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Barbie in the 1999 Argos Catalogue Via the internet Archive
my barbie review
(obvious spoilers ahead)
okay so, i watched the barbie movie on the 22nd, and i must say, it exceeded my expectations and i was very happy with it.
the movie was quite political and i found it the most perfect opportunity to get political. the way the movie was done was that there were two worlds, barbie land, where all the barbies and kens reside, and the real world, where we all are.
i believe i should tackle each and every one of the movie aspects one by one in different topics.
let's start with barbie land. barbie land is a place where all the dolls of the barbie franchise live. you've got midge, allan, skipper, multiple different kens and multiple different barbies. in barbie land, it seems that the gender roles had switched. women took the higher-ranking jobs, like president, doctor, etc. while the men just had beach offs and basically did nothing, they were inferior. this was interesting since in the barbie franchise, ken was made just as barbie's boyfriend, that's all he was meant to be. he was at her every beck and call, he was the perfect boyfriend.
in the movie, ken(ryan gosling) was just barbie's friend. they didn't make them a couple, which i liked, they were just really good friends. however, ken wanted to be more. ken wanted to be acknowledged by barbie, included and respected. the kens in the movie weren't friendly with each other, they were all competitive and wanted to be better than the other. the kens were very dependent on their barbies and they believed that their whole purpose was just to get barbie to be their girlfriend. they basically believed that they were just barbie's boyfriend, nothing else.
barbie(margot robbie) was stereotypical barbie. the perfect, blue-eyed blondie that everyone thinks of right off the bat when someone mentions the name barbie. the thing is, she didn't do anything either. she mostly just woke up perfect, spent her day driving around and greeting other barbies, spends time at the beach and then has a dance party every night. it was the same thing every day. oh and "every night is girl's night." said barbie, ignorantly.
the way the barbies treated the kens were somewhat similar to how the men treated women; like they were secondary to everything. even though the gender roles are switched, the barbies were still women and the kens were still men. the way that the barbies ruled weren't discriminatory, they didn't sexualise the kens in any way, but when the kens ruled over, they brainwashed the barbies into believing that they their only roles were to do nothing and just serve their own kens. they ruled by making weird decisions like horses (you will only understand what i mean if you watch the movie, trust me).
however, i believed the only reason they had ruled this way was because when barbie and ken had come into the real world, ken was influenced by the men there. that's the reason he brought misogyny back into barbie land.(though when ken said "every night is boy's night." to barbie as a backfire, i was really happy LMAO)
all in all, all ken wanted was barbie's respect, her acknowledgement. he even said he lost interest in the patriarchy when he realised that horses weren't really a big thing in it. (he just wants a horse)
what i didn't like about what a few of the commentators and reviews said was that the movie was mostly focused on women. i believe that it wasn't. they talked about men's issues too. when ken said he wasn't suppose to cry, it made him weak but barbie told him it's okay to cry. barbie apologised to him for making him feel unseen and unheard, like his existence all depended on her. he got independency from this movie, he got closure. he is more than just barbie's boyfriend/love interest.
another thing that my friend had pointed out was that the way that the barbies ruled was similar to how the management in mattel(barbie's toy company) is. the ceo, cfo, etc. in mattel were all men. they believed that feminism, was women > men, when feminism is women = men. which is why the barbies didn't give the men any actual job, they just got lifeguard at the beach or surfer or anything beach related honestly.
when barbie went into the real world, she realised that women power wasn't as big as it was in her world. she realised that women weren't working in every high-ranking job like in her world and that they got constantly harassed and it somewhat shined a light on the whole situation she was in once she got back to barbie land. she probably realised that things were still one sided in barbie land, and they should strive to make both kens and barbies equal.
anyways, my favourite character was definitely allan. ally to the barbies, ally to the kens. after all, there is only one allan.
(possible spoilers)barbie query: if humans were to stay in barbie land, would they become a doll or stay a human?
okay, so i'm making a fic for barbie and i was thinking, since barbie decided to stay in the real world, she became an actual human, but what if it were reversed?
if a human were to stay too long at barbie land, would they become a doll or just stay human? because a human could never reverse their imperfections unlike a doll could but then again, it is technically a fantasy world because dolls could never actually become human so like ????
i would like some opinions and thoughts on this, thank you my barbies, kens and allan.
two amazing trailers released today 💞🕷🕸
Happy 65th Miss Barbara Millicent Roberts!
two amazing trailers released today 💞🕷🕸
Just to show that was a real memory I had of these...
The best Ken istg