by: Hannah Larrabee-Walcutt, Graduate Intern
If you’ve been on the internet lately, or even outside the house, I’m sure you’ve heard something about the smash hit movie Barbie - starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, directed by Greta Gerwig. If you haven’t seen the film and you’re on the fence, I would highly recommend doing so. Barbie was not only entertaining, it was also thought provoking and emotional. Here are some things that I have been reflecting upon since watching (for the purposes of this article and discussing the themes of the movie, where the Kens represent women and the Barbies represent men in Barbie Land, I will be talking about women and men but I recognize that there is much more to gender than the gender binary and so these reflections are more complex when put into the context of today’s reality):
*warning - there may be spoilers ahead*
Women tend to grow up and grow out of their playfulness, unlike their male counterparts. Recognizing that video games are becoming more popular for men and women alike, I think this will hopefully be less true as the next generation grows up, but as America Ferrera said in an interview with etalk, “Men get to have their man caves and play their video games forever. [For] women, it’s like, ‘[Put] your toys away, do the chores, grow up.’” I know for me personally, this idea really hit home. I grew up playing with Barbies, Littlest Pet Shop toys, and Polly Pocket dolls. Now, I go to work then come home to do the chores and run errands. When I do have the time for self-care or hobbies, they rarely allow me to use my imagination and feel that same sense of play that I did when I was a child. Seeing the opposite theme being represented in the movie was really mind-blowing because Ferrera’s character, Gloria, is an example of how women can be professionals but still be playful as well, getting the Barbies from the attic and using them as a reference for her drawings. As a society, I think that we have much to learn from this theme within Barbie in that we should embrace exploration, curiosity, and imagination at any age, for all genders.
Women are uniquely challenged with fear for their safety, unlike their male counterparts. As a woman, being conscious of my surroundings is second nature, but sometimes I forget that male-identifying/presenting individuals don’t have to worry in the same way that women do. The Barbie movie highlights this fact when Barbie enters the “real world” and she immediately expresses that she feels “ill at ease”. As Barbie navigates the Los Angeles area, men are constantly cat calling and making inappropriate remarks sexualizing Barbie. While Barbie can brush it off a little bit more easily, because she’s not a human being, it’s harder for us to do so in reality. I think it’s also interesting to see the portrayal of the Kens in Barbie Land and compare them to the experience of women in society. Like women, the Kens have less power and aren’t respected in the same way that the Barbies are, but unlike a woman’s experience the Kens are never sexualized in the same way, they aren’t expected to serve the Barbies, and they never have to fear for their safety.
Women have had to ask permission from their partners and from society, unlike their male counterparts. The end of Barbie was really emotional for a lot of women, young and old, because it shows that in today’s society, as a woman, there is no longer a need to ask for permission. It is empowering, but at the same time it’s also really sad. Many older women had to sacrifice their desires for a career to stay home and take care of the kids, because up until 1978 when the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed a woman could be fired for being pregnant. Historically, women also didn’t have access to the same resources. It wasn’t until 1961 that a woman was accepted into an ivy league school and it wasn’t until 1971 that a woman was able to get a credit card in her own name. Today, women still face many challenges, but for millennials and zoomers we have much more autonomy and opportunity to be whoever we want to be.
Overall, I think that Barbie was a phenomenal movie and a must-watch. As a woman, watching this movie really validated a lot of the feelings I have and I think it serves as a really good way for men to start thinking about the struggles that women as a population have gone through.
Sources:
etalk Interview with America Ferrera:
Women at Princeton:
Women’s history timeline: