theselonelystarrs

[theselonelystarrs]

idk about you but i sobbed when i first heard gloria’s monologue. the echoes of gloria’s voice, full of pent up anger of the millions of women facing the injustice of this world, lives within me now. because it wasn’t just a slapped on feminist speech, no—

it’s a culmination of the drowned out cries of women who are victims of men and their abuse; women thrown away for patriarchy; women stepped on, beaten down, and cast aside for simply being a woman. and i am here for it.

[theselonelystarrs]

my absolutely favorite thing about the barbie movie is that at no point whatsoever it explains how the mattel employes know about barbieland like imagine starting your new job on mattel and the first thing they tell you on orientation is

"yeah barbieland is real and we've had incidents in the past with a doll coming into the real world please see page 7 of your employee handbook for reference also if you wander into a random room on the 17th floor and meet a nice old lady don't mind her it is just the ghost of our founder"

[theselonelystarrs]

Barbie had two messages.

Number 1: don't be his long term long distance low commitment casual girlfriend.

Number 2: don't wear heels because your foot is shaped like that.

[theselonelystarrs]

spoiler-free review of Barbie (2023): I want to compress this movie into a stake and drive it through Joss Whedon’s heart and watch the life leave his eyes before comprehension can dawn in them.

10/10 would and will go see again

[theselonelystarrs]

things in barbie that i didnt expect (but still loved):

an intense car chase

the gynecologist

a vision montage about the beauty of life and how painful and amazing humanity is

a lot of country music

[theselonelystarrs]

[theselonelystarrs]

Just got home from the Barbie movie and wow.

I can't stop thinking about how beautifully the Barbie movie portrays that often times when men (speaking in very binary terms, apologies) are hurt and feel wronged they'll act out in ways that hurt people, may that be purposefully or inadvertently. And society enforces this. Meanwhile women, who are used to living in a hostile world, will often express and process their pains in ways that don't harm others.

But Ken never wanted to hurt anyone. He just was hurt and didn't know how to deal with it. He found the first thing that gave him an outlet and some inkling of comfort and latched onto it. And after Ken has had his supposed "villain arc", Barbie isn't mad at him. She lets him know it's okay to cry.

The villain was never Ken himself, it was the fact that society is built in a way that prevents men from having ways to safely process and regulate their emotions. A society that punishes men for crying and confiding in friends and wanting to be comforted.

The Barbie movie isn't anti men. It's a big fuck you to our society that is hellbent on keeping everyone in an eternal cycle of hurt.

[theselonelystarrs]

Certain People: THE BARBIE MOVIE IS ANTI-MEN

anyone who actually paid attention: the Barbie movie is about how both matriarchy and patriarchy are damaging to people and that no one will be happy as long as people feel unequal and you shouldn’t base your happiness on once person and you shouldn’t force your feelings on another person, especially if they’ve told you that they’re not interested in you. In this essay I will

[theselonelystarrs]

I came out of Barbie with one single thought in my head and that was that I wanted Ken’s “I am Kenough” sweatshirt immediately

[theselonelystarrs]

This scene was everything. Why would you even want to cut it ever

[theselonelystarrs]

barbie spoilers

I kind of perceive the arc of the kens as being about young boys being taught toxic masculinity for the first time and starting to internalise it.

[theselonelystarrs]

theres just something so sad and lovely about the way barbie went from freaking out over flat feet and cellulite to truly appreciating the lady at the bus stop to going back home and finding out all her friends had basically become slaves to finally accepting herself at the end.

greta gerwig managed to condense almost everything a women regularly feels into a 3 hour movie, and that makes me so, so represented and also emotional.

[theselonelystarrs]

Barbie spoilers but one of the funniest things about the “it was too feminist and woke” reviews is that a big chunk of the movie is Ken finding his own agency as a separate entity from Barbie and that the patriarchy also negatively affects men, like Greta Gerwig went “this movie is absolutely also for men” and it STILL flew over their anti feminist heads

[theselonelystarrs]

Something I found very interesting about the Barbie movie was the Ken’s mimicking of patriarchy. I’ve seen some comments putting it as a stance of men’s inherent desire to oppress women but would argue it much more reflects the socialization process many young boys experience that encourages them take on misogynistic views. The kens do not resent the Barbie’s. They’ve grown up in a society the Barbie’s run and the adore and love them. I think you could say that reflects the early stages of life for many boys where often the main role models they know are women, their mothers (as they often have a more involved role than fathers) and eventually their teachers, which women still make up the vast majority of early childhood educators.

The Kens also notably lack a sense of brotherhood at the start of the movie. And it isn’t until they’re in the real world our main Ken experiences positive male attention and approval (which is only due to him also being a man). It is that desire for approval from his male peers that initially drives him to believe in patriarchy.

There is of course also the underlying struggle of his unrequited feelings for Barbie, but none of the kens truly resent the Barbies. They don’t actually want them as oppressed servants. Yes they want their attention, but even during kendom we see them happiest on their cheesy guitar playing group date. They begin oppressing Barbie’s not because it’s what they actually want but rather it’s them mimicking the behaviour of men.

And that is why I think it makes such a great ode to the socialization of young boys to be misogynistic. Boys do not have an innate hatred for women, nor is it something they naturally grow into of their own fruition. But rather it’s a patterned of learned behaviours they in most cases initially mimic for the approval of other men or to gain attention, but overtime becomes a very real ideology then adopt and believe in and likely pass on.

[theselonelystarrs]

Probably the most poignant thing in the Barbie movie was when the Kens call for a vote to change the Barbieland Constitution in 48 hours and the Barbies go "you can't just undo decades of progress in 2 days like that!" and it really hit me in the face because it mirrors exactly what's happening in the US with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and potentially other Supreme Court cases in the near future, what little progress we've made in our own society over the past century really can be rolled back in a matter of days and that's fucking scary to think about

[theselonelystarrs]

Just came back from the Barbie movie and realized something as an LA local

Ken walked more than 2 hours away from Barbie when he discovered toxic masculinity.

This himbo walked 14 miles in one day and left Barbie to have an existential crisis for like 5 hours. I love this movie

[theselonelystarrs]

What I really loved in the Barbie movie was how you knew what Ken was becoming.

Because it wasn’t just Ken saying, “hey over here men can be doctors” or “hey I feel respected and seen here,” it was Ken saying “over here men rule the world, and I like that.”

There was a kind of futile knowledge of what Ken was going to do. We saw him discover this point of view, fully believe it and we just knew that Ken was going to share this point of view to the other Kens.

It was kind of like seeing a young boy discover a men’s rights YouTuber and have his insecurities feel seen and his thoughts validated. And it’s so hard to stop it, because it feels good to be seen, to rule the world! But those things shouldn’t come at someone else’s expense!

I honestly felt sad when I realised what was happening, because it is sad when people turn to hatred and contempt to gain self-respect and self-esteem.

The real world tainted Ken, because that’s what this world does, it’s tough and cruel and it’s so easy now to find someone who shares your point of view, no matter how divisive.

But, Ken changed! He realised that being Ken was enough, that he didn’t need to be Barbie’s and Barbie wasn’t his. People change and that’s beautiful. This world changes us, and sometimes that’s sad, but sometimes it’s also amazing. And I think that’s such a beautiful message.