Has anyone ever noticed that most girls have grown up playing with baby dolls? Play kitchens? Doll strollers?
Most girls, at the young age of three, grew up pretending to be a mother- attending to their baby dolls, walking their baby in a stroller around the living room, making dinner for her “family” with her little kitchen set.
That was, at least, until she got her first Barbie. The doll that taught young girls that “you can be anything.” Now, girls can grow up pretending to be a firefighter, a teacher, or even president.
This was one of the first ideas that director Gerta Gerwig brought to The Barbie movie. As everyone sat comfortably in theaters, dressed head to toe in pink, and snacking on some popcorn, they all watched the first scene of the film. Where a little girl is introduced to Barbie, and in result, immediately smashes her old baby dolls.
What seemed to be just a silly little scene to start out the movie, was actually a scene with a deeper meaning. A scene which symbolized that little girls don’t have to stick inside the doll box of pretending to be a mother for fun. They can instead, open up their boxes and be anything with Barbie.
This movie was truly made for every woman. It was made for all the little girls who still play with their Barbies, for the middle school girls who think they’re too old to play with dolls anymore, for the teenagers who watched the movie and felt connected to their inner child again, and for all the moms who have devoted so much to their children. Each of these aspects were demonstrated in the film.
It was also supposed to serve a purpose to the men, for them to hopefully realize how women are looked at in our world. For them to have a wake up call. But that seemed to not be the case. At all.
The fact is, this film was made for women. It was made for women to feel seen. But underneath all of that deep meaning hidden in glitter and pink, there is also a meaning waiting to be seen by men.
The main message of Barbie was intended to be that the patriarchy affects everyone, regardless of gender. But that seemed to go right over a lot of people’s heads.
Viewers who didn’t quite get the message of the film have claimed that Barbie is “anti-men” and “anti-feminism.” Which is not the case. The Barbie movie does have a lot to say about men- but let’s not confuse the message with something negative.
The plot of the movie follows Barbie and Ken, leaving their world named “Barbieland” to go into the real world. Barbieland is a place where women have the upperhand on society, and all of the Barbies are more in control rather than the Kens are.
When Barbie leaves her land and enters the real world, she discovers that her world and our world are the complete opposite. She gets catcalled, strange looks, and disrespect as soon as she enters the world. Whereas Ken starts to receive special treatment. He feels good about himself, he for once feels greater than Barbie. Barbie however, does not. She feels like an “object,” as she says in the film.
Ken finds out about the patriarchy, and takes this idea back to Barbieland. Barbieland is now distraught, and taken over by men.
Ever since the release of the film, there have been countless videos on TikTok made of women crying after seeing the movie. Feeling so touched and moved. While men come out of the movie feeling like they were “targeted,” and the only thing they got out of that movie was that they want a Mojo-Dojo-Casa-House – the name of Ken’s home which he stole from Barbie, by the way.
The truth is though, men were targeted in this movie. But so were women. This movie is a satire. Its purpose is to convey a message through targeting people’s actions in the real world. If someone is getting upset over a satire because they feel targeted – that literally means that movie was intended for them.
Men in this film are painted to be disrespectful towards women. Women in this film are painted to be disrespectful towards women. Greta Gerwig did not create the line, “Women hate women and men hate women. It’s the only thing we all agree on,” for no reason.
The role of Ken was not intended to make men feel bad about themselves and to make them feel lower than women. It was to highlight the path followed by most males once they realize that we live in a male-dominated society.
It just hurts, as a woman, to see a movie in so much depth and meaning being tossed to the side by people all because they felt called out.
There is so much to say about this film, so much to feel about this film, but it seems to only be appreciated by women.
But after all, it’s hard to blame men for not understanding when this movie was not made for them.
