Critical Review: Barbie Movie Applauded as a “Feminist Epic” While Depicting Men as Bumbling Villains
The core plot of Barbie plays on the common feminist notion of “reversed roles” along with a predictable hatred of men and masculinity; starting in a place where women run everything and men are simply objects with “no agency.” Ken is a dunce that Barbie controls while he is also simultaneously cruel, a classic woke depiction of “toxic masculinity.”
But when Barbie is transported to the real world (our world as viewed by feminism) she encounters a cartoonish level of male chauvinism and sexism, while Ken learns to love the patriarchy and tries to transport it back to Barbie’s world.
In fact, the film’s script uses the word “patriarchy” at least 10 times. Obviously, the premise as a metaphor is faulty because the dynamic depicted in the flick doesn’t exist for women, at least not in western society. Gender roles exist because of biology, not because of conspiracy. But then, the ultimate childish fantasy is not Barbie’s dreamland, it’s the feminist ideal.
The surface story involves the realm of Barbie as a parallel universe to our own, but real life issues and fears start to invade Barbie’s thoughts and she begins to challenge the structures of the world she lives in while disrupting everyone’s blissful ignorance.
For decades Barbie has been a primary target of the feminist movement. Their accusation is that the toy is a negative image reinforcement for young girls and a “tool for the patriarchy” for molding women into unattainable beauty standards as well as social standards. In reality, Barbie is vastly successful because she’s a blank slate – Girls and women tend to project their personalities onto fictional characters (and many other things), and Barbie has no defined personality to get in the way. Little girls make Barbie into whatever they want her to be, which is usually them. This is the reason why we often hear feminists argue that everyone needs to “feel represented” in entertainment – They cannot relate unless they can project.
But as a blank slate there can be no “manipulation” or male domination with a toy like Barbie. So, feminist claims fall apart. They simply ignore what the toy means to children and think only of what it means to them.
By extension, there is no romance in the Barbie movie, no love story for Barbie and Ken, no playing house or taking care of babies. All the things that little girls do with the toy are deliberately erased from the film. Beyond the colorful set design, the movie is distinctly hostile to the idea that it should appeal to kids. It is only made for one very narrow group of people: Far left ideologues.
This is not a display of love for the toy, it’s a group of woke fanatics doing what they always do – It’s not enough that they hate the product and what it stands for, everyone else has to hate it too. Feminists are not happy in their own crazed beliefs; they are only satiated when others are pressured to affirm those beliefs, often through propaganda.
