The film Barbie (2023) is a tough one to figure out.  The premise is that in Barbie land, it’s all about girl power because you’ve got a Barbie for every conceivable profession.  

The narrator says sarcastically: 

“Thanks to Barbie, all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved.” 

This is to suggest that women don’t have equal rights. Indeed, the entire film is filled with passive-aggressive complaining about the plight of women in the real world–as opposed to Barbie land.  In make-believe Barbie Land, with women in charge, there are no problems. 

We are supposed to believe that having women in charge is contrary to the real world, but actually no.  The totalitarian brand of feminism in Barbie land is at least an echo of what has been going on in corporate America for a while now, though the writing in this film is so dense that one can only conclude they’re too stupid to realize that. 

But to be fair, the film is a little more complex than that.  

But to be fair, the film is a little more complex than that.  

For one thing, although I hate this movie, I have to admit there is a sense of humor in it, and a small part of that humor involves deprecating the very ideology that it extolls.  At least that’s my interpretation.  For example, in Barbieland, ridiculously, the construction crews are 100 percent female.  When Barbie and Ken visit the real world, Barbie is incredulous that she can’t find any women on the construction crews; she actually expected to have some female bonding on a construction site.  She is unpleasantly surprised when not only is the construction crew all male, but they proceed to make testosterone-fueled observations about her appearance, which are only stymied by her pronouncement to have no female genitalia.  The fellas might have interpreted this as to say that she is trans; but at any rate, they back off for the moment.  

Also, it’s not lost on Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, that men are treated like shit in Barbieland.  It’s all about girl power, men are second class citizens, not to mention Barbie is toying with his emotions.  Is this a commentary by the film that feminism has actually gone too far? 

Surely the best part of the film is when the Ken’s briefly take over Barbie land.  But the ridicule of the Kens thereafter, their portrayal as bumbling and incompetent, makes me question if filmmaker Greta Gerwig really does have a sense of humor or just an axe to grind.  The latter is what really defines the film.  

Well that’s a good recipe for no one having babies.  

You’ve got a 30 something blonde, Margot Robbie’s Barbie, who used to look like stereotypical Barbie. The film actually breaks the fourth wall to assure us that Margot Robbie is still very hot, which is odd if it needs to be said. Normally men don’t need to be told if a women is hot–we know, trust me.

Anyway, now that she doesn’t even look like that anymore, she’s so picky that even the toned Ryan Gosling as Ken isn’t good enough for her.  

Barbie explains: 

“Maybe it’s Barbie and it’s Ken.” 

This is to distinguish from “Barbie and Ken,” as Ken would like to have it.  In other words, she doesn’t want to be a couple.  And this is where 2023’s film Barbie shows a deep flaw in feminist thinking which has seeped into the addled brains of 30-something single white women with a “white savior” complex to boot, to quote the movie.  

No one is good enough for Barbie.  She needs to self-actualize.  She needs to find out who she is. 

By the time she figures all that out, whoops, it’s too late to have a family.  

Grade: C

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