#Anti Barbie

[periprose]

maybe a controversial opinion, but I didn't really like Barbie. It's not because I didn't get what it was going for, it just felt very selling-a-message while being just shocking enough to keep people talking about it. I do like the stuff about barbie as an idea (feminist vs not, what it means to be a woman, gender roles, etc) but that doesn't really make it a good movie with a cohesive plot that I'm interested in watching again. it felt like I was getting preached at, and I'm sure tumblr adores analyzing everything about it but it just wasn't for me. The ending also just feels like they didn't know how to end it.

Side note, I think greta gerwig is a terrible director who's getting way too much acclaim for being contemporary and having strong feminist themes, when everything feels super on the nose. It doesn't feel like good directing to me, it never feels like I'm watching a movie I can truly get lost in. I also didn't like her version of little women because again the themes were so on the nose, nothing felt organic about it, and she added a lot of modern feminism to what should've been very tied to the historical context of the source material. It was very jarring. I also hated the ending and what she did to Jo- Jo is her own character and is not Louisa May Alcott, and just because you do a bunch of on-the-nose critique of the book in the movie, doesn't make it suddenly a good, thematically strong scene to watch.

I think she just benefits from actors giving great performances in her movies and that's why the ratings are always so high, because if an actor can sell it, if it's well shot, more people will like it. It could also just not be for me but idk.

And there are good ideas, again, I would just prefer if there was a stronger plot and more cohesion between ideas. Feels like everything was written for a bunch of people online to talk about how deep it was. I support that, I support the feminist takes, but where is the meat of the movie? Where are Barbie's sisters? Where is the feeling that I'm watching a story rather than a bunch of ideas?

I also have a million thoughts about how Greta made barbie x ken a somehow bad thing but I will save that for another post.

[icedsodapop]

Reading about how the pro-Palestine protests at the Oscars reportedly blocked Margot Robie is sending me, like yessssss block that White feminist, I'm so proud of y'all 😘😘

[drew-dopamine]

the more i learn about the barbie movie the less i want to see it……sorry 😢

[cursed--alien]

*patiently waiting for the barbie stuff to finish so I can stop pretending I don't strongly hate barbie*

[4trackcassette]

i feel like im seven again digging my heels in like i don't care about barbie i hate barbie i don't want to think about barbie

[hecho-a-mano]

funny to see conservatives and radfems in agreement with each other yet again - this time on the idea that the barbie movie is anti-man. Shocking i tell you, shocking!

[gay-milton-quotes]

The worst feminist defense of the barbie movie is that one post asking, "did you criticize marvel for being commercial? Did you criticize transformers?"

Because, YES. Not only am I personally a natural born hater of both those franchises, but entire careers have been formed and fed by criticizing those exact films for those exact reasons. "Marvel movies are just soulless, capitalist propaganda for toy companies, the Disney corporation, and the military industrial complex" is a cold and passé take at this point, at least in the circles criticizing the Barbie movie.

Secondly, though, why would you compare Barbie to these films? Why sell her short like this? What hurts about Marvel and Transformers films is that they are dedicated to a boring formula - one that priotitizes its marketability and a capitalist agenda before it prioritizes its worth as art. Based on the enthusiasm, weirdness, and excitement coming from Barbie's cast and crew, that probably is not the case here.

A much better comparison would be The Lego Movie: a toy commercial, a cash grab, but underneath that, an original idea and a great time. If you wouldn't criticize The Lego Movie for its commercialism, but you would criticize Barbie, that's more of a red flag to me. Unless Barbie turns out to be a shitty movie on it's own merits.

Finally, though, does anyone really want an "anticapitalist" Barbie movie? Do you really, genuinely want Mattel to try to make Barbie edgy and a comrade? Honestly, can you imagine how bad that would be? Barbie throws a doll in the garbage and looks directly into the camera as she says, "Life should be about experiences, not things." and the grumpy but kindly boss of a toy company agrees to pay his workers a million dollars a day. "I see now that our workers aren't playthings. I suppose we can compromise," he says, and they shake hands, and we also it's christmas time, and the real Mattel continues to do whatever evil shit Mattel does.

It would be awful. It would be every edgeless "edgy" girlbossified disney princess of the past decade that we all hate. Shut up about discourse, shut up about commercialism, shut up about feminism, you are wishing on a monkey's paw here.

[kaykay8776]

Unpopular opinion ahead:

The Barbie movie was pure, rancid, rotten GARBAGE. The ONLY reason it got any attention at all was because of the celebrities who made the mistake of signing on to it.

[emotionalcadaver]

I've realized that the way I feel about Barbie is the way John Oliver feels about the Da Vinci Code.

[fancylala4]

Was that paragraph even necessary? Calling Barbie dolls those things when they aren’t even anything close to that description (except for the last thing). Scantily clad? Has he seen a Barbie doll in the past year? They are fully clothed. It’s thanks to comments like this that we’re stuck with all these ugly Barbie dolls.

I guess I was that the people behind this movie were not Barbie fans.

[ilpuntocritico]

Ken Laden 2011

Handmade by Lavinia Rears / LaviOlaWorld Anti Barbie

[periprose]

i watched barbie recently and i understand your take on it, like when america ferrera delivered her monologues, it just sounded like something i've heard a million times, word for word, it felt less genuine and it didn't move me in any way, just very lazy writing and it's so frustrating like ik they could've done better

Exactly! I don't mind the fact that they focused on feminism at all, I just hate that they went about in the most easy to understand, "ironic", consumable way that could have everyone in the audience patting themselves on the back for understanding something "smart" while delivering nostalgic bliss.

And tbh a lot of the way America Ferrera's character was dealt with reminds me of how WOC are often used as supporting characters to the white woman's sorrow. Like why didn't we hear more about her depression? It just instantly became all about barbie and that part wasn't satisfyingly written. I feel there are a lot of loose plot holes that don't make sense. Everything about America and her daughter was unsatisfying.

But because we're currently in an era of girl power and ironic, cynical, nostalgic consumption, people won't question it, nor will they act like anything was bad about the movie. They'll just keep hyping it up like they're afraid to be wrong.

Also I feel like it's well known, the more popular something is, the more mediocre it probably is. When a movie reaches a lot of people and many can relate to it, it has to be kind of basic in its execution so not to be controversial enough to truly resonate with some people and push away others. Barbie is mediocre by design, it doesn't say anything new that feminism hasn't been saying for years.

[honeyfarts666]

I enjoyed the barbie movie. But I had some issues with it too. I don't want to rain on everyone's parade, but I have thoughts and feelings on it...

[mysharona1987]

[barbiebutgayer]

credit: theslowfactory