Yo, Miss! (No. 25)
My Barbie Dreamhouses
There were quite a few think pieces about the Barbie movie for months leading up to the film’s release. A lot of these essays were from more progressive writers and historians with the expected pontifications about the dangerous history of Barbie’s influence on female self esteem and body image.
Then of course there was the immediate conservative backlash from politicians like Ted Cruz:
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and then Ben Shapiro got so angry about the film that he burned $100 dollars worth of Barbies in effigy.
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Why were the Republicans so angry? It was not just because the movie is a profound social commentary about the hold that the patriarchy has over each and every one of us. They were also extremely triggered because the movie is so powerfully pro-woman.
All their anger simply just added to the Barbie Buzz because the film, directed by Greta Gerwig, set the record for the biggest opening for a film directed by a woman. Barbie racked up $155 million through it’s opening weekend.
Barbie is already shaping up to be a major cultural moment for feminism. Remember how mad they got about the knitted pink pussy hats at the 2017 Women’s March? Their rage over the Barbie movie seems even stronger. The fact that these men are losing their minds over this film speaks volumes. So, I hope people keep going to watch Barbie, posting their pink outfits, and showing everyone that we will keep turning out for movies that highlight the shared collective experience living under the patriarchy. That being said, the movement needs to stay intersectional and avoid just being solely led by white feminists. All of our rights as women are under assault, but marginalized communities of women get hurt the most by these laws.
So, let’s show the world that there is a desire for films and other art forms that explore these themes that start robust conversations about the female experience.
Then let’s take this enthusiasm to the voting booths in 2024.
I treated myself to a 3pm screening on Thursday, July 20th. So, I had the privilege of walking into Barbie without knowing what to expect at all. I was not even sure if people would be showing up in hot pink like me. (They did!)
I want everyone else to step into the theater without any spoilers, so all I will say is that Barbie is both a fun and deeply emotional movie that captures the modern female experience in a way that I have not really seen in any other movie. Although another masterful film connected to the theme of womanhood is “Promising Young Woman” directed by Emerald Fennell . It profoundly resonated with me as well. Also, I highly recommend reading Lisa Taddeo’s books “Three Women” and “Animal”
So, yes, no spoilers about the Barbie movie. However, I did want to share my thoughts related to the film.
As I popped open my Red Vines, I had a flood of Barbie memories sitting waiting for the film to start. I spent my childhood playing Barbies in the basement. Barbie had two Dreamhouses. She owned a high-end fashion store. Barbie’s best friend was the Diana Ross Barbie. (I don’t think she was branded as such, but in my childhood mind she was Diana Ross.)
Barbie had two boyfriends: Ken and Todd.
Does anyone remember Todd?
She owned the entire Oscar de la Renta collection. (Thank you mom and dad!)
Skipper would come over and watch Barbie get dressed up to get into her pink Corvette to either go on a date with Todd or Ken. But, Barbie was an independent woman. She never got married in any of my playtime scenarios. She definitely never got pregnant. Honestly, I think Barbie spent most of her time folding the clothes at her store.
However, I do think at some point I was really into Barbie and the Rockers, so Barbie had a brief stint as a rock star
I know that Barbie is problematic from the perspective of body image and young girls. I am sure my obsession with Barbie had an impact on my own body image issues. However, what I most consciously remember was how Barbie was a conduit for me as a child and a pre-teen to fantasize about my future adult life. Barbie helped me test drive different scenarios via my dolls using my vivid imagination as my guide. There were no screens in my playtime. Although I think friends would come over to record Barbie fashion shows using my dad’s camcorder. Maybe “Facts of Life” reruns were playing on the TV in the background. But it was mostly just my pure imagination guiding my play.
It was only when watching the Barbie movie (ONLY ONE SPOILER HERE) that I realized that before Barbie dolls, kids only had baby dolls with which they could play. Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the U.S. with adult features. Before Barbie, young girls were only fantasizing about adulthood via their dolls from the perspective of motherhood.
Not me. My doll playtime was solely devoted to Barbie.
I can’t wait to speak with my students at Feminist Club about their impressions about the Barbie movie. Once the film is available for streaming, I will screen the film for them to get their real-time reactions. They won’t connect to the nostalgia in the same manner that I did. However, I think that the social commentary in the film about the patriarchy and womanhood will deeply resonate with them. I am already seeing emotional responses on TikTok from creators of all ages.
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I am curious to hear your thoughts on the Barbie movie, so feel free to leave a comment! And here’s my Linktree if you’d like to support my work.
P.S. If you’d like some more history on Barbie, I wrote this for my Lifetime #SheDidThe Series:
On March 9, 1959, the first Barbie doll went on display at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. Eleven inches tall, blonde and buxom, Barbie was the first mass-produced doll with adult-like features. She was the brainchild of Mattel co-founder Ruth Handel, who had watched her young daughter ignore baby dolls to instead play with paper doll cut-outs of adult women. Although criticized for promoting an unrealistic body type for impressionable young girls, Barbie and the related products have been wildly popular for decades. Since 1959, more than 800 million dolls in the Barbie world have been sold around the world.
Ruth Handler modeled Mattel’s American Barbie doll after a doll named Bild Lilli, based on a German comic strip character. Lilli was a blonde bombshell as well as a working girl who knew what she wanted and was not above using men to get it. At first, Lilli was just a racy gag gift sold to men in tobacco shops. However, the Lilli doll soon became a popular children’s toy in Germany.
During a trip to Germany, Handler discovered the Lillii doll. She bought three of them and brought them home to the United States. Then, her company Mattel, that she co-founded with her husband, bought the rights to Lilli. Handler named the American version after her daughter, Barbara. At first, Barbie was marketed with either blonde or brown hair as a “teen-age fashion model” wearing a zebra pattern swimsuit. By 1961, Barbie was so popular that Mattel released Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend. In 1963, Barbie’s best friend, Midge, was released and then a year later, Barbie’s little sister, Skipper, debuted on toy store shelves.
Barbie became a global sensation, but also generated her share of controversy. On the one hand, everyone’s favorite blonde doll challenged existing gender stereotypes about women. Barbie was sold in all sorts of professional iterations, including Doctor Barbie, Pilot Barbie and Rock Star Barbie. However, some criticized the Barbie doll for encouraging materialism among young girls. Barbie always had an unlimited supply of designer clothing (including a line from Oscar de la Renta), hot pink cars and “Dream Houses.” With her large breasts and super tiny waist, many worried that Barbie’s unrealistic body type was detrimental for young girl’s body images. In response to this criticism, Mattel gave Barbie a larger waist in 1997. Then, in 2016, Mattel introduced a range of new body types for Barbie: “tall,” “petite” and “curvy.” “Curvy Barbie” made the cover of Time Magazine with the headline: “Now Can We Stop Talking About My Body?”
Barbie remains one of the top-selling toys in the world. According to Mattel, Barbie has had almost 150 careers and has represented more than 40 different nationalities.
It is said that a Barbie doll is sold every three seconds somewhere in the world.
My daughter and stepdaughter saw the movie last night and absolutely loved it.