I feel bad, because some parts of Barbie were funny and compelling, but others were just…peak white feminism.
spoiler
It feels like they could’ve done something really compelling with the Kens and making an actually feminist society, but instead the film opted to preserve the status quo and make the Kens go back to being homeless and utterly powerless, even putting a lampshade on it when they asked for a supreme court justice and President Barbie told them no. I feel like this just plays into people’s fears that feminism actually means female supremacy, and ultimately doesn’t represent what feminism is actually about: a society where everyone is welcome and sees themselves represented.
I was really excited to see a movie actually tackle the issue of inequality, but ultimately the movie more or less said “Someone has to be lesser, you just have to pick whether you want women in charge of men in charge.” I really think (or at least hope) we can do better.
I also wanted to see them do more with the daughter, but it’s clear this was aimed at J.K. Rowling in age, demographic, and political leaning, so the daughter was just a Zoomer caricature all the way down to “Look at these dumb kids calling things fascist that aren’t fascist” and “Look at these dumb kids calling things appropriation”. :man_shrugging:
That said, there were witty moments and there were some really fun parts, if you don’t have the particular trigger/problem set I have. Make sure to go into it expecting some takes that’ll piss off conservatives but also expect to find it offensive to leftist ideals, too.
Oppenheimer was very interesting and I preferred it to Barbie (though I went in expecting the opposite). I have minor critiques over nitpicky stuff like the first hour being a bit snoozy and feeling like it could’ve been integrated better, but on the whole it was compelling enough to make me sit through a three hour movie.
I had quite the opposite experience. Oppenheimer felt like it missed its own point and showed Nolans weakness in character writing.
The outcome of Barbie was for me the only reasonable way. Because Barbie as a concept has to remain empowerment for girls and women. And while the Kens learned that they are their own person etc etc, the women led society needs to remain, to balance against our regular society that we live in. In addition, the Kens problem was not their lack of power, but how they determine their own value. But the real life womens issue is the lack of power and social pressure.
What I think might have a negative interpretation was the last scene, which implied to me, that what’s down there makes us human.
