The message of Barbie
I started writing this in my sleep, and I saw that ChatGPT (or whichever AI tool was embedded in the editor I was writing in) real-time changed my title to something more catchy, and I freaked out, thinking “oh no I cannot even write any more”.
In any case, I watched Barbie yesterday. Before watching it, I had already read Kate Manne’s opinion on it (that she enjoyed it and she did not have much to say about it) thinking that at least I would not get really mad during the screening. Or afterwards. So, I set off to a fun movie night, really intrigued about how much and in what ways that movie was going to be about feminism.
Digression A
I have to make a small side note here. I knew I wanted to watch Barbie since the movie promo came out because (A) Greta, and (B) Ryan Gosling and (C ) Margot. So, I was sure I was going to watch it even if it were a Mattel promo movie (which it is, but I mean even if it didn’t have any feminist intentions). I like my Hollywood movies as much as the next woman. After I found out it was going to be more than that, well, that was just an extra bonus. I would have something to discuss about it (whether good or bad).
The movie came out a couple of weeks ago, and I sent “Let’s go watch Barbie” to a group of friends. One of the men in the group said “I watched it with my friends, it was the biggest crap movie I’ve ever watched”. I thought to myself “Ok, that could mean it does have some feminist aspect to it” and my urgency to watch it grew even more. The funniest reply came from one other male friend who mansplained to me why Greta is not a pure feminist because she’s collaborating with Warner Bros and Hollywood, implying that me wanting to see the movie makes me less of a feminist. I love it when men mansplain to me how I’m not feminist enough. Anyway, I could not care less if Greta Gerwig does not meet Simone de Beauvoir standards, I won’t be making her my friend soon. And, yes, of course, I watch Hollywood movies, and much less feminist ones than Barbie. As a woman it’s not ok to watch Fast X because I compromise my feminism? Lol. But let’s not digress more.
Digression B
One final small digression. I’m an only child. I never played with Barbie dolls (or human-depicting dolls) in general, when I was a kid. These things did not have a place in our house (communist father, feminist mother). I’m definitely not saying that it was a good decision made by my parents, and I’m definitely not judging those who did play with human-depicting dolls. I just played with other sorts of toys. There are lots of alternatives to human-depicting dolls. I grew up with cats (Fileas being the main one), so I played with them mostly, dressed them up and all. The only times I played with a doll depicting a baby was when I visited my friend Ellie, and the only times I played with Barbie dolls was when I visited my friend Tina during the summer holidays. When I turned 13 I discovered a really old suitcase of my cousin full of Barbies, and I had a short stretch of Barbie fever at 13, but Roller Coaster Tycoon, Tomb Raider and Baldur’s Gate took over soon. I’m also definitely NOT trying to give off “not like the other girls” vibes, oh no. I am saying this just to explain that I had no fond memories of playing with Barbies, so as to awaken a nostalgic feeling in me while watching the movie. And I’m definitely one of the other girls/women. That’s where I pledge my allegiance.
The movie
Back to the movie, then. Of course the Mattel-Barbie theme was strong (as it was supposed to be) and overly girly. I enjoyed the scene when the little girl breaks the baby dolls (in the “2001” reference). And the narrator’s statement that Barbie solved all the issues for women. This seemed like a good omen. Throughout the movie I was taking note of all the obvious statements about real life being a man’s world. How Barbie felt threatened when people looked at her, and how Ken felt flattered. How Barbie felt overwhelmed and scared and anxious, and Ken did not. I cringed at some scenes. I laughed at the self-involved (still well-meaning and seemingly a good person but still self-involved) father. I laughed at the Barbies playing dumb to attract the men (“Photoshop is so confusing”) since this is such a good technique. And I really liked Gloria’s monologue, I felt it to the bone. Finally, the part where Ken says “thank you thank you thank you” in the end. Because that’s what we’ve learned to do. Show our gratitude all the time.
All good, but
But, and here comes the “but”. I felt that the last, final part was a bit unnecessary, or at least for me it was enough up until the monologue, or the reinstating of the “Barbie constitution”. The whole “becoming human” part, I felt, was to tone down any “feminist aggressiveness” anyone may have felt until then. Let me explain. At a first glance, I was a bit positively surprised with the notion that awareness is enough to “reprogram” the Barbie — (wake up the feminist in you? — make you aware of the patriarchy? — make you want to reclaim your position in the world?). After thinking about it and sleeping on it, I woke up a bit angry. This was just continuing the reassuring message to the world that:
“No worries, we’ll just stay here and rule Barbieland!”
“Don’t worry. We’re not taking over. We’re not a threat. We’re just women who just want our little piece of land here (Barbieland), and don’t worry, we just want to tell each other that we’re good enough the way we are but nothing more than that. It’s ok, don’t worry. God forbid we’re not feminazis, we just want our message to be heard. We’ll just stay here in Barbieland and the portal that connects it to the real world will close soon and everything will be secured and normal again.”
All’s well, we’re not taking over
That’s the vibe I got. I mean, it’s nice and all for all these messages to be heard. And it’s nice and all that millions (if not billions) of people are going to watch that movie and listen to these messages. Some of them will get across. But. But it still leaves this lukewarm, “don’t worry”, “we’re not a threat” aura. It sort of validates the sentiment that the woman will not exactly pose a threat to the man’s world, or reclaim her space in an aggressive and assertive way. Because it’s unattractive for a woman to be aggressive and assertive. We (the Barbies) are awaking ourselves with the truth about our woes, and then we’re tricking the men into bringing amongst themselves their own collapse. Because our weapon is trickery. And certainly not physical violence. So nobody (nobody’s position) feels threatened.
Just to be clear, I’m not advocating for violence or for anybody to feel threatened. I’m just talking about the movie. And how in the end it was men who resorted to violence. And it was Barbie who felt physically threatened in Venice. All I’m saying is that the movie voiced some important truths and I’m happy that these truths are going to be heard by so many viewers, thanks to the movie being about Barbie and produced in Hollywood by Mattel, and not advertised as a feminist manifesto (which is not). However, it still signed off with the afterthought “don’t worry, we’re harmless, nothing is going to change, all’s well, don’t worry, we’re sealed off here in Barbieland”. Why do we need to stress that so much? I mean, have you seen any Hollywood action movies? With violent people? Threatening to overthrow whatever status quo there is? Again, I’m not advocating for violence or threat. I’m just saying that Hollywood produces action movies with violence and threat. It’s true!
The trick of the aesthetics
Let’s talk about the aesthetics a bit. I thought more about the aesthetics after reading Jessica DeFino’s article. As DeFino points out in that article, the movie does talk about body acceptance and general self acceptance, but the promo for the movie is anything but that. The promo for the movie has almost nothing to do with the script. The trailer, I feel, is made in such a way to trick you into watching it, unknowing that it’s going to be bashing (making fun of, ridiculizing) the world of men. There’s no hint in the trailer about the feminist messages, which are spread thoroughly throughout the film. This is why that friend of mine went to watch it. If he had seen in the trailer any hint about it calling out all the ways women are less in this world, probably he would have labeled it “feminazi” (let me make clear that this word is deeply problematic and patronizing and an attempt to depict feminism as something bad) and not even watched it.
So I thought that the overly girly pink stereotypical woman-objectifying Barbie promo is there to trick the audience. And even trick Mattel and Warner Bros to advertising it that much. But it falls into its own trap. Because you don’t trick Matter or WB. Because a movie is maybe 10 percent the script and 90 percent all the culture built around it (these are just numbers I came up with arbitrarily :D ). And the 90 percent of Barbie is Barbie as we know it and as Mattel imagined it and as it is depicted in the movie, actually (if you take out the dialogs), and in the ads for plastic surgery, anti-cellulite cream and puffy-lips lip gloss. So, just to reiterate, the movie is not a threat to the status quo, don’t worry. It’s not a feminist manifesto don’t worry. Everything is still normal, don’t worry. Greta is doing her bit here by having some angry women cry out their woes while tearing up. But it’s still a promo for Mattel and beauty products.
“Can I plz at least get some air time to voice my concern over patriarchy?”
“Honey, sure you can! Just make sure to keep it within the aesthetics, won’t you?”.
PS: That being said, I did like the movie, and I will watch it again, but I will not be buying any of the Barbie (TM) anti-cellulite cream.
PS2: As Margaret Atwoord said: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” We certainly laughed at men in the Barbie movie. We let off some steam. We can go back to being women now.
PS3: My mother pointed out the attempt to ease the guilt that 2nd wave feminism brought over beauty products and their patronizing effect. But this deserves it’s own post.
PS4: “What did you expect? It’s a movie by Mattel!”. To be honest, I expected much less! I’m surprised it was so outspoken. That’s why I’ll watch it again. But I’ll still criticize it.
