The Rorschach Test of Feminism movies lmao Pros +Funny as hell +Acting from Gosling and Robbie was phenomenal (The rest were fine but nothing noteworthy) +Interesting story arc that is both super traditional but also very contrarian, it works in the context of this specific movie +The color palette- Barbieland is obviously very bright and pink/blue but the outer world is exceptionally gray and the movie does a fantastic jobs with using costume design to communicate inner feelings +The opening scene does a phenomenal job at introducing the basics of what barbie is supposed to be and why she feels so important in a fun 2001:ASO reference +Every single scene with Ken in the real world was phenomenal
Cons -The Will Farrell character really meant nothing to the story and felt like they added it on just to have another big name in the credits -Major scene at the end where Barbie #1 (Margot Robbie) shuts down due to anxiety and is somehow comforted by the mother figure telling her that Women have to put up with tons of shit on the daily to even live a normal life doesn't make sense for multiple reasons. Reason #1: The Barbies lived in a Feminist "Utopia" up until now so none of the things she ranted about should make sense to any of them outside of Barbie #1 and even then she spent like 12 hours in the real world so it shouldn't make sense to her either. Reason #2, is that the barbies under the Kendom weren't experiencing that at all, the Kens were just like having fun with their fellow Kens while the barbies complimented them and handed them "brewskis" while they redistributed the land more fairly. All of the actual jobs in Barbieland are meaningless so who gives a shit if the president is now a cheerleader. -This is where the film becomes a Rorschach test. The Kens literally did nothing wrong. I know the Barbieland is supposed to be a sort of reverse Chauvinist world but the Kens literally do not have homes and their entire life is just whether Barbies even acknowledge them, that's fucked up man. Even in the most Patriarchal societies Women aren't sleeping in the fucking wild. Gosling Ken (I'll just say Ken #1) starts to talk about how he feels more accepted in the real world and Barbie is just ignores him completely. She literally could have stopped the Ken Uprising if she even paid any attention whatsoever to what he was feeling. It's a problem throughout the movie where the female characters literally don't give two shits about what the Kens are feeling or going through, even the humans who are supposed to be oppressed by patriarchy. Ken #1 even says at the end that he didn't even like being in power (they kind of ruin this moment by saying he just did it because of some weird imagined connection to horses but whatever). The brainwashing part also made no fucking sense, Ken distributed patriarchy like (and yes they actually say this) Smallpox??? What the fuck? This isn't just stupid, it's super lazy writing. Also if they're trying to make it feel like the Kendom was bad then they shouldn't have made all of the Barbies happy in it lmao. The Barbies are literally fine with the whole thing outside of Weird Barbie (who btw is also an outcast from barbieland) and two weird Kens (one of whom is Sugar Daddy Ken...). I don't want to come off like it's a good thing the Patriarchy exists but the movie really makes it feel that way. -Alan is a little bitch cuck. His entire personality is to be Ken's friend, shame he's actually just a Barbie orbiter --------- I wanted to separate this part because it's not just weird and lazy but actually super fucked up to teach real people to do this. The barbies decide after a bit that in order to defeat the Kens they need to first free the other Barbies from the "Brainwashing" by literally just brainwashing them back to thinking they're what they were before the Ken Revolution. That part is fine and expected. But the second part is getting them to fight the other Kens by EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATING THEM. What the absolute fuck? This is a terrible lesson to teach young girls. This starts by taking advantage of the Kens mansplaining things to them that they ask for help for (aka the Barbies say they struggle with something easy and the Kens are just generally helpful). Then the second part is agreeing to be in a relationship (in which the writing gives the Barbies an out by making it an long term/distance casual girlfriend or whatever) with Kens and then purposely leading them on, then ignoring them and making them jealous by giving other Kens attention which gets them to fight their fellow Kens. Then While they're fighting the Barbies vote down changes to the Barbieland constitution. Like you couldn't have come up with a more meaningful way to distract a bunch of brainless Kens than to emotionally annihilate them? FUCK THE BARBIES! -The ending totally fucks up Ken #1's character arc by saying he only liked Patriarchy because he thought it had to do with Horses. I think it was right that Barbie and him didn't fall in love but my dude had wayyyyyyyyyy more reason to start the Ken revolution than the Barbies had to do anything they did. The entirety of what Barbie "accomplished" was re-oppressing the Kens and accepting that she has cellulite and thinks about death
Again, you kind of see things differently depending on the perspective you have in life but it definitely felt weird that a feminist movie, could in any way be interpreted as the female mains mostly being scumbags. I know this reads as very negative but my negatives are all about very specific plot points and their failure to be consistent with the message of the movie. I did enjoy it a lot and think the majority of it was extremely funny and fun. It just had a number of big "what the fuck are they doing?" moments
Review by SeanMSUBlockedParent2023-08-03T21:36:00Z
The Rorschach Test of Feminism movies lmao
Pros
+Funny as hell
+Acting from Gosling and Robbie was phenomenal (The rest were fine but nothing noteworthy)
+Interesting story arc that is both super traditional but also very contrarian, it works in the context of this specific movie
+The color palette- Barbieland is obviously very bright and pink/blue but the outer world is exceptionally gray and the movie does a fantastic jobs with using costume design to communicate inner feelings
+The opening scene does a phenomenal job at introducing the basics of what barbie is supposed to be and why she feels so important in a fun 2001:ASO reference
+Every single scene with Ken in the real world was phenomenal
Cons
-The Will Farrell character really meant nothing to the story and felt like they added it on just to have another big name in the credits
-Major scene at the end where Barbie #1 (Margot Robbie) shuts down due to anxiety and is somehow comforted by the mother figure telling her that Women have to put up with tons of shit on the daily to even live a normal life doesn't make sense for multiple reasons. Reason #1: The Barbies lived in a Feminist "Utopia" up until now so none of the things she ranted about should make sense to any of them outside of Barbie #1 and even then she spent like 12 hours in the real world so it shouldn't make sense to her either. Reason #2, is that the barbies under the Kendom weren't experiencing that at all, the Kens were just like having fun with their fellow Kens while the barbies complimented them and handed them "brewskis" while they redistributed the land more fairly. All of the actual jobs in Barbieland are meaningless so who gives a shit if the president is now a cheerleader.
-This is where the film becomes a Rorschach test. The Kens literally did nothing wrong. I know the Barbieland is supposed to be a sort of reverse Chauvinist world but the Kens literally do not have homes and their entire life is just whether Barbies even acknowledge them, that's fucked up man. Even in the most Patriarchal societies Women aren't sleeping in the fucking wild. Gosling Ken (I'll just say Ken #1) starts to talk about how he feels more accepted in the real world and Barbie is just ignores him completely. She literally could have stopped the Ken Uprising if she even paid any attention whatsoever to what he was feeling. It's a problem throughout the movie where the female characters literally don't give two shits about what the Kens are feeling or going through, even the humans who are supposed to be oppressed by patriarchy. Ken #1 even says at the end that he didn't even like being in power (they kind of ruin this moment by saying he just did it because of some weird imagined connection to horses but whatever). The brainwashing part also made no fucking sense, Ken distributed patriarchy like (and yes they actually say this) Smallpox??? What the fuck? This isn't just stupid, it's super lazy writing. Also if they're trying to make it feel like the Kendom was bad then they shouldn't have made all of the Barbies happy in it lmao. The Barbies are literally fine with the whole thing outside of Weird Barbie (who btw is also an outcast from barbieland) and two weird Kens (one of whom is Sugar Daddy Ken...). I don't want to come off like it's a good thing the Patriarchy exists but the movie really makes it feel that way.
-Alan is a little bitch cuck. His entire personality is to be Ken's friend, shame he's actually just a Barbie orbiter
--------- I wanted to separate this part because it's not just weird and lazy but actually super fucked up to teach real people to do this. The barbies decide after a bit that in order to defeat the Kens they need to first free the other Barbies from the "Brainwashing" by literally just brainwashing them back to thinking they're what they were before the Ken Revolution. That part is fine and expected. But the second part is getting them to fight the other Kens by EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATING THEM. What the absolute fuck? This is a terrible lesson to teach young girls. This starts by taking advantage of the Kens mansplaining things to them that they ask for help for (aka the Barbies say they struggle with something easy and the Kens are just generally helpful). Then the second part is agreeing to be in a relationship (in which the writing gives the Barbies an out by making it an long term/distance casual girlfriend or whatever) with Kens and then purposely leading them on, then ignoring them and making them jealous by giving other Kens attention which gets them to fight their fellow Kens. Then While they're fighting the Barbies vote down changes to the Barbieland constitution. Like you couldn't have come up with a more meaningful way to distract a bunch of brainless Kens than to emotionally annihilate them? FUCK THE BARBIES!
-The ending totally fucks up Ken #1's character arc by saying he only liked Patriarchy because he thought it had to do with Horses. I think it was right that Barbie and him didn't fall in love but my dude had wayyyyyyyyyy more reason to start the Ken revolution than the Barbies had to do anything they did. The entirety of what Barbie "accomplished" was re-oppressing the Kens and accepting that she has cellulite and thinks about death
Again, you kind of see things differently depending on the perspective you have in life but it definitely felt weird that a feminist movie, could in any way be interpreted as the female mains mostly being scumbags. I know this reads as very negative but my negatives are all about very specific plot points and their failure to be consistent with the message of the movie. I did enjoy it a lot and think the majority of it was extremely funny and fun. It just had a number of big "what the fuck are they doing?" moments