The 2023 Barbie Movie was a wonderful overview of how a patriarchy works, something (as Pop Culture Detective brilliantly shows) is vanishingly rare in Hollywood. This refreshing take is why the film received such glowing reviews:

However, Barbie is not a feminist masterpiece. On that front it’s awful. So here—finally—is commentary from a middle aged man, explaining his thoughts on the matter.

[I’d like to note up top: I’ve read some feminist literature, but I’m far from an expert. I’d like to apologise up front if that means I’m completely missing the point!]

I’m going to ignore Mattel

This essay is not an attack on Mattel.

I’m horrified that a billion-dollar pink-washing campaign has gotten so many positive reviews, but the movie’s corporate, consumerist message was to be expected. So, in my criticism below I have tried hard to ignore the points where Mattel’s invisible hand is guiding the narrative.

But, I’ll start with just one example. The movie begins by portraying Barbie as a feminist icon from the start. According to the film, Barbie revolutionised the scope of what young girls could play with, replacing baby dolls with a blonde, bare-legged goddess.

That goddess is called “Stereotypical Barbie” in the film, and she is played by Maxim’s “hottest woman in the world” winner four years running, Margot Robbie. It is, of course, entirely the Patriarchy’s fault that Robbie is sexualised for sport in the press, so this criticism is not aimed at her. But, it’s no surprise that someone like Robbie played the lead in this movie, as the original barbie was entirely based on her sex-appeal to men.

Ruth Handler, Barbie’s maker, tailored the original Barbie’s physique to match a German adult-themed joke gift that was traditionally given to adult men. That gift was called the ‘Lilli Doll’, which was based on a cartoon sex worker that courted old, rich men. In other words, OG Barbie was made to look like a sex worker.

There’s nothing stereotypical about Stereotypical Barbie’s appearance. It would be far closer to the truth, based on her origin story, body shape and outfits to call her Sex Doll Barbie.

There’s a debate to be had on whether Sex Doll Barbie was a step up from the baby dolls that preceded her. Previous doll makers had presumed little girls should be pushed towards (or would only be interested in) mothering. “Playing house”, as it was called. Then Mattel came along and gave those little girls the freedom to envisage a future self not as homemakers tasked with the drudgery of child rearing, but as vacuous, sexualised playthings. Plus ça Change!

But like I said, I’m not here to talk about Mattel’s impact on the real world. This is a movie review, and one that specifically focuses on how it portrays feminism.

Let’s start with Motherhood

Many in the commentariat, from writers on Medium to journalists working at some of the world’s largest publications, have noted that the Barbie movie is first and foremost about motherhood. Vogue even went as far as publishing an article titled “‘Barbie’ really is the ultimate love letter to mothers.”

If true, that’s no big deal: motherhood is, after all, a large part of life for some people who have wombs. However, for a doll slated to have expanded the aspirational scope of little girls, it’s interesting that none of the women in the movie seem to have any ambition outside of motherhood.

Only two women with jobs have speaking parts, both them receptionists. One of them, Gloria, is named in the script, but unnamed in the final cut of the movie. Gloria is a pivotal character whose magical sketches somehow launch Sex Doll Barbie on her narrative arch towards becoming a real woman, flat feet and all.

However, she pays no attention to her own career, giving away what could be wildly popular Barbie ideas (Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Barbie, Full Body Cellulite Barbie, Crippling Shame Barbie and, eventually, Normal Barbie) for free. She only expresses two desires: for Mattel to create a Barbie that she would want to play with, and to have a better relationship with her own daughter.

That daughter is Sasha, a strong-minded girl whose first minute on screen is in a school cafeteria with her friends. Barbie enters the room and Sasha launches on an explosive speech about how Barbie embodies “sexualised capitalism”, the “glorification of rampant consumerism” and the promotion of “unrealistic physical ideals”. She also says Barbie “set the feminist movement back 50 years”, and “destroyed girls’ innate sense of worth”.

Sasha then quickly throws out those ideals when she realises that Sex Doll Barbie is important to her mother, Gloria. There is no investigation or repudiation of her beliefs that Barbie is bad for the world, she just ignores her own principles to satisfy her mother.

As for Sex Doll Barbie, the resolution of her narrative arch is that (spoiler alert) she decides to become a real woman. Barbie makes that decision after imagining what the life of a real woman might be like. To illustrate, viewers are shown what social media has dubbed the ‘real women montage’—a series of short clips cut from the real world home movies of the film’s actual cast and crew.

While a nice idea, the fact that Barbie’s imagined meaningful life is limited to home movies means that the majority of clips were just women in familial settings. No evidence of women working. No women giving speeches. No women having an outsized impact on the world. Just lots of women playing with children or interacting with their families.

This is the “meaningful life” that Sex Doll Barbie envisages for herself: starting a family. In other words, meaningful life is being a mother, having a family, something that’s implied in the movie’s last (and quite funny) moment: her trip to a gynaecologist.

By the end of the movie, then, Barbie’s on her way towards being a mum. Gloria is presumably back in her secretarial position, with an improved relationship with her daughter. Barbie Land has reverted to its old ways. Only the Kens seem to have gained anything over the course of the movie: some understanding of their own self worth.

Prettiness, prettiness, everywhere.

‘Barbie’ also centres around the desire to be, and value of being, pretty. I don’t just mean for the Barbies themselves, whose looks-based worldview is Mattel’s fault, and certainly canon. All of the characters in the film are primarily concerned with prettiness. The lengths to which the script goes to make beauty its central focus are exhausting (the words ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful’ appear 29 times in the script).

Take Sasha, for example. Remember: she’s introduced to the viewer as a feminist who hates how Barbie has destroyed girls’ innate sense of self worth. The original script’s instructions for that scene are this:

Barbie scans all the different girls’ faces and then BAM…she sees her Girl, the one from her vision! Her Girl is sitting in a VERY prominent table with a group of other pretty 13 year old girls. She’s clearly popular.

‘Pretty’ is the only word used to distinguish Sasha and her friends, making them “clearly popular”. In the script (but not in the final cut), these girls then explicitly start criticising Sex Doll Barbie’s looks. A character called “POPULAR GIRL #3” (who might as well have been called “Pretty Girl #3”) sneer, “So do you think you’re like pretty?”

Again, those italics are in the script. Delivery of that line is supposed to stress the word pretty. We are witnessing the pretty friends of the pretty feminist insulting the pretty doll for not actually being pretty. And these insults work in the Barbie universe because attractiveness is this movie’s most admired—and italicised—quality.

I’m not exaggerating. For example, near the beginning of the movie, Barbie sees an old woman and the first words out of her mouth are “You are beautiful”. Or consider the absurdity of how the film’s car chase ends. Sex Doll Barbie is in the back seat. Pretty Girl #1 (sorry, ‘Sasha’) is in the passenger seat. Her mum, Gloria, is skidding the car around corners and through traffic, exhibiting incredible driving skills while trying to lose the two Mattel vans hot on their heels. She whips the car neatly into a hidden gap and everyone ducks down and goes quiet as the vans drive by.

At that point, Gloria turns to her daughter to tell her, completely out of the blue, “you look so pretty.”

There’s no set up to this line. At no point prior to this had the daughter suggested she was worried about her looks. The line is also delivered without further comment. It’s just there. The climax of the car chase is a comment from a mother to her daughter, telling her how she looks.

Wanting to be pretty, or wanting to be thought of as pretty, is not inherently un-feminist. Celebrating one’s own appearance and/or sexuality can be empowering. The idea that one can ‘reclaim’ one’s own body image in the face of unrealistic beautify standards is a powerful idea. “This is me, and I’m beautiful exactly how I am.”

That is not the message in the Barbie Movie. This film was not about inner beauty, or accepting oneself, or celebrating your own looks, regardless of how others see you. Instead, this movie argues that your value comes from how pretty you look to other people. It does not matter if you think you are pretty, you have to be actually pretty, and other people have to think so as well. Characters are constantly commenting on each others’ looks. Just look at the final scenes in the film, when the Barbies universally pan Ken’s fashion choices.

Barbie herself is constantly asking for people to judge her looks, throughout the movie, and the people around her are free with their judgements. Near the end of the film, Barbie’s existential crisis peaks as she breaks down crying about how she’s not pretty anymore. Gloria responds, “What? You’re so pretty.” Then, “You are beautiful,” (italics in the script).

Sex Doll Barbie then worries she’s not interesting because she hasn’t been built with a career in mind, unlike the brain surgeons, presidents and Supreme Court justices around her. This sets Gloria off on her much-lauded “IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE A WOMAN!” speech, beginning with the words, “You are so beautiful” (italics, again, in the script).

Unfortunately for every woman in the film, they are all doomed. Their prettiness will not last forever. Why? Because everyone is going to fall victim to the movie’s evil villain: cellulite.

The movie’s most commonly repeated joke, showing up a full eight times, is that Barbie’s appearance will degrade as she experiences the natural process of aging. This literally panics her, and nobody takes the time to suggest that perhaps she should simply accept that this is how aging works. True to form, the message in the Barbie Movie is one of unattainable beauty standards: avoid aging. Perhaps that’s why there are so few old characters in the movie: showing that cellulite is not a death sentence would take some of the impact out of its favourite joke.

The shame of sexual desire

Sasha is naturally amazed that her mother can handle a car like a stunt driver. Here’s their conversation:

The mother’s use of the words “this guy” clearly indicate that it wasn’t Dad, so either Sasha is so innocent she couldn’t conceive of her mother having a boyfriend, or she’s pre-emptively halting a story that could have forced her to consider her mother’s pre-marital love life.

Gloria lies that it was Sasha’s dad because the fact that she has an exciting ex-boyfriend is not something the daughter should know. This dialogue plays into the grotesquely patriarchal narrative that good mothers are asexual vessels with no prior romantic history. The punchline of the joke is: look how close she came to admitting to her daughter that she’d had a boyfriend before marrying and having babies!

Lol?

The fact that the Barbies (and the Kens) are asexual is a central theme in the movie. Of course they are. Their lack of genitalia is referenced a couple of times, and it was a joke prominently featured in its trailer. The Barbies don’t even know what sex is. Here’s a scene near the beginning of the movie, shortly after a dance:

KEN: I was thinking that maybe I could, you know, stay over tonight?
BARBIE: Why?
KEN: ‘Cause we’re girlfriend and boyfriend.
BARBIE: To do what?
KEN: To… I’m not actually sure…
BARBIE: But I don’t want you here.

[Incidentally, the humour in this scene drains out once you realise that an explicit plot point in the movie is that the Kens are homeless in Barbie Land. Ken here is not asking for any form of physical companionship, he doesn’t know what that is. He’s just asking to sleep indoors.]

However, there is a female character in the movie who does express sexual desire! She tells Sex Doll Barbie, “That Ken of yours is one nice looking little protein pot”, and then tells her “I’d love to see what kind of nude blob he’s packing under those jeans.”

What else differentiates her from all the others? She’s literally Weird Barbie. The defining feature of the only woman who proudly exhibits desire is that she’s weird.

In short, in the Barbie movie women are either asexual, ashamed of their sex life or weird. What the ever-loving fuck.

Countering feminist themes

By far the worst aspect of this film is that it portrays feminism as a zero sum game. In Barbie Land, as one gender rises, the other falls. One gender is in power, the other is subordinate. One wins while the other loses. This is no clearer than during the passage in which the Barbies are scheming to take back Barbie Land from the Kens. Here’s Sex Doll Barbie worrying about what the consequences might be for Ken:

BARBIE: It still doesn’t mean I want to hurt him.
GLORIA: He took your house. He brainwashed your friends. He wants to control the government.
BARBIE: True.

Here, Gloria is giving Barbie permission to harm the Kens. The evils perpetrated by the Kens—which are very real and very bad—are the justification for returning Barbie Land to its previous state.

But, that previous state was indefensible. Under the matriarchy, the Kens had been homeless, jobless, powerless, disrespected and ignored, a fact that traumatised them. That’s not conjecture on my part, that’s a plot point. The resolution of the movie is a return to the Matriarchy (albeit with small concessions). That, according to the movie, is the good ending.

Perhaps we don’t need a man saying this, but from what I’ve read I don’t believe that this is a feminist message.

As I understand it, first wave feminism focused on the fight for suffrage and legal rights: they wanted to be treated as equal powers to men. The second wave expanded this fight to addressing social and cultural inequalities: they wanted to be treated as equal peers. The third wave emphasised intersectionality and diversity: they wanted equality for all. And the fourth wave is now addressing gender norms, the rejection of beauty standards and gender-based violence.

Compare that with the message in Barbie, where men and women have intrinsically different interests, where the Kens must be crushed in order to win; where a diverse cast of Barbies are subordinate to the skinny white “stereotypical” lady who they go out of their way to please; where all the main characters’ defining trait is that they’re all ‘pretty’; and in which cellulite’s ability to rob you of your prettiness is the most frequently rehashed joke.

I’d call this movie “wonderfully anti-patriarchal”. But to call this movie ‘feminist’ (let alone a feminist masterpiece) is to ignore, subvert or reject a central idea behind feminism. One of the foundational feminist arguments is that dismantling the institutional and cultural systems that repress women would bring us into a world where everyone would be free to choose their interests, careers and lifestyles, where humanity would be more prosperous and innovative, where mental health would improve across the board…in short, where humans of all genders would be better off.

At absolutely no point is it made clear in Barbie that men and women would both benefit from gender equality. This wasn’t a film about feminism, this was the battle of the sexes, where there are two “sides”, and where one wins, the other loses.

That version of feminism is, in fact, a misogynist’s idea of what feminism means.

Conclusion

Perhaps its worst flaw is the way the Barbies regain control. Their plan to overthrow Kendom relies on their ability to flirt. Had the Kens not found the Barbies so enticing the scheme would have failed. Barbies end up winning because they are appealing to Kens. That’s not empowerment, that’s a misogynist’s idea of how women get what they want.

I’d say it doesn’t matter that a film introduces girls to the word ‘patriarchy’ if, in doing so, it also teaches boys that feminism will make their lives worse. You’d hope that a film with a $300 million budget could have started with a script that took two steps forwards without taking two steps back.

Most insidiously of all? I still enjoyed watching it. It was visually stunning, funny, brilliantly acted and easy to get lost in. I’d even recommend watching it. Which…well, which is exactly what Mattel wanted. They win.

—

Notes I wanted to put above but couldn’t find space.

1. In the movie, President Barbie appears in a gold prom dress and sash (and later in hot pants). Mattel did make a President Barbie in real life, in 2012, who wore a blazer and skirt.
2. The movie criticises Ken’s fashion choices three times. It doesn’t batter an eyelid at President Barbie performing the responsibilities of state in a prom dress and sash. Fashion is for women, not for men.
3. Barbie cried in the 14^th, 32^nd, 42^nd, 74^th, 75^th, 76^th, 104^th and 106^th minutes. Ken does cry, once, with an overdramatic wailing done purely for laughs. Crying is for women, not for men.
4. The montage of toxic masculinity (to the chants of “men men men”) includes men engaged in wholesome behaviour and experiencing joy: friends fist bumping each other, exercising, playing sports etc. They could have shown football hooligans or men in strip joints, instead of behaviour that’s part of a healthy, happy lifestyle.
5. The movie made two(!) “PC gone mad” jokes. Two. Both of them are in the original script. Greta Gerwig is 40 years old, not 60.
6. Gloria wants Mattel to create an ‘ordinary’ Barbie, one that “just has a flattering top and wants to get through the day”. But, a Barbie that cares about fashion and nothing else is already the exact description of 90% of the Barbies on the market.
7. Barbie said “I want to be a part of the people” in the 101st minute. Somehow, she wasn’t talking about microplastics.

Further reading

This great review by wajda_long_face on Letterboxd.

Pop Culture Detective’s incredible video, “Patriarchy according to Barbie”: