How the “Barbie” Motion picture Points out the Psychology of Patriarchy

The Barbie movie starts with a parodic nod to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Place Odyssey, the place in the opening scene, the appearance of a black obelisk alerts a milestone in the evolution of humankind—violence enters the community of tranquil apes who will now evolve into homo sapiens. In Barbie, the obelisk is changed by Barbie (whose legs are equally monumental) and the apes by small ladies who damage their toddler dolls a new era in perform has begun. This comedian second points to the various ranges at which Greta Gerwig’s excellent movie signifies: It’s a movie about dolls, to be absolutely sure, but also a movie about evolution, not simply just that of dolls and participate in but also about the rise and stamina of patriarchy, viewed through the lens of psychology.

The term “patriarchy” has been criticized for failing to accept the oppression and injustice that exist inside of male identities. The movie acknowledges this criticism when Aaron, the minimal-ranked administrator at Mattel, suggests, “I’m a man with out power. Does that make me a lady?” But patriarchy is however grounded in gender, as bell hooks, who is very well informed of id-primarily based ability differentials, maintains: “Patriarchy is a political-social procedure that insists that males are inherently dominating, top-quality to all the things and all people considered weak, in particular ladies. ”

Barbie was designed by Ruth Handler, a girl who defied the gender roles and constraints of her time but who yet intended a doll in which a restricting, oppressive ideal of feminine natural beauty prevails and whose character is all about her garments and her human body (see my essay “Barbie’s Physique Project”).

Ruth Handler with Barbie dolls in 1961

Wikimedia Commons/Los Angeles Times, photographer not known

Barbie’s difficult proportions advocate natural beauty benchmarks (thinness over all) infamous for getting internalized to the detriment of self-esteem and self-acceptance on the part of ladies and females. Barbie’s feet make it not possible to shift freely, from an attacker, or just to perform. The initial indication that there is a breach of boundaries concerning Barbieland and the Genuine World is that Barbie’s ft get flat when she wears heels in this ailment, she responses, “I would under no circumstances have on heels if my feet were formed like this.”

Let us not be far too difficult on Handler it was 1959, and in any circumstance, as Gloria factors out—she’s the Real Earth woman who prompted the breach by imagining a line of Barbies in crisis—women internalize patriarchal beliefs. The mostly male executives who ran Mattel just after Handler elaborated on this inherent bias. Even though gals rule in Barbieland, it however embodies a patriarchal eyesight of a feminist universe due to the fact feminist theories do not advocate a simplistic reversal of privilege in which a person is however oppressed and disempowered. And with a couple exceptions that intention at inclusiveness, the Barbies nevertheless appear like Barbie.

The Kens of Barbieland are “women.” Ken #1 lives in a entire world wherever “Barbie has a good working day every day, but Ken only has a excellent working day if Barbie appears to be at him” (a description eerily reminiscent of abusive interactions). Ken life in a psychological condition of lack, a “life of blond fragility” where it “doesn’t seem to subject what I do/I’m constantly number two,” and wherever getting 2nd is tantamount to staying nothing at all.

“Blond fragility: Ken isn’t going to even get his identify on the package deal.

Wendy Jones/own picture

Barbie cruelly dismisses him “every night is girl’s night,” to which he is pointedly not invited. He exists to associate with Barbie, and just one of the content results of the movie is that he learns to research for his identification apart from his persona as “and Ken,” as in “Barbie and Ken.” This secondary position, epitomized by Ken #1, accounts for the competition involving the Kens, which exists from the start out of the film. Individuals compete when means are scarce, the assets, in this scenario, staying appreciate, standing, and recognition.

Despatched off to entertain himself although Barbie tries to track down the source of the breach, Ken goes to Century City, wherever he discovers a planet in which males rule. Barbie observes, “It’s just about like reverse here.” He acquires some simplistic thoughts about patriarchy in the Real Earth, it isn’t all that associated with horses and mini-fridges. But he understands its elementary rules, and Gerwig tends to make it clear that they rule our world as well.

On her return to Barbieland, Barbie finds that Ken is in the process of turning it into a Kendom, thus getting the respect and significance that he has lacked. And there is an aspect of revenge as properly, captured by one particular of his favored tracks, “Push” by Matchbox Twenty, with the signature line “I want to press you all over.” Barbie finds that the Barbies have been brainwashed into supporting the patriarchal get of items, a remark on what transpires to women in the real earth (Handler and Barbie’s system come to head). With the aid of Gloria, Barbie figures out that the way to deprogram the Barbies is by stating the contradictions within just patriarchal anticipations for girls. Barbie, who is getting to be more and more astute as very well as human, observes, “By offering voice to the cognitive dissonance of dwelling underneath patriarchy, you robbed it of its electrical power.”

The Barbies trick the Kens into lacking the vote to alter the constitution that would make Barbieland into a Kendom by working with competition concerning the Kens to provoke a battle. The fight is a comedian fest (capture the person offering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to his hobbyhorse) that out of the blue transforms into a brilliantly choreographed dance number Gerwig was inspired by musicals of the 1940s. The transformation has which means as nicely as spectacle, allegorizing the posturing—literal posturing via dance moves—and exhibit so germane to patriarchy.

Wendy Jones as “Regular Barbie” (with many thanks to the Vogue Theater, Manistee MI, for enabling me to “get inside of the box”).

Wendy Jones/private image

In scenario you overlook the stage about the psychology of patriarchy, it is stated overtly but subtly in an nearly throwaway line by Handler, who guides Barbie by way of her decision to develop into human. (This motion picture provides a fantastic rendition of the trope of “becoming human,” found in characters like Pinocchio, the Tin Woodman (Wizard of Oz), and Information (Star Trek: The Subsequent Era.) Handler tells her that becoming human has its downsides. For one, you die: “Ideas are living eternally. Human beings, not so considerably.” And “being a human can be rather awkward. Humans make up items like patriarchy and Barbie to deal with how not comfortable it is.”

There is the moral of the movie: We uncover equally horrible and artistic means to offer with the inevitable lack and the awareness of that deficiency that appear with being human. Handler also suggests that patriarchy is not organic or inescapable for humans, a counter-argument to a commonly approved perception (see operates by Grenta Lerner and Angela Saini). Human beings make up things, like patriarchy and Barbie. And what is designed can be unmade. Possibly we’ll see “Ordinary Barbie” immediately after all!