finally, I watched the movie of the season and I have one (1) thought on my otherwise empty head:

the little dialectic of barbieland becoming invaded by the idea of patriarchy and then barbies collectively organizing to abolish it happens all inside the little make-believe world of barbieland that the movie itself acknowledges is a reality constructed through children playing. in this regard, kens aren’t really the patriarchy, they’re a pretend version of patriarchy. barbies and kens can be easily interpreted as children imitating concepts they themselves do not understand that thoroughly. gosling’s ken himself acknowledges that he wasn’t really commited to any ideology in particular. he liked the aesthetics of patriarchy (he liked the horses!). so the movie can be read as brutally cynical, right? because it doesn’t really do the same thing the matrix does (even when it’s directly alluded): the matrix, a make-believe world becomes an important battlefield because it ties directly into the machines’ source of energy (if people aren’t convinced by the simulation, which can be read as capitalist ideology, then machines won’t be able to keep humans captive in order to drain them). on barbie, the importance of barbieland is never really stressed beyond the implication that it changes mattel’s toyline, which the execs do not want because of a vague commitment to, uh, preserving the essence of barbie? what. so by the same token that only allows barbie to be president of barbieland, barbie can only abolish patriarchy in barbieland. by the way, will ferrel sucks. but the ken number rules and is kino. that is all.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    It was enjoyable slop and made no serious pretentions to try to be more than that. Even the sort of “woke” parts feel insincere enough to seem like decoration to an otherwise fun movie.

    • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      yeah its basic liberal feminist fluff. I mean if I was 12 im sure this would have been a real confidence booster, really hits the inner teen girl feels. but the movie doesn’t pretend it can change anything. They didnt even get a single women on the all male board by the end of the movie, if anything the movie thinks progress is a long slow painful march that media cant change. the one political recommendation the movie makes is consciousness raising (in the barbie deprogramming scene) which is second wave feminism baby stuff. hated the left bashing of people who criticize barbie (women still arent shaped like that). I loved allen. edit: they fucking nailed me with the depression pride and prejudiced binge joke, it got the biggest laugh in the movie. they knew their audience lol.