INTERLUDE: breaking down barbie (2023)

"doing the thing", "subverting the thing", and why i'm still annoyed at something i saw months ago. (october 18th, 2023)

I didn’t like Barbie. I wasn’t expecting to, frankly— it was my general understanding that as a mainstream film, Barbie was not going to be presenting any sort of anti-capitalist, feminist, or political commentary that went beyond “patriarchy and corporations bad, but WE’RE one of the good ones, so you should buy our products. Girl power!” I also went into it with the knowledge that I’m an arthouse lover and not really a fan of media that treats things as tongue-in-cheek, which means I tend to not like the majority of today’s blockbuster cinema. Additionally, I think the whole “bimbo” and “girl math/dinner/etc” trends are fucking plagues on society, so I knew that Barbie was probably not going to be my cup of tea and I accepted that before I even went into the theater.

This isn’t to say that Barbie didn’t have good intentions. I could definitely see where it was trying to go, but it was ultimately limited by various factors, making it seem stunted and ineffective. It seemed to me like it bit off more than it could chew, which didn’t allow any concept the film was trying to convey fully develop. If you try to cover every base possible, you end up making a monolith out of incredibly complex societal issues, so nothing will get the attention or nuance it deserves. I also recognize that Barbie is a mass-market film that is designed to appeal to as many people and demographics as possible, and will therefore not present anything too opinionated.

This also isn’t to say that I need every movie I watch to have some sort of political commentary or deep, coherent meaning. It revolves more around how everything is ultimately shaped by the society that it was created by and released into. We do not live in a vacuum. It is impossible to remove politics from anything, especially media. There is no such thing as being unpolitical. If something claims to be unpolitical, it means it’s an advertisement for keeping things the way they are, which is an inherently political statement— in actuality, there is nothing more political than denouncing change. Keeping that in mind, the politics of the film have to be considered. When it comes to Barbie, that means half-assed commentary and an indecisive message.

The kicker is that I was expecting all of that, so when I left the theater feeling unsettled, it took me a while to figure out why. I’m not the type of person to hold onto grudges or discontentment if I know why I’m unsatisfied. Honestly, I was pretty nonchalant about the politics, but there was this strange lingering feeling of dismay that has left Barbie on my mind for months. If it wasn’t the Google ad shown in previews that felt so infantilizing to me it was almost nauseating¹, the lack of nuance, or the public response that I can only think of as “overhyping”, then what was it?

The plot, as it turns out. The plot was bothering me. This is because the plot fucking sucks.

A dramatic statement, I know, but one I am saying with my whole chest. Beat me! Take my blood! Whatever! I found it to be a deeply incurious movie. Greta Gerwig, the director, described Barbie as “doing the thing and subverting the thing”— I would personally love it if she would clarify on what “the thing” she thought they were doing was, because while they were definitely doing things, absolutely nothing was being subverted. Does she think it was subversive because it kind of denounced the patriarchy? Does she think she subverted our societal concept of what it means to be a woman in any way? Does she know it didn’t do any of that?

In my mind, calling something “subversive” means that it investigates an institution or a cultural norm through pushing the boundaries of what we consider acceptable thought or presentation. Pink Flamingos (1972, dir. John Waters) is subversive because it intentionally tried to be as irredeemable as possible. American Psycho (2000, dir. Mary Harron) is subversive because it shows the dark side of commercialism and corporate narcissism. What did Barbie do that was subversive? Nothing, really. No questions were asked about either Barbie Land or the real world. Because Barbie was too innocent and unknowing— something which seems to be men’s perception of most women, so no subversion there— she didn’t even know what questions to ask, so all the answers were handed to her on a plate and none of them were questioned.

This is what I’m talking about with the lack of curiosity. Maybe I’m too focused on analysis and form, but I’ve always found that the most effective narratives investigate an already-present conflict instead of creating an entirely new conflict for the character to patch up so everything can go back to being perfect. Once again, it’s an advertisement for things to stay the same— by creating a solvable conflict for the sole purpose of having something for a plot to revolve around, the creator insinuates that the world they have built has no issues worth exploring. This shows up in the plot of Barbie by her leaving Barbie Land, which in my opinion, was entirely unnecessary. If the creators weren’t so scared that their worldbuilding wouldn’t hold up under investigation, they could’ve just spent the entire movie exploring why Barbie Land was the way that Barbie Land was.

Here’s the thing— when I looked up the themes of Barbie, the general consensus seems to be “female empowerment” and “what life as a woman is like under the patriarchy”, both of which are laughable. To say Barbie’s experience with the patriarchy is representative of every woman’s experience is genuinely tragic. To say that every woman was unaware of misogyny until they were forced to open their eyes, and even then it was just men thinking that they’re dumb, is ignorant and terrible. I’m not saying that there were no parts of Barbie I could sympathize with, but it’s really only representative of a microscopic portion of women’s experiences. Even to me, someone who is white, thin, and middle class, that is not remotely my experience.

The patriarchy is “horseplay” to Barbie— it’s not a joke to me. How could it be, when the femicide rates are only going up? How could it be, when doctors have written off my health and life because they thought I was just being dramatic? How could it be, when I know so many women who were sexually assaulted, me included? How could it be, when more and more Native girls are going missing every year— and don’t think I didn’t catch that offhand joke about the patriarchy affecting the Barbies like smallpox affected the Indigenous population, because I fucking did and it made me sick. I can’t put into words what hearing that as someone with a Native background is like. It is making light of genocide and it is not fucking funny. To suggest that every woman experiences only these forms of microaggressions is making light of something deadly. And yeah, maybe I take things way too seriously, especially when a movie is supposed to be “fun” and “cute”— this is something that is fired back at a lot of people who criticize Barbie, including “just let girls be girls” and the terms “misogynist” if you’re male or “pick me” if you’re female or non-binary— but I will never regret not taking the patriarchy seriously when people are dying from it every day. It’s strange how letting girls be girls has come to be just as misogynistic as letting boys be boys. The only thing I can take from that is that it is our social responsibility to question everything and not let anything be.

So why did they let Barbie Land be? I’m not even going to bother to talk about the real world in Barbie because, like the rest of the film, it lacked nuance and was boring. Barbie Land, on the other hand, was depicted as a perfect, beautiful place. I know I’m just a skeptical person by nature, but I fully believe that nothing is perfect and the things we consider perfect are the things that need investigating the most. When Barbie Land was presented to me as a sort of a utopia, I was instantly suspicious. The horror came later. What does it say that our idea of a perfect world is one where we never have to make any decisions and where everyone conforms to a specific ideal or faces total societal rejection, like Weird Barbie? What does it say that our idea of a perfect world involves everyone being perfectly coiffed, all the time? Why am I the one asking those questions and not Barbie?

Overall, I think that having Barbie go to the real world was a bad idea. Trying to teach her about something as enveloping and complex as the patriarchy wasn’t a smart film-making decision. Unless you’re doing a full deep dive on the impact of the patriarchy— for which an hour and 54 minutes wouldn’t be nearly enough— you won’t be able to do justice to the topic. Someone voiced the fact that there’s a double standard for women, which is great, but that’s kind of all the complexity we get. Just summarizing feminism doesn’t work and will result in biting off more than you can chew.

On the other hand, if Barbie never leaves Barbie Land, you would have an angle to delve into feminist themes from and therefore be able to be more specific and nuanced. For example, something that stuck out to me personally was the lack of autonomy in Barbie Land— all meals are automatic, clothes are picked out, everyone knows the choreography to a song. I understand that they’re dolls and a lack of autonomy is kind of the whole gig, but I would personally love to see the plot revolve around Barbie starting to question that lack of autonomy. What if she doesn’t want to wear that dress? What if she doesn’t want to eat a single waffle for breakfast every day? Barbie could’ve been an investigation into what people do when we feel like we don’t have control, how our desire for control can be destructive, and the power of choice. If she refused to change her clothing, didn’t eat, didn’t shower, cut off all her hair, and slept on the street, that would’ve been a more interesting movie than “Margot Robbie in a cute outfit learns about discrimination”. I want to see a stronger emotion from her than aimless sadness. I want desperation or rage or violence. I want her to get mad, instead of just crying about it. I want her to do something.

People have called Barbie existential, so let’s make it existential. Give me a Barbie doing everything in her power to defy whatever mysterious hand lays out all her clothes for her. When the mysterious hand tries to punish her for acting out, let me see her survive and prosper for the sake of rebellion. Give me a Barbie that tells determinism, biological or otherwise, to get fucked. Connect it to real world autonomy— have Barbie’s fight against the hand result in knowing that Barbie Land’s problems reflect ours, and that our right to choose is just as limited as hers. Have the real-world women and Barbie bond over that despite their differences. Do you see where I’m going with this? The creators of Barbie Land had the opportunity to make an incredible surrealist drama, as does anyone who creates a fictional utopia, and could’ve had specific and effective feminist themes instead of making an entire movement so generalized it means next to nothing. When you have a precise goal for a message, what you are able to convey is much larger. If the creators of Barbie focused on something like autonomy instead of just “patriarchy bad”, multiple questions could’ve been raised around things ranging from objectification to reproductive rights to anti-trans legislature. Give me a Barbie movie that says the world is irreparably fucked, but the greatest form of resistance is our survival and joy.

I mean, let’s be clear. This is capitalist America. The bar is real fucking low. Honestly, there was no way in hell that the version of the movie I laid out would ever come to fruition, but what can I say? A guy can dream. Additionally, in my version, I would’ve had Barbie kill Ken because it’s her movie and not the Ken movie. There also would’ve been lesbian sex because I don’t know a single kid who played with Barbies and didn’t make them scissor. The Indigo Girls can stay. Maybe it wouldn’t have been very family friendly, but I bet I could retain the PG-13 rating.

Ultimately, though, the Barbie movie I dream of is nonexistent. In the meantime, watch a better Barbie movie: the animated ones from 2001-2008, or better yet, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1988).

1. I feel a genuine need to address it and I will continue to lodge my complaint here. I now understand it was a joke about Barbie’s confusion towards the real world, but I still think it was badly done considering the punchline seemed to just be “haha, woman stupid”. This effect was doubled considering it was shown before the film, when the audience doesn’t have the context of the plot to compare it to— actually, even though I went into the movie with full knowledge of the plot, it still came across to me as misogynistic and infantilizing. I do think that Barbie is a pretty neutral movie, but a lot of the interpretations of it I saw were in a similar vein of bimbo-esque “conformance to the patriarchy is empowering”, which is wildly concerning to me. In all the ads I’ve seen throughout a lifetime of cable, YouTube, and existing in a capitalist society, I’ve never seen one that has crafted such a strong sense of dread in me.