![]() ![]() ![]() I was also struck when I learned this back in middle school and remember feeling disgust and relief as I interpreted it as a sign that Barbie stood for an antifeminism that was receding in my lifetime. Gerwig has remarked that she was struck by the fact that if Barbie were a real woman, her breasts would be so heavy that she would be forced to crawl on all fours. Just 10 years ago, Berlin feminists burned the dolls and protested a promotional Dreamhouse as “sexist propaganda.” Today’s Dreamhouse is a massive Malibu installation that dwarfs the one protesters stormed a decade ago, but it has inspired no such backlash.īut as ironic and interesting as I trust Gerwig’s rendering of Barbie to be - even under Mattel’s oversight, since the company clearly understands that edginess moves merch more effectively than bland endorsement - I am not sure that immersion in Barbie World is what our world needs right now. After all, Gloria Steinem described 1970s feminists as defining themselves in contrast to Barbie: “She was everything we didn’t want to be but were told to be,” she said. This tension in what Barbie really represents is what I think makes Gerwig’s movie more than an extremely expensive infomercial, and it is what she is wisely emphasizing in interviews: “I am both doing the thing and subverting the thing.” That’s the kind of nuance we can expect from Gerwig, and it is the interesting ambiguity energizing the legions writing Barbie think pieces (including me) who do not usually spill much ink on branded movies from toy aisle bestsellers.įor all the hand-wringing about whether Barbie is feminist or not, it is striking how little overt resistance there has been to this famous doll’s being shoved in our faces more aggressively than ever. ![]()
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