I don’t take this personally; I don’t expect everyone to listen to Syd Barrett, the Velvet Underground, or Fela Kuti. Likewise, don’t expect my attendance at a Dua Lipa show or an Ariana Grande concert or a Blackpink performance. So, I just thought that Barbie was going to be fluff, and its popularity sort of put the cherry on the sundae. Turns out I was wrong.
The film is quite intelligent, has impressive depth, and unlike much feminist theory—or many practitioners of it—actually has something to say.
Two years having gone by, I thought I would give the film a second viewing to see if it stood up, if I felt the same about it.
Upon rewatching, I was delighted to discover the film has lost nothing. I found it just as intelligent and incisive as the first time I watched it. There were even some details I hadn’t noticed, and some concepts I had not thought about. There’s a reference to Proust that blew by me the first time round. Quite funny.
And as I write this, I recall the “conservative” indignation aroused by the film. It’s funny when people who have been stepped on for forever speak up, people from the demographic that has done the stepping becomes automatically aggrieved.
It calls to mind those poor souls who, in response to Gay Pride parades, will hold Straight Pride parades with their “It’s great to be straight” signs. Why can’t we just celebrate Gay Pride? Why the tribal response? Barbie had the same effect. White conservatives felt the film attacked them, and they responded tribally.
The film is a devastating commentary on the patriarchy. This culture/society has been male-dominated since the beginning. And it is situated in a male-dominated world. These same conservatives uttered not a peep when women were used as decoration and opportunities for crass humor back in the Eighties. Why? Because they were (and are) perfectly fine with that arrangement.
Barbie represents a threat to their privilege, to the natural (for them) order of things. They prefer things as they are and have been. Hence the conservative preference for the country to be White, Christian, and heterosexual. They want the United States to be a paradise for them, not one polluted with diversity. They seek purity and superiority. Sound familiar?
When I first wrote my review in August 2023, I mentioned six philosophers: von Humboldt, Rousseau, Marx, Wollstonecraft, Sartre, and Irigaray. I cannot think of a film that has hit the multiplexes in recent memory where (1) I would have felt moved to write a review, and (2) would have mentioned six philosophers in doing so. The film boasts just that kind of depth.
As I mentioned in my first review, I suspect many men gave the film a pass because all they saw in the trailer was pink silliness (like me, initially). But that pink silliness shrouds an intelligence and complexity seldom found in big-budget films. More often, the films are about people with superpowers, and you leave the theater ten IQ points lighter.
I’m glad I watched it a second time. There are a couple scenes where I felt the initial sting of emotion. The film is truly impressive and hits on those levels. I like when the underdog stands up, challenges the status quo, and gets a moment. I’m rebellious by nature. I want the underdog to not be the underdog. Black lives matter. Palestinian lives matter. Trans lives matter. Women’s lives matter. Barbie is a film, one not about Barbie dolls, but about women. It’s also a delicious act of rebellion. Maybe I’m biased. So be it.
