It's a Barbie world.....or not!

 

Barbie can be anything, including a feminist, a fascist, and now a tool for division apparently!  She can even, now be against her creator and blamed for all of women's problems in society! It's not hard to understand this movie after reading and hearing the countless reviews.  What is hard to understand, is the hype and rave around it! I'm not a regular listener of Ben Shapiro, but I must say his recent review of the Barbie movie had me laughing!  I could have done without his swearing and the reiterating of just how big a pile of garbage it was.  Okay, Ben, we get it, it's a burning heap of toxic trash as big as every landfill on the planet combined!  He gives a pretty detailed synopsis of the movie, I think he about covered it, according to other things I've read, including raving reviews.  I have to agree with him more than those raving about it.  He made some great points, they were fair and of course not points anyone wants to address or talk about because the average consumer, the average movie goer, well they are not supposed to take it so seriously.  All of us "conservative, non-feminists" (their words not mine) we are really not supposed to take it seriously, we are just supposed laugh cause it's just a funny joke!  Why would you use a kids toy to address existentialism and sexism?  That seems weird in and of itself!  The idea of existentialism gets lost in this movie because we are talking about a doll in a fake world.  A doll that contemplates her existence and somehow relates it in the real world?   She only exists because of the evil patriarchy.  She feels guilty because she ruined girls lives?  So strange!  Can't we just have toys, fantasy worlds and make believe sometimes?  Can't we just leave that alone and let it exist?  Why does everything have to be enlightened and brought to a current reality?  So depressing.

I think Greta said something about how this movie is for everyone, to let go of the stereotypical things that don't serve either gender very well.  Okay, so her point is to make fun of everything she deems as stereotypical about men and women.  This is done by further dividing us and saying that the only way to be happy is if we ignore each other, or "hate" each other (not my words)?  How weird is that???  How many of us would be here right now if all of our mothers and fathers thought so negatively of one another and family creation.  It's almost like they are apologizing for our existence.  "Sorry you had parents that liked each other and a mom that actually wanted to be a mom.  It's really too bad you're here because you're just a selfish consumer driving the evil patriarchal corporations that created such a thing as Barbie!"  One wonders by the end of the movie......Am I supposed to like Barbie, hate Barbie?  Am I supposed to like Mattel or hate them.  Am I supposed to hate my existence because my poor mom played with baby dolls?  Am I a bad person for liking womanhood?  Does that mean I'm ugly or weird?   Am I supposed to hate men?  Again, don't take any of this seriously.

Dear, dear Greta, but you did take it seriously, you took it more seriously than anyone.  I have to say I

was disappointed, because I really loved your version of Little Women.  I suppose Little Women is hard to mess up though.  It's only one of the greatest literary pieces of all time.  The script was written for you, and you had talented actors and actresses.  Although, I was not super impressed by Timothee Chalamet being Teddy, at first, by the end of the show I was in love with his character all over again, yes, he is talented, and yes, he is swoon worthy!  I digress.......anyway, what was the purpose for this movie?  I had hoped that it would be some heartwarming story of mother and daughter, or some cute comedic movie made for kids since it is about a toy made for kids.  When I first saw the preview with the giant barbie amongst all the little girls who looked miserable with their baby dolls, I was a little disturbed.  I guess I could see a slight tone of humor, but it was traumatic, little girls smashing their baby dolls.  A message of the movie seems to be that baby dolls were not right for little girls, and they were liberated by Barbie, but then when Barbie goes to the real world she's blamed for ruining girls' childhoods!  Barbie set the bar too high, it was unachievable?????????????????????????

Okay, so, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to hate Barbie or love Barbie?  After all she liberated me from my maternal instincts, right?  She told me I could be anything I wanted, that the world was mine to conquer, right?  Being a mother is just a rouse of the patriarchy to keep women in bondage?  So, baby dolls aren't right, now Barbie has ruined women with her unrealistic measurements and "you can be anything you want" mantra.  What is Mattel thinking? Seriously? You think people are going to go out and love Barbie now?  In the movie you told us we are all selfish consumer fascists.  You made yourselves into the fascists, Barbie is now a fascist, and I guess Ken is too, because he likes the "patriarchy" of the real world?  WHAT THE.........! ?!?!?!?!??  By the way Greta, while all of us non-feminists, and masculine men aren't supposed to take this movie too seriously, your obsessed worshipers are taking their boyfriends to this movie as a litmus test.  If the boyfriend is too uncomfortable, then it's "see-ya later, you're not feminist enough for me", according to one news article.  Just to be clear before I go any further.......feminism......there is a spectrum, so I'm not completely generalizing it.  The kind of feminism I'm talking about is real, does exist, I've seen it, it's the most extreme kind.

I'm aware that this movie is going to make a billion dollars and lots of people love it.  There are many feminists out there and this will be their new handbook!  It's an ode to feminism!  Not to mention novelty, it's a novelty movie.  Nostalgia will make it a half billion dollars.  Not to mention, the marketing for this movie has been more than anything I've ever seen!  This was marketed to kids more than anything, even though it had a PG-13 rating.  The trailer looked fun and good, it never revealed any of the real agenda here.  I've heard so many people comment that the movie was not what they expected, or they felt a little decieved, haha!  Truth is.....this was an easy billion, just like the Lion King was an easy billion for Disney!  It plays on, or rather preys on nostalgia!  No matter who directed, wrote, or acted in this film, it would have made a billion!  That's fine, give them a billion dollars for it!  

The only part I think I might like is a speech to Barbie about what's expected of women, but to say it's impossible to be a woman is going a little too far!  Never mind, just read the speech, and I don't really agree with most of that.  That is not realistic..........most of the time women are the ones that give themselves these unrealistic expectations by comparing themselves to other women.  I can see how it's easier to blame men for that too though!  Can we get off of the whole lets feel sorry for ourselves, we are such victims mentality?  If it is impossible to be a woman it's because degrading society and propaganda has confused the hell out of what a woman is!  It's not that complicated!  Today we live in a world where women can be almost anything, I've seen so many successful women that don't depend on men for everything, yet they still marry and have children and respect men.........I think that's the majority of the population!  When I was going to college there were more women at my University than men and more women graduating than men.

Because this movie has broken all sorts of records we are supposed to give it all this recognition and we're supposed to love it!  Even if we don't love it, we must because Margot is so cute, Ryan is so good at acting dumb like men are supposed to, and it's so groundbreaking in its deepness!  We are supposed to love it because it caused a worldwide shortage of pink paint!  We are supposed to love it because we are all represented and of course, because it's BARBIE!  The fact that everything is tied up in a nice pretty pink bow, means that the feminist approach or "wokeness", for lack of a better term, is perfectly acceptable, even though this take is kind of mean.  I think I have a pretty good sense of humor and I like to be entertained.  No doubt there are probably some funny jokes and moments, even I would laugh at.   I don't like going to the movies to be indoctrinated by politics or feminism.  We are not supposed to be bothered by any of the undertones because it's funny, so it's perfectly acceptable.  Maybe it's not my kind of funny, I guess!

How is it that now days you can make a movie completely bashing men, make them all gay, and you

bash the women to the point that the only thing that matters about being a woman is her vagina, and everyone is supposed to be happy about it?  You're literally taking everything good about both sexes and reducing it into nothingness, life has no meaning! Barbie world seems bleak and broken if you ask me.  One of the endings in this movie is that men and women are just supposed to get along without one another and be happy, because there can be no happiness in coming together, working together and being equals.  This movie had the chance to send a message about the sexes being equal, that could have been something worth watching!  No, these feminists have to keep men subservient.  Why is it that for women to get ahead and be successful, we must bring the men down? No, it's not enough that we stand on equal ground, we must make them inferior. That's not even enough, we must completely emasculate them! I don't get it! 

This is one reason some feminist movements have not always been appealing to me.  Can't we stand equally with our male counterparts because we work hard to do so? I agree, throughout time there have been bad men........and bad women.  I'm not sure the feminists always get the context right when looking to the past.  Yes, the roles were more defined in the past, but is that bad? It is true that some men took advantage of that and adopted the thought that because these roles were different one was inferior to the other. Women also, at some point along the way decided they were not happy with their roles.  I think many women were the ones that decided their roles were inferior. Then the following generations were convinced that they too should not be happy with these roles. Maybe we should expand our thinking possibilities to consider this idea. I think many great writers of the past have shown us those defined roles but have also told the story of men holding women in very high respect, and that women, even hundreds of years ago had quite a lot of power in society, the home, and anywhere she went.  We saw many women as heroines and protagonists that changed their worlds and ours today!  This is the case in my new favorite discovery by Charles Dickens in his masterpiece, Bleak House, which I will write about later.  If Mattel made Barbie's Bleak House, I might buy that, haha!

I have many reasons to jump on the feminist train, trust me!  I've seen what abusive men can do to women.  I've witnessed bad men with the superiority complex many times in my life, even dated a few of those.  Yes, my past dating life was somewhat of a horror movie! Like the Barbie movie!  Why does everything have to be so political, so divisive? Even Allen the clear gay character can't even have the girlfriends he longs for......what a sad world.  In what world can gay men not have girlfriends?  Since when were men and women forbidden to be friends in our world?  When was that ever a thing in the Barbie franchise?  Again, we are not supposed to take any of this seriously, it's supposed to be a big joke, it's supposed to be funny.........still confused.  Okay, conservatives, don't worry because some commentators say that your represented by Allen.   He is your character.  He's the only Allen among many Kens.  He's Ken's awkward little buddy.   His doll never sold that well.  He sticks out like a sore thumb and does not feel comfortable there, but everyone agrees he belongs there.  I hope that makes you feel better!  It should be enough that Barbie says "Hi Allen!"  

It looks to me like this movie is the perfect example of everything wrong with our world, but not in the way they intended it.  What if men were to act like the feminists about their roles?  I think we've witnessed what happens.  "Why do we have to own land?  Why do we have to initiate the courting or dating?  Why do we have to pay for everything and provide?  Why do we have to open doors and be chivalrous?  Now that women insist on never needing men for anything, why even try anymore."  Reminiscent of Mr. Skimpole in Bleak House, suggests that men like this too, have existed for a long time. 

I didn't really play with Barbie that much when I was a kid (that must be the reason I'm not a feminist,

Hallelujah! Praise the Barbie world for pointing that out, my life is so much more fulfilled now.........if you didn't know it, I'm being sarcastic.......) Reiterating the very mixed, confusing messages of this movie!  I do remember one Barbie.  The only Barbie I really wanted was Slumber Party Barbie.  She had a soft body instead of the hard plastic every other Barbie was made from, so you could sleep with her.  It was kind of a sweet notion.  When you're a kid you have bad dreams, so now Barbie can be there too, to ward off the bad, she was like a stuffed animal.  She had blue pj's, she came in this cute little plastic tote so you could take her to sleep overs!  She was the Barbie for me!  My best friend and I had many sleepovers as kids, great memories and strong bonds were made.  I wanted this Barbie the moment I saw her, but my mom wouldn't buy her for me.  My mom saw this as a teaching opportunity.  She said she would let me do extra chores to earn the money for her.  She was $15, and in the early 90's that was an expensive toy.  I have a party if my kids want a toy that's only $15 nowadays.  So, I worked really hard for probably 2 weeks until I had enough to buy her even enough for the tax man.  I was probably 8 or 9, so this was the first toy I bought all on my own!  She was a dream; I loved that Barbie doll!  

My best friend had boxes of Barbies and sometimes we played with them, I wasn't really into playing with them though, I was more of a Polly Pocket kind of girl..........please don't ruin Polly in whatever weird movie you're going to make next!  Anyway, my mom always wanted a Barbie when she was a kid and she never got one, so when I was about 10, she started buying me collector Barbie dolls for Christmas gifts, and birthday gifts.  She bought a few for herself. Even though I didn't show interest in Barbie, she gave them to me anyway, probably to fulfill some missing hole in her childhood that she didn't want to pass to me.  So, although I didn't play with Barbie, I proudly displayed her everywhere in all of her beautiful Ball gowns, pretty outfits, or Barbies that transformed into famous movie characters that became icons.  

It became a hobby of mine, and to this day I still enjoy browsing the Barbie collector's sites to look or buy one to add to the collection!  To me, Barbie was aspirational and inspirational.  She was/is always beautiful, she never ruined my life.  She was my friend.  What's wrong with a beautiful doll to admire? I've always admired Barbie in all of her glory, in all that she could be and everything that she has been, a culmination of all different kinds of qualities and beauty!  After pondering on this, I realize Barbie was never a figure of unattainable perfection.  At a strange time in my life, she was a miracle.  I never felt comfortable being feminine, beautiful or being a girl.  I felt awkward and not beautiful, I wanted to hide, I never wanted to be noticed.  As I grew, I would stare at the pinnacle of beauty all the time and admire her.  She told me it was okay to be beautiful, to be a woman, and to be feminine.  I can see why some women might feel differently in this situation, maybe like being compared to her, or something.  I knew where the sentiment came from.  My mother gave these to me with so much love, not wanting me to be a child ever missing out on a toy I wanted.  My dad also grew up going without things he wanted as a child.  My parents always made sure we had stuff we wanted when we were kids.  That was a miracle to me, that Barbie was given to me with such love and devotion!  I could do nothing but accept her in gratitude and appreciate her!  I guess this is why I'm so disappointed in the movie.   I can't love this new version of Barbie in the movie, sad, but true.  Just in case I haven't used the word patriarchy enough, here you go PATRIARCHY, PATRIARCHY PATRIARCHY! Are we sick of that yet???? PATRIARCHY!

In Barbie world she was created first and Ken was created for her......hmmmm, sounds familiar.......like the Bible, maybe.  In this story Ken never gets any kind of respect, he's worthless and subservient, so in this movie he was created for absolutely no reason!   God first created Adam, then he created Eve using a rib, from Adam.  Why a rib? It wasn't from the head, or the leg or the foot or the arm, rather a bone that came from the middle of his body.  A bone that's responsible, in part for shielding the most important organs of the body, the heart and the lungs.  With lungs we breathe life into our bodies and the heart literally keeps us alive with millions of beats throughout our lifetime.  The heart helps us think differently than our brain, with our heart we feel.  God always intended Adam and Eve to be equal, to love each other and to work together.  Why are men and women so different? Wouldn't it be boring without those differences? We complement one another, we balance one another.  Eve was a help meet for Adam, not a servant, not a slave, not to just take care of him and make him happy.  She was to be a companion, an equal.  Women can do so many things men cannot.......oh, yeah, but that's not enough. 

Another thing I've found strange about the current feminist movement, is where's the femininity?  I

mean if we are truly feminists, don't we love and defend our femininity?  Don't we fight for the very things that make us women.......oh yeah, we don't know what that is anymore.  I am a biologist, though, so does that matter?  Haha!  I see a lot of feminist women looking more and more like men.  I mean I'm all for women being treated as equals, respected, and being successful and happy.  I just don't agree that we must make men feel inferior to do that.  When I was an adolescent, I wasn't feminine, I was afraid to be so, it took me a long, long time to feel comfortable wearing bras, and heels, and dresses.  I've never liked painted nails or long nails, that was never something I took to.  Jewelry was never something I took to either; I mean a few pieces are fine for special occasions.  I never liked earrings in particular, never had my ears pierced.  I don't have time for that, I have better things to do.  Haha!  As I've grown, I've discovered what womanhood is to me, and it's something so beautiful I don't have the words to describe it.  Yes, it took me a long time to get there, to appreciate womanhood and motherhood.  It's more than just cute outfits, fancy dresses, nice jewelry, well-manicured hands.  Those things are fun, and I indulge in a good shopping spree every now and again, my closet is full, haha!  Being a woman is not merely a costume you put on and take off as you please.  What can I say, instead of dressing Barbie up, I dress myself up!

Why would we want to strip women of all that is beautiful and wonderful about being a woman? When I had my kids, it was the most joyful, wonderful, miraculous times in my life!  I was in awe by what my body could do!  Our bodies are much more than curves, and parts that men find attractive.  What's wrong with men finding women attractive and vice versa?  If that was not a thing, humanity may not have lasted long.  Anyway, women literally make another human body! Again, I don't have the words to describe such joy and beauty!  I LOVE BEING A WOMAN!  I love everything about my body and my femininity!  To me, there is nothing more beautiful than two intelligent beings, a masculine man and a feminine woman, falling in love, entering marriage on equal ground, and deciding together to make babies and raise them together all while taking care of each other!  There is this thing called LOVE maybe you've heard of it, both men and women want it and seek it out.

There are in existence and always have been, less masculine men and less feminine women, and you know what?  That's okay, their love stories are beautiful too!  The term masculine does not mean what I think we are now taught that it means.  The definition has been high jacked, it's one among many.  Just because a man is masculine does not mean he is unfaithful, chauvinistic, superior, without heart, or just looking for a piece of meat.  Men have minds and hearts too!  I've met many very masculine men that also possess the kindest of hearts and the softest of disposition.   They even really love and support women, they are even on your side, not intimidated by your success or intelligence.  I think we are far past the days of cavemen mentality when the only purpose was survival, reproduction, and instinct.  I'm not totally convinced that was ever a real thing among our human race, yet another fallacy.  We are not animals, never have been, but why does this movement insist on making it out that way? 

I would consider myself a successful career woman, no man ever held me back from becoming what I am!  I graduated at the top of my class, there was no man standing there waiting to take that from me.  I get it, I've been through the man-hating stages myself, there was a time I never thought I could marry and be happy, but then God kept throwing these amazing examples of what good marriage looked like right in front of me.  He taught me that my way of thinking at the time was a fallacy.  He taught me that I couldn't let one man ruin His creation of men in general.  He showed me the beauty of relationships and marriage before I ever experienced it.  It was yet another miracle in my life!  Every day of my life I look forward to being with my kids and my husband......the career doesn't even hold a candle to my privilege of motherhood and privilege of being a woman in every sense of the term, a wife to a masculine man with a tender heart, a kind disposition and loving countenance toward all women!  What can I say, I'm still a feminist in some sense of the word, but perhaps reformed from the extreme version!  Sorry Barbie, you never yielded such power in the world, as to ruin our lives, or to strip us of true womanhood, as this movie wants you to believe!  In this movie you are a fallacy, a myth, and definitely not a legend! In my heart you will forever remain part of good childhood memories and an icon of something I could aspire to.  I'll never forget my first soft bodied companion!

Good job Mattel, and Greta, Margot and Ryan, you took something that could have been aspirational,

inspirational, and uniting, and set it on fire in the landfill! You took a 63-year-old icon and destroyed anything good about it in 2 hours!  By the way I don't think that's considered talent!  As Barbie says, if I'm not feminist in nature, I must be ugly or weird!  Well, yes Barbie I guess that's what I am, but maybe that was just a silly joke too, making fun of Barbie, no one knows. Haha! I hope Barbie enjoys her joyless life of brainwashing by regular visits to weird Barbie psychic, and your regular examination of your vagina or blob of plastic by transgender, gynecologist Barbie, oh excuse me that was earlier in the show!  You choose now to be in the real world, why?  We still don't know, none of it makes an ounce of sense.  Why would you leave your perfect world where women rule, everyone hates each other, and life is just so perfect as a man hating, feminist?  Oh, you probably got sick of those visits and maybe needed a friend who was different from you, but we don't know that, because the writers don't want to actually write a story.  They just want to make sure to insult everything about you!  By the time you finish the movie you will feel sufficiently insulted, confused, and mortified by what they've done to a children's toy franchise........In my opinion, the messages are damaging..........but since we are not supposed to take it seriously, it's okay!  If you have any brain cells to give the messaging more than a second's thought, then you are a fascist!  A racist! Ugly and weird, and you're too dumb to get the deeper meaning.........what meaning? I know it's just a movie, but why all the mixed messages?  Certainly, seems to have political undertones and some strange agenda.  It's too bad they had to waste the world's pink paint on the dumpster fire!  🙄 Is Barbie world supposed to represent everything wrong in the world............or is the real world portrayed in this movie supposed to represent everything wrong in the world?  NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!

APPENDIX A

Understanding Barbie 2.0

Since Barbie’s marketing campaign is in my face every 10 seconds, I can’t resist doing a little reading and writing. This phenomenon is making me feel like a kid in a candy store………I can’t help myself. So first off, I saw a quote from a popular magazine “if you didn’t grow up playing with Barbie, you’re not meant to like this movie. It was not made for you.” Okay………I’ve seen this trailer at least 6 times in the last 5 months. Didn’t the trailer have massive Barbie letters on the screen that said “ if you love Barbie this movie is for you…….. if you hate Barbie this movie is for you!” The trailer basically tells us this movie is for us! All the comments under the magazine quote were interesting. Hundreds of women saying that they still enjoyed the movie, but they were a tomboy, or played with Polly, or GI joe, or superheroes. So lots of people who did not play with Barbie, still liked it. So, is this back stepping (damage control) the backlash, however little or big that is? If you didn’t like it, if you’re being critical……didn’t you know, you weren’t meant to like it, we didn’t make it for you! haha! Now that they’ve realized not everyone is a fan they go back on their word!

 Next, many fans who liked the movie admit that the plot gets overcrowded with too many ideas at once and they struggle to tie all the loose ends. They also admit there were many characters underutilized. It would have been more fun if they used more of the characters. This is because there were a handful of characters that mattered and then a ton of cameos, I mean who didn’t have a cameo in this movie. I’m betting many of them were 10 seconds long! That screams NOVELTY MOVIE!

Okay, next, I’m really hoping Mattel takes advantage of this money making opportunity because Professor of Philosophy Barbie will be a huge hit! Many fans are saying how Barbie is the new brilliant mind of our time and that this movie is just so deep! While people like me are being criticized for "making something out of nothing", "taking it too seriously", it seems that the raving fans too are taking the Barbie movie to a whole new level of seriousness. “I walked into Barbie ready to party and I walked out reflecting on my own existence.”- Helen Mirren. Many raving fans point out all the amazing existentialism. “This movie was so much deeper than expected”! Okay……..honest question………has anyone picked up a classic in the last 30 years? Maybe, went to church or read the Bible? No? Dickens, Wilde, Austen, Kipling, Beecher-Stowe, Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, Dostoevsky, Bronte? No? Barbie is the one that teaches you about contemplation? Okay……maybe it’s just my mindset right now with studying a Dickens masterpiece and all. The only philosophical contemplation to be unpacked here are the piles of hypocrisy!  

Mattel: “We are sorry for not being woke enough all those years and we made Billions, but now that we are all woke go out and make us Billions more…….please!”

So, while I’ve been reenacting your version of Barbie playtime, I must say, I’ve never had so much fun playing Barbie!