Culture Cabinet

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

When I think back on my personal experience with Barbie, I’m first taken back to memories of driving my Barbie Jeep around my front yard, notoriously almost running over my sister. I remember loving my Mystery Squad Barbie set, playing Barbie games on the computer, and fighting with my friends over which Barbie I got to play with. While I can’t say Barbie was an integral part of my childhood, her presence was undeniable. 

While I was excited for Barbie once it was announced, my excitement lied more with a love of Greta Gerwig and the stellar lineup of a cast. I, with the rest of the world, spent the last few months excitedly watching the promotions for the film, restraining myself from buying the ever-tempting myriad of merchandise, and blasting “Dance the Night” on repeat. I went into Barbie with the expectation that I was going to watch an absurdist comedy blaring in bright pink. Shame on me for underestimating Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach like that. 

The thing is, Barbie ultimately gave me exactly what I was expecting. But, it also gave me so much more. While Barbie is as feel-good and absurd and hilarious as the promotions would have you believe, it is also an existential study of womanhood, and what it means to be human. The film follows a stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), who lives a stereotypically “Barbie” lifestyle, full of daily beach parties, nightly girls nights, a Dream House, and enough pink to run Sherman-Williams short of pink paint. However, when Barbie starts to become a bit more in tune with life’s existential questions, (“Do you guys ever think about dying?”) she learns she must travel to the Real World and find whoever is playing with her, the root cause for this sudden bout of existentialism. 

What follows is a hilarious and honest examination of womanhood. Barbie is shocked to learn that women do not rule The Real World, Ken (Ryan Gosling) is delighted to learn what the patriarchy is, and jaded Mattel employee Gloria (America Ferrera) is trying to come to terms with her place in the world, all while balancing the struggles of raising a teenage daughter (Ariana Greenblatt). 

The underlying themes of Barbie could warrant their own dissertation. Gerwig and Baumbach expertly navigate some of the smartest social commentary to be shown on screen in recent memory. For me, the most poignant was the statements Barbie makes on the arbitrary expectations to which everyone, though mostly women, find themselves constantly trying to measure up. Barbie is dismissed in the real world, unable to be taken seriously by men and women alike, because she is too “stereotypical Barbie.” This is shocking and upsetting to Barbie, as she feels that all she’s ever wanted to do was make people happy. Without that sense of validation, Barbie slips into an existential crisis, questioning her place in the world and doubting her self worth. It isn’t until Gloria calls these societal expectations out (in the monologue of the century) that Barbie begins to slowly put the pieces together in finding her own sense of identity. 

As someone who has recently had to reevaluate her sense of purpose and where she fits into the world, this struck a deep nerve with me. I never expected to leave a film feeling so seen by a Barbie. I’ve not been able to stop chewing on the takeaways from the film. Why do we hold women to such a double standard? Why do we live in a world where we seem to have more of a sense of awareness of feminism and “girl power” and yet, we’re still so quick to bring other women down when we feel threatened by them? I spent most of my youth and adolescence swearing I hated the color pink, because I thought it would make me cool and edgy to reject what was stereotypically “girly.” Why is that? What was there to gain? 

The fact of the matter is I, like many women, have many sides. I love iced oat milk lattes and pink glitter and belting Taylor Swift in the car. I also love metal music and the color black. I love musical theater and Bob Dylan and baking and romance novels and horror films. I’m a lawyer, a writer, a daughter, a friend, and a sister. Not one aspect can be neatly packaged and marketed in a box. And that’s what’s so beautiful about womanhood: it, like Barbie, can be absolutely anything. 

So, as I reflect on Barbie (and secure my tickets to see it again), I can’t help but find myself feeling immensely grateful for this film. Outside of it being a much needed feel-good film, a brilliant piece of cinema, and the vehicle for one of the better Ryan Gosling performances of late, it also serves as one of those serendipitous moments where a piece of art finds you at just the right time in your life when you need it most.