Barbie — A Messed-Up Reversal of the Patriarchy
I watched Barbie a couple of weeks ago on opening night, along with what seemed like everyone else. I went with two friends, both of whom sportingly wore pink (I forgot to dress accordingly). We eagerly awaited the opening credits with a packed theatre of girls and women. I settled beside a young-20s man who had apparently come alone.
During the pre-cinema interviews and advertisements, an interview with Ryan Gosling caught my attention. He stated confidently, “This movie is definitely not what you’re expecting.”
And it wasn’t.
I was expecting a light-hearted Barbie flick in which the title character discovers more of who she is and what it means to be a children’s doll. I expected family fun and entertainment.
It wasn’t that.
I’m not sure what it was, aside from an in-your-face billboard ranting against the patriarchy and all men. I’m not kidding—all men. There was not a single redeemable male figure in the entire movie (don’t even get me started on the uselessness of Will Ferrell’s character).
It felt more like man-smashing than advocating for women’s rights.
I’m all for women’s rights. I think feminism was a necessary movement against the patriarchal oppression of thousands of years. Women are equal in value to men and deserve to be treated with respect.
However, swinging the pendulum to the other side — in which women, ahem, Barbies rule the world and men (Kens) remain clearly subordinate and lesser than women — is not the answer.
It disturbed me. Deeply.
My friends and I left, and all three of us felt the same way. We felt deeply bothered by the not-so-subtle message of women-versus-men in the film. Funny thing is, anyone who has dared to voice a dissenting voice against Barbie is written off as a male chauvinist — cue Piers Morgan’s comments on Twitter:
"I thought feminism was about equality...Why does empowering women have to be about trashing men?" @piersmorgan
And later:
“If I made a movie mocking women as useless dunderheads, constantly attacking ‘the matriarchy’, and depicting all things feminist as toxic bullshit, I wouldn’t just be canceled, I’d be executed.” @piersmorgan
The resulting headlines ridiculed Mr. Morgan (repeatedly):
Piers Morgan ridiculed over his reaction to ‘Barbie’
Piers Morgan ridiculed for his savage reaction to 'toxic bulls**t' Barbie movie
Not to mention the dozens (hundreds?) of personal social media posts crying out against his comments.
Director Greta Gerwig responded to the supposedly ‘right-wing’ complaints against her film with the statement:
“Certainly, there’s a lot of passion. My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.” (Independent, July 27, 2023)
My dear Ms. Gerwig, you’ve certainly succeeded in starting a passionate conversation even bolder than Lady Bird or Little Women. Whereas your two previous films were strong in their female leads and subtle in their message against the patriarchy, Barbie was a wallop over the head — aggressive and harsh.
As satire, Barbie portrayed a world in which women (Barbies) rule and men (Kens) are simply ornaments. I get it; women have been men’s playthings for thousands of years. Men have been in power and women have had no voice. Barbie demonstrates the outlandishness of polarizing the genders in strong social dichotomies and seeks to restore it.
If only the movie had gone that route! If only it had taken a stab at the ridiculousness and harm of sexism. If only it actually restored the chaos that is today’s gender polarity.
It didn’t.
There are three glaring problems with Barbie:
Reversing the social order doesn’t fix things; it perpetuates the same wrongs.
Women, we need to do better. Despite Ms. Gerwig’s visually beautiful depiction of a world where women are ‘on top,’ this is not a better way. Now, instead of men instigating oppression over vulnerable women, women oppress men.
How is this better?
We’ve become like those we wish to see justice enacted against. Reversing the social order with women as the ones in power only serves to enact injustice against men. It’s not just or fair to do this. It’s petty.
In the words of Piers Morgan, “I thought the whole point of feminism is that women wanted equality with men, not a complete reversal of the perceived unequal social power structure.”
Me too, Piers. Me too.
All men are not idiots and sex-obsessed.
In broad brushstrokes, Kens are all portrayed as dumb, insensitive misogynistic idiots. Really? Are you telling me that you don’t know one kind, sensitive man? You don’t know any man that you can trust?
Now, I realize that this is, in fact, likely true for many women, including Ms. Gerwig. Hurt people hurt people, right?
The problem is, you can’t make sweeping statements against an entire people group based on their physical features. You know what they call that? Sexism. Racism. Ageism.
It’s bigotry, plain and simple. It’s hurtful and it’s untrue.
I was glad my husband hadn’t come to the viewing with me. Not only would he take great offense to men being portrayed as idiots, he would also take great offense to the ideal man being portrayed as a beer-drinking, womanizing cowboy obsessed with horses and trucks…
Anyone hear a country song in the making?
Yes, that’s exactly the problem. This is what country songs are all about: beer, sex, and trucks.
Can we not do better than to imagine women as sexual toys and men as power-hungry sexual tyrants?
Apparently not, because the Barbie reimagining tries to flip the story to the woman’s favour, but only succeeds in continuing the same story: women as power-hungry beauties and men as idiotic dolts who obey and follow their women simply because they’re beautiful.
Why?
Because America just can’t imagine men and women in any role that isn’t sexualized in some way, even in a so-called feminist movie.
Even the casting of Margot Robbie, as talented as she is, was arguably for the main reason that she’s incredibly beautiful. Isn’t that ironic? In the words of Piers Morgan, “Hollywood took the prettiest woman in the whole town and cast her in a movie supposedly intended to prove women don’t have to rely on things like their looks or sex appeal to men to succeed.”
Beauty equals sex. Sex equals power. The American message is as simple as that.
And boy, is that messed up.
It sets up women and men as eternal enemies.
Anyone else feel a significant cultural-cognitive dissonance here? Everywhere else, we are told to reconcile between races, nations, and tribes. We are told to accept one another regardless of our skin colour.
If the wars of previous generations were between men of different colours, the war of our generation is between humans of different genders.
This isn’t reconciliation or unity; this is the epitome of failure as a human species that we continue to fight amongst ourselves.
Is this all humans are good for — fighting? Sure seems so.
This battle of the sexes doesn’t heal the problem existing between the sexes; it perpetuates it. It sets up women against men. It says that we can’t live in harmony with one another, that we can’t trust one another, and certainly we can’t respect one another.
We’ve agreed to ‘all get along’ regardless of the colour of our skin (at least we say the words that we will), but now the argument is over our differences in genitalia. It’s ridiculous.
I’m not a right-wing conservative. I’m a woman. And I completely agree with Piers Morgan. He’s one of the few brave enough to state a counter-cultural message — that Barbie is petty, ridiculous, divisive, and smacks of misandry.
It makes me feel disgusted.
It’s a Hollywood message that is far from the truth of our reality. Which woman lives in complete male oppression today in 21st-century North America? It simply isn’t true. It ain’t the Wild West no more, folks.
Instead, here’s the truth of my daily reality:
Truth: I’m a professional woman who is paid the same amount as my male coworkers.
Truth: I live in a country where my vote matters equally as much as a man’s.
Truth: My husband treats me with respect as an equal partner and is the most sensitive, heart-on-your-sleeve person you’ll ever meet — and he’s a man! Honestly, American movie culture doesn’t know what to do with men like him.
Truth: I am a confident woman — not because of my amazingly stunning average looks, but because I am intelligent and capable, and I recognize the limits of my power and where I need to concede to others who are more skilled or experienced.
Truth: I call many men ‘brother’ and they call me ‘sister.’ I trust them with my life.
And so, I am offended on behalf of my brothers. I am appalled at my sisters, so many of whom ate up Barbie’s matriarchy as the answer to the problem of patriarchy.
To the young man who sat beside me in the movie theatre, my heart breaks for the emasculation you experienced as you took beating after beating in the message that ‘men are the problem.’ You are not the problem.
American cultural messaging is the problem.
Call me an optimist. Maybe I am.
But I believe that the world can be a better, more equal place because this is my call as a Jesus-follower. I believe that we can treat all people as though they bear God’s image because they do. I believe that men and women are created as equals and deserve to treat one another with respect and love — this is basic human decency.
Let’s be decent human beings, shall we?
