Do you guys ever think about dying?
That line is spoken by Stereotypical Barbie, played by Margot Robbie in the film “Barbie”. Margot Robbie is a fine figure of a woman who in ancient times would be referred to as a blond bombshell, a term resurrected for a day, July 21st 2023, for on that day two films premiered: “Barbie”, about a blonde, and “Oppenheimer”, about a bomb—hence blond bombshell. Needless to say, ‘blonde bombshell’ has been updated to ‘Barbenheimer.’
Of the two films, “Barbie” has proven to be the more divisive, lavishly praised but also savagely condemned. One critic (male) with 2 million views on his Youtube video, described “Barbie” as ‘114 minutes of spiteful bitter mean-spirited borderline unhinged hatred of men and everything even vaguely associated with them.’ I must admit as a mere man dressed in blue—a jacket; it was raining—I didn’t feel any hatred. Nor was I pelted with orange skins or stained popcorn by pink adorned females. I’d say to Mr. Critic: ‘Why so serious?’
“Barbie” opens to a parody of the opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”. An enormously tall woman (Margot) in black and white appears to girl children who are playing with dolls whereupon the girls smash the dolls. Thus the idea is sown: no doll should ever be called mother.
Barbieland is a pastel paradise in plenteous pink, a magical, multi-cultural multi-talented matriarch where women have the power, the privilege, the possessions, and are all called Barbie—the layabouts called Ken. All are content until Stereotypical Barbie wakes up to a bad hair day. The shower is cold, the cow is sour, the feet are flat and worst of all, there’s cellulite. Stereotypical Barbie has fallen! What must she do? She goes to the therapist, Weird Barbie, who tells Stereotypical she must undertake the hero’s journey and go to the source, the Real World, and discover who’s projecting angst onto her. Barbie is not so self-made after all.
Bravely Stereotypical Barbie goes forth, disagreeably accompanied by Stowaway Ken—Ryan Gosling with abs—where horror of horrors, the Real World is run by men and horses called the patriarchy. Barbie’s dismay is compounded when snotty teen, Sasha, tells her that Barbie’s put the feminist movement back 50 years, forcing women into vital statistics to be sex objects and hailing Barbie fascist! After several misadventures, Barbie meets her Maker (Mattel), an all-male conclave and they attempt to put Barbie back in the box for reasons of profit. Barbie escapes, thanks to Sasha’s mother, Gloria, Stereotypical’s owner—Gloria’s in a mid-life crisis. Returning by camper van, bike, plane, boat and car, Barbie finds, horror of horrors, Ken’s beaten her to it and has turned Barbieland into Kendom, a patriarchy and the Barbies into domestics.
However Stereotypical, helped by Gloria, Sasha and Weird Barbie, hatches a plan to reclaim the Barbies, turning the males’ toxic energy against them, a plan involving seduction, rejection, jealousy which easily succeeds. Stereotypical has transformed, not longer Stereotypical. She goes back to the Real World to become a Real Girl. The film ends with her visiting the gynecologist. Feminism is not the triumph of woman over man but the equality thereof. Having made the transformation, Barbie is primed to help transform the Real World because a matriarchy or a patriarchy serves neither gender. That’s the message I, a mere man, got from “Barbie”.
A fine figure of a film.
