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rugessnomeI belatedly watched Oppenbarbie earlier this year and initially found the Barbie film disappointing, which I partly blamed the tonal shift between the films. But I viewed it again Friday due to deciding to write a fic idea I had (I promptly had another which is the one that is actually up) and I still have some issues...
...I should also say, part of my reaction to this is probably moved by skimming through Educated again, and bearing witness to feminism actually changing Tara Westover's life. Like, okay, I guess the operative question regarding in the Barbie movie's feminism is probably "how can we make feminism relevant to a girl power instagram/tiktok beauty generation?" but that forbids questioning beauty standards, and does not touch on a lot of struggles that exist.
(There's actually a lot of power in the [pre?] first wave quote that stood out to Tara: "Of the nature of women, nothing final can be known.")
... come to think of it, I'm not sure I really caught how Barbie's existentialist crisis is tied up, plotwise. It seems kind of overwhelmed by the whole «taking back Barbieland from Ken's brainwashing» plot.
†Barbi movie perfec t place for femin/ism advocacy inside very Beautiful and Feminine. women have power put feminism in Barbie Movie. Put Feminism in Barbie Movie. no problems ever in barbbie land because great Love and Support for beautiful women weak of small waist. Abarbie Movie yes a place for Women put women in barbie land can trust barbie movie for Respecting women. feminist Barbie 💋
(with apologies to the author of the darkly hilarious "pelican mouth perfect place for baby" post)
‡yes, even pretending to vomit is a very bad reaction to the medical condition, but being somewhat afraid of a potential disability possibly preventing activities you enjoy is probably more universally reasonable than fear of failing beauty standards.
🤷 many disabilities are not purely socially constructed, and while (thank you Mrs. Which and NOT Yoda) we shouldn't let (potentially inaccurate) fear of disabilities lead us to shun or mock the disabled, there is probably always going to be emotional processing associated with a loss of or alteration to an ability.
(oh, by the way, I enjoyed Oppenheimer—although it was slightly different than I expected—and don't have major complaints. The last line particularly was chilling and perfect.)
- The Barbies in Barbieland are terrified of cellulite (also of "flat feet", to the point of (feigning?) vomiting even though in this case they would seem to merely be human feet not molded for high heels rather than the medical condition‡)...or at the very least this seems to be set on equal footing (pun unintentional) with Stereotypical Barbie's existential crisis. Even though Stereotypical Barbie compliments an old woman at a bus stop and speaks to also aged Ruth Handler, I don't believe the film ever calls into question the "beauty" culture assumptions of the dolls...
Additionally, there is arguably the implication that the dolls seem more afraid of cellulite than of patriarchy, given that they react with vehemence to a natural process that will alter their appearance but are implied to be highly succeptible to patriarchial brainwashing that rapidly renders them into male gaze dream bimbos. what the actual fuck. - (relatedly, this story does not engage sufficiently for my taste with elements of living toy mythos put into the popular consciousness by the excellent but male-dominated Toy Story franchise and LEGO Movie(s). Barbieland seems primarily constrained to its corporate backstory, and the one major child we meet (and her companions) both has written off her once Barbies as potentially even fascist, and seems possibly insincerely written. Toy Story and LEGO are manifestly willing to nod to the weirdness of child creativity, and when toys are Expected To Maintain their Designed Backstory it's portrayed as either not-yet realness (toy store Buzz and other instances, mostly with Buzz) or antithetical to the purpose of toys (the collector villain of TS2, the whole kragle plot of the first LEGO Movie).
In contrast, [Stereotypical] Barbie's existential imperfection is the result of only a *former child* having adult worries and is manifestly unsettling to essentially all the other toys. (... but then Barbie wasn't originally derived from a child's toy...). Also consider how the Barbies regard Weird Barbie. And except perhaps for Weird Barbie, this story operates on what I would argue is largely backward logic: that the toy itself deterministically dictates how the child will play with it and conceive of themselves. Sure, there are practical mechanical restrictions in some toys, and it's not great for a child's choice of toys to be strongly constrained by gender, in that it can have some influence, but children will play out strange dramas or war with Barbies, house with GI Joes, or even tea parties with mutilated toys (ala Toy Story). How they play is more probably determined by parental reaction/degree of strict supervision, and what media they are exposed to. I do not think that a child with eg a President Barbie will limit their play to only scenarios likely to occur, even with childish logic, with an actual president!)
for similar reasons, the role of the Mattel execs seems unsatisfactory. Why do they want to put Barbie in a literal box—because they're misogynists, or because her being in the real world could ...ruin Barbieland/their marketing? - and of course while it might tie into a line from "Closer to Fine", it seems sort of weird that the marker for Barbie becoming real is ...her visiting the gynecologist. What even are the implications—does she now have a vagina (and a uterus?)? ... does she want one (although I don't think gynecologists often do bottom surgeries unless you're counting hysterectomies and such)? Is visiting the gynecologist a marker of womanhood here, even though most trans men and some nonbinary people will also need to visit the gynecologist (at least at some point) and trans women may or may not go to one? Is this a menstruation -> initiation into womanhood thing (again, potentially transphobic to some degree)? Is this about motherhood somehow...? 😬
- The Ken problem. The way the storyline runs strongly suggests that Ken is automatically imbued with real world masculine stereotypes (apparently, though it missed me by, the Mojo Dojo Casa House is meant to be a dream Man Cave/bachelor pad) and readily susceptible to masculine hegemony. The logic of the worldbuilding does not explain this.
Picture this: you are a woman in a world where men hold all the important positions and women are politely de facto barred from them, although there is an implication that men hold these positions to demonstrate that they are capable of holding them, which suggests that they really shouldn't be the only ones with that capacity... You have a boyfriend, but he regards you as an unnecessary accessory, and you don't know where the relationship is going. You are transported to a place where women actually hold perhaps 90% of the highest positions of power, but they also hold societal power such that they are able to freely harass men and make belittling claims about the nature of men. You yourself are unable to actually obtain one of these powerful positions due to a lack of qualifications, but there exists in this strange world "masculinist" literature that describes the oppression in this society of a group that you are used to respecting, and advocates for gender equality. You return to your home world now dissatisfied with your lot in life.
Pop quiz: do you...
A. become a feminist advocate for more gender equality, by whatever means you see fit?
B. miraculously brainwash everyone into believing that now men should hold no power and be a lower class than women, and hold a referendum to codify this into law?
Option B, so far as I can tell, is a binary gender-flipped version of what Ken does in the Barbie movie. I mean, some products of second-wave feminism evidence that it's not a completely implausible position to take... but I don't think the Kens are under quite the same plight as women were at that time (eg extremely limited financial independence, no or limited legal protection from domestic violence or at least certain forms of rape...), lest Barbieland be an utter dystopia, a cruel joke played by male execs under the paper thin excuse of female empowerment.
To my mind, option B has unfavorable implications for both feminism and the view of men. If Barbieland can be considered a matriarchial mirror of oppressive patriarchy at all, then Ken's actions have implications for feminism... but regardless of that they demonstrate little to no faith in the idea that men can be decent people and even feminists. Ken is a himbo who isn't shown grappling with how his society has taught him to respect, after a fashion, women or whether patriarchy as seen in the real world might be... kinda mean. I would regard those as emotional necessities in the hypothetical scenario^ - and well, the Big Feminist Speech is... kinda riddled with First World Problems? The problems I, Gloria, well-off Latina and everywoman, have are just about too many contradictory demands put on us as women, that's definitely Feminism 101™. No, I'm not going to talk about rape culture, reproductive justice, domestic violence, trad wives, bodily autonomy, people who listen to Andrew Tate, gender critical rad fem FARTs circling back around to reinforcing normative feminity because they hate trans people so much (so much they are willing to ally with the alt right), men being raised to ignore household tasks *and* suppress their emotions beyond anger (except to complain about having to mother them), economic gender inequality particularly outside of the US, patriarchy within religion including eg quiverfull, sexual purity culture, gender-enforcing involuntary surgeries (on intersex people, FGM, even infant circumcision), the male gaze in media, lack of visibility for people who are large or gender non-conforming or older or disabled, gender inequality in STEM, intersectionality with racism and classism etc etc... this is a TOY movie (that's barely directed at children)! Besides, even when enveloped in normative beauty standards and purveying the most milquetoast take on Marketable Feminism, we will still get backlash from misogynists... and aren't you one too, "rugessnome", to be critiquing the *Barbie (empowering!†)* movie?
...I should also say, part of my reaction to this is probably moved by skimming through Educated again, and bearing witness to feminism actually changing Tara Westover's life. Like, okay, I guess the operative question regarding in the Barbie movie's feminism is probably "how can we make feminism relevant to a girl power instagram/tiktok beauty generation?" but that forbids questioning beauty standards, and does not touch on a lot of struggles that exist.
(There's actually a lot of power in the [pre?] first wave quote that stood out to Tara: "Of the nature of women, nothing final can be known.")
... come to think of it, I'm not sure I really caught how Barbie's existentialist crisis is tied up, plotwise. It seems kind of overwhelmed by the whole «taking back Barbieland from Ken's brainwashing» plot.
†Barbi movie perfec t place for femin/ism advocacy inside very Beautiful and Feminine. women have power put feminism in Barbie Movie. Put Feminism in Barbie Movie. no problems ever in barbbie land because great Love and Support for beautiful women weak of small waist. Abarbie Movie yes a place for Women put women in barbie land can trust barbie movie for Respecting women. feminist Barbie 💋
(with apologies to the author of the darkly hilarious "pelican mouth perfect place for baby" post)
‡yes, even pretending to vomit is a very bad reaction to the medical condition, but being somewhat afraid of a potential disability possibly preventing activities you enjoy is probably more universally reasonable than fear of failing beauty standards.
🤷 many disabilities are not purely socially constructed, and while (thank you Mrs. Which and NOT Yoda) we shouldn't let (potentially inaccurate) fear of disabilities lead us to shun or mock the disabled, there is probably always going to be emotional processing associated with a loss of or alteration to an ability.
(oh, by the way, I enjoyed Oppenheimer—although it was slightly different than I expected—and don't have major complaints. The last line particularly was chilling and perfect.)
(no subject)
1/4/24 01:57 (UTC)(no subject)
1/4/24 05:11 (UTC)I do like the two songs I mentioned in the music bit (though "Closer to Fine", an older song new to me, appears as a cover in the movie), and the Dua Lipa song is kind of a bop if I don't pay too much attention to the lyrics. But I don't particularly recommend the movie itself even as I now feel invested in poking at and deconstructing it.
I feel a little like a curmudgeon about media people keep praising as great for X group of people, but I guess I'm somewhat used to it by now.
(no subject)
6/4/24 03:52 (UTC)