*Contains Spoilers*
A few weeks ago, the highly anticipated ‘Barbie’ movie came out to the theaters. Immediately, we saw the likes of Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens come out with highly negative reviews. On the other hand, many anti-feminists came out and expressed that they liked the movie.
The movie started in a somewhat chaotic way, with young girls playing with baby dolls. And then the Barbie doll was invented and all of the girls started destroying their dolls, and preferring to play with Barbie. When I saw this first scene of the movie, I originally thought that it would be a very anti-motherhood, pro-boss babe feminist story. I was wrong.
Barbie World is originally a very feminist utopia, with all of the Barbies having a job, and the Kens just hanging out. Anyone who’s ever played with Barbie would know that the Kens are usually used as an accessory, while Barbie is the one that plays every job, career, etc. This touch made the Barbie movie so realistic of how little girls play with the doll. Every Barbie has their own mansion, has a job, and fly into their car from the top of their house. So far, every part of the scene is very much like if a young girl was playing with the doll.
The original Barbie played by Margot Robbie started having thoughts about death. Soon after, she noticed that she started having cellulite and her feet went flat. The other Barbies scared her into visiting the ‘Weird Barbie’, who cut her hair and started wearing weird clothes after her owner (all Barbies are owned by someone in the real world) made her to be that way during her teenage years. The Weird Barbie suggested that Barbie goes into the real world to fix her owner’s problem. Barbie, joined by Ken (played by Ryan Gosling), journeys into the real world. While Ken was amazed at how well he was received by real humans, Barbie was sad because the real world was not what she thought it would be.
While Ken went back to Barbie World to implement a patriarchy and put all of the Kens in charge, Barbie met her owner. Turns out it wasn’t the grumpy teenager that she originally thought, it was her mother who felt left out of her daughter’s life. Barbie decided to bring the mother-daughter duo back to Barbie Land, and they were totally shocked at the Kens having taken over. All of the Barbies were also ‘brainwashed’, and the former President of Barbie Land even stated that she prefered the men in charge. The mother made a speech that ‘unbrainwashed’ the Barbies and stopped the Kens from taking over Barbie World. Even when the matriarchy was restored, the main Barbie decided to go back to the real world and the movie ended with her going to the gynaecologist.
I personally thought that it was really funny that while Barbie Land was a matriarchy, the CEO and executives were all men. The creator of Barbie (Ruth Handler), made an appearance in the movie, and she told Barbie that the patriarchy isn’t real, and neither are Barbies. While it did include words like ‘patriarchy’, it was included in a funny way and in a way that complimented the film.
The production itself was really good. The set was constructed exactly how all of our Barbie houses were, the pool water being plastic, the shower having no water, Barbies just sliding into their car from the roof, etc. The production design is what initially got me excited for the movie in the first place and it did not disappoint. The movie also did a good job making you care about Ken. While Ken was kind of the villain in this movie, you could see his point. He was pushed aside by society and by Barbie, and it created a pendulum swing from the matriarchy Barbie Land to the patriarchy Kendom.
The movie was also a really good story about motherhood. While it started with children destroying their dolls, it also pointed out real issues about motherhood, like the mother feeling left out of her child’s life, and saying that she wished that there was a Barbie that was just a mother, instead of a doctor, president, or another high powered career.
The Barbie movie was a good representation of what playing with the Barbie dolls as a child was like, and it stayed true. While they did insert diversity as well as overused words like patriarchy, it was inserted in the movie in a funny way. If you came into the movie wanting to hate it, you will find ways to hate it. But if you came in the theaters wanting a good time, this is a good movie to watch.