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Barbie Movie Review Part Deux!

We saw the Barbie movie the weekend it came out. I posted about it the second I got home. I was emotional and raw and enraptured by what I had seen on screen. So naturally I couldn't stop thinking about the film and had to go see it again on my birthday!

The second viewing of this film offered me a little bit more critical analysis, as I knew what was coming. I could still enjoy the emotional highs and lows of the film without being wholly swept away my the spectacle of it all. I am not saying feeling that way during a film is bad, not at all! I actually think it is a good thing! It's just nice to sometimes step away from that feeling and watch a movie through a different lens is all. Because I knew were the biggest reactionary moments of the film were owing to having already seen it, I could focus in closer on smaller things about the film that make it great as well.

In our second viewing, we attended with a friend who had been wanting to see it. At the end of the film, I asked her what her favorite part of the film was. She hesitated and answered "Gloria's speech." I told her that I think she is saying that because she feels she has to say that in order to appear like a Good Feminist, Part of The Sisterhood. I explained that yes, Gloria's speech is very important and amazing but it does not have to be your favorite part of the film because the whole film is feminist. She relaxed a bit then and said "Honestly, it was actually Ken's story line."

This interaction made me a little sad. I think a lot of folks that read this will think that I didn't like Gloria's Speech and that could not be further from the truth. I actually think The Speech is the best part of the film, it just isn't my favorite part. Her speech is important. It helped my partner, who is amazing in a lot of wonderful and unexpected ways, that there are parts of being a woman that they do not fully understand and never will. They said Gloria's speech reminded them that feminist allies still have a very long way to go.

For me, Gloria's Speech does what Barbie and Crew says it does: speaks to the cognitive dissonance required to be a woman in modern society. I do consider myself a feminist and I will always support my sisters. I will never exclude my trans and non-gender conforming sisters. I will never tell another person what they can or cannot be. So long as they believe in freedom of choice and dismantling societal norms that tell us what we can and cannot be, can and cannot do, based on our gender or sex, then they are good by me.

But Gloria's Speech also falls under the dangers that Gloria talks about trying to avoid. In our modern feminism, if I do not say that Gloria's Speech was my favorite moment, I am a Bad Feminist. I think we, as a society, need to really examine that way of thinking. There are so many rules to being a woman, and to being a feminist, that it becomes nearly impossible to navigate doing so without being the subject of ire and outrage, even from other self-described liberal feminists. Its painful and confusing to me that I would be seen as less than for something like this, but it is reality. And this, to me, is what that speech is actually about. Gloria's Speech is important and I stand by saying it is the Best Part of the Film. But do not think less of me or anyone else because it was not listed as the favorite part of the film.

An interesting conversation that has been had multiple times in my very forward-thinking, inclusive, artistic, feminist circles is about how problematic Ken's story line is. This is something I do not understand coming from the pockets in my life that it is. One of my friends said that "Ken's story line has nothing positive or constructive to say to the young men of today." ...What the fuck movie were they watching?

The second viewing I had of this film, I paid extra close attention to what Ken and the Kens were up to and honestly I just fell in love with it even more. Ken feels like he doesn't matter to Barbie, and all he wants to do is matter to Barbie. All he wants to do is be the man in her life because he believes that is his actual purpose. This is a rhetoric and trope we have seen in films since the birth of Hollywood, but it is almost always thrust upon the female lead of the film. Seen as either accessory or foil to the male protagonist, and treated as such, her entire identity within the film centers around her existence to the man in her life. Ken's story line is taking an age old trope and flipping it to prove a point. We can all exist as our own, fully realized people, without needing to define ourselves through the eyes of others. Ken's story line also shows that there is power in having a fully accepting, supportive community, that encourages personal growth, and encourages everyone to just be themselves. All I want for all men everywhere is to know that they are enough just the way they are. They can like horses, and wear a cool headband, and like fringe jackets, and drink brewski-beers, if this is all what brings them joy. If people walked away from Barbie thinking that Ken's story line is problematic, I think it might be time for them to reflect on exactly why they think that is. Why does it bother them that a man was portrayed in the same fashion that women have been portrayed in films for a century now?

Everything about Barbie feels intentional. The world building, the set dressing, nearly every line of dialogue, serves to prove a point, without feeling condescending. It's fun on its face but also gives the viewer a lot to think about, and asks society to examine the beliefs that we have. This movie is both smart and fun, very fantastical and very real, very empowering, and very thought provoking, all at once. This film is monumental. This film is amazing.