WHY BARBIE IS NOT A SUPERFICIAL DOLL AFTER ALL…
Does Barbie represent an unrealistic mirage of what women should be or does she give hope for young girls across the world on what they can be? According to “stereotypical” Barbie, played by Margot Robbie in Greta Gerwig’s newest film, Barbie, the plastic product manufactured by Mattel has unironically saved the world from patriarchal oppression.
Robbie lives in Barbieland which is Gerwig’s pink, feminist utopia; a dreamlike universe where all women participate in all facets of society, working as supreme court justices and saving lives in the medical field. Everything in Barbieland is easy; the hardship of motherhood is never spoken of (because well– pregnant Barbie doesn’t sell very well) and the Ken dolls live to earn Barbies’ attention.
Gerwig’s film ridicules patriarchal realities by comparing them to the Barbieland fantasy sold by Mattel. The concept of Barbie is simple, they’re toy dolls that have it all– they’re both perfectly beautiful and they can successfully become anything they want.
Barbies live happily in this dream-like universe, but it’s all interrupted one night when Barbie begins questioning scary human things– like death. Eventually, more un-Barbie-like things begin taking place in Stereotypical Barbie’s life, which leads her to a journey where she needs to venture into the real world. She’s tasked to find the person who “owns” her Barbie to see if something’s gone wrong.
Once Stereotypical Barbie is exposed to the real world, the shock of the patriarchy sets in. After sitting through the bright, pink, plastic scenes of Barbieland, we’re faced with a male energy that dominates the human world. Women empowerment is discussed at a large round table of Mattel executives who are all– well, men. Then, in one scene, Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, comically revels in the imagery of all male presidents, horses, and just masculine images, juxtaposed with big buildings and corporations that represent power.
A large part of the storyline revolves around a relationship between Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). Stereotypical Barbie originally belongs to them, but their shaky relationship causes the irregularities in Stereotypical Barbie’s life.
Once Gloria and Sasha meet Barbie, they end up going back to Barbieland with her to find it completely dumped into patriarchal rule by Ken who learned about patriarchy from the real world and brought it back to Barbieland. Suddenly, we see the Barbies who were once independent “feminist” icons, living to serve the interests of men; not only serving their interests but feeling happy about becoming these accessories to them.
When Gloria, a human, becomes the driving force in saving the Barbies and awakening them from their subverted state, Gerwig shows that maybe it’s what makes us human that makes us heroes.
Why does Gerwig show patriarchy through the concept of Barbie? The reversed fictional realities show just how abnormal both worlds are, and how the patriarchy is often dismissed as natural. When we see the Kens in Barbieland being cheerleaders for Barbies we laugh at how strange it is…because men were never accessories to women… it’s just not masculine; in other words, it’s just not normal.
Gerwig’s Barbie also shows how being a woman and being a feminist is not so simple. It’s filled with impossible contradictions; you do one thing to please the world, but do another and you are shunned. “If you talk too much about your kids, it’s annoying; but if you don’t talk at all about them, you’re a bad mother” comes from Ferreira’s powerful monologue. All these lines and contortions that restrict women make us all suffocated, tired and sometimes think about what everything even means at the end of the day.
Gloria’s exasperation on how to exist as a woman is an existential dread that can be relatable and Barbie becoming human feels cathartic. Gerwig’s Barbie can be recognized as a touching tale of sisterhood, motherhood, and the labour women put into this life to feel normal or right.
Gerwig packs a lot in this one film; the contradictions of the Mattel product, the postfeminist attitude of Barbie, and the story of motherhood. Sometimes it’s a bit messy, but she crafts her story lightheartedly with some ideas that are often comically exaggerated or overtly academic.
Nonetheless, one message is clear at the end of the film. As stereotypical Barbie steps into the real world, with her good ol’ Birkenstocks, Gerwig is telling us Barbie, who was once a toy but still a woman, deserves to be human. Whether it’s Mattel’s newest corporate message or Gerwig’s artistic moral, Barbie tells us all women, in fact, deserve to just be that– imperfectly human, or ordinary Barbie.
