Hi Barbie!
Barbie is well on its way to being the highest grossing film of 2023, and along with Oppenheimer, is probably the most talked about. I was not sure what to expect when I saw the film, but in retrospect I see it as a smart, satirical almost coming of age story that manages to comment on femininity, masculinity, feminism, patriarchy, individuality, and existentialism. Not bad for a film about a plastic doll from the 50s.
The opening scene immediately aims to smash gender norms – literally. We see a bunch of young girls playing with baby dolls, so from a young age, girls are already thinking about motherhood. The arrival of Barbie is seen as a new epoch, a message to young girls that says: you do not have to just play mother, you can be what you like.
We also see this in the opening few scenes, that Barbie in Barbieland can do anything and is everything. From Journalist Barbie to Physicist Barbie, Barbieland is a matriarchal Eden in which women can do anything. In Barbieland, Barbie is every woman. What really messes it all up is the real world.
When comparing Barbieland and the real world, one is clearly a utopia for Barbie, and the other a dystopia. Every day for Barbie in Barbieland is perfect, whereas Ken’s happiness depends purely on Barbie. Barbie quickly learns that women are hindered in the real world, unlike men. It is her learning of the patriarchy that makes her realise that in a way, she has fallen from grace. Barbie and Ken’s travelling to the real world from Barbieland is their fall from grace. We see that like Adam and Eve, who are embarrassed by their nakedness after the Fall, Barbie is particularly conscious and embarrassed because of the male harassment that she faces. The reverse is true for Ken, who finds his utopia in the patriarchal society of the real world.
Barbie learns the harsh realities of the real world, and must fight against them when they bleed into Barbieland. While the patriarchy is one thing, Barbie also learns that she has not been the empowering female figure that she thought she was. Barbieland shows that women can do anything and are, but Barbies controversial presence in the real world relating to inclusivity and body image is put to her quite harshly.
What we see is Barbie having an existential crisis, her entire world, literally and metaphorically, has disappeared from under her, and for the remainder of the film she is left questioning who she is, and what her role is. She is already considering this before she makes the journey to the real world, beginning with her question ‘do you guys ever think about dying?’ Her perfect world is punctured by this thought.
The question of individuality also comes into play here, as while all the Barbies have different jobs and roles, they lack a smidge of individuality because they all have the same name… Barbie. Barbie is trying to find out where she fits… is that not something we all think about?
While Barbie struggles, Ken flourishes in an amusing but dangerous way. Going back to Adam and Eve, in the Bible Eve is created for and from Adam, in the film Ken occupies this position. Ken is Barbie’s inferior; he represents the underclass – he exists only for Barbie. ‘She’s everything. He’s just Ken,’ as it says on the poster. He is nothing compared to her, and nothing without her. What he learns from the real world is that he can be the opposite, he can gain respect, and, because of the patriarchy, he feels he deserves it without earning it, by nature of being a man. The film shows how the patriarchy can spread, and how harmful ideas about toxic masculinity can infect the lost or the vulnerable, Ken is both. It is his insecurity that makes the idea of the patriarchy attractive to him.
It is only at the end of the film that Barbie helps him realise that he can be who he wants, and encourages him to find that, in the same way that in Barbieland, the Barbies could be whatever they wanted. The film encourages men and women to understand and listen to each other better, so while it comments on the gender divide and recognises it, it also works to heal it. The Barbie’s agree at the end of the film that some Kens should sit on the Supreme Court, advocating not a matriarchy, or a patriarchy but an egalitarian society. Something the real world could learn from. Much like young men, and any human ever, the Kens just need a bit of help and guidance to learn what is right and what is wrong.
Some critics have stated that the film is anti-man, which is a simplistic view. The film is anti-toxic man, which is something we should all be. Toxic masculinity is harmful, Ken proves that, as do we in the real world. In the film, after it is stamped out in Barbieland, an egalitarian society is advocated. I see no problem here.
After encouraging Ken to find out who he is, Barbie must do the same for herself. At the end of the film, she wears a yellow muted dress, her hair is simple, and she sports less make up. She is slowly letting go of her Barbie world. She still looks perfect, as the narrator reminds us, it is Margot Robbie, but unlike the other Barbies that have specific jobs and careers, she holds the mantle of stereotypical Barbie. Her creator, Ruth Handler, reminds her that Barbie was an idea, and ‘ideas live forever.’ In the same way that Barbies can be whatever they want, Margot Robbie’s Barbie can too. Ruth and Barbie’s relationship proves that humans and Barbies can learn from each other.
Margot Robbie’s Barbie sticks to the idea that she can be anything and becomes human. Ideas change and evolve, just as Barbie does. She manages to do the impossible; she is a plastic doll that becomes human. She again reinforces that women can be anything that they want to be, and that if we believe in Barbie, and by extension in ourselves, we can do anything. Barbie becomes human by learning what being a woman truly means, she sees the entire cycle of woman, in a montage, including birth and childhood and motherhood. It is through feeling that she becomes human, and her heart begins to beat, and her true journey of self-discovery begins.[1]
It is at this point where we say, bye Barbie! But do not forget, ideas live forever.
Thanks for reading!
[1] Barbie, dir. Greta Gerwig (Warner Bros, 2023).
Khambay's Words, Words, Words 