Robinson: Failed Barbie backlash part of war on magic, creativity, joy and human potential
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor.
I had no less than 30 Barbies when I was a little girl. That's not counting a squadron of Barbie knockoffs I treated a little better than my Barbies because their heads and legs popped off a little too easily.
Most of my plastic, fantastic girls are stored safely in my attic.
A few of them appeared as life-sized, in-the-flesh characters on the big screen when I saw the "Barbie" movie at Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse in Columbus.
As it turns out — and no one should be shocked — what happens in Barbieland triggered anti-magic, creativity, joy and human potential crusaders in our land. They were no match for the girl that little and big girls can't get enough of.
Barbie beat them with neon roller blades and a $155 million box office opening weekend.
Before I get to that, let me acknowledge our culture's complicated relationship with Barbie.
I had Black, brown and white Barbies when I was a kid, but she was far from perfect.
Though more inclusive now, Barbie reinforced unattainable standards of beauty for generations of women even after she expanded beyond the blond hair, blue-eyed bombshell that made the brand iconic.
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Yep, Barbie was imperfect despite her itty-bitty waist and hot pink Porsche.
What Barbie was for millions of girls is pure magic, creativity and joy. I never got a Barbie Dreamhouse, but boy did I dream while playing with my Barbies.
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They were potential. My Barbies were rock stars, school teachers, doctors, ballerinas, mothers, fast drivers, Olympic swimmers, models and journalists hot on the story.
They dated Kens, were married to Spider-Man and G.I. Joe, and enjoyed scandal-filled lives sometimes inspired by soap opera vixen Erica Kane.
Barbie allowed me to imagine a reality beyond what I saw in my struggling neighborhood — think outside even the box Mattel sold its dolls in.
This is why I am not surprised there is a backlash — as weak and tired as it is — against the so-called feminist, "anti-man" themes in the mutiracial and ethnic, trans-accepting, body-positive blockbuster from Greta Gerwig starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera and featuring Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, and Hari Nef.
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"All you need to know about #BarbieTheMovie is that it unironically uses the word 'patriarchy' more than 10 times," conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted.
Not sure if his tweet came before or after he "unintentionally" dressed up like Ken and set some Barbie dolls on fire as part of an "anti-woke" rant.
More than 63 years after the birth of the first Barbie, there is rampant pushback against magic, creativity, joy and human potential.
Imagination, as legislation pending at the Ohio Statehouse (Senate Bill 83, House Bill 245, etc.) and around the country would have you believe, is a really bad gateway drug to wokeness and must be crushed.
In other words, it makes some people very, very uncomfortable to see women out of the kitchen, Black people out of the field, and gay people out of the closet.
It is why there is a campaign to cast certain books and lesson plans — historical, cultural and fictional — as evil, indoctrinating villains.
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It is why artists — everyone from drag queens to David sculptor Michelangelo — have been demonized as vulgar.
It why large American cities have been painted as wicked, dangerous places. Those who seek to smother out magic, creativity, joy and human potential have a reason to fear.
As the famous saying goes, “if you can imagine it, you can achieve it, if you can dream it, you can become it.”
If you can imagine a just world where people live freely you might just do the things it takes to make this world the world of your dreams.
You might just become the one with the Barbie Dreamhouse with dolls in a variety of skin colors, sizes, ethnicities, sexual orientation and genders.
Amelia Robinson is The Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor.
@1AmeliaRobinson
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Barbie movie beat anti-woke crusaders with creativity, joy | Amelia Robinson
