Barbie - Feminist Icon or Blonde Bimbo?

All of the negativity I have seen surrounding this movie seems to be coming from the right-leaning, white, male demographic. But who is surprised? The sound of a feminist barbie movie that highlights the problems of patriarchy in the real world? NIGHTMARE TERRITORY! When Shapiro and Morgan are hating on your movie for being “too woke”, know that you’ve created a well-rounded progressive movie.

The movies follows the two characters, Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling) as they leave Barbie Land - a land where Barbies rule - and venture into the real world. What Ken learns to find during this adventure is that the real world relies on a system, known as the patriarchy, to keep society functioning, or so he thinks. Stereotypical Barbie realises that Barbie did not fix the real world for women. The patriarchy is very much still the system the real world abide by, and even though she may be a doll that gave women the freedom to be anything they wanted to be in their bedrooms, this did not translate when the girls turned to women and entered the ‘real world’; men still have the power and the control. Ken then returns to Barbie Land, and converts the once utopia to a land of beer, golf and horses. Oh, and all the Barbies, including President Barbie, now give foot rubs and wait to have things Ken-splained to them. Eventually, with the help of the benevolent mastermind behind the brand, Barbie returns to Barbie Land to fix this broken system, realising that all dolls deserve rights in Barbie Land, not just the Barbies. Even Alan... maybe.

The message Director and Writer Greta Gerwig has conveyed is a humanist one. One that suggests any abuse of power is toxic to our society, and ultimately creates the separation between the sexes. True empowerment, and true equality comes from solidarity and the need to help others find their power, not believing that certain sexes hold greater control over others. This is the only way the world can function at a state of total equality.

However, the controversy surrounding this movie is an interesting discourse that I believe is something that society is struggling with at the moment. Can we read this movie as a post-feminist take on the Doll, and how, with our knowledge and understanding in 2023 can criticise yet hold great value in what that Doll managed to achieve for women and men. Or are we living in a Modern Feminist age in which we acknowledge that women are still oppressed by the patriarchy and the Doll achieved nothing; if not, as Sasha says in the movie, “pushed the feminist movement back 50 years”.

Barbie has faced tremendous backlash over the years, much of this criticism focussed on the dolls’ unrealistic and naturally unachievable body image. But are we seriously pinning all of these issues on a plastic fake doll? A doll that was only ever created to show girls that they could BE anything they wanted to be. We talk about this doll as though Barbie was not a total paradigm shift in our feminist discourse from the early 1960’s because she has a slim waist and perfect boobs. Women couldn’t open a bank account or get a credit card without her father or husband’s signed permission, but in Barbie Land, she could be president. Women had not yet gone to space in the 1960’s. In Barbie Land, Barbie was an astronaut. Women in the 1960’s were not allowed to refuse to have sex with her husband. It wasn’t until 1993 that marital rape became criminalised in all 50 states in the US. But in Barbie Land, she could be a Police Officer. And own her dream house. And her dream car. And her dream plane. Yes, she may have looked absurdly perfect and unnaturally beautiful, but she gave women power. A power that they literally did not have. Which brings us to today, and Margot Robbie.

The film makes a point to call Robbie Stereotypical Barbie at all moments. Because that is what she is. She is the Barbie that we think about when someone says Barbie. We think of a blonde, thin, stunning woman. So, no, they probably were not going to cast someone that did not look like this because, why would they? That was not the point. Casting directors have a job to fit the brief. Robbie fits the brief. And whilst this may offend those who believe that Barbie is the root of all body image issues, it cannot be disagreed that Barbie looks the way she does. You might not like it, you might not agree with it, but it is what it is. I have also seen lots of comments about the ‘cellulite’ conversation that happens throughout the movie. Personally, I found this incredibly funny. Greta is literally showing women that men could be brain-washing your friends, stealing your homes, ruining all that you built, but women have been conditioned to care more about how they look than how they are treated. I did not read this as Greta believing Barbie should now hate her body for having cellulite, but instead a comment on how messed up we have allowed our generations to become with regards to their bodies.

It is fascinating that we decide that movies should have all of the answers and all of the solutions to our real world problems. We are wild to think that a Barbie movie is going to now cure the world of all its patriarchal struggles and we now live in Barbie Land because Greta Gerwig said it works. Why do we expect movies to literally change the world? Why do we expect one woman to suddenly be the voice of all feminist cinema and that is the only voice we must listen to. This isn’t just a story about Barbie finding her true self, but it is about her seeing the world as it is really is for the very first time. Seeing patriarchy at its worst and most exaggerative, and most limiting.

It is a limiting movie. It is a group of people deciding that this is how we collectively want the world to be. But isn’t that the point? To acknowledge the limits of a one-gendered system. We know that in real-life, an all-woman government would not solve the worlds problems. We also know, from experience, that men don’t either. But this movie also showed that patriarchy isn’t just carried out by hyper-masculine men, women also play a part. We know all of this to be true, but watching this flipped and made so blatantly obvious to us is a stroke of genius. We know the truth about the real world, so why not watch everything we know to be true, flipped on its perfect barbie head.

I was not remotely surprised about the backlash this movie received. It is everything we have been conditioned to not see on our movie screens. People of all sizes, ages, sexualities and genders being celebrated in a fun and enjoyable way.

But I think we must give it up for the doll. She’s been brutally dragged through the mud these past 60 years, but, as she did with me as a young girl growing up, showed women all over the world the never-ending possibilities and powers of being a woman. And my god, how brilliant it is.

And to Greta Gerwig. Thank you. You have reignited in women the power to be who they want to be all over again.