Director Greta Gerwig, who has built a devoted following for such female-forward movies as Lady Bird and Little Women, has labeled Barbie "most certainly a feminist film." Mattel executives, on the other hand, have said the opposite.
The message is actually directed at women who used to play with Barbies (hence the prominence of America Ferrera's Gloria, who gets the main speech) when they were kids, and reassures them that they can still look back fondly on their childhood toys and be part of a new, better, more modern, more feminist-leaning era.
The Greta Gerwig directorial features the controversial 'nine-dash line' - a dotted line that China uses when drawing its borders in the South China Sea. Vietnam's state media reported that the government banned distribution of the popular movie because it includes a view of a map showing disputed territorial claims.
The film's reception has focused on its messages of women's empowerment, but what makes it a radical story is that it also invites women to reimagine feminism so that it doesn't ignore male struggles.
Like the feminism discussed in The Feminine Mystique, Barbie's 1960s empowerment largely addressed a white, middle-class woman who sought her own money and agency outside the home through a career. The first Barbie Dream House debuted in 1962, before women were even guaranteed access to their own bank accounts.
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What is the criticism of the Barbie movie?
Critics who call it "anti-men" are missing the true message of the film. The movie shows that adhering to old patriarchal systems doesn't benefit men, as it forces expectations on them and leads to unfulfillment. The Kens end up at war with each other and lose sight of themselves.
He brings it back to Barbie Land, where the commentary on gender norms enters a dramatized yet pointed display. With the Kens in charge, the Barbies enter a submissive, more “stereotypical” female role, while the Kens take on a stereotypical macho leadership role.
Ken represents, essentially, everybody else. Barbie, in her dismissals of Ken, doesn't mean to be mean; she treats him thoughtlessly because she has simply never considered that words—or anything, really—might cause hurt. She has never needed to.
In the Barbie movie, Ken and Barbie uncover similar realizations about patriarchy when they leave Barbieland for the Real World, where Barbie is objectified and belittled, and where toxic masculinity eventually takes a toll on Ken's psyche.
CNN: Why might it be important that “Barbie” culminated in a gynecologist appointment? Wen: Having everyone see Barbie go to the gynecologist normalizes the experience. It solidifies the understanding that reproductive health is an integral part of overall health.
While the film does not dive into trans identity, Barbie still manages to touch upon LGBTQ+ issues without naming them as such. In fact, the film features several openly LGBTQ+ actors, like Hari Nef, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp, and Scott Evans.
“The most commonly identified reason for not wanting to play with the curvy doll was her larger size,” Dr Harriger said. Curvy Barbie is similar in height to petite Barbie, but has a more rounded stomach, thicker legs and no gap between her thighs. She is still larger than the average woman.
There are some progressive feminist moments in the film, but they are likely lost on most audiences as the material comes across as throwaway lines: 'I'm a man with no power, does that make me a woman? ' and 'everyone hates women, men hate women, women hate women.
The movie sends a powerful message about gender equality and representation. The story arc of the character Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, can be summarized with two songs starting with “I'm Just Ken” and ending with “Ken is Me”. In the movie, Ken laments that “It's Barbie and Ken, there is no just Ken”.
Pursuing the link between gender and looking, feminist film theory borrowed ideas about vision and sexual difference from psychoanalysis, with a view to shedding light on the part played by gender in spectatorship in cinema (see psychoanalytic film theory).
But some, including an author at Christianity Today, see it as a reverse allegory of the Christian Garden of Eden story with Barbieland as the world untouched by human tragedy. The heroine must commit “original sin” to travel to the “real world” to discover the knowledge of “good and evil.”
Barbie dolls come with predefined appearances and characteristics, which can limit the range of narratives a child may explore. There is also marketing of an entire “Barbie world” of branded objects, which many parents may choose not to invest in for financial or environmental reasons.
It has been suggested that Barbie has become the very embodiment of the debate about what woman represent, what jobs they might do, how wealthy they should be, whether they should be married, how they should spend their free time and, of course, their appearance. This is seemingly a heavy burden for one doll to bear.
Ken's ideas about the patriarchy are quite muddled (he believes that horses play a major role, presumably after he learns what a cowboy is) but what is frightening is how quickly he manages to upend Barbieland's matriarchy by having all the Kens brainwash all the Barbies into grateful submission.
Beyond Barbie's problems of cellulite and flat feet, sexual and reproductive rights, access to medicines, and equal treatment for people with disabilities, obesity, and other health problems seem never to be a central part of the movie.
The idea of Barbie is to teach young girls that they can do and be anything. While other dolls on the market were primarily baby dolls, Barbie was designed to let girls imagine themselves as something besides a mother.
Ken was introduced as a male counterpart of Barbie by American toy company Mattel in 1961. He was named after Kenneth Handler, son of Barbie creator/inventor Ruth Handler, just as Barbie was named after her daughter.
