Well I never imagined to be blown away by a movie about the controversial Mattel doll!! Yet I was…and these are a few reasons why!!
The movie opens with the illustration of how even at such a young age through the provision of baby dolls as gifts, women are culturally conditioned to be mothers. Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, named Barbie after her daughter Barbra, envisioned a doll that allowed girls to picture themselves as anything from athletes to astronauts- or just as confident women who loved their lives.
Through Greta Gerwig’s discerning eyes, the movie demonstrates and appropriately acknowledges how Barbie didn’t successfully liberate all womankind. I was certainly interested in how the movie was going to address how Barbie was thought to be bad for body image. After all, she represents a body shape that is the epitome of unrealistic. Research has shown that her proportions would occur in less than 1 in 100,000 adult women and that if she were life size, her waist would be smaller than a reference group of women in residential treatment for anorexia. The dolls manufacturer, Mattel, claims the proportions were created for the ease of dressing and undressing the doll, and were never intended to replicate the realistic size and shape of an adult woman.
Over the past ten years, experimental research studies have found that young girls body image was not affected by playing with barbie dolls. College students, on the other hand had a decline in their body image after playing with Barbie in another study.
Gerwig through the plot shows Barbie coming over to the real world from Barbie land and discovers that not only is patriarchy real, yet also many of girls today think she’s an outdated, irrelevant twit whose claims to fame are limited to a disproportionately pink wardrobe and a figure unrealistic enough to damage generations of female self-esteem.
The cast also features multiple shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and personalities in its varied iterations of Barbie and Ken. And in Barbieland, which is Matriarchal, women can do anything, become president, win literary awards and every night is girls’ night…what’s not to love…Of course the magic lies somewhere in the middle!
Through light-hearted yet poignant moments the film addresses Patriarchy. When Barbie and Ken arrive in the real world, Margot Robbie’s stereotypical Barbie character describes feeling uncomfortable in her body (objectified) whilst Ryan Gosling’s Ken is feeling admired and a sense of belonging. A 2021 survey found that four fifths of young women in the UK have been sexually harassed in public spaces, addressed in the film through Barbie’s harassment and catcalling by male construction workers.
I am currently reading “On Our Best Behaviour” which is a probing analysis, by Elise Loehnen of history and contemporary culture that reveals how women have internalised the patriarchy, and how we unwittingly reinforce it. Loehnen shows us how we can break free and discover a path towards a more balanced, fulfilled way to live.
The voice of Loehnen in the film comes through a Mattel employee, who is struggling with both her career and her tween daughter. America Ferrerra as Gloria delivers a powerful monologue, that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and every woman can relate. Here’s a sample” I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. You have to be thin, yet not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy and be thin. It continues and I would highly recommend you read it! It will speak to your soul 😊
Barbie is one of the most surprising and daring films of the year. What could have been a frivolous flop succeeds in being a substantial, important, and poignant piece of filmmaking, and extremely funny and moving at times to watch!
Still the Barbie movie stirs questions long debated in society…and even though we are 43years on from the 1980s original Barbie ad campaign “we girls can do anything” It may take a few more decades, yet we will get there- right Barbie?