Hey, Barbie!
I saw Barbie (2023) this week and just want to let you know, if you are looking for a light-hearted, bright, and colorful cheer-me up for the weekend: this may not be the movie for you.
This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s just something I want you to be aware of. Because, I—well-known pointer out-ter of how systems designed to endanger and kill anyone who isn’t cissexual, heterosexual, able-bodied, rich, and/or white are insidious in every area of our lives and it is our work to consistently unlearn and decolonize our thought processes, actions, and how we interact with the Earth, ourselves, and one another—was looking forward to an hour and a half to two hours of escapism that only cared to guide me through a beautiful ridiculous Mattel-sponsored adventure.
I got that. Kind of?
The things I love about this movie:
I will always support America Ferrera full stop. I will also always support Ferrera on a big screen especially when she gets to play someone who surprises, delights, saddens, and in moments—anger—me
Margot Robbie is simply That Bitch. Like, yes her looking like Barbie will FOREVER take me out but she also believes in acting her whole ass off regardless of whether she is in this Barbie-mobile or fighting off Roman Sionis and all of Gotham
Ryan Gosling’s little snippets about how Greta and Margot allowed him to really become Ken, how seeing a Ken thrown in the dirt made him go through a quick existential crisis, and how so many people were big ass haters because he’s older than who they expected to be cast as Ken was a huge motivation behind my excitement for this movie and he lives up to that excitement, my goodness
Which, moves me into parts that make me….well…reflect, I suppose.
This isn’t Barbie’s movie.
We follow her around a lot—most of the movie. She does speak and she talks to other people and she makes choices and she seems like the main character. But, there is never a moment where she is by herself (I cannot emphasize how MUCH this movie is about Ken). Even when she is by herself, there are narrators around that jump in, there is still an ever-present us—an audience trying to mold Barbie because that’s what Barbie is for. It’s a little terrifying.
On paper, this is an inclusive movie. There are Black Barbies and Kens, and Brown Barbies and Kens, and trans characters, and fat characters, and disabled characters, and Alan. There is an examination of the toxicity of patriarchy, the inability for women to be everything all at once, and Barbies of marginalized identities in positions of power. There’s a road to discover who you are when you realize you have the freedom to make your own choices, a lot of funny ass parts, and there’s some really fucking good music. It’s all in there. It just, isn’t for a lot of us.
The movie, the marketing doesn’t owe me anything and did exactly what it’s supposed to do: make me think that this one piece of media may fix me (for at least two hours). The marketing is brilliant and plays on the nostalgia that millions, if not billions, of people have for a toy that was or is integral to their lives and now they can finally see on the big screen. It’s a cultural moment for many and gives a lot of different people a commonality to obsess over. Honestly, it’s the stuff of autistic special interest dreams. This is finally a language I can understand because I know the root and I know where to go to expand on that knowledge! I understand what’s expected in Barbie and I know that the punishment for not understanding/perfectly adhering to the “rules” of play are low compared to reality! But, I think what I forgot, is that just because you’re invited into a room, it doesn’t mean that it’s been created with you in mind.
The thing is, the movie does exactly what it’s supposed to. It tells a story, just like when you play with Barbie, you’re telling a story. This is a movie directed by a white woman, starring a white man and white woman, and written by a white man and a white woman. Even with the right “inclusive” language, you can’t make it feel like we’re not just playing pretend. Just like the adventures you come up with can only be an extension of your imagination, the same can be said for movies, especially when while creating, you’re surrounded by people who aren’t different from you.
So much of the movie tried to do exactly what it asked Barbie to learn not to do: be a piece of everything that everyone may need without first asking, what she needs to be for herself. And like in the movie, the decision only ends with us losing Barbie.
I don’t mean this to deter you at all. When that thing comes out on DVD (physical media forever!), I will be watching it regularly and crying to it at least twice a month. I loved seeing so many actors I love embrace such a concept and I, once again, will go to the ends of the earth to see America Ferrera laugh, Margot Robbie smile through her tears, and Ryan Gosling truly believe he is Ken. I’ll do this because I am used to media not being for me and still knowing how to enjoy myself. I’ll do this because I’ve known, from playing with Barbies myself, how to create a world that is big enough for me to exist in it. So, that’s what I’ll go do. I wish Barbie would get to do that for herself, too.
A note: A lot of my hurt feelings were also from, the knowledge that this is specifically and either/or sort of movie. Either you’re a Ken or you’re a Barbie, and the gender binary is strictly intact here. As a nonbinary person, that hit a lot harder than expected. So, if you have gender feelings you don’t really want to examine, keep that in mind before going!