The movie Barbie is a phenomenon inside and outside the cinemas. It has become the highest-grossing film directed by a woman and a recurring theme on social networks. Photographs of spectators dressed in pink who use this color as a vindication of feminism; parents who argue that this film is incomprehensible to a child audience; messages asking you to bring boyfriends and friends to the screening to gauge how toxic your masculinity is based on their reaction, and disappointment for those who expected a fun exercise in nostalgia and found a film loaded with feminist content.
Laura Freixas, writer and former president of Clásicas y Modernas, introduces that it is normal to wonder, in this context, what is happening with Barbie and whether or not this film is really feminist or not, because it starts from a doll world-renowned for being a sexist figure to make her an icon of this movement. Despite the fact that according to the interviewed experts this corresponds to a great marketing operation… Could it be that the film has managed to be feminist?
Laura Freixas responds with an affirmation, but clarifies that Barbie “is liberal feminism, much more focused on addressing issues such as professional equality, the glass ceiling or mansplaining (a condescending explanation from a man to a woman). In this sense, he does it well, with a lot of ingenuity”, he argues. A humorous example of the latter is the scene in which a Barbie pretends not to have seen The Godfather in order to give Ken the pleasure of explaining it, who quickly succumbs to his cinematic ignorance .
Barbie does not allude in her speech to other problems that are welcomed by the current of radical feminism, such as motherhood and family care. “Barbies are – in the film – young, beautiful, healthy women without children”, says Freixas.
In Barbieland, no one cares about the sick, no one is vulnerable because of their economic situation, and no one can be a victim of prostitution. “The film is about privileged women who live in a Western country, where they are supposed to have all the freedoms. His complaint is that, despite this, there is no equality”.
Freixas concludes that Barbie has achieved something very important, which is to spread a certain feminism. “A soft feminism, but which is not assumed, not by a long shot, by the whole of society”.
Also Anna Domínguez, spokesperson for Calala Fondo de Mujeres, affirms that “the film is feminist, but it is a very specific feminism”. The conclusion reached by the spokeswoman of this foundation is the same: it is a liberal feminism closely linked to an economic system and a specific culture. “You can see it in the cars and the clothes they wear; the symbols and the narrative are those of the West, and the problems it deals with are those of white women within that culture”.
Barbie’s greatest success, according to Domínguez, has been its portrayal of patriarchy. “It explains very well how it works and the inequalities it implies in positions of power”, argues this spokeswoman, adding that the film manages to approach this concept to anyone, regardless of their knowledge of feminist theory, due to the vividness of its examples .
One of the most iconic scenes in the film in this regard is when the protagonist asks Mattel – the company that currently manufactures the doll – for the woman who is in charge and, in her place, a directive is found made up exclusively of men; although they tell him he can always talk to the secretary, who is indeed a woman. “And the current and absurd humor he used to convey it is what made the film’s feminism work”, Domínguez defends.
On the contrary, from this foundation what they have missed most in the film is a greater intersectionality. Although racialized women appeared there, no mention was made of other forms of discrimination that they may be suffering; neither is homosexuality or gender identities other than male and female openly discussed.
“Barbie’s is just a feminism and there are many of them. Here, only gender inequality is analyzed, but the other inequalities that women suffer are not taken into account”, concludes Domínguez, who sees this as the key to defining the doll as a liberal feminist.
Solidarity between women (sisterhood) is another star theme of the film. The union of the Barbies is the key to resolving the conflict raised by the plot – and who says the plot, says the Kens. The sorority is a cross-cutting theme in all feminisms, according to Núria Sara Miras, professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. However, Barbie represents the feminism of the first waves that the movement had in Europe and the United States, “without reaching the questions that have been fundamental to the third wave, such as class, race, abilities or sexual orientation”, adds the expert.
The role of men
“With this film, a golden opportunity has been lost to show that the future must be built together with men”, says Josefa Ros, Marie Sk?odowska-Curie researcher, from the Complutense University of Madrid. Ros adds that there is a danger, if the film’s message is simplified, of leaving the room believing that the solution to patriarchy can be to create a world that is just as unjust, but with men occupying the place that in currently occupied by women. “I don’t think this idea can help feminism”, he concludes.
Several analyzes indicate that what the film attempts through Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, is to caricature the representation that has historically been made of women. “The film mocks the role of many women in men’s films, in which we know nothing about them; only what is their relation to the men themselves. They don’t have their own projects, they don’t have a house, and they don’t have friends,” says Freixas.
However, using this cliché to construct the Kens has made the image offered of men too concrete; accentuates the difference between the genders. “This simplification is not realistic, men are in society and we must make this change with them”, also argues Domínguez. “This very marked binarism, in which all women are good and all men are bad… It is dangerous to focus the message on the idea that the fight is against men”, concludes Calala’s spokeswoman.
