Review by Boyan

Barbie 2023

8

Review by Boyan
BlockedParent2023-08-01T18:05:34Z— updated 2023-09-04T11:18:40Z

There are three layers to this movie:

feminism
If you take the movie at face value, it is a feminist movie with a feminist message. It talks to women at several times, saying the world is still patriarchal and the fight is still not over. It's also a critique of third wave feminism, endorsing femininity and beauty and recapturing the meaning of womanhood. It is pink and girly because they are women.
It also addresses feminism for men. Ken is an incel that cannot be happy without living the fantasy relationship with an idealized woman. He gives up simping and accepts his masculinity, not because of simping or resentment.

Critique of feminism
Going deeper, the movie talks bad about radical feminism. Ken thinks patriarchy means he gets everything for being a man but gets rejected and made fun of in every attempt, making barbieland a matriarchal utopia and the real world not so patriarchal after all. This addresses the false idea some women have that being a man makes you privileged and an opressor. Ken is also a mirror for real life women. He finds out about patriarchy and turns into a revolutionary. This is an attack on revolutionary feminist that find out about feminism and think it is about destroying men and society to build barbieland. It points to their naivety.

liberal movie
As in classical liberalism, it endorses individuality and freedom. As many have said in, Barbie chooses the real world and its imperfections instead of barbieland.
Barbieland is a longhouse with no privacy, no meaning and no agency. It is a proxy for neverland, a perfect fantasy world of dreams. Barbie thinks about death and it starts to break the veil of beauty and perfection.
Ken is the only individual with some bit of a mind and personality, but after he learns about patriarchy, he becomes a caricature and literally a nobody in a sea of kens. This shows how ideology and social movements overtake individuality and turns everyone in mindless minions.

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