The Barbie Movie

 Barbie | Official Movie Site

Barbie

    Greta Gerwig’s 2023 film, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, Barbie, follows the life of stereotypical Barbie living alongside all the other Barbies and Kens in the colorful, bright, and perfect world of Barbie Land. When things start to take a turn for the worse, she and stereotypical Ken must go to the real world to find the girl playing with her. While they are there, Ken discovers that in the real world, men are in control of everything and the world is in favor of them. When Barbie returns to Barbie Land with the woman who was playing with her and her daughter, they see that their world has been overtaken by the Kens, and all of the Barbies are brainwashed into worshiping and serving men. In order to get the Barbies out of this trance, stereotypical Barbie, with the help of the woman and her daughter, has to remind them all of the harmful patriarchy and poor behavior of men. When all of the Barbies are free, Barbie Land returns to the way it was and Barbie decides that she wants to live in the real world. 


    I believe that the Barbie movie is one of the most significant and socially relevant films of this decade. Greta Gerwig took the iconic characters that we know and love and brilliantly used them to address the gender norms and sexism that we see in this country. One particular scene that sticks out to me is America Ferrera’s character, Gloria, giving a speech about the impossible expectations that women must live up to and how impossible and draining it is to be a woman. This scene was so impactful because America beautifully put every struggle that women deal with into words. When I saw this scene in theaters, all of the women near me were in tears because of how accurate it was and how comforting it was to hear that other women deal with the same unobtainable expectations. In this scene, Gloria was meant to be comforting Barbie, but I believe that this was Greta Gerwig’s way of comforting all the women watching.


    Overall, I think that this movie is a cinematic masterpiece that accurately represents womanhood, both the struggles and the joys. Greta Gerwig tackled a very sensitive topic in our culture and was able to give women a movie where they feel heard and comforted. Even the marketing and audience for this movie were so impactful. It was so refreshing to see a bunch of women going into the theaters dressed all in pink with their hair and makeup done being unapologetically confident in their femininity. This is just a beautiful movie that I definitely believe has made a cultural impact.


Comments

  1. bonnie lenore kyburzOctober 29, 2023 at 11:04 AM

    The Ferrera speech! We loved Barbie. Greta is fantastic! Do yourself a favor and watch her film Mistress America. SO GOOD (more indie vibe, though).

    ReplyDelete

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