My new favorite thing of the week is seeing a group of girls in pink on the street and saying “Hi Barbie!” to them and all of them answering “Hi Barbie!” to me.
We’re not appreciating the Weird Barbie enough. It’s said in the movie that she helps everyone who need help while they always see her as someone who’s not as good as them. She was friends with all dismissed Barbies and Kens, was there to offer support and safe shelter for everyone who needed it in Kendom, without her nothing in the movie would’ve been alright. When Stereotypical Barbie calls her “ugly and unwanted” she still helps her.
She was representing a woman in women’s world who was pushed aside by other women because she didn’t fit in but still had more wiseness and kindness than everyone who thought they’re better than her.
thing about Barbie that I lovedddd was how much all her raw moments were with older women that society often considers beyond their prime
her watching how humanity lives and loves, and immediately being struck by the beauty that comes with aging as she did with the woman at the bus stand– and saying it out loud, as a person who has been hailed as the standard of beauty and its adjacence with youth for so long
getting comfort and sanctuary and a moment of calm in the middle from another older woman, and her guidance at the end from the same lady who helps her understand what she is going through
there is something there about making the heart of the film older women, when the very thing that sets Barbie off on her adventure was the fear of cellulite and aging
something that really resonated with me during the Barbie movie is that Barbie didn’t want to hurt kens feelings when ken was the one who installed patriarchy, stole her house, and brainwashed all of her friends. yet she was so afraid of being seen as rude by turning down a man and simply telling him no.
this happens to women all the time, they are afraid of being seen as a bitch or an asshole by just simply trying to protect themselves. she shouldn’t have to feel bad for doing what’s right.
i know i wasn’t born in the wrong generation because this is the year ‘across the spiderverse’ AND ‘barbie’ AND ‘nimona’ AND ‘the last of us’ came out. imagine missing that
Something I found very interesting about the Barbie movie was the Ken’s mimicking of patriarchy. I’ve seen some comments putting it as a stance of men’s inherent desire to oppress women but would argue it much more reflects the socialization process many young boys experience that encourages them take on misogynistic views. The kens do not resent the Barbie’s. They’ve grown up in a society the Barbie’s run and the adore and love them. I think you could say that reflects the early stages of life for many boys where often the main role models they know are women, their mothers (as they often have a more involved role than fathers) and eventually their teachers, which women still make up the vast majority of early childhood educators.
The Kens also notably lack a sense of brotherhood at the start of the movie. And it isn’t until they’re in the real world our main Ken experiences positive male attention and approval (which is only due to him also being a man). It is that desire for approval from his male peers that initially drives him to believe in patriarchy.
There is of course also the underlying struggle of his unrequited feelings for Barbie, but none of the kens truly resent the Barbies. They don’t actually want them as oppressed servants. Yes they want their attention, but even during kendom we see them happiest on their cheesy guitar playing group date. They begin oppressing Barbie’s not because it’s what they actually want but rather it’s them mimicking the behaviour of men.
And that is why I think it makes such a great ode to the socialization of young boys to be misogynistic. Boys do not have an innate hatred for women, nor is it something they naturally grow into of their own fruition. But rather it’s a patterned of learned behaviours they in most cases initially mimic for the approval of other men or to gain attention, but overtime becomes a very real ideology then adopt and believe in and likely pass on.
It’s important to recognise that Barbie (2023) criticises both the patriarchy AND the matriarchy. Yes, the Ken’s are just accessories to the Barbies. Yes, they don’t have any say in the government they live under. That’s the point, you’re supposed to feel awful, you’re supposed to want the Kens to have their own agency, you’re supposed to want equality. The Barbie movie explicitly states that the way Barbie treats Ken is wrong, so much so that once he finds a safe space for his masculinity and individual identity he’s so excited to share it with the other Kens.
But they go overboard and replace a matriarchy with a patriarchy and now the same issue exists but in reverse. That’s the POINT!! THATS THE POINT!!! Barbie is not anti-men it’s pro equality PLEASE understand this
Look sometimes I have to draw something so stupidly self indulgent because I am always sad that every Tony I RP with ghosts me as a partner. And I need to feel joy.
So enjoy my fully corrupted Pepper Potts by the Endo Sym armor and Superior Iron-man. It was my one point that I didn’t like about the comic run was how she wasn’t on his side. Didn’t sit right with me.
