In 2019 when it was announced that my all-time favourite director, Greta Gerwig, and one of my favourite inspirational actors, Margot Robbie, had both signed onto a project that was going to dive into the world of nostalgia which is Barbie, I was ecstatic. Both empowering female representatives, I was convinced this was going to be the best film made in my existence, despite the fact that I hadn’t even seen it.
After the overwhelming hype and anticipation of July 21st, 2023, on my personal calendar, I couldn’t even stomach a small bag of popcorn as I sat down in the first screening of the movie in my local cinema. I’d been waiting for this moment for years. Thankfully it didn’t take much persuading for my dad and boyfriend to join my mum, my sister and me (although maybe the pink monochrome dress code was a bit much to ask, so I settled for their subtle salmon-pink shirts). I laughed for the majority of the running time, was blown away by the production value and I personally crave a bit of escapism in the cinema which Barbieland certainly delivered but I was expecting to be swept off my feet by (what I expected to be) groundbreakingly feminist and anti-patriarchy claims. Shockingly, to my disappointment, I left the movie feeling rather unsatisfied. After days of analysing this feeling, I realised that Barbie was not made for people like me, and I was ignorant in thinking so. I had completely missed the point.
You weren’t meant to be viewing the film from the perspective of a student studying gender politics in depth at Durham University. This movie is designed for the masses, indirectly or not. What’s even more delicious to me is the amount of conversation (but also the genuine uproar) that has been sparked by this movie alone. In conversations I’ve had, people jump to criticise the movie for its lack of nuance as well as its caricature nature before acknowledging the monumental cultural shift it has ignited. It is not meant to be overly intellectual – who would watch that? It certainly would not have destroyed the box office like it did. It was never about creating innovative political ideas; it was about illustrating the existing ones in a light-hearted way. And for crying out loud, look up what satire actually is.
Another aspect that was completely bewildering to me is the idea that many people took this film to be “anti-men” when it quite literally spoon-feeds you that it is anti-patriarchy. Sarah Vine from the Daily Mail came out with this bemusing review:
“It’s a deeply anti-man movie, an extension of all that TikTok feminism that paints any form of masculinity – other than the most anodyne – as toxic and predatory…” and that “Every male character is either an idiot, a bigot or a sad, rather pathetic loser. If the roles were reversed, and a male director made a film about how all women were hysterical, neurotic, gold-digging witches, it would be denounced – quite rightly – as deeply offensive and sexist.”
I think if I were to thoroughly unpack this, I might as well base my diss on it. Firstly, she speaks on categorising men into 2D characters which, up until recently, has been the fundamental template for every single female character in the history of filmmaking. You’re right Sarah, in an ideal world that very categorisation would have been denounced as sexist, but the fact is it hasn’t, it’s considered normal. Barbie has reversed what many films have already displayed but apparently only now it’s sexist…
Secondly, this idea that traditional masculinity is now considered “toxic and predatory”, and that the movie is widely regarded as “anti-man”. The movie is not against hegemonic masculinity, and no one is quite frankly, but the movie is anti-patriarchy and it’s very sympathetic in explaining the difference. Ken discovers patriarchy in the real world after a lifetime of just being secondary to Barbie. Activist Matt Bernstein makes the rational point that “if the film were truly anti-men, Ken’s storyline would’ve ended there, with him looking like a sexist-power hungry asshole…but alongside Barbie, Ken goes on his own journey…they each ultimately learn that in different ways patriarchy fails them both”. Historically, the patriarchy promises power and the glorification of strength but as Ken realises, it requires a constant, very rigid, 2D performance of masculinity that can be weaponised against any man who dares to drop the façade and show humanity. This movie evokes men to contemplate who they actually are outside the rigidity of hegemonic masculinity.
I’ve reflected on my own femininity equally. The colour pink has long been associated with passivity, frivolity, and intrinsic femininity. Femininity has now been reclaimed as cool and I’m not afraid to showcase my hyper-feminine side anymore.
However, maybe the takeaway from this movie should be that you shouldn’t let gender stereotypes govern your entire identity. No matter where we are on the gender spectrum, we are all human and we all experience emotion. And if you are indifferent about seeing Barbie, I think it’s time to ask yourself why. Are your beliefs that entrenched? To my mind that’s the genius of Gerwig and Baumbach – taking such a seemingly simplistic story and turning it into a global conversation where we’ve all been forced to confront our subconscious bias and also our social conditioning.
by Ella-May van der Gaag
