hi Barbie...

This isn't the coming of feminist Jesus - it might be something better

The Barbie movie has garnered a lot of attention. Some positive, some negative. Either way it seems that everyone has an opinion about this Barbie. So here’s mine.

I’ve seen a lot, and I mean a lot, of negative hot takes from certain men. Which quickly become memes that are passed around women’s group chats and giggled at endlessly.

Here are a few of my fav’s from my girl-gang chat.

Now, the Barbie movie is unapologetically a movie for women. It is movie about our beloved childhood toy. It is a movie about femininity, and being a woman in the world. So, if you watch this as a man and get frustrated that your experience isn’t being represented here I just want to remind you that it’s not meant to be.

This just isn’t for you.

Not that men can’t enjoy this, as a man you probably know and love a few women. This movie could offer you some insight into our experiences; you could ask those women in you life if this is the case. Or just enjoy it for the laughs (of which there is no shortage).

Or alternatively you could just sit down and be quiet. There is plenty of male things that I know just aren’t for me – and they seem ‘deeply bizarre and anti-woman’ (I’m looking at you Fast and Furious franchise and Batman). But I don’t go getting my knickers in a twist over it. I just let the men enjoy the men things. All I ask is that we are extended that same courtesy.

If you don’t like something; you don’t have to engage with it. You can always put your phone down, disconnect from the hell-scape that is the Internet and go sit in the sun and touch a puppy – I’d actually encourage it.

Lucille says it best here…

Now I have seen some valid criticism of the marketing phenomena that is the Barbie movie. Selling anti-cellulite Barbie cream does undercut the movies message of celebrating the ordinary ‘realness’ of women. Not to mention the problematic rampant consumerism the Barbie product collaborations promote. And I am not immune. I bought my very own Margot Robbie Barbie as soon as I could – and I love her.

Barbie and me

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Movie is a truly wild fever dream that begins with stereotypical Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) having all consuming thoughts about death, getting cellulite and losing her perfectly arched feet. We then follow stereotypical Barbie into the real world to fix the rip between Barbieland and the real world. Yes, it’s as nuts as it sounds.

This movie a visual delight. It’s wild and surreal and defies expectations of narrative film – just like the experience of playing with your own Barbie’s. There is so much pink – it feels joyful and bright in the way our lives so often aren’t.

Not to mention that everyone is hot. Margot Robbie is so hot. Ryan Gosling is hot. All the Barbie’s and Ken’s are hot. America Ferrera is hot. Will Ferrell isn’t hot – but he’s hilarious.

And then there’s Allan. Allan is sweet. Allan is everything. More about Allan later. 

This movie is wonderfully written and directed. Not to mention hilarious. Ryan Gosling gives what I think is the performance of his career. All of the performances are pitch perfect. There isn’t a dull moment in this 2 hour epic.

Ken’s being hot

Gerwig’s reincarnation of Barbie is more diverse – we see Barbie’s of all shapes and sizes in Barbieland. And most importantly we see Barbie’s occupying positions of power (and succeeding). We see Barbie’s working hard and being unapologetic when receiving praise (something completely unseen in the real world). Gerwig’s Barbie is focused on empowering young girls – a truly noble cause.

And yes, she still looks perfect doing it – I mean Margot Robbie is basically a perfect human. But this functions perfectly in the movie to let our human protagonist point out the often contradictory nature of being a woman. America Ferrera delivers a diatribe that perfectly sums up the opposing expectations that plague so many women as they attempt to just go about their lives. It is poignant and heartfelt and frustrating, I cried a little.

But just like real women, Barbie isn’t perfect and she never has been.

Originally, Barbie offered an alternative dream to little girls everywhere. Barbie was ambitious and determined. She could do and be anything she set her mind to. She was, notably for her time, not defined by a man or motherhood – which seemed to be the only acceptable avenues of self expression for women at that time.

Barbie seemed to widened the scope on what it was to be a woman. One cannot dream what one cannot see after all. I mean Barbie was a doctor (1973) before real life woman were able to have credit cards in their own name in Barbie’s home country of the USA (1974). However restrictive her beauty standards are it’s hard to deny her pioneering origin.

As one of my favourite feminist writers Caitlin Moran has said, we women have to stop waiting for feminist Jesus to turn up and save the women. There isn’t going to be one woman, or one woman shaped doll, that is going to come along and get everything right. Barbie has never been, nor is she now a perfect feminist icon. But she tries. And gets it right in so many ways.

I left the cinema last night with two big takeaways;

1. Inequality, no matter which way it is skewed, is bad. The disempowered Ken’s of Barbieland (although funny) are actually very sad. And the oppression of the Ken’s person-hood results in them seeking refuge in stereotypical toxic masculinity and seeking power over the Barbie’s. They become shallow and mean. They are dismissive of all the things that make the Barbie’s wonderful as individuals and instead make them a means to their own ends. When one group – no matter if it is the men or the women – have power over another group and assert their own interests even at the detriment of the other group, things are bad for everyone. It’s an interesting way to highlight how this state of inequality is just plain awful for everyone.

   I do wish that the Ken’s got a bit more of a redemptive arch though. Gosling’s Ken realizes that he has to find value in his identity beyond the gender binary, beyond his ‘and Ken’ status. But other than that the Ken’s remain pretty disempowered in Barbieland – I’d have loved a bit more equal representation here. And I know that women have not been afforded that kindness in the real world - the narrator Helen Mirren makes a quip about this. But still.

   Here is a good place to circle back to Allan. Michael Cera portrays the often forgotten Allan. He is not like Ken – he isn’t hot, he isn’t dumb and he isn’t seeped in the male gender stereotype. He seems to be the only character in Barbieland that feels like a real person. Allan is flawed and a little boring, but Allan has desires and he asserts his agency – well he tries too. I connect to Allan. I love Allan.

   

2. The idea of finding identity beyond the rigid binary of gender or the expectations of others and society (or any label really). Ken learns this – and dons a perfect ‘I am Kenough’ sweater.

   

   I need this sweater

   And even Barbie herself becomes bigger than the doll. She breaks the boundaries of who she believed she was. In some of the most poignant cinema I have ever seen, she declares that she wants to be the thing that makes meaning, she wants to be the thing that has ideas – not the idea itself. Because Barbie is just an idea. But all the little girls and women she represents are so much more than an idea of a woman. They are the complicated, contradictory, things that have the ideas. And in Barbie choosing to be human, we see this icon of femininity relinquish the ideas of gender and instead become a person in all her gloriously flawed realness.

So whether you identify as one of the girls, gays, or guys go see this movie. It is hilarious and heartfelt and just a damn good time. Ultimately, it celebrates humanity in all its frailty. And it encourages us to remember that we are all so much more than any of the labels we wear.

Barbie isn’t perfect, and neither is this movie.

But I’m not perfect either.

As a little girl Barbie taught me I could be whatever I dreamed and as a woman Barbie has taught me I can just be myself.

Just a person trying my best. Flawed and ordinary and perfectly okay just as I am.