This Is Why 'Barbie' Is the Most Discussed Film in the World

Barbie Party

The reason why Barbie is being talked about everywhere is because it is about the dynamic between women and men, race, space, and representation.

Almost everyone falls into these identities. Everyone has an opinion about them. It is also a well-done film. It is funny and provocative.

The original Barbie doll was very much of her time. She was a sex symbol, but also an all-American girl next door. She fell perfectly into the hands of small children because they loved style, modern trendy clothes, and they could make her into anything they wanted.

At the time, what most girls wanted, (and often still do) is to be the popular, friendly, incredibly perfect — if anatomically impossible — pretty girl.

As time went by, incremental steps in class and culture called for inclusion.

Today, people call for being woke or being anti-woke. The culture wars still use Barbie’s body, but now she could be on Drag Race, or, conversely, look just like another woman on the bus.

Barbie has become what more people need for her to represent: Us.

When Barbie was invented there were glass ceilings everywhere. Girls like Hillary Clinton as just one example, were turned away by NASA. But, not that long thereafter, women were allowed into the space program. Barbie went ahead and became an astronaut.

And a brain surgeon. And Jane Goodall. And, almost every celebrity.

What will she do next, is she a real woman?

Race inclusion, and next, LGBTQ+ people, clamored to be admitted as full citizens of the world.

People argue endlessly about “ what is a woman,?” or why be “manly.”

If you have ideas about whether this should or should not be so, you will have an opinion about Barbie.

Another topical issue is whether capitalism, and thus, toy companies in particular in this situation, drive consumption, waste, plastic, and climate heating. Does Barbie help create the very patriarchy her brilliant movie tries to parody?

The entanglement of social justice, climate justice, and patriarchy are like big hair (that the one I had!) Barbie’s very tangled tresses.

It’s all up to how you experience the world, and how you interpret it with your own experience.

Maybe a billion more Barbie products will kill some marine animals. Pollute some rivers. Sell some clothes. Enslave some fast fashion factory workers. Maybe her influence will move the ever-weaving needle of public persuasion to think again about how domination hierarchy should be challenged.

Maybe this, and much more.

Barbie can do anything.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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