasha’s determination to help save it from patriarchy and Barbie’s interest in becoming human don’t seem so sudden and confusing.
I also think letting Barbie spend more time in the human world would’ve done more to develop Gloria’s and Sasha’s relationship which, for a subplot that is supposed to be so important, is severely underdeveloped.
To Be a Woman
Sasha and Gloria have the typical teen daughter and mom relationship, rife with tension that is never really explored. We are just shown that Sasha doesn’t like her mothe and left to assume it’s just because “she’s an angsty tween.” While Gloria takes up most of the screen time helping Barbie, Sasha is left as an observer in the background, never really speaking up unless it’s time to give snarky commentary. It’s not until Barbieland is in imminent danger of being taken over by the Kens that Sasha spontaneously decides to encourage her mother to help save it. All of a sudden her anti Barbie sentiment is gone and we’re never offered a reason why.
If there’s any part of the film that fell flat, it was definitely this part. In failing to dive into this relationship, the film is left feeling empty, dare I say soulless. Not only could this have served as a huge emotional subplot, but it also would have touched on the ways in which our mothers play such a big role in our girlhood. Out of all of the storylines, this one would’ve been the most touching way to explore sisterhood between mother and daughter and given the film more depth that Barbie’s identity crisis just wasn’t giving.
Even though were told that it was Barbie’s job to fix the rift between the Barbieland and the Real World, it’s never explained how this is supposed to happen. But I think focusing on Gloria’s difficulties in the real world as well as her relationship with her daughter and the role that Barbie played to fix that would’ve done the trick.
The ending where Ruth Handler gives Barbie a glimpse into the full reality of what it’s like to be human is one that almost made me cry and definitely left me feeling existentially conscious, showing the film was more than capable of delivering moving scenes. Unfortunately, it seems like they were reduced to near nonexistence in favor of its comedic overtones.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown
Even though it was brief, I really enjoyed how the film touched on the exhausting responsibility of leadership for both men and women. Although the Barbies seemed to enjoy their time on Supreme courts and construction sites, I think the reason they gave in to patriarchy so quickly was because they no longer wanted the responsibility and stress that came with being an empowered girl boss. Sure they were demeaned and degraded a little bit by the Kens, but at least they no longer had to deal with the burdens of leadership and achievement.
Watching the Barbies refuse to accept the fact that they were once accomplished go-getters was amusing to watch. I find it similar to how young women are being swept off their feet by femininity gurus telling them all about the magic of finding a rich man to marry so they would never have to work a day in their lives. As it turns out, the amount of energy that goes into maintaining your own lifeforce in society is so exhausting that many women would rather hand the keys to their car over to a man just so they can sleep on the passenger side. Do I fault them, no. But I wonder how much of our hard earned rights and power we are willing to let slip away just so we can take a brain break.
When even the men admitted the difficulty that came with being the one in charge, there was a level of cognitive dissonance shown that comes with sharing a world with other human beings. Everyone wants to have access to the privileges of being king, but no one wants the responsibility of kingship.
From Barbieland to Kendom…Back to Barbieland
While I enjoyed the comedy of the Barbie movie, the film didn’t have enough subtlety or subtext for my liking. The heavy-handed feminist message of the film was reminiscent of the Tumblr posts I would find on my Pinterest feed back in 2016. Even though Gloria’s monologue about the cognitive dissonance of being a woman in society was meant to be moving, it wasn’t for me.
Yes, the film is supposed to be a PG-13 comedy about Barbie, but that doesn’t mean its audience is dumb. You can explore new ideas while expounding upon new ones which the film had a missed opportunity to do with Gloria’s and Sasha’s relationship. And if Barbie’s status as a comedy movie is an excuse to not expect the film to bring something new to the table to discuss, then maybe as a viewer I don’t need to be celebrating or taking it seriously as a feminist film.
Despite my complaints about the overly obvious messaging, I think a lot of people continue to enjoy the film because its structure is culturally relevant in that we live in a society where people want to be told what to think. We want our own beliefs parrotted back to us by people in positions of power. Watching people interact online and on Twitter has let me know enough that people don’t seem to have very strong critical thinking skills.
I’ve seen this play out in my own life watching my sister rewrite the synopsis to her book several times due to people believing it's ‘too vague.’ When asked what would help change that, she would receive feedback from people literally telling her to give away the entire story. One boy I spoke to during a stats tutoring session said he had a hard time getting into the Netflix show Peaky Blinders due to the overwhelming amount of subtext that forces you to keep track of things and engage with the show. So instead of becoming a source of asking questions and launching discussion, films nowadays come to the table just giving you the answer, leaving no room for interpretation.
On the flip side, I can see how people would call it a fun movie. It’s cute and pink and filled with good laughs and a good time. But so is ‘Jennifers Body’, ‘Aquamarine’, ‘13 Going on 30’, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, ‘Legally Blonde’ and many other chick flick-related films. The difference is that they’re not just there to preach at you for an hour. They’re there to tell a story and leave you with enough information to interpret and think about.
That is why we’re still celebrating ‘Mean Girls’ almost 20 years after its release. The nuance and tact the subject matter is discussed with leave us always finding something new to discuss or marvel at. They have comedy and drama, but they also have heart. Barbie is so dedicated to its theme and comedy, the heart it’s left with is more of a weak pulse. So while I can see what it was going for, I think it was just a little bit too plastic for its own good.
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Fantastic and well-thought out article! Very critical and does a great job at analyzing both the positives and negatives of the film :D!