SPOILER WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the plot of the 2023 film Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling
I was pleasantly surprised after viewing the Barbie movie a while back. With toxic feminism these days being touted as anti-man, I didn’t really know what sort of message I was going to get. The film touched on the complementarity between men and women as well as the subject of an existential crisis so beautifully that I felt it warranted a blog post.
In the film, Margot Robbie plays Stereotypical Barbie, a doll who lives in Barbie Land with the other Barbies and numerous Kens. Nothing bad ever happens in Barbie Land, and everyday occurrences have a whimsical twist to them. For example, when Barbie showers no real water comes out. She “pretends” to eat breakfast, instead of walking out her front door she simply floats down from the top floor of her house to the street level, much like how a girl would move Barbie when playing with her. One night after having a dance party with the other Barbies, stereotypical Barbie blurts out, “Does anyone ever think about dying?” The thought had never occurred to Barbie, and the fact that she now has flat feet concerns her. Weird Barbie then tells stereotypical Barbie that she must travel to the Real World, find the woman who originally owned her, and make her happy. Ryan Gosling’s Beach Surfer Ken, who has an unrequited crush on Barbie, tag along on her journey for moral support. When they arrive, nothing is quite like they expected. Barbie is catcalled in the street, and sent to jail for punching a man in the face. Meanwhile, Ken finds out about something called the patriarchy, a system of government where men mostly have control of things. This is different to how things are in Barbie Land, because in Barbie Land women hold the societal power. While Ken travels back to Barbie Land to share his new knowledge with the other Kens, Barbie meets up with the woman who previously owned her. This woman happens to be an employee of Mattel in the design department. Ironically, Mattel is the company in charge of making and manufacturing Barbie dolls. While talking with this woman Barbie discovers that (much to her shock) that the Barbie doll has not been as much of an empowering force for women in the real world as she thought. Upon returning to Barbie Land with the woman and her daughter in tow, it seems the patriarchy has invaded this feminine paradise. Barbie’s Dream House has now been renamed to Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. The Kens of Barbie Land sit around drinking beer and watching sports while the Barbies fawn over them and take care of their every need. Now at her lowest point in life, stereotypical Barbie realizes that the life of a woman is a life of contradiction, understanding what she refers to as the “cognitive dissonance of the concept of patriarchy.” The Barbies regain their societal dominance over the Kens, but the Kens are seen in a much more respectful light now, no longer being viewed as simple eye candy.
The film was filled with many hijinks and jokes all in good fun pointed at different gender dynamics, but for me the conclusion of the film was the most powerful. For example, Ryan Gosling’s Ken realizes that he can be his own person apart from his relationship with Barbie. His attitude at the end of the movie of being “just Ken” is contrasted with the beginning of the film where “Ken only has a good day if Barbie looks at him.” I think this stems from the common notion of the phrase “you complete me.” Christians are meant to view the opposite sex is complementary to their own, the man has certain things the woman doesn’t and vice versa based upon how they were made. Yet it seems to me that the idea that the sexes exist solely for each other and not as a profound gift from God shows the transactional nature of human relationships in this view. This ties into the other main theme of the film: an existential crisis.
Since the 1800s and possibly even prior to that century (I wouldn’t know as I’m not a philosopher), a great philosophical debate has emerged on the nature of human existence: is what I do more important, or who I am? Existentialism is the idea that what we do is more important than who we are. This is seen in the thought of people like Jean-Paul Sartre, one of philosophy’s most prominent existentialists, who was also an atheist. Essentialism, on the other hand, states that we are first and foremost created in the image and likeness of God, so what we are is more important than what we do. In Barbie Land, the other Barbies besides the protagonist are referred to by their careers (President Barbie, Dr. Barbie, etc.). They seem to be existentialists, because their identity is found in what they do, not who they are. It is only once stereotypical Barbie realizes that she wants to be a real woman that she finds herself to be truly free. She leaves Barbie Land behind and enters the real world permanently, gaining a set of female genitalia, something that dolls don’t typically have. She can finally be happy because she knows her existence is a good thing in and of itself apart from anything else she accomplishes. I don’t know if anyone who had a major hand in crafting the script for the Barbie film affirms Christian anthropology, but the film emphasizes the beauty of humanity, while still recognizing its faults, and I think that’s about the best thing any good film could do.
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