My sister and I are Barbie owning people and I’m not ashamed to say it. We got excited when they started making the dolls poseable and buff (because most of them were so skinny and stereotypical it was getting annoying) so when we heard a Barbie movie was coming out I was down to see it as long as there was no smut. Barbie is supposed to be a family thing okay? Then, I was nearly not going to see this movie because I heard so many conservative/Christian reviewers hating on it. But then I heard others saying it had conservative themes and was simply a cheery/solemn nod to girlhood and a comedy of satire. Well, Gretta Gerwig directed my favorite version of Little Women so I figured the film had to have more to it then a man hating feminist comedy. It certainly did, but to say it was a mixed bag is oversimplifying it. Also, now my sister and I have heard Ken’s anthem and it may be engrained into our minds for better or worse. However, it is also the anthem of most male characters in modern entertainment who’ve been reduced to passive beta males with no agency—but we’ll get to that later. If you want to see this movie, or are thinking about seeing it but are concerned by all the mixed reviews—here’s an honest take of the good the bad, the subtext and my thoughts. Let’s dive in.

The satire of men and women’s roles:

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you know something about the plot: Barbie escapes her world to come to ours and find the child that has been causing her to have melancholy thoughts and stop being traditional Barbie. The biggest reason I wasn’t going to watch this movie is because I heard that it trashes men and more traditional womanhood. I’ve seen it for myself, and I can safely say I think it trashes many things but not necessarily those. This can be seen clearly in the role and character arc of Ken, but for now I’ll stay with Barbie and why I think the movie wasn’t completely anti-traditional women. In fact, it did have some conservative themes in there which it would be hard to interpret any other way. 

The opening of the movie which I’d heard a great deal about is a bunch of girls playing with baby dolls while the narrator says that all little girls used to want to be mothers. But when Barbie came along, the confident, tall supermodel career woman who could be anything–they didn’t want baby dolls anymore. The children smash the dolls overdramatically giving them up for Barbie. This alone would have made me say the whole movie was feminist trash but the scene was so over the top ridiculous that there was no way it was meant in earnest. Also, the whole movie basically debunks the idea that Barbie world is perfect and that the ideal female is a supermodel career woman who’s mostly involved with her own success.

Barbie world is clearly messed up on several levels. The women run everything, own everything, are voted into everything, and its not based on merit–simply that the Barbies have all the power. This is clearly played as superficial rather than a paradise because Barbie has longings the entire movie for a human experience and grows to feel out of place in her paradise. There’s no place for the men/Kens in Barbie land and the audience is supposed to see how unfair that is.

The two main characters of the movie, aside from Barbie and Ken, are the mother and daughter character. Which once again, shows us the problem with the Barbie land philosophy. The daughter was close with the mom and loved her till she started becoming a career centered woman over her family. The flashbacks show us that because she stopped prioritizing her daughter over work their relationship lapsed and they’re no longer close. The mother character also stresses at the end “its okay if a woman just wants to be a mom.” This debunks the entire Barbie philosophy where a pregnant Barbie is treated as strange and not popular. We’re supposed to think the Barbies are jerks for thinking all women need to be self-centered career driven supermodels.

When Barbie comes to our world, aside from the many cat callers, the movie doesn’t spend too much time on her looking at the sexism and inequality of the world. She just sees men are in many of the roles which women hold in Barbie land. And the three people she speaks to in order to learn about life and humanity are not feminist dominating career women, but two elderly ladies and a mother. Barbie doesn’t see women crushing business and politics, she sees them growing old and one having a daughter. These are shown to be the things that make up “the real world,” not women stomping men and killing it at the stock market.

By the end of the film Barbie doesn’t want to be human so she can be a strong empowered woman, she already was one in Barbie land. She becomes human because of what she saw from the elderly woman and learned from the maternal character. The old woman speaks to Barbie and tells her that Barbie and Patriarchy are just words human beings invent to make their lives easier to deal with. When she shows Barbie in a vision what she’s really getting into with becoming a human, half of the visions are babies and children, the rest are families and elderly people. This completely shows the movie’s opening to have been set up for a take down. It was meant to be ridiculous and unfairly insulting traditional roles, because by the end of the film Barbie sees that families, children and growing old are things that make up life. Not just her plastic stereotypical world where everything comes easily and they remain young and beautiful forever. 

When Barbie looks at the normal world and wonders why men hold all the roles and not women, I think this had to be intended to make her look narrow minded and naive. The elderly woman she talks to explains to her there’s more to life than women being in places of power and running businesses. She doesn’t talk about oppression, sexism or the patriarchy, she just tells her women “do more than work here.” As if working isn’t the end all be all to life, and Barbie thinking because women aren’t in men’s positions means their miserable and subjugated just isn’t true. Also, it’s very telling that instead of Barbie learning from strong empowered super models in business suits running the world, she sees and speaks to two elderly women. I think this says Gerwig wanted the character of Barbie to learn what it means to be human more than she did for her to see women allegedly liberated.  If the film had wanted to take a completely feminist direction, it could have ended with Barbie walking into a company that she now runs or being president–not going to a doctor. Barbie spends a large portion of the film whining about how she wanted to solve problems for women in the real world and make them equal but when she becomes human it’s more for the experience of family, aging, living and dying than it is to fight the battle of the sexes. 

Ken–the extreme response to what modern culture has reduced men to:

Ken is basically a parody of what modern feminism has made men–useless sidelined whiny creatures that exist for the sake of a woman but have no agency of their own. Now, this isn’t to say Ken wasn’t likeable. I felt sorry for him and it was intentional we should. But his character arc perfectly summarizes the problems with treating men as if masculinity is evil and they have no place in our society. I think this had to be intentional because at the end of the movie Barbie admits it’s partially her fault Ken became a villain (of sorts). The movie not only seemed to satirize Barbie’s perception of the real world, but also Ken’s. Ken thinks the world is run by men simply because men are in places of power, and that everything comes easily to them. Both of these things are disproven in the real world.

Ken exists only for Barbie at the start of the film, he has no agency, makes no decisions for himself, and she takes his affections for granted which we’re supposed to think makes her selfish and insensitive. 

Ken’s desires are the bare minimum level of respect human beings get. When he comes to the real world people address him as a person of value instead of side lining him or ordering him around like Barbie. However, the movie doesn’t go overboard to say men oppress women or domineer over them in the real world, it simply shows that Ken’s perception of men being in the roles that were held by Barbie in his world prove to him that “men rule the world!” This is quickly disproven when Ken walks into a big company and demands a job. The men ask extensively about his requirements instead of just bowing down and saying, “He’s a man lets give him the job based on that!” I think this scene must have been a jab at what we today call male privilege, as if men just walk into jobs and without effort get support and higher income based on gender. 
The movie goes to great lengths to make Ken sympathetic because he really did only resort to being a chauvinist jerk when he had no other options left. Which shows the danger of treating men in modern movies like they have no place or respect. Basically, I’m saying if Kristoff returns to frozen and subjugates everyone because his character got no respect, Ken should have been a warning to us all. Men in modern films have no agency, most masculinity is toxic or bad, for them to be needed or wanted by the female characters is not allowed–and that exactly what Barbie does to Ken. She sidelines him and leaves him with no place of worth or value and the viewers are supposed to see that’s wrong. I was surprised this message was even in there because the subtext was conservative. Ken was basically a Beta male who lost his mind and decided to swing in the opposite direction because he was sick of being ignored and it’s understandable. If being the nice guy who dotes on the female’s every whim isn’t appreciated or even reward by the mildest respect, why would men do it? This movie in a ridiculous and extreme fashion, shows that. Barbie is shocked by what direction the men turn when their idolization of the females isn’t rewarded, and she is forced to change her perspective. I think this had to be intended to make fun of women who sideline men and are shocked by the outcome. If it wasn’t, maybe the themes were unintentionally conservative which would almost make this funnier. 

The feminist/anti-men….yeah it was still heavily in there:

I want to be careful when I say feminist because some people when they use the world simply mean men and women are equal, and that is absolutely true. However, the newest breed of feminist tends to be anti-traditional women and anti-men. It says women have to want to be career people and if they want a family its’ wrong, and that men being masculine in any way even if it’s virtuous is toxic. Those are the negative forms of feminism I was on the look out for. I’ve mentioned the things in the movie that were more conservative and didn’t have a terrible message or theme, now we get to the bad. When the Kens subjugate the Barbies in retaliation to being ignored, we’re supposed to think its partially Barbie’s fault. That was fine. The problem was that they claim the Barbies are “brainwashed” to like the Kens’ change of behavior and that the women have to snap them out of it and convince them to like things the way they were. This feels forced and like a way to vilify the male characters unjustly. It removes all responsibility and blame from the Barbies for liking the Kens as macho jerks, and just uses a throw away excuse to say “the men brainwashed them.” It makes no sense in the world but then so does little else. 

This portion of the movie was the most obviously trying to paint what was happening with the Kens and Barbies as a metaphor for women liking masculine men as an evil thing which has to be forcefully instilled in them. Because women naturally don’t like macho jerks they have to be brainwashed to want men to be dominant…that’s why we have Fifty shades of Grey, and 365 days, and every romance novel with a macho jerk lead ever–all written by women. Women can have poor taste and judgment and its not due to brainwashing okay? There’s a reason in our heavily confused culture that nice guys still finish last–and it’s because women keep writing Damon Salvatores, Edward Cullens, and Christian Greys. I don’t like it, but we  need to get over it and stop acting like men have forced women to like the domineering powerful males–they do it on their own. 

Also, in the relationship with the mother and daughter, I thought there were good themes in there. Because we’re clearly shown that she and her daughter were happier when she was just being a mom and spending time with her daughter playing and enjoying life. And in the flashes we’re shown when the mother basically starts living at her job and talking to her daughter less, that’s why the relationship falls apart. I appreciated this because again, it debunked the Barbie lie that all women should be career driven supermodels and that’s the only liberated way to live. However, the husband in this movie being basically irrelevant and out of the picture made it appear more anti-men. Also, it wasn’t cleared up enough to my satisfaction that the movie was being pro-family and not anti-men because of the whole finale being the Barbies taking back the world from the men, and while they make things better than they were before it’s not like it’s equal.

Was it for adults or children?

There were things in this movie that were so silly they belonged in Looney tunes, and other things belonged in a raunchy romantic comedy. Whoever it was targeted to wasn’t clear. Because there were risqué jokes in there that only adults would get, and all the political satire and feminism wouldn’t have been clear to little girls. However, people roller blading to Barbie land and Will Ferrel chasing Barbie in circles was so cartoonish you thought it was a kids movie. It needed more silliness like that, and less dirty jokes. As it is there was so much subtext to political humor and social satire much of the humor was probably missed by most children.

 There were portions of the film like the Kens beach war that were just….dumb, and frankly difficult to watch. If the movie was supposed to be a heartwarming comedy it needed less political commentary and more family friendly material. I would have been able to say I liked it if the raunchy jokes had been removed as well as the extended beach fight sequences of Kens (yes they went there), and replaced with more innocent comedy. You could have kept the subtext addressing what it means to be a woman in the real world and some of the political comedy if you’d just removed much of frankly—just weird content that made up some of the film. If you removed the whole finale section of the women un-brainwashing the other women to realize they don’t need men, the feminism wouldn’t have been so heavy handed, but alas—the film went there too. So there you have it. If you’re really oblivious to the political stuff and the dirty jokes, you might find it enjoyable–if you take nothing in it seriously save the things that were actually heartwarming–like Barbie deciding to be human. But in terms of what it was saying about men and women, and the rating as well as what audience it was targeted towards, I would have liked the film to pick a lane and stick to it.