At all gatherings of friends, the topic comes up: Have you seen Barbie? The answer is always the same: No, but they say it’s good. It is already understood that it should not be a cult work of the seventh art, but the rumor has spread that it is a film with a message, and that you don’t have to be a fan of dolls, or the color bubblegum pink. Some even leave the door open to go see her.
I didn’t have a Barbie myself, we were Nancy’s in my time, but I thought come on, go, because of what everyone is talking about and you’ll know what all the fuss is about. Holidays are the best time for inconsequential leisure. I get a few friends together and the cinema lacks people!
It’s great to see the room full of a very diverse audience at the session dubbed into Catalan. I expected it would all be young girls dressed in pink, and yes there were a few, but also groups of friends, couples of all ages and quite a few men. Everyone to see a supposed feminist film with the hook of the doll.
And the disappointment comes when, after an explosion of colors, flashy sets and millimeter choreographies, the intended message of equality and empowerment is lost in the ubiquitous goal of advertising the Barbie with lining and handcuffs.
Despite the presence of ethnic diversity and professions – there are Barbies that even win Nobel prizes, there is the pregnant doll, but I saw no sign of the Barbie with Down syndrome – the real protagonist is Barbie stereotypical, going through an existential crisis, oh yeah, going nowhere.
But at gatherings of friends, the question is not often asked: Have you gone to see Pieces of Woman? Without all the marketing deployment of Barbie, at the Museu de la Vida Rural de l’Espluga de Francolí you can visit the exhibition Pieces of a woman until February 4, 2024. We can think of it as the typical ideal activity for that rufolo day of the holidays. If we were in the Empordà, we would queue up at the Dalí Museum. Well, if we’re a few counties down, it’s worth making a beeline and planting ourselves in the Conca de Barberà.
In Tros de dona the protagonists are real women who touch the ground, not plastic dolls with a feminism bath of bread soaked in oil. Divided into four spaces (house, street, body and land), the exhibition curated by Anna Maria Andevert takes a tour of the care tasks to which women have traditionally been dedicated and how the laws have evolved since the 19th century Bye now.
Rosa Olivé, a midwife who helped give birth to more than a thousand babies, and Elena Maseras, the first woman to enroll in Medicine at the University of Barcelona in 1872, appear with names and surnames. There is also a place for the proud woman in the photo of Joana Biarnés “For lack of money, painted stripes instead of the seams of stockings”. Spread the word that Tros de woman is worth a lot.
