I just watched this last night, and was hoping I'd find you here! When I saw Ben Shapiro did a 40+ minute review of this one, I knew immediately it had to be either not actually feminist or in fact subversive. Someone who's been doing years of critique in the genre can't need 40 minutes!
The movie is not actually feminist. It is certainly…
I just watched this last night, and was hoping I'd find you here! When I saw Ben Shapiro did a 40+ minute review of this one, I knew immediately it had to be either not actually feminist or in fact subversive. Someone who's been doing years of critique in the genre can't need 40 minutes!
The movie is not actually feminist. It is certainly not feminist enough for a feminist to hold up as exemplary, as shown by your Ken quote. I think it's even a fair bit reactionary!
Perhaps the biggest critique a man could levy against modern feminism is that it prompts previous non-combatants to "keep score", for the purpose of *losing*. This critique can be done humorously, and it used to, i.e. Bill Burr's "mother is the most difficult job on the planet" bit. However, it's no longer a source of humor. How many kids, who aren't even old enough to have kissed a girl, are watching "Sigma" shorts? How many incels were there in the 1970s?
So the main method of doing this critique is out the door, what's an entertainer to do? Barbie has the answer: Lean In. The opening of the second act literally runs a commercial for men, and it rocks! The Founding Fathers! Sports! Trucks and beer! Stocks! Cinema! What can't a man do! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEbbV5gR-Gw) To men, Barbie says: The world is, in fact, yours! Of course, none of this is true in Barbieworld, where "maybe someday the Kens will get a supreme court justice."
On the flipside: The movie begins with young girls abandoning their baby dolls for Stereotypical Barbie. The movie is explicit that motherhood doesn't "sell", but when we expect another surly teenaged heroine, instead Barbie gives us a friendly and upbeat mom! "You have to be their mom, but not their mom" says the mom who saves the day.
I just watched this last night, and was hoping I'd find you here! When I saw Ben Shapiro did a 40+ minute review of this one, I knew immediately it had to be either not actually feminist or in fact subversive. Someone who's been doing years of critique in the genre can't need 40 minutes!
The movie is not actually feminist. It is certainly not feminist enough for a feminist to hold up as exemplary, as shown by your Ken quote. I think it's even a fair bit reactionary!
Perhaps the biggest critique a man could levy against modern feminism is that it prompts previous non-combatants to "keep score", for the purpose of *losing*. This critique can be done humorously, and it used to, i.e. Bill Burr's "mother is the most difficult job on the planet" bit. However, it's no longer a source of humor. How many kids, who aren't even old enough to have kissed a girl, are watching "Sigma" shorts? How many incels were there in the 1970s?
So the main method of doing this critique is out the door, what's an entertainer to do? Barbie has the answer: Lean In. The opening of the second act literally runs a commercial for men, and it rocks! The Founding Fathers! Sports! Trucks and beer! Stocks! Cinema! What can't a man do! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEbbV5gR-Gw) To men, Barbie says: The world is, in fact, yours! Of course, none of this is true in Barbieworld, where "maybe someday the Kens will get a supreme court justice."
On the flipside: The movie begins with young girls abandoning their baby dolls for Stereotypical Barbie. The movie is explicit that motherhood doesn't "sell", but when we expect another surly teenaged heroine, instead Barbie gives us a friendly and upbeat mom! "You have to be their mom, but not their mom" says the mom who saves the day.