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Come on Barbie, let’s go party:  The Barbie movie is a raw analysis of the female experience

Illustration by Sasha White
Ella Van Leuven
August 28, 2023
2 Comments
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Spoiler warning: This article reveals important plot points for “Barbie”.
With the biggest opening weekend of 2023, and the biggest ever opening weekend for a female-directed film, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is making waves in both the film industry and society. 

“Barbie” isn’t just a movie about the dolls that were a part of so many girls’ childhoods. “Barbie” analyzes expectations for women, the patriarchy and the female experience as a whole. Throughout the film, Gerwig does a beautiful job of discussing the expectations that are placed on women by both society and themselves. 

The film quickly addresses that Barbie was never meant to be a role model for how women are supposed to look, she is a representation of everything a woman can be. The opening sequence discusses the fact that Barbie was the first non-baby doll for young girls. Barbie has the power to encourage girls to be anything they want to be —- the president, an astronaut, a chef, or anything in between.


Illustration by Sasha White
The movie follows “Stereotypical Barbie”, played by Margot Robbie, as she goes on a journey of self-discovery and redefines her views of the world around her. After Stereotypical Barbie starts noticing horrifying changes to her normally perfect appearance, including flat feet and cellulite, she and Ken (Ryan Gosling) make their way to the real world to both save herself and discover her true purpose. 

On their journey through the real world, Barbie and Ken meet Gloria (America Ferrera) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a mother and her daughter who join them on their mission to save Barbie, and eventually all of Barbieland. 

One of the most memorable moments of the film is Gloria’s monologue, in which she addresses how truly impossible it feels to be a woman. She tells Barbie, “I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us.” Not only does society set impossible expectations for women, we also set impossible expectations for ourselves. 

Gloria’s speech is the first time many women have had these feelings put into words. Her monologue allows many women to feel truly seen in the struggles they face every day. 

While some argue that Gerwig’s film is “anti-men”, the film is truly a criticism of the detrimental effects of patriarchy and how it affects women everywhere. The film enacts a genius reversal of the roles that men and women are typically given in both film and the real world. 

In the beginning of the film, the Kens’ very existence depends upon the Barbies giving them attention. Just as women have been portrayed in film for so long, the Kens are shallow and generally don’t have a lot going on in their heads. 

When Ryan Gosling’s Ken visits the real world, he has his first experience with patriarchy, encountering a world where men run everything and women are often treated as “less than” and objectified.

Ken takes this information back to the other Kens, and while Barbie is still in the real world, he transforms Barbieland into Kendom, a patriarchal society based largely off of horses and beer. Ken transforms “Barbie’s Dreamhouse” into his “Mojo Dojo Casa House”, and he and the other Kens quickly move to take over the government and warp all the values of Barbieland.

There is a pointed difference in how Barbieland treats the Kens and how Kendom treats the Barbies. While the Barbies just let the Kens follow them around withholding invitations to girls’ night, the Kens put the Barbies into a patriarchal trance, making them wear maid costumes and forcing them to wait on the Kens hand and foot.

Once Barbieland is restored to its former state, the Barbies don’t flip the roles and force the Kens to serve them. Rather, Barbie apologizes for taking Ken for granted, pushing him to discover his own purpose apart from being in love with her.

Through its comic portrayal, with Ken eventually telling Barbie, “To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I lost interest anyway,” the film makes important points about how deeply harmful patriarchy is to women everywhere. Although Kendom feels exaggerated and includes a lot of comedic elements, it’s a very real criticism of how women are treated in the real world.

The Barbies are saved by powerful female friendships, and the film effectively snaps its audience out of the “patriarchy trance”, just like Gloria snaps the Barbies out of the trance the Kens placed upon them. 
“Barbie” isn’t just a visually stunning movie about dolls. The film delivers a raw analysis of the female experience, helping women everywhere to feel seen in their daily struggle to simply exist. Through the film, Gerwig tells us that we are all Barbie, pushing women to see themselves as the powerful and independent beings we truly are.


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THIS POST HAS 2 COMMENTS

Kai Jai ConnerSEPTEMBER 6, 2023 REPLY
Thank you for putting so many confusing thoughts for me into the written word. I was floored at the deep social commentary that I believed the movie exposed, rather than the fluff i had been told it was. Being a boomer, born in 1960, Barbie was a large part of my childhood and surely encouraged me to aim higher than my mother did, although she was very successful. God knows it is very hard to be a woman in a patriarchy and I did love Gloria’s monologue about the struggle of women.


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Judith A. Davidson Ph.D.JANUARY 14, 2024 REPLY
This commentary perfectly clarifies my experience of watching Barbie—and never having had one instead opting for all forms of sports. ( Not to mention that I was probably too old to play with dolls when Barbie first appeared!). I would have liked to have been able to articulate so well what the film is telling us. Now I need to see it again.


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