Feminist Barbie

Spoiler alert!

So I did go and see the “Barbie” (2023) film after all. And I wasn’t disappointed. Yes, it’s all pink and girlie to start with, but the parallel universe that is Barbieland is soon exposed to be as hollow and as plasticky as it looks.

Even for a child of the eighties who absolutely adored her Barbies, loved anything pink and could have spent hours daydreaming in a toy shop, the opening scenes were a bit too much: Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) getting up in her perfect pink dream house, in perfect cute pink-and-white pjs and with perfectly styled long blond hair, then having a shower without water and a plastic breakfast before having another perfect day surrounded by her perfect friends waving at her from all sides while displaying their perfect smiles.

The amount of detail put into the set is amazing. The kitchen fully equipped with everything from cups and plates to a working toaster looks like fun to play with, while the painted-on food in the fridge reminds you that there are limits to reality here. The same is true for all of the open-fronted houses in Barbieland that would allow children to move their dolls from one level to the next without using the stairs, while the water of the outdoor swimming pool is solid plastic, so Barbie can casually walk across.

Barbieland is a girl’s world, where all important roles are filled by women: Women are doctors and lawyers and presidents. They are diplomats and journalists and they sit on the supreme court. They write novels, get Nobel prizes and fly to the moon. They support each other and party together all night long.

And then there’s Ken (Ryan Gosling). Always a bit of an afterthought in a world dominated by females dressing up and trying out hairdos while also saving the world, Ken follows Barbie around like an adoring puppy, but doesn’t seem to have much purpose by himself, as he spends his time mainly hanging out on the beach with the other Kens waiting for Barbie to look at him. It is one of the running jokes of the film that Ken has neither genitals nor a job, he is just “Beach”.

Another running joke of the film is about Barbie’s impossibly arched feet. When she steps out of her high heels, Barbie’s feet remain on tip toe. So the morning Barbie suddenly finds herself flat-footed, she knows disaster has struck. Her misery is related to interferences from the human she is connected to, which have given her recent thoughts of death. So, on the advice of Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), Stereotypical Barbie travels to the real word to find her human – with Ken in tow.

As the two life-size dolls arrive on a beach in California their reception is less welcoming than they had hoped for. Instead of being admired and adored, they soon get in trouble with the police. And when Barbie finally thinks she has found the girl she is connected to (Ariana Greenblatt), the angry teenager berates her for producing stereotypes and creating unachievable beauty ideals and an unrealistic body image.

Ken meanwhile seem to have a better time in the real world, where men seem to be at the centre of everything. People are polite to him, they seem to respect him, they call him “Sir”. So he decides to return to Barbieland alone to establish patriarchy there.

In the meantime, Barbie is captured by her makers Mattel. As Barbie steps in front of the CEO (perfectly cast with “Elf” actor Will Ferrell) and asks to see the boss (expecting it to be a woman), it becomes clear what the all-male board of the toy maker are scared of. But just as they try to put Barbie back into her original box, she has a revelation and escapes – right into the car of her real human (America Ferrera). And here starts a chase that takes all of them to Barbieland where the real task begins…

It is true, some of the scenes of the film are bit over the top, and the film’s message would have been clear enough without some of the angry feminist rants. But at least they help to convince even the last viewer that this all pink and all girly-looking film is not (just) for children.

gm