Life in Plastic: How the Barbie Movie Punctures the Patriarchy
It’s the satire of the millennium that’s broken the internet. Why is everyone so excited about Barbie?
good.film
2 years ago
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Why should I see Barbie?
There’s a lot to unpack, but Barbie has a joyful wit & charm that sugarcoats a surprisingly sharp (and emotional) message.
What social causes does Barbie explore?
It’s finally been unboxed. The movie no-one could quite believe was real has landed, and it’s turned our social media streams (and billboards, and buses) awash with hot pink. Even if you’d somehow never heard of Barbie, the doll, you’ve definitely heard of Barbie, the movie.
The Barbie crowd is cutting across age & gender divides in an unprecedented way. In just five days, Barbie pulled in a staggering AU$560 million worldwide. It’s the biggest opening this year, instantly grabbing the record for the largest debut ever for a female-directed film.
So Barbie’s candy-coated appeal has brought people to cinemas, but there’s way more than two hours of fairy floss here if you want it. There’s real substance beneath the sugary surface. And it’s just the kind of vitamin-rich meal we’re hungry for.
What does Barbie have to say about girls and dolls?
Straight up, Barbie is a satire. Director Greta Gerwig has a blast featuring thousands of design cues and in-jokes that anyone who grew up with the eponymous doll will grin at. For “Stereotypical Barbie”, her dream house has no walls or stairs, her shower has pretend water, and when Barbie pours her morning juice, she’s drinking thin air.
It’s a dream world, filled with prize-winning, team-leading, high-flying Barbies (one is even the President!). Sisterhood is in full swing. Each and every Barbie is a confident success story.
While that’s inspirational in its own way, it also adds a certain unrealistic pressure - and that’s one of the strongest themes in the movie. If anyone can be President, what’s wrong with me if I can’t? This play-world of inspiration works for the imaginations of girls, but as girls grow and change - as self-doubt and social pressures, and what-if-I’m-not-good-enough thoughts inevitably creep in - the inspiration bubble can quickly pop.
That’s what we see playing out when Stereotypical Barbie’s world starts changing: her feet turn flat, her thoughts become disturbing. Something isn’t right. Barbies aren’t meant to ask has anyone ever thought about dying? in the middle of a giant blowout dance party!
To solve it, Barbie visits their oracle, of sorts - Weird Barbie. She’s the one that kids get bored with, chop half her hair off, and give her a felt-pen makeover. So she sticks out in Barbieland among the pretty winners; she’s even ostracized because she doesn’t fit the mold. It seems even in Barbieland there’s no escape from being judged against (and by) your peers…
Weird Barbie may be weird, but she’s wise, explaining how each Barbie in Barbieland is connected to a real girl’s Barbie doll in the Real World. Stereotypical Barbie is having existential thoughts, so the girl playing with her must be too. Cue our fish-out-of-water setup.
Barbie zooms into the Real World (with happy-go-lucky bottle blonde Ken in tow) to find her girl, solve the crisis… and unleash a cascade of sticky observations about how Barbie, the perfect product, grinds against the realities of our 2023 world.
Like when Barbie and Ken first arrive, rollerblading in tight 80s spandex along the Santa Monica boardwalk to the stares of passers-by. The stares are Barbie’s first experience of the “male gaze” and come loaded with suggestive comments. Sex doesn’t exist in Barbieland and this is the first time that Barbie feels the uncomfortable, confusing weirdness of objectification.
Conversely, Ken is elated - it’s the first time that he’s been “seen” as someone that’s not Barbie’s sidekick. And it gives him a surge of power (the gateway drug to his being “redpilled” by the patriarchy - more on that below!).
Then, when Barbie finds someone who she thinks is ‘her girl’ at a junior high school, she expects to be cheered as a hero. But she gets a huge reality check when Sasha reels off a feminist monologue in disgust: that Barbie is a symbol of the patriarchy, that she reinforces unattainable and unrealistic body standards, and maybe most stinging of all: we haven’t played with Barbies since we were five!
It stops Barbie in her tracks, and it’s the moment we realise this movie won’t be a glorified Mattel ad. Barbie as a concept gets pinned to the dartboard for some genuine criticism: it’s not enough to create dolls that show ‘girls can do it all’ if those girls are growing up in a society that still sees them as objects first and people second.
Sidenote, Margot is amazing in this scene - her genuine emotion gives it real weight. If you don’t get a lump in your throat seeing her struggle to hold back the tears, check your pulse!
What does Barbie have to say about the patriarchy?
Here’s the secret about Barbie that kinda feels anti-feminist to admit: Ken is the movie’s secret weapon. Greta Gerwig has cleverly made sure that the film unpacks the inherent bias that women face through Ken’s experience as much as she does through Barbie’s.
Ken’s an accessory, and when Barbie doesn’t return his affections, his frustration is a reflection of the kind of resentment that underpins recent men’s uprisings like the incel movement. In this way, Barbie is right on the money: as women redefine themselves and their positions in society, this can be seriously destabilising for some men.
When Ken discovers “the wonders of the patriarchy” in the Real World, he gets a full-force taste of what it’s like to be valued because - and only because - he’s a man. Suddenly, he feels just how disgruntled he is with his beachy, empty life in Barbieland as “just Ken”. It’s like a turbo hit of testosterone to the system.
That’s Ken’s mindset as he returns to Barbieland, ready to install a new regime. In no time, he’s brainwashed the Barbies into giving up their stellar careers and tending to the Kens - rubbing their feet and bringing them brewskis. It’s an even worse disaster than the one Barbie left to fix in the first place. Oh, Barbie - how do you undo the patriarchy?!
Without spoiling the outcome, there’s a moment where Ken sheepishly realises he might’ve taken the whole debacle just a bit too far. And it gives Ken one of the best lines in the movie: “When I realised the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I kinda lost interest anyway.”
What does Barbie have to say about identity?
Barbie is fully aware that it’s ridiculous and camp, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in heart. Gerwig and her co-writer (and real-life partner) Noah Baumbach pack in as many opportunities as they can to make a statement and make us think.
There’s Midge, the pregnant Barbie, who hardly says a word and seems to be shoved off to the sidelines - a wry comment about how media and society view women who become mothers, and are no longer ‘objects’ for the male gaze?
In similar territory is the elderly woman that Barbie first encounters at a bus stop in the Real World. An astonished Barbie, who’s never seen wrinkles or grey hair, tells her “you’re beautiful!”. The women replies with a wry smile, “I know it!” Interestingly, word leaked out recently that Warner Bros. were keen to cut that scene, failing to see its relevance to the story. Gerwig stood her ground, telling them “If I cut that scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.”
But the standout scene is a pivotal one with a real-world Mum, Gloria, who gives a rallying speech that taps into the Barbie doll’s contradictory core. Yes, Barbie can be a physicist, a Nobel-prize winning writer or even the President. But those aspirations somewhat miss the mark. Feminism isn’t about women simply having the same jobs as men.
Gloria’s speech gives Barbie an amazing, meme-able moment. It’s a future classic that underpins the whole theme of the film: the headache-inducing complexity of the modern female experience. We have to be polite, or we’re a bitch. Be good mothers, but not give up our dreams. Have a great career, but not at the expense of our families. We’re dealing with a lot. Can you blame us if we don’t have time to become an astronaut or sit on the Supreme Court? Isn’t being ordinary enough?!
What are critics saying about Barbie?
- "An earnest feminist manifesto inside a barbed social satire inside an effervescent musical comedy, all designed in colours so sumptuous they make Technicolor look desaturated." | SLATE
- "This is a wonderfully fun watch that somehow manages to simultaneously celebrate and satirise the Barbie brand, its feminism and girliness pairing like sandals with a floaty pink skirt." | TIME OUT
- "Barbie is really an insightful exploration of humanity, the meaning of life and the cognitive dissonance of a woman living in the patriarchy, all with a really big heart and style to spare." | USA TODAY
- "It is completely bananas, and that just might be something we need right now."| THE AUSTRALIAN
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
So what’s the takeaway from Barbie?
Barbie isn’t without its problems. It’s (arguably) a bit too long, and in trying to address everything a stereotypical Barbie can face in 2023, it bites off a bit more than it can chew. But while Barbie may not be the perfect movie, it’s arrived at the perfect time.
Greta Gerwig & Margot Robbie have latched onto the ideal piece of IP to bring their patriarchy-popping satire to life. It's a miracle Mattel went for it, but imagine Margs & Grets in the pitch meetings - they’re so charming, the execs were probably like butter in their hands.
Equally amazing is that a script with such a blatant agenda is so emotional, and so much fun. There's incisive insight here into the female experience, the confusion in the roles we find ourselves playing, and the thousands of micro-assumptions that we navigate as a society.
Barbie is like an enormous bright pink Trojan horse, then, but the horse is made of glass: you can see from a mile away the messages that are waiting to pour out and overwhelm you, but the whole damn thing so damn great to look it, you welcome them in.
Some are bagging this lack of subtlety, but why can't a film be overt in its messaging and still be worthy? It feels like the collective zeitgeist has been holding its breath for Barbie to be great - a story that dares you to cry at a comedy about a doll. And it is, and we are. Who knew.
