BARBIE MOVIE

I admit, the barbie fil may be an odd choice for a CF blog but after having watched it in cinema 3 times. Purely form lack of organisation and a spontaneous trip to the cinema. Still, that being said I

did actually really enjoy it. Great humour (with just the right amount of 4th wall breaking, and funny film references), good story, beautiful ending. Oh, and clever use of the new CGI that is commonplace in movies in the last few years. By that I’m referring to cars and people from a distance (think extras that don’t really need focus) this for ages has been a little pet peeve, as I don’t think its quite up to scratch yet, the cars look not far off Grant Turismo (a car game with amazing graphics). An example of this is spiderman no way home. A great film but the cars on the bridge scene with Doc Ock and the Green Goblin took me right out the moment. Not to mention and that 2 second clip of him scaling a wall after leaving Aunt may during an escape. Anyway, the barbie movie takes that and uses it to mask what are probably real people with an effect to make them look like dolls as she drives by. As you can tell I’m a big fan of small details.

Back to Barbie. I had seen it all over my TikTok and I non-surprisingly got a good mix of typical “men will never understand this movie” and “this movie has a strong message about gender roles not just men bashing if you look deeper”. Then I came across this TikTok that made me optimistic about going to see it. Here’s the video, definitely check out the creator by searching @kiltboyyy

Now after watching it I can say this perspective of it is spot on. That being said there was one monolog that went viral speaking about expectations that society (and some see it as just men) place on women and how its not fair and that we should place more focus on that its ok to just be “normal”. Finally, this is where I see the commonality with Disabilities. While I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think that I could write a similar monolog about the expectations men face. However, it’s difficult to do so without the threat of people seeing it as invalidating the speech in Barbie (which I hope people would understand wasn’t my aim, but I do recon if it was a strong enough argument it WOULD be used for further fuel the “battle” of the sexes we see on social media and the news). So I kept that train of thought and quickly realised I could do a similar monolog for disabilities and I know someone could do the same around race or sexuality. I see it as “a weight of expectations”. While it wasn’t specifically outlined it is clear the one group that not only gets this weight the most but also massively feeds into the shame and stigma of all the others. Its kids.

We tell kids you can grow up to be anything they like, they have the potential to be great, world leaders, superstars, world changing thinkers (scientists, inventers etc)… and then we reach 25, with a normal job, maybe a couple of kids, I was gunna say house (but for even people 30+ can’t afford that unless you have a 2 plus wage household…if you’re smart about it, or lucky). So we reach like a quarter life crisis. We feel like we’ve failed someone or ourselves.

In my case I’m a white straight male, so according to a lot of feminist thinkers out there I have no limitations to being a “powerful man” but I’m just a guy working for the council, I’m renting a (beautiful house with the option to buy in the future once my partner has more stable work). I have “Life on easy-mode” and I’m still…average. So this can cause a lot of the animosity between the sexes. Some men that are living proof that the patriarchy isn’t totally favouring men and men alone to the point they believe it doesn’t exist (personally I feel it still does but not to the extent SOME feminists believe, which bring me to) and some women feeling that the world is designed against them. The barbie movie showed this perfectly with their contrast between living in the real world “patriarchy” and Barbie world “matriarchy” concluding that neither are healthy for anyone. Under the matriarchy, Ken is an accessory. His job is “beach”, his needs aren’t getting met despite being a “10” not just looks but it hinted he doesn’t have the typical toxic masculinity, but he still was capable of becoming, effectively, an incel. As for what women go through under the patriarchy well, we live in the real world. As for Alan, he is something else and we all love him for it, despite being dismissed by both the Kens and the Barbies. Perhaps Alan and weird Barbie represent other groups (perhaps nonbinary/ the LGBTQIA+ but being only an ally, I don’t feel like I can give it a fair comparison).

It’s the same for disabilities. We’re in the weird middle world, we’re told we can be anything but it’s almost out of pity and God forbid if your disability is invisible in some way then we’re allowed to be anything and appear healthy… but not too healthy or you’re faking it or milking it for the benefits, financially or the attention etc. They want the world to be more accessible unless its inconvenient then we’re meant to “acknowledge were still a minority”.

So finally, I have thought of a small solution. Like barbie, be proud of being “normal or average” you may be amazing to someone else. I write a lot on here about being proud of yourself and its good to want to make changes and work on yourself if done in a healthy way without the opinions of the other dolls in the world are all just trying to get through their lives too, dealing with their issues etc. We are human, we live, we struggle, we die. But with life we love, we learn, we see beauty and meet people that may change your life or find a passion that gives your life purpose… or not and that’s ok too.

BARBIE MOVIE

Just keep going, you’ve got this beautiful x

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