Sp00kySweetz

"I'm not president barbie, I'm just stereotypical barbie" is so reminiscent of how woman are socialised to downplay their achievements within a patriarchal society. At the start she was so confident about being stereotypical barbie. That's who she was!! There was no reason for her to wish to be anything else because there was a barbie for that and it wasn't her. She didnt need to be anything but stereotypical barbie. But when she reached reality (womanhood) she was no longer enough. Like Gloria said you have to be extraordinary. All of a sudden the fact that she's stereotypical barbie doesn't matter because she's not as smart as physicist barbie, or as good a leader as president barbie. she's not a writer or a doctor or a judge or a lifeguard. She's just barbie.

And that's no longer enough. There will always be a barbie that's smarter, more confident, a better leader etc. And because of that anything special about her becomes irrelevant. It doesn't matter that she's perfect in her own way. It doesn't matter that until she reached the real world she was happy and confident with being stereotypical barbie. Because she's not some other barbie. She's not "perfect"

Every girl i have ever met has experienced that shift when you enter womanhood. You, intentionally or not, pit yourself against other women. of course you won't get the guy because the other girl is so pretty in a way that's different and more adhering to patriarchal beauty standards so you're not deserving of love and attention until you change that thing about yourself. And yeah it's great that you achieved this award but this girl is a lot smarter and is in higher position of power so can you really say you worked that hard?

Couple that with her immediate feelings of self consciousness and fear when she entered the real world!

Girls grow up insecure. Patriarchy forces this idea of perfection onto girls from a young age which is impossible. (Even if you achieve this "perfection" of being pretty and skinny then you're trying too hard and are of no value to a society that demands effortlessness to be pretty ifykwim.) Barbie immediately feels this way when entering the real world. She's sexualised and objectified in the same way all teen girls experience when transitioning into womanhood. There's this moment where girls become aware that they are no longer seen as equals to they boys in their class. They're things to be looked at, or made fun of when they're not worth looking at. The guy on the street isn't thinking about your humanity when he's cat calling you. And this is justified because you're putting effort into your apperance. And if you didn't want male validation well then you shouldn't have tried to be pretty! (Little bit of a tangent there but a relevant one!!!)

Every girl at one point in their life has felt like stereotypical barbie. Every girl goes from the bliss of girlhood ,where it doesn't matter who's prettier or smarter because you could all still be mermaids when you were at the pool, to the constant obsession and need to change yourself to be better for men that comes with womanhood (some girls experience this way before puberty I am aware.)

I could go on for hours about how amazing this movie is, and how it perfectly summarises what it's like to grow up as a girl.