Some Barbie thoughts

It’s fun, obviously. Not everything works - a sub-plot with evil Mattel CEO Will Ferrell and his boardroom of male cronies goes nowhere, Helen Mirren’s narration gets mislaid for long periods. But considering the sheer weirdness of the marriage of IP and director, it’s an achievement for this movie to exist at all. Many have bemoaned the likes of Marvel hiring indie directors and subsuming them into their meat grinder formula. If only they were given (mostly) carte blanche! (Edgar Wright’s Ant Man is the Great Lost Movie in this regard). Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is the actual answer. But is it really as radical as you might think?

Yes, Gerwig and partner Noah Baumbach are to be congratulated for making a subversive feminist parable about a plastic doll into a billion dollar movie. But the megalithic toy corporation who gave them full backing will be even more ecstatic. Rather than being damaged by this spotlighting of their flaws, Mattel and Barbie’s stocks have rarely been higher. The Barbenheimer dual-release phenomenon has, whether by accident or design, increased the box office pie for two movies which were never competing with one another in the first place, and helped to create a monocultural moment that only the blessed Tay Tay can rival in 2023.

Crucially, none of Gerwig’s accusations are new. Barbie is plastic. She objectifies women. She perpetuates gender stereotypes and the patriarchy. We’ve heard them a thousand times. Mattel’s repackaging of this sentiment into a billion dollar juggernaut that also burnishes its socially-aware credentials is a far more audacious and subversive act than the film itself.

Perhaps, though, this is the only meaningful way to push for societal change. If capitalism can’t be overturned (despite what some quarters of the internet would have you believe), then the best we can do is subvert it to our mutual enrichment. Incremental change, guys! Marginal gains! Perhaps some of the kids who were taken to see the movie due to parental ignorance will retain the message that we’re more than our gender stereotypes somewhere inside their little brains and work to apply it when they’re older. Perhaps some older kids and teens are re-evaluating their world views right now, after a single cinema trip. It’s more than any other blockbusters are doing.

Meanwhile, Mattel are apparently planning their own cinematic universe. I can’t work out whether all, some or none of this tweet/X/thing is a joke. But maybe that’s the point.