Opinion: ‘Barbie’ flips the script
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“Barbie” spoilers ahead
“Barbie” continues to smash box office records, and I’ve done my small part by going to see it twice last week, first with three of my girls and then with my husband. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me think.
One of the things the movie “Barbie” does so well is flipping the script, letting us see reality a bit more clearly. Sometimes, that makes us uncomfortable. Far from being a “man-hating” movie because Ken is just eye candy and an arm accessory to Barbie, the movie shows us a world that women have long lived in. A world where women are sometimes perceived as decorative. As an accessory. And seen only in certain societally-proscribed roles.
The movie is great at satire and irony. Jack Butler, writing for the National Review gets it in his article “Conservatives are Getting Barbie Wrong.” If you are uncomfortable with the secondary role Ken plays, try flipping the script and asking yourself if you are just as uncomfortable when women are in secondary roles. (If you need more inspiration than a very pink movie about a plastic doll, check out the social media accounts of “Man Who Has It All” for some excellent examples of “flipping the script.”)
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The “double bind” that women face in work and in politics has at least three facets: extreme perceptions (either too soft or too tough — never just right), the “high competence threshold,” where women leaders face higher standards and lower rewards than their male counterparts and the third, where women leaders are perceived as competent or liked, but almost never both. For example, according to studies referenced in Fortune magazine, women receive “negative personality criticism”, such as being called bossy or told to “watch their tone” in 75% to nearly 90% of performance reviews.
In the Barbie movie, the human mom Gloria, played by America Ferrera, gives a speech that captures this bind:
“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.
“You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood.
“But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.”
When the original Barbie was released in 1959, the United States was still close to two decades away from “allowing” women to get a credit card in their own names — or buy a house, or even a car. The doll, officially named Barbara Millicent Roberts, was revolutionary. She was the first mass-produced toy doll to have adult features and to let little girls dream of a future with literally hundreds of possibilities. In fact, Barbie was an astronaut in 1965, four years before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, a surgeon in 1973, and first ran for president in 1992.
There are now Barbies with 37 skin tones, 97 hairstyles and 9 body types. There are chemotherapy Barbies, Barbies with hearing aids, in wheelchairs and with missing limbs. There is a Barbie with Down Syndrome, Barbies with vitiligo, and a hijab-wearing Barbie. There is also an entire line of “Inspiring Women” Barbies, based on real people.
On my home office shelves stands a Susan B. Anthony Barbie. She reminds me to speak up on the things that really matter and to not give up, even when the road is long and hard. Anthony died 14 years before the 19th Amendment was passed, and even though she was undoubtedly frustrated and discouraged, she kept going.
And I will too — right back to watch the “Barbie” movie for a third time. Well done, director Greta Gerwig.
Holly Richardson is the editor or Utah Policy.
