#greta gerwig being a true barbie girl

[officialjanetweiss]

Margot Robbie Takes You Inside The Barbie Dreamhouse

x

[ct-multifandom]

I don’t usually make posts like this, but I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-intellectual junk lately, and I really think we need to put the word “pretentious” up on a shelf until people learn what it actually means.

It doesn’t describe someone who likes artsy-fartsy deep meaning media. People who are pretentious are fake. They’re posers trying to be sophisticated and unique, not like other girls. They pretend to only like stuff they think will make them sound cool when they talk about it. They want to act like they know something you don’t, and they want attention for it.

By definition, if you genuinely enjoy something, you can’t be pretentious. If it resonates with you, and you analyze it, and you don’t care what people think, that’s the polar opposite, actually. If you love obscure experimental prog music, if you watch underground high concept indie films through English teacher eyes, if you spend hours in a modern art museum reading each piece as a vessel for storytelling, if your backpack’s full of poetry books that inspire you, if you play underrated games that were someone’s passion project, if you have an interest in studying the classics or the masters, you are not pretentious.

Of course, some people just don’t like some stuff, and that’s fine, but that’s not what this is about. Don’t let anti-intellectuals shame you for enjoying things just because your interests are inaccessible to them, because they refuse to be brave and put effort into critical thinking. You’re not stuck up for refusing to overlook the craft of artists.

[lewisvinga]

this barbie is a director ! | oscar piastri x fem! reader

summary; despite knowing each other since childhood, oscar and y/n haven’t seen each other in years. luckily with the help of a fellow driver, they finally reconnect

fc; carlacrnt

warnings; cursing

taglist; @namgification @louvrepool @locelscs @thehufflepuffavenger1

notes; requested ! probs unrealistic that someone so young would help direct the barbie movie but who cares !

masterlist !

liked by logansargeant, yourbestfriend, and others !

yourusername: EEEK!!! this barbie is a director and is so excited that her first big film is out! forever grateful for everyone who supported me as a wee girl with big big dreams 🥹 look at me now, directing alongside THE greta gerwig 🩷 GO WATCH BARBIE NOW!!

tagged; barbiethemovie

username: THIS BARBIE IS AMAZING

username: omg omg omg

username: the fit is givingggggg

username: she’s so fucking cool

yourbestfriend: EEEEEEEEK Y/NNN SO SO PROUD OF UUUUU!!

yourusername: HEHE LOVE U POOKIE🫶

logansargeant: rmbr when u were ‘g’day, mate!’-ing ur way through miami when u we’re 13 and now you helped direct the barbie movie! so proud of u

yourusername: ok i wasn’t fr saying that everywhere 😣 thank u for being one of my bffs when i moved , love u pookie

yourbestfriend: pookie logan

logansargeant: not this again…

liked by logansargeant, oscarpiastri, and others ! yourusername: a bit of relaxation after hectic traveling ! so great to meet old and new friends 🤍

tagged; logansargeant, oscarpiastri, lilymhe, alex_albon, landonorris

username: OMG HELLO??

username: lando and alex i’m😭

logansargeant: i ate all of them up

yourusername: so true logan

yourbestfriend: sure jan!

logansargeant: stfu u weren’t even there

yourbestfriend: i was in paris stfu🕊️🕊️😣

lilymhe: I LOVE. YOU. YOU’RE SO GORGEOUS

yourusername: I LOVE YOUUUU

alex_albon: girls know each other for 1 wk and are saying ily

yourusername: 😣😣

lilymhe: alexander albon. you’re such a guy !

landonorris: i wanna be part of the girlies

yourusername: u already are

username: their comments are so😭😭

username: omg that oscar picture ??

username: logan🥹🥹

username: ugh the dress 😍😍

oscarpiastri:can’t believe logan was friends w my childhood best friend 😒😒

yourusername: u have been my bff since day 1 even if we were no contact from 13-22😞😞

oscarpiastri uploaded to his story !

[caption 1; wide selection of books here hmm…] [ caption 2; been a bookworm since ‘01 !]

liked by oscarpiastri, logansargeant, and others !

yourusername: getting a kelly & reuniting w my one true love , what a summer it has been !

tagged; oscarpiastri

oscarpiastri: thank you logansargeant for asking me to watch barbie 😁

logansargeant: ur welcome now stop kissing in front of me….

oscarpiastri: i love you 🧡 my barbie 🧡

yourusername: i love you, my ken!🩷

username: OWMSMDÑDL

username: oscar looking a little tooooo fine

username: she’s an hermes girly now😍😍

mclaren: all good things come in orange! or should we say, papaya ? 😉

yourusername: ur so right, admin

username: the black kelly is gorgeous 😫

username: tears they’re so cute 🥹

username: they’re so barbie and ken 😣😣

username: she’s sooooo pretty

username: WOWWW

[maryrouille]

The era of dolls

The year 2023 in the filmography was full of the motif of women-dolls, puppets, marionettes and mannequins. The best example of a living doll in the most literal sense of the word is Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig), who lives in an artificial world made of plastic. Whereas in Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) we can see Bella Baxter - a female version of Frankeintein, who has a newborn's brain transplanted. Another heroine worthy of the title of a little puppet controlled by a man would be Priscilla (dir. Sofia Coppola), who lives in a golden cage. All these female characters have in common their lack of independence, infantility and reduction to their own sexuality and appearance, at least at the beginning of the story.

The perversity of a 'Baby Doll' can be handled by a psychiatrist; there are ways and means of calming the resentments of a rebellious gril and winning her over to virtue. [S. de Beauvoir, Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita syndrome, 1962 p. 22]

Both Barbie, Priscilla and Bella emancipate themselves at some point by freeing from the power of others. I could even say that they become more mature after being exposed to the real world or honest, difficult life experiences. At this point, we can agree with Beauvoir's statement about the perversity of Baby Dolls, as she called young women characterized by childish behavior and submissiveness. However, as the history of the characters mentioned above indicates, it is impossible to "calm" a rebellious girl, especially when she discovers her puppet dependence.

Male requirements and female emancipation

It is not without reason that I quoted Simone de Beauvoir, one of the pioneers of contemporary second-wave feminism. The beginnings of all three films seem to be a small utopia created by men for men. However, when I called 2023 the era of dolls, I did not mean a return to the cinema of the 1950s, when Brigthette Bardot or Marilyn Monroe dominated the screens and patriarchy dominated homes. Over the course of the story, Priscilla, Bella and Barbie become independent, strong women who can inspire real women in various ways. The latest cinema is definitely feminist cinema and gives women back what they should have been presenting on the screen for a long time - strength, freedom of choice and self-creation.

Pink lipsticks, petticoats, puff sleeves, false eyelashes are only an artificial cover for women's true identity

After all, women are not mannequins and dolls to be decorated, and they do not dance like puppets led by men. They have their own path to follow in life. Regardless of whether it is a path that leads to awakening and discovering sexuality, studying medicine and gaining mental and material independence from an abusive man.

[spiderfreedom]

get thee some feminist blogs

Y'all there are a lot of good feminist and woman-centric substacks (blogs) out there and you don't need to pay to see the good articles! just put your email in and they will email the free articles to you. or don't and just bookmark the site itself. anyway on to the recommendations!

The Unpublishable by Jessica Defino: A critique of beauty culture from a woman who used to be an editor shilling beauty products. She is uncompromising in her analysis of the false mystique of beauty and the harms that beauty culture does. Recommended article: Barbie Has Cellulite (But You Don't Have To):

From the story alone — Barbie leaves Barbie Land after discovering she’s a “less-than-perfect doll” and journeys to the human world to “find true happiness” — it’s clear that writer-director Greta Gerwig aims to subvert much of what the Mattel toy symbolizes in American culture: conformity, compliance, the objectification of women and girls. The issue, as it was with Don’t Worry Darling and Blonde, is that you cannot subvert the politics of Barbie while preserving the beauty standards of Barbie. The beauty standards are the politics, or at least part of them. (emphasis mine)

(she has tons of great ones like "Having a human experience? Try being hot instead")

The Great Gender Divergence by Dr. Alice Evans: A historical/economical history of patriarchy and analysis of modern women's participation in the labor force. What forces prevent women from working across different countries? Recommended Article: The Patrilocal Trap.

Pre-Christian Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and East Asia were all patrilineal and patrilocal. Sons were scions of the family line, inherited land/ herds, and remained with their clan. Households strengthened trusted networks through inter-marriage. Daughters were socialised to marry, please their in-laws and stay put. Marriages were arranged; divorce was stigmatised. Wives’ inability to credibly threaten exit gave their husband’s family the upper hand. Mothers-in-law could enforce their preferences - to exploit labour or restrict mobility. I call this “The Patrilocal Trap”. What explains the global-historical variation in patrilocality? Through my globally comparative historical analysis, I realise that arranged patrilocal marriages with stigmatised divorce were common in regions with inherited wealth, beasts of burden and long-distance trade. What might explain this correlation?

And then here are some good individual articles from sundry writers: Do Words Mean Anything Anymore, The Proletarian of the Proletariat, and What Was the Girlboss.

Please share your favorite off-Tumblr feminist or woman-centric blogs and articles! It's a big internet out here and I know I can't have read all the feminist blogs :D

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

feel weird about this post, maybe because i think three films (one of which i liked a lot, one of which i thought was a surprisingly fun toy commercial with script problems, one of which i cannot make myself watch because it’s little fucking women) is kind of not a lot to hang this kind of “always” characterization on especially given that one of them is a toy commercial and the other one is about an eighteen year old and actually has nothing whatsoever to say about marriage, maybe because i cannot take seriously someone being like “this filmmaker conspicuously avoids queer desire and female sexuality entirely” based on a sample set of movies that are (1) about a high school student who brw fucks (2) an adaptation of a 19th century children’s novel which is, i promise you, so much more directly about protestantism than you remember, and (3) a toy commercial. like “over and over and over and over again” feels…. it just feels really strong. and it feels, idk, really weird to me to say that 2-3 movies about being a single woman necessarily have some kind of intentional absence rather than simply making a deliberate choice, like we are, like, just drowning culturally in positive depictions of women whose lives are about something else, lmao. like i don’t, um…. i just don’t think i am ever going to find it particularly feminist to criticize a particular depiction or even a particular body of work for omitting sex 🤷🏻‍♀️ i am saying all of this btw as a person who like, the number one genre of film i am instantly down to watch is “movies by lesbian filmmakers” and that was true when i identified as straight. but also i guess i am saying this as a person who more or less thinks of portrait as a lady on fire as having a happy ending because i see it as a story about a woman artist, which i actually think is the real consistency among gerwig’s three (3) movies even if i think barbie does not actually execute that theme with any success (and even if to be clear i don’t think she is anywhere near sciamma). anyway. maybe i also just think the snide “often, they don’t have sex at all” as “feminist” (lol) “critique” (lol) is, like, extremely 2012.

there was also a reblog OP did of some tags where someone was like “i read it as an aroace narrative” and they were like “that’s great but she wasn’t doing that on purpose!” and OP added this tag:

which like. i mean i did not feel reflected by barbie because i am not 14. but like as a bisexual woman who has been in a relationship for basically my entire adult life, there is a way in which i actually do tend to feel reflected by stories about women who walk away entirely from the domain of romance and sex. who - horrors! - “don’t fuck at all.” i find that narrative, when done well, compelling and personally salient. if gerwig made a movie that wasn’t little women or barbie about it, i would probably find some real value in it! and i find…. off-putting… the idea that one is supposed to prefer reflections in the form of “identity” rather than uh [checks notes] a human person behaving in ways that are resonant to me. that one in fact should desire movies that “purposefully” make narratives to “reflect me.” i think that assumption reveals some weird assumptions about how art gets made and a weird depressing narrow view of how to relate to art.

in conclusion i believe in equality and i think that if christopher nolan can make 11 movies in a row with zero sexual content at all before finally having his streak broken only by the immovable historical object of j robert oppenheimer’s sexual magnetism (i’m not being weird he literally said this) i think greta gerwig who with her toy commercial follow up slated to be a pair of narnia movies i think is pretty clearly angling to be girl christopher nolan should be allowed to keep making movies i think are Fine about ambitious unhorny women for years to come. or whatever the fuck she’s gonna make narnia about, i certainly will not be watching.

[destinyc1020]

BTW Mr. Stan Lee himself told people that she is the choice and the only choice for MJ and that's that. Marvel wasn't about to keep getting into debates with racists. Same with tje young girl from the Percy Jackson thing. The author released one statement telling people she's the choice and going nowhere and left it at that.

Trying to convince people who are hellbent on being racist, is beating a dead horse. And young black women will continue to thrive and succeed while they scream into a void. Sometimes you have to ignore these types of people and not give them the attention they seek

BTW Mr. Stan Lee himself told people that she is the choice and the only choice for MJ and that's that.

Trying to convince people who are hellbent on being racist, is beating a dead horse. And young black women will continue to thrive and succeed while they scream into a void.

While that's most definitely true, it is NICE when people stand up for what's right and publicly denounce the bullying and hate. Even Ryan Gosling made a public IG post slamming the Academy for snubbing his costar Margot Robbie and Director Greta Gerwig for an Academy Award nomination for "Barbie". This was for just an award nomination. 😒 I would think that there would be more outrage and coming to the defense of an actress who's getting senselessly BULLIED for getting cast in a role that hasn't even started filming yet, just because of the color of her skin. 👀

But of course...You know, black women are the least protected class in the world it seems. 😔

[ms-hells-bells]

I think... Genuinely yes, it would be much better if they were up front about it being a toy commercial rather than coopting feminist language to sell the toys while pretending it ISNT a commercial. Because there is no amount of feminist words you can insert into a movie made by Mattel to sell barbies that would change its use of a political movement to push consumer goods. (I sound meaner than I'm trying to but you get me I hope). It's not about preferring it be a toy commercial or not, it's just a toy commercial no matter what. Delivering a good message in a watered down, confusing and preachy way for the sake of sales is not going to do us favors, I don't think.

i know it's a toy commercial, and it's hypocritical (even greta gerwig herself said that), but these movies get made no matter what. i was pretty cynical and against it beforehand, and there's still the whole hype and environment around it that i hate, and in the end it is consumerist capitalism (and being self aware doesn't remove the harm it does), but like i said, when i saw women and girls of all ages clapping and cheering and asking questions when seeing these characters saying that women are in a patriarchy and are in fact oppressed, and femininity is a part of that, when we currently live in a major anti feminist backlash where even leftist men refute the existence of modern misogyny, then i don't have the heart to completely denounce it.

it is obviously not truly feminist or a solution to anything, but i have always said that true liberal feminism in its original form (which is to strive for equality within the existing system) is supposed to be the moderate sister movement to radical feminism, where while we're seeking solutions for complete system overhaul and massive societal change, they bandaid the gaps in the meanwhile by being the more accessible and welcoming side, and helping women while more serious progress gets made. an equivalent would be moderate protesters who give first aid and create molotovs, and make good press, while the radicals throw the bombs and fight the police and overrun officials.

i think getting millions of women and girls worldwide to think about how they're treated in life, and how unfair things are, is likely more than you or i will ever do for women in our lifetimes.

[linasrant]

How Barbie Changed the Way I See My Relantionship With My Mum and Myself

It's been a long time, isn't it? But here we are, back talking about the movie of the year, the one made for girls, guys, and gays.

Welcome to my review of "Barbie," a movie by Greta Gerwig!

Note: It contains some spoilers!

I need to start by saying that Barbie may seem like a superficial movie from the first trailers we got, with Margot and Ryan just having some fun around Barbieland and showing us the movie's scenario. But no one prepared us for its actual content and true meaning because when Barbie starts malfunctioning, it's when we start questioning what Barbie is really about.

Her whole journey to the "Real World" to help the little girl playing with her doll seems like a fun trip, but once she figures out that the so-called Real World is a soul-crushing place for women, where our dreams are barely thoughts and only a few of us really have the chance to live them, it's when the true world doesn't seem so funny to her anymore. Greta did an amazing job with subtle criticisms of machism and misogyny, and the message behind Ken's arc, where he was so supportive of feminism, but when he sees that outside of Barbieland, men are considered ""superior,"" it's like seeing a little boy growing up and losing his innocence, turning into a man who ends up thinking so little of women.

Barbie's journey is so relatable to us women of all kinds, the feeling of growing up and having to step into big roles, facing the problems of a society that thinks every girl needs to be perfect but without exceeding the limits. But what is the real limit here? America Ferrera's (Gloria) monologue about girlhood is so true and deep; it's a feeling of recognition and understanding, to see our thoughts being voiced out.

"We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they have come."

She made me realize that my mom is nothing more than a girl at her core, that she has dreams, but she also stopped living for her own so she could help me live my dreams.

The whole movie was amazing; Greta really did a fantastic job with everything. Margot and Ryan fully stepped into their roles, giving us the best performance we could have had. This movie will be remembered forever for how good and meaningful it is.

“Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever.”

Thank you Greta and thank you Barbie for everything. Please go watch this masterpiece in the cinema!

[taylortruther]

So here's my thing about the Barbie discourse:

Almost nothing that holds such an iconic place in society is one thing. So much of this discourse comes from this, imo, immature very black and white internet space. It's either good or bad. But like most things, Barbie is both.

Everything critics have said about Barbie being a cultural icon of the patriarchy is true. Barbie's size has long been critiqued and also studied and it has done real damage to real people. This is all true and not to be made light of

Studies upon studies upon studies have also shown that dolls and prominent cultural figures engaging in traditionally male dominated fields increases the participation of young girls. So Barbies such as Astronaut Barbie increase girls' participation in STEM. There is empowerment even without Greta Gerwig's film.

Barbie is the pretty pink, Barbie is the tiny and physically impossible body, Barbie is the permanent high heels. Barbie is also the astronaut and the doctor. She is both the bimbo and the message that girls, too, can be smart.

And I think the most interesting critique of Barbie as a brand, a character, and eventually a film when it comes out, is (will be) how these work together and play off each other. From what I've gathered from what Greta has said, her intention with this film uses this duality to validate the "you can do anything" and point out that all of those unfair and unhealthy expectations come from her being a literal doll. I think that's going to be interesting! I think it's interesting how in the current reality of the brand and the character, this duality plays off itself in a feedback loop. We have to be submissive and docile and pretty and inhumanely shaped, but we also need to be smart and capable and powerful, but not too much that we're not idealized.

I get so exhausted with the overly slimplistic dichotomy on both sides of this debate cause the reality is VERY CLEARLY in the middle. And also it drives me crazy cause I don't think anyone involved in making this movie has given any intention of ignoring that reality. Even the trailer highlights it in the forefront. The story is literally about how the fantasy Barbie sells is a lie, from what I can tell. Anyway... Point being: Barbie good or bad is a stupid argument because the answer is both. Which means that this movie is both. because it's also Barbie. But ain't that like the internet to oversimplify in extreme avoidance of nuance?

yes!! this is well said: barbie represents A LOT in our society* and having conversations about it takes time and effort. there are countless studies about what you've described here - toys' affect on children's self-esteem - and it's valuable to consider it all when we're criticizing.

i also want to elevate what you said in your last paragraph: And also it drives me crazy cause I don't think anyone involved in making this movie has given any intention of ignoring that reality.

so glad you said that! and this is probably what one of my anons meant about waiting 'til the film comes out. i am excited for the film! it will not score straight A's on my personal feminist report card because, well, i think my personal ideology is more extreme than what mattel would sign up for lmao. but i still want to see what greta created and i'm fascinated by what margot said about how barbie would interpret being objectified in the real world.

like, the film is going to give us A LOT to chew on in regards to girlhood, womanhood, objectification, etc. - how could it not? barbie is a kid's toy, a literal object! it's exciting that a major blockbuster will tackle these issues, even though i know it will be lacking in others.

(*since i am a swiftie blog, we can also discuss how taylor occupies a similar, and worse, space because barbie is a literal product but taylor is a human being)

[thisdykesthoughts]

Greta Gerwig's Filmmaking Has Become Anti-Feminist: My Predictions for "Feminist" Film in the Near Future

Greta Gerwig has created an image of feminism for herself. With Lady Bird subverting expectations and becoming an icon of feminist filmmaking. Once she took on the challenge of little women, she set herself up for failure.

Little Women is a beloved but outdated depiction of a group of sisters living through the Civil War. Gerwig mentions the expectation for women to end up in a romantic relationship at the end of classic stories, yet she gives us this ending anyway. At this moment, Gerwig is a subject of the creation before her. Little Women is a story that everyone knows. She is involved in a system that expects her to write a story that has been written for her. She tries her best to include feminist themes in the classic story but it ends up coming across as disingenuous. It feels like an attempt to dodge potential feminist commentary on the film before the film is ever released.

This is not entirely her fault, as she becomes involved with projects that are recreating a classic story or telling the story of a beloved doll, she puts herself in a box and becomes the system she fights against.

As Gerwig grows in popularity as a director and writer, she finds herself more and more in the political spotlight. She is expected to take on projects that have feminist themes, like Barbie. Mattel has been criticized for the sexualization of Barbie and the singularity of her body image for decades. Only recently, in 2016, did Mattel release more body types for the popular doll. This change was only implemented after a major profit crash for the toy company because of the criticism of Barbie.

Gerwig has become involved in an inescapable industry where profit is the main priority. The Barbie Movie has been criticized for its "half-baked feminism" before. But this is not what I seek to achieve. Barbie is another story that has been told time and time again. Gerwig has involved herself in a narrative that already exists. Like in Little Women, she attempts to avoid commentary by throwing in lines like "Margot Robbie is too pretty to say that she's not beautiful." This does not make the audience feel better about themselves, it does the opposite.

The Barbie Movie has victimized Barbie. Creating a "real girl" that feels the impact of misogyny. In the movie, Barbie is a victim of Mattel and their agenda. When in reality, Barbie is the product of Matel and their agenda. When their agenda is profit. all the while, Mattel is portrayed in the movie as silly little men who can't tell the difference between two blonde women. The true driver for the company has been hidden behind pretty colors and Will Farrel. It sounds silly because it is supposed to.

Greta Gerwig has dug herself into a system that by definition uses feminism as a veil to generate profit. Barbie as a company is too far gone to be truly feminist. Gerwig's involvement in the film is the only thing that keeps me believing that the film is feminist. But the more I think about it, the more I believe that Gerwig is veering further away from feminist ideas with every film she puts out.

The goal is not to "have it all" (the saying being misogynistic altogether) yet there are still the narratives that movies like Barbie are pushing out. To create truly feminist media, directors like Gerwig need to abandon the big-money deals that keep pulling them in.

Barbie was destined for failure since its conception as a film. The goal of feminism is not to make life as bearable as possible under the patriarchy but to dismantle it altogether. Yes, I am using Barbie as a brand as a metaphor for the patriarchy. Let me live. By becoming involved in films like Barbie, Gerwig is participating in the system that is capitalism. Capitalism is inherently anti-feminist. Barbie's image has always been about buying. Barbie is not all of the careers that she claims to be, she has all of the clothes for them. Since the beginning, Barbie has been about consumption. Mattel sells the idea that to be like Barbie, you should buy all of the outfits and accessories that go with whatever career you want! Because girls can do anything boys can do!

Barbie was never about encouraging girls to be whoever they want to be. It has always been about pushing out more Mattel products to children. The movie falls victim to this narrative too. The matriarchy of Barbieland is a mirror image of the patriarchy, just with women in the leading roles. This is a perfect illustration of my criticisms of the movie. Instead of breaking out of the cage, Gerwig contributes to it. A true matriarchy looks nothing like our current society. The way our society is designed is created for men.

Here comes the parallel: the way Barbie has been designed by Mattel is created for our current, patriarchal society of consumerism and capitalism. The movie is a victim of this too. As long as we create media within the confines of previous narratives and under larger institutions, the media will be inherently anti-feminist. No matter how "feminist" the director may be. No matter how many random lines they add to the subtext to avoid feminist attacks on their film. The film was never feminist. Once the idea was conceived, it mirrored the ideas of a patriarchal society; a cage that can be criticized from the inside, but not broken out of.

AN: hey! thanks so much for reading! this post was originally a twitter thread on my account @/dyke5ever if you'd like to check it out.

this post was kind of half-assed, i didnt really dive into my arguments as much as i would have liked to but i plan on writing a take on allan and why women love him as a character so much later, so i will jump into more feminist themes in that post.

[americanoutlanderblog23]

Little Woman: A Christmas Read/Watch and An American Classic But Also A Modern Problem

Little Women is a hefty read, but it's worth it. I remember reading it in 5th grade and being enthralled by its interesting story. It's very white feminist. The character Jo had wanted to be a writer and refused to marry Laurie, and that blew even my 10-year-old mind. When I read this, I wanted to have more sisters and to never get married. It was influential on me. When watching the film, I found parallels to the Barbie movie in relation to Greta Gerwig. Jo's disinterest in Laurie is just like Barbie's in Ken. There's a big speech in Little Women about women and the same in Barbie. I think Great Gerwig truly represents modern white feminism and how it plays out. It's a type of feminism that speaks truth but is not very universal. Gerwig has already been critiqued for how her films showcase girlhood that is not very universal, and I find it to be very true. I enjoy both Barbie and Little Woman, but It's hard to ignore the fact that they're very much a "white girl thinking she's doing something" type of stories. It's not very radical or very deep sometimes and that's okay. A lot of white feminism leaves out a chunk of sociology, but maybe things are getting better (hopefully). On a lighter note, it is holiday time, and movies that look cold or show Christmas is in demand. Little Women is actually a perfect movie to watch around the holidays. Happy New Year, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas to you.

[sassysailorsiren]

I couldn't focus at work because I saw Barbie last night after discussing it with two friends who had seen it, and turns out my fears came true - I hated it - so I needed to write down all my grievances with it (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I didn’t like the barbie movie and I already feel bad about it because online it seems like if you didn’t like it, you must be anti-feminist.

But this wasn’t any kind of feminist movie, even though it did really try to be. It DID. You can’t avoid being seen as a feminist movie if you’re going to bash the audience over the head with the word patriarchy. It was preachy, and yet it didn’t have much to say about feminism. It had a lot it DIDN’T say while going on and on about patriarchy, and that’s why it reeked of white feminism. Feminism becomes white feminism when it omits certain people and their experiences. When it focuses ONLY on being a woman. And that’s what this movie did with America Ferrera’s speech (which was good, but again, white feminist), and with another moment that I haven’t been able to get out of my head which was when she compared the Barbie world being ruled by Kens to “the 1500s when the indigenous people were wiped out by smallpox” or something to that effect. She then has to explain the joke and say “they were defenseless!”

But that was so incredibly fucking offensive… and I find it really interesting that they gave the “it’s so hard to be a woman” speech AND this horrendously conceived line to the brown woman in the movie… Greta Gerwig and her co-writer are two white people with white points of view and they are very powerful in Hollywood at this point. So they can just get away with espousing their agendas and their views through a brown person AS A DEFENSE from being called white feminist. Well it doesn’t work that way. It was not self-aware; it totally missed the mark. They did this a couple other times like where America Ferrera’s daughter said something like “OK white savior Barbie!” but it didn’t land because Barbie wasn’t being a white savior or any kind of savior… so they were just throwing these lines in there to make it look like they know what social justice is about and to show like they know how to be intersectional. Again, not how it works. And one final time where the same character told her dad “that’s cultural appropriation!”  So unnecessary to the story. So stupid.

The plot was so vapid that I wish they had just let it be campy and stupid ONLY instead of trying to also insert feminist messaging like fighting the patriarchy (the way they bashed the audience over the head with it was exhausting especially because the way they used it didn’t mean anything). The way they threw that word around absolutely cheapened it, and in a way set any kind of anti-patriarchy momentum in the world back. Because now it just seems like a joke. Media that’s going to be seen by millions of people has a responsibility to NOT misinform people and use meaningful words loosely.

But back to the plot. Ken’s subplot was a thousand times more interesting than Barbie’s, so much so that around halfway through it seemed more like the Ken movie – something I resented. By the way, did you notice that all of the genuinely funny characters were male? None of the girl characters were funny at all, they had no jokes. The only time I actually laughed in the theater was when Michael Cera killed that construction worker telling him “shh shh easy easy.” It was just so absurd and unexpected and Michael Cera was hilarious. Will Ferrel and all the suits were kind of funny too, and I liked all the digs they took at Mattel – that was unexpected and I’m surprised they got away with it. So those are my two positive points about the movie.

Ken’s discovery of a misogynistic society was interesting, and the fact that it entranced him so much PURELY because he was feeling unloved… was way more interesting than whatever Barbie’s story was. But I didn’t come to the theater for a Ken movie. It was frustrating watching the Barbie movie turn into Barbie apologizing to Ken. And she wasn’t apologizing for how patriarchy does harm for men as well as women (because that wasn’t the case in Barbieland). She was just apologizing for how she treated him. So… I didn’t need this! Also, they didn’t really change any thing in Barbieland after that, they continued to treat the Kens as accessories – which is fine because they are all just dumb dolls! But then WHY DID WE JUST GO THROUGH ALL THAT IF NOTHING WAS GOING TO CHANGE?

The war of the sexes at the end was so weird and I hated it. Wasn’t it also problematic that the Barbies USED STEREOTYPES OF MEN to distract them and pit them against each other? Hmm... yes very feminist. We just love when stereotypes of women are used against us, so let’s do the same thing to the men? Ugh.

That would have been fine like 15-20 years ago, but with the values of today, I do not find that empowering.

There was such a more interesting version of this movie possible where the issues of Barbie (unrealistic beauty standards, not enough inclusivity or diversity, relying heavily on stereotypes) were MENTIONED, but not sloppily tried to be corrected. (The trans woman playing a Barbie is not representation when her being trans is not part of the story, sorry. There was also zero discourse about being gender non-binary). This is all just shallow diversity, which is what I was afraid of when I saw that this was ANOTHER movie with a white lead and all these POC/other abilities/gender queer in supporting roles.

The more interesting version would have been a story where America Ferrera and her daughter were centered, and Barbie helped bring them back together over the course of the film (which happened, but so quickly that it wasn’t a focus of the movie). There were so many beats missing from THAT story line like… why was their relationship strained to begin with? Just because the child didn’t want to play with Barbies anymore? Nothing was shown except angsty moments between them…

Side note, it was also highly convenient to this non-plot that America Ferrera worked at Mattel.

At the end, the movie seemed like a 2-hour-long ad for Mattel, and that also deeply frustrated me. White feminism is a tool of capitalism, always.

I think that’s it.

[namimikan]

more barbie 2023 complaints:

- kind of expected more of the gloria&barbie symbiotic relationship? gloria’s misery affecting barbie went nowhere fast. the gloria&sasha mother daughter bond apparently fixed??? in a car ride???? sasha has one line that she enjoys the creepy morbid side of her mom, but earlier when gloria says her daughter hates her there’s no rebuttal or anything???? if gloria is happy, shouldn’t barbie be happy too?

- sasha was SO inconsistent. she tears barbie to shreds, and then she’s on board, and then she’s there to fix stuff. she just felt like a plot device, whatever the plot needed her to be, there she was.

- WHY did barbie want to be human? it seemed like she hated being in the human world. fair enough, she couldn’t return to what she was before in the barbie world, but at no point did it feel like she enjoyed the wonders of being a human being, tbh?

- i kind of expected ken to have a symbiotic relationship as well??? like the growing insecurity. i just thought that there might be a human affecting his actions and mentality as well, and then just no???

- i guess i wanted more barbie&human symbiotic relationships in general rather than passing mentions

- will ferrell’s plotline seemed... pointless? he was clearly having a good time but! the punchline was...? money sells...? idk???

- there seemed to be a connection between barbie world and human world but even then it felt like. whenever convenient to the plot’s memory, otherwise it was forgotten?

- was ruth handler a ghost? was she actually dead? was she god but will ferrell knew about her anyway? how do you keep the ghost in the building like that?

- not really sure this movie was v. good at actualizing barbie OR ken’s personhood, tbh?

- not really sure i liked that it took a single line to brainwash barbies/revolutionize kens like that...? and to snap them back like that either.

- i don’t think ken is wrong in wanting some respect. i know barbie apologizes and breaks up with him, but the message that ‘women are in power’ has it’s own flaws tbh, i’m not saying that the patriachy is the better way, bc no it’s not. and it’s also tied into being barbie world is a girl’s fantasy, but. if ken dolls are unhappy, can they also not work hard and accomplish their dreams...?

- that ken was so quick to take to the patriachy was... idk. maybe a greta gerwig problem, as was the gloria speech about how women are doomed either way bc no true box fits one. but then. greta gerwig is pretty soapboxy and i often... dislike that?

[sarahistryingtowrite]

thank you, Greta Gerwig, for guiding me to embrace womanhood

Never in my life did I would root for Barbie. But thanks to Greta, I have come to admire her.

—

Growing up, I did not embrace my identity as a girl. Being born with a vagina is a huge burden in a man’s world. I must work twice as hard to prove myself, stay alert to protect myself, and keep myself looking presentable. It’s too much for 10-year-old me to handle every day (well, it’s still too much for current me). So, I imitated boys to make my life easier.

For a while, being a tomboy helped to simplify my life. My schoolmates heard my thoughts, and the boys never teased me anymore. Yet, it won’t ignore that I am still a girl. My dad was still setting a later curfew on my little brother. I got cat calls at least once a week. And worst of all, even as a teenager, I had seen grown-up males exposing their ugly genitals without my consent twice.

I never felt like I was born in the wrong body. Yet, the hardship of being a girl caused me to experience a mini gender identity crisis. I wish I were a boy. Or at least, I had a bigger body that people thought I was a boy.

—

The idea of femininity never appealed to me until I met Greta Gerwig.

Lady Bird was my first encounter with Greta. Watching Lady Bird, Greta and I shared a similar upbringing. It feels like receiving reassurance from an older sister. “Be brave and accept all of your feelings; everything will be OK. Try something new while staying true to yourself.” I think that’s what Greta tried to say through her directorial debut. It resonates so much with me.

Although I began to accept myself as a woman, the internalized misogyny remains ingrained in my unconscious mind. I may look up to those girl bosses, but still, I desert feminine qualities.

Greta was the only reason I watched Barbie, and she gave me so many reasons to love Barbie (and also Ken!) Barbie is much more than the stereotypical airhead blonde chick. She may be a bit naive, but she is capable of so much. Barbie understands the world through her head and her heart. Her kindness has touched so many people. Ken, on the other hand, is not as full on himself as we believe. He’s just a kind gentleman who’s a little unsure of himself.

—

To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses I lost interest - Ken 

—

Maybe this world never has ill intentions for women. All the social conventions we encounter, including patriarchy, could be the result of our naiveté. Perhaps we are only as unsure as Ken, hiding behind patriarchy to appear powerful in public. We’re just a group of good people trying to figure out how to survive on this planet.

Unlearning patriarchy is a journey for me. I’m already convinced that I’m just as good as the dude. Now it’s time for me to relearn how to embrace femininity like I did when I was six and obsessed with pretty dresses. To be proud become a girl’s girl.

I’d like to believe that Barbie chose to return to the real world so she could help us find our Kenergy. A thoughtful world is not impossible, like what Barbie had built in Barbieland.

[woahitsezzie]

I am (rightfully) still obsessed with the barbie movie and here's why

when I left the theatre in July, this is what I wrote. I have NEVER had a movie that I've thought about more, and every day I come to new realisations about the true genius of this film, its soundtrack, and greta gerwig.

When Billie (or in this instance, Barbie's inner monologue) says something you paid for it's not just something you paid for with money. It's that being with her is something that only gives a negative outcome, eg you payed for being with her, nothing good comes from her.

I saw the ending as a subversion of expectations joke (you think she's getting a job) but it's also a hint to the fact that she needs a gynecologist now, since she's a human! (she mentions not having genitals earlier) the idea that even after the entire movie, the first thing we think in the real world is that she's getting a job (patriarchal) and she instead does something almost exclusive to women (going to the gynecologist) is another way for Greta to say that barbie is for the girls and to empower them.

Also, the picture above was supposed to be an allusion to the painting of the creation of Adam, but instead of simply touching fingers, she holds her hand, guiding her rather than just giving her life and leaving. It's also supposed to be a subversion of the father and son (God and adam) to the mother and daughter (Ruth is the "creator" and barbie) which is why it hits even harder to think about what Ruth was saying. Ruth (or God in this instance) gave her life and the ability to feel, and she doesn't have to ask to do what she wants, she just has to do it.