by LINA GU
Imagine a world with waterless showers, mirrorless vanities and doorless mansions. Everyone would be stinky, ugly and robbed. Unless, of course, that world was Barbieland!
A place where everyone is clean, beautiful and safe. A confectionary-colored utopia that asks the question: What would the world look like without patriarchy?
In Barbieland, the only emotion is elation. There is no sadness, no evil, no thoughts of death. The worst insult you could get is “weird.” In Barbieland, women don’t have jobs; they have careers that they are passionate about. In Barbieland, there are no starter homes, but dream houses complete with hot-pink slides instead of stairs.
Barbie is extremely visually satisfying to watch. The set design is impeccably detailed, and the costumes will inspire Halloween looks for years to come.
The star-studded cast was also a home run. Margot Robbie’s arched feet alone will probably get her an Oscar nomination. Ryan Gosling’s performance as a self-serious himbo is amazingly comical. America Ferrera’s knack for sincerity needs to be studied. And Kate McKinnon’s role as Weird Barbie made us all wish she had extended screen time.
Although the visual landscape of Barbie was dripping with detail, I wish that same level of care was devoted to the story. Namely, the stakes.
The threats Barbie faced in the movie didn’t seem to have major consequences. Of course, the main threat was the “Kendom” taking over Barbieland, but it seemed unnatural how easily the Barbies were duped out of their power to begin
with; it was like taking candy from a baby. Ken learned about men on horses, and in the next scene, all these intelligent Barbies decided to succumb to his wishes without a fight.
Director Greta Gerwig was tasked not just with making a movie about a controversial phenomenon, but addressing its contradictions in the film. It’s kind of like asking a Paw Patrol movie to answer the evils of police brutality.
Barbie dolls were once considered progressive because they allowed girls to dream big and imagine a life beyond motherhood.
Simultaneously, however, they created unrealistic beauty standards, and the endless accessories seemed less about cultivating a sense of possibility in young girls … but more about cultivating a sense of consumerism.
Barbie also dives head-first into themes of feminism and existentialism, which I imagined was the corporate microscope of Mattel. It’s why the movie’s lasting image is also unsurprisingly the Barbie slogan: “You can be anything.”
I didn’t dislike Barbie, but I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. The aspect that left a less-than-sweet taste in my mouth was similar to how it approached feminism. Stereotypical Barbie is far from intersectional because everything in the movie boiled down to a binary: men versus women.
The Barbieland represented in the movie is that of the post-Mattel diversity overhaul: We see Barbies of all different skin tones, sizes and abilities. But those differences aren’t acknowledged because in Barbieland, all women are created equal, while the Kens are second-class citizens.
Gloria’s (Ferrera’s) monologue about the plights and paradoxes of womanhood under the patriarchy is impeccably delivered, but it rings hollow without acknowledging that these circumstances are exacerbated and different when you have more than one marginalized identity.
The movie felt like it was trying to be everything, everywhere, all at once: a Mattel ad, a feminist masterpiece, a subversive satire, a heartfelt mother-daughter narrative, a fish-out-of-water comedy, and for a good 10 minutes, a car commercial.
There were so many interesting characters and storylines, but it felt like they couldn’t all comfortably fit within the two-hour run time.
The Barbie movie wasn’t revolutionary, but given its corporate constraints, it probably was never going to be. I guess that’s the irony of big-budget IP: There are unlimited resources, but at what creative cost?
The Mainsheet 