The movie Barbie is about becoming human, learning how to navigate the modern world, enduring the patriarchy, toxic masculinity, stereotypes, beauty standards, racism, sexualization of women, and finding purpose. The director, Greta Gerwig, also directed other feminist films such as Little Women and Ladybird, and she projects her visions perfectly. She accurately depicts how I’d imagine my dolls living in their perfect Barbie Land while still bringing a satirical tone that shines light on real-world issues we face today. The movie is PG-13, meaning the film was targeted at an older audience who carry a sentiment for Barbie. Its message to mothers and grown women in the world today is heartening, and gratifies mothers for all the sacrifices they make for their children. In Barbie, the creator of the doll Ruther Handler says “We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they’ve come.”
In the movie, Barbies exist in Barbie Land, a matriarchal society, and get up each day confident to charge the day and say hello to all their Barbie friends. There are many variations of Barbies and Kens, including discontinued dolls like “Ken’s buddy” Allen; pregnant, small-town Midge and many other dolls that used to be on shelves. The Barbies have prestigious jobs such as doctors, lawyers and politicians while the Kens mostly spend their days at their sole career, the beach. They glide through every day without stress in the world, having dance parties and girls’ nights daily. This is until Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, is hit with intrusive thoughts of death and starts to become increasingly human: developing cellulite, flat feet and bad breath. The Barbies are all disgusted and worried, telling her it must be whoever is playing with her causing her to become flawed. Barbie goes to the outskirts of Barbie Land to find the house of Weird Barbie, played by Kate McKinnon, a doll that was thoroughly artistically experimented with. There Barbie is informed that she must traverse into the Real World to find the child that is causing her afflictions. While on her way in her adorable pink convertible, she’s surprised by Ken stowed away in the back seat and reluctantly agrees to let him come with her.
Once arriving at Venice Beach, Ken is amazed by how much of a place he has in a patriarchal society while Barbie is scared, puzzled, and the center of attention for men’s sexual harassment. She punches a man for groping her, and the pair get arrested, which alarms Matel’s CEO- played by Will Ferrel- and he orders her recapture. Barbie is able to track down her owner, a tween girl named Sasha who criticizes her for promoting unrealistic beauty standards. Barbie, distraught by her realization that she didn’t promote feminism, discovers Gloria, a Matel employee and mother of Sasha who inadvertently catalyzed Barbie’s existential crisis after Gloria was playing with her and drawing her in a similar state of mind. Meanwhile, Ken returns to Barbie Land to persuade the Kens to take over and force Barbies into submission, placing them in roles as agreeable girlfriends, housewives and maids. Barbie returns and fails to change the Kens’ mind and becomes depressed until she hears an inspirational speech from Gloria. Gloria, Sasha, the Barbies and the discontinued dolls free themselves from subordination by manipulating the Kens to fight against themselves and distract them from their male superiority.
The Barbies regain power in society and resolve to rectify the faults of their previous society, promising better treatment to the Kens and all the outcasts in Barbie Land. Ken and Barbie apologize to each other and acknowledge their mistakes, and Ken tells Barbie he feels he has no purpose without her. Barbie, while feeling unsure of her own identity, encourages him to find his own. She meets the spirit of her creator, who shows her Barbie’s ever-evolving history and that she has no set ending.
This movie was a colorful spectrum of emotions and art. The range from uncontrollable belly laughing to choking on sobs was intense, and I think it will definitely be a big pink bookmark in cinematic history. I loved its humor, its silly nuances to childhood, and especially the music. Everyone expected a movie about Barbie to be fabulous, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be this remarkable. The set, costume, and detail scene by scene are astonishing and impressive. It’s already broken records, having made over one billion dollars in just 17 days, making Greta Gerwig the first woman to have sole directing credit on a billion-dollar film. The encoded messages and relatable characters in the movie are very relevant today and hit hard to see on screen represented so well. Allen, played by Micheal Cera, is a very relatable character, especially with how much toxic masculinity we see today. He doesn’t fit completely with the Barbies or the Kens, but he wants a place in society just like every “weird” Barbie. The actors themselves were cast perfectly, specifically Robbie as Barbie. Robbie’s history of roles typically shows her as a symbol of femininity in films mostly made by men for men. In The Wolf of Wall Street and Suicide Squad, her characters are described as blonde bombshells and seen as a doll for men’s sexual pleasure. When stepping into her role as the most famous doll, Barbie, Robbie showed that she’s an icon of womanhood and femininity and nobody’s doll anymore.
