WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Strength and Dignity: Barbie- What Were We Made For?

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

The summer film, the live-action Barbie, received much attention and still many references throughout 2023 and 2024. Is the film at its core a reflection of our society's beliefs or is it a satire of them? Join Michaela as she walks through the movie and several views while presenting her negative view of Barbie's shaming of men and redefinition of femininity. 

Hello and welcome back to Strength and Dignity. This is Michaela Estruth and you are listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. Well, it's been a long time coming and I finally made it into the studio to record another episode of Strength and Dignity for this fall 2020 semester. I was debating back and forth what I wanted to talk about and I decided to comment on something that was more culturally relevant this summer, but I've still heard tons and tons of memes and references to it throughout this fall. And that is the release of the Barbie movie in July of 2023. I don't know how many of you have seen it versus not seen it. Some people decided to make a point not to see it while others wanted to participate in the commentary on it and decided to go see it. I was one of those people. I actually was at an internship this summer and I was asked to see it and potentially write on it, which I ended up doing.

I have lots of thoughts. I've been engaging with lots of different conversations, lots of different people who have different views on this, reading a lot about it. And it's really fascinating to me. It's not as stark of a, you know, Christian, atheist or conservative liberal, however, you want to divide a spectrum. There's not a common consensus on the point of this movie and what it actually argues and demonstrates.

So I'm going to offer my gloss on it. what I think is the hidden slash not so subtle messages of the movie and maybe you'll disagree. Maybe you'll agree. We'll see. Fair warning. This will contain several spoilers to the entire movie. I apologize. I figured that by October you probably would have seen it if you were going to see it and not

seen it if you weren't going to see it. So me commenting on it won't ruin anything for those who are still anticipating to watch it. I'm going to say it up front that my opinion of the movie is pretty negative. I think it has extreme feminist tones, not even undertones. I think the entire movie is kind of a slap in the face to any traditional view of womanhood, of femininity, even of manhood or masculinity. And it was quite painful for me to sit in the movie theater and watch. I did laugh several times, but I was mostly laughing at just like the absurdity of some statements and just the plain silliness of it. So that's just a forerunner to what I'm going to run through in this

analysis. So the movie starts off with a depiction of little girls playing with baby dolls. And it basically says that these girls are sad and playing with baby dolls or pretending to be moms is basically boring. And for me, that's within the first 90 seconds of the movie. that is a direct reference to Betty Ferdane's argument in her feminine mystique, namely the problem that has no name is what she called it, that women are lonely, that women are sad, that working in the home is not fulfilling, that being a mom is not fulfilling or being a wife, it has no purpose, it's meaningless and it's creating spikes in depression, and we should escape the home, which she called, as I've mentioned before, a concentration camp for women. So that to me is the message in the first 90 seconds. And then they take that message even further and have these girls, these little girls, start smashing the heads of baby dolls, which even though their baby dolls is quite violent, their brains are kind of exploding out of their heads. And then in walks Barbie. And she's hailed as this hero for these girls who now have someone beautiful to look up to, someone to play with. And of course, Barbie never gets boring, which is really funny to me because I personally, as a child, found Barbie extremely obnoxious and really didn't like playing with her. I thought, like, I was like, what are you going to do with Barbie? Like, she just does the same thing over and over. But that was not the

message that the movie was given. And it just seemed, again, to be pushing this self-interest. Your desire is what is most important. So that applies to anything in the feminist movement that you should put yourself first, not others. And so these girls should be smashing their heads of their babies because they're boring and they should go turn to Barbie and play with something else. It's a reference to bodily self-autonomy and especially that of abortion that you can just dispose of whatever is a hindrance to your happiness. So that's the opening scene. And then you're launched into Barbie Land, which is this perfect place. Barbie is the hero. She's always happy. and she the main character is called stereotypical Barbie so she's blonde she's beautiful but i will say that

in barbby land there are lots of different Barbies lots of different types of jobs and positions and all of that and that's actually one of the advantages of Barbie land is in in Barbie land i figured the exact phrasing but it was basically you can be whatever you want because everyone is Barbie and Barbie is everyone so she represents all and you can reach for the stars and all All of the Barbies are female, except for the Ken's, obviously, but the Barbies are the ones who are winning Nobel Prizes, who are the Supreme Court justices, who are, the president is a female Barbie, and going to the moon, astronauts, scientists, all of this. They are all women. And meanwhile, the Kenes simply just exist to please Barbie. and they are all kind of in this weird male competition of who can win Barbie's attention,

especially stereotypical Barbie. She's like the prize. But the stereotypical can just simply can impress her. She sees him as a friend and that's devastating to him. And he simply says that he has no existence outside of living in, I think the phrase is living in the sight of her gaze or something like that. it was quite over the top and sappy. Let me just mention that along this note of Barbie being able to be anyone, the one Barbie who

is mocked as weird or strange is in fact a pregnant Barbie. So a woman fulfilling a natural biological purpose, aka reproducing or having a child, is seen as weird and stay away from her. And eventually at the end of the movie, she's discontinued because everyone's creepier. out by her. So if that's not a hint at what the message is throughout this movie, I don't really know what else would be because that's something completely normal that is a normal part of life and yet it's seen as weird in Barbbyland. Long story short, Barbie becomes really sad and starts experiencing thoughts of death and thoughts of depression as it is depicted in the movie. And so she has

to go to the real world to figure out who's playing with her and why she's having these thoughts and to alter it and fix it. So she travels to the real world and of course Ken accompanies her against her will and there she meets a daughter and a mom. Those are the two other main female characters besides of course all of the Barbies but the two main characters are this daughter

who Barbie thinks is playing with her but then it's actually the mom who is influencing the Barbie doll in Barbie land. And the mom is beautiful and brilliant she's completely overlooked because the depiction of the real world in reality is a world run by 50-year-old white men. So it basically argues that the real world is the patriarchy and that still exists and therefore this poor mom is suffering from the effects of the patriarchy.

Of course, while Ken accompanies Barbie into Barbie land, he discovers the patriarchy, and is confused on why Barbie never told him about it and is so excited to restore it to Barbie land. Here's a quote of him talking to someone in the real world who basically admits that the patriarchy still exists, but it's underneath. It's hidden so that no one can actually acknowledge it. You guys are clearly not doing patriarchy very well. No, we're doing it well. Yeah, we just hide it better now. So that was a clip of Ken and then he establishes the patriarchy in Barbbyland and calls it Kendom after, of course, his name Ken and kingdom basically.

And so what happens is all the Barbies are essentially brainwashed and start serving the Kent. The Kenns are dominating. They, you know, all they're doing is like riding horses, drinking beer, playing pool all day long while the Barbies serve them. And this is supposed to be like a mockery of what the patriarchy is. A mockery in a way of like this is what we came from. This is how far we've progressed, which is frankly absurd. But just continue with me through the plot. Barbie comes back, returns to her destroyed kingdom and is basically confronted with

this kendom and doesn't know what to do. And she has brought the mom and the daughter with her. So those three are the heroes. And they decide that it's their job to restore Barbie. which means that they have to unbrainwash all of the Barbies and have the Ken's be distracted by simply fighting each other over the Barbies. So that's what they do. There's this massive Ken battle while all the Barbies are getting unbrainwashed.

And the way that they are released from this spell of the Ken's is they listen to basically a lecture from the mom of the real world in which she depicts this. horrific treatment of women and woe is me this pity party we have it so hard because it's you can't be too skinny you can't be too overweight you can't do this you can't do that you can't use too much makeup you can't use too little makeup you can't have too long of a dress you can't have too short of a dress and she's basically creating all of these rules that she says are imposed on women and of course we're going to go crazy and of course we're going to lose our minds because we have all of these restrictions and meanwhile men don't have any of them. So it's a huge pity party playing the victim

card from the mom. And that's how all of these Barbies are brought essentially back into reality of Barbiland, snap back into it and decide to take over Kenda. So in the end, they return things to how they were the way that Barbie land was originally. And yet again, there is no place for Ken's. and the Ken's even come and say, can we have just one person, one Ken on the Supreme Court? And Barbie says, no. So what has basically been established is a matriarchy. And there's this ending scene where Ken is talking to Barbie. And Barbie's basically like, you need to get away from me.

I don't like you. And I don't, like, I think this is pointless. And Ken says there's no definition. He has no purpose without Barbie. And then all of a sudden, Barbie's like comforting him in this moment. And it's like a click moment in which Ken becomes himself. But the only line that explains this is Ken is me. He says, oh, Ken is me.

And then now he has purpose in meaning for life, which for me, as an audience member, kind of left me hanging of like, what are the Ken's going to do? Like they don't do anything. And there is no purpose in the phrase, Ken is me. That has absolutely no meaning. And I was really saddened by the treatment of Barbie. I'm not saying that Ken only exists for Barbie, not at all, in fact. But I am saying that there should be more of a definition of Ken besides Ken is me.

So the final ending, Barbie decides that she doesn't love Barbie land and she's going to return to the real world with the mom and the daughter. Mind you, I forgot to mention this earlier, but the husband of this mom and the father of the daughter, is basically depicted as a potato couch guy who does absolutely nothing. And the quote is, oh, yeah, that'll be fine. And it shows him once trying to learn Spanish and he can't because he's simply incompetent. So that's another depiction of in the real world what men are. Either they're in the patriarchy, their 50-year-old white men in suits, who yet are still somehow brainless and can't even relate or capture or stop a plastic Barbie doll in the real world.

or you have the man on the couch who does absolutely nothing for his family and doesn't know how to speak a single word of Spanish. So those are the kind of two options you have for what a man is apparently in our world. Now, returning back to the end, like I said, Barbie decides to go to the real world. And the very last line, she's getting hyped up by this mom and the daughter of, you're going to do so great, and you kind of think she's going to an interview to be like some boss lady. but in reality she ends up going to her gynecologist and so a lot of conservative women have taken this and said or even christian women you know public commentaries have said this is good like it's a focus on female biology and that's not what feminism does anymore so we should be excited about this

but the way i see it is that it's taking pride is taking like again this self-autonomy in the boasting of your female anatomy and female biology and instead of boasting in that in terms of what it's meant and designed to do, which is to bring life to be a mother, it's instead just part of your identity kind of in this like cocky, prideful, I Can Show Myself Off Way, which definitely is seen in our culture. So those are my takes. I think that the movie is extremely feminist. I think it pushes the self-autonomy.

I think it pushes the abortion argument. I think it pushes the anti-men. the establishment of a patriarchy, the oppression of women argument. All of that, I think, is very clearly in the movie. And a reason why I think this, in addition, is I don't think such hard feminist outlets would be commenting and praising this movie as much as they are if it really was, in a way, a mockery of feminism, which is what a lot of people say. So, returning again to the platform I use for commentary, Ms. Magazine, I went on and I searched Barbie in the search bar and over 10 articles popped up as commentaries on Barbie or using the theme of Barbie in the headline for some other

cultural appropriate commentary. And there were a couple that I wanted to comment on. So in August, Jackson Cats wrote what boys and men can learn from Ken. And he says in Barbie, the problem isn't Barbie. can or anyone else, it is the patriarchy, which excludes and punishes women, but also harms men, and many men got it. So he quotes what he thinks is the thesis statement. He says, if the film had what might be called a thesis statement, it is about the ways in which patriarchy as an economic, social, and political system has damaging and often disastrous effects on women and people with marginalized gender identities, but also on its supposed primary beneficiary men. So, What I really find ironic about this quote is it calls patriarchy an economic, social, and political system.

But we need to clarify that patriarchy is not a political movement. It's not a system. In fact, it's just this made-up word that has been applied to various different types or ideas of society in history. One of the main arguments about patriarchy is like the patriarchy of the founding fathers, that all the founding fathers were men and what about the women? But the idea of a nation being founded on ideas and principles or being established by men who fought in a war and who wrote a declaration and a constitution to establish a nation, that has nothing to do with patriarchy or oppression as what patriarchy connotates. In fact, it's just history. It's just men stepping into history and deciding to establish a new nation, which was a very common idea for all of history, actually.

and it was not an oppression at all. So Cots continues and says, the Barbie film makes clear that the problem isn't Barbie, Ken, or any other individual. It is patriarchy, a social and political system that was set up by and for men. Women are the biggest losers in the system. And of course, some men get a lot from it,

especially wealthy, cisgendered, heteronormative, heterosexual, white men. So the author goes further to say not only does Patriotian, hierarchy benefit men, but actually it only benefits a specific type of men that is basically middle-aged white men who are heterosexual, meaning that they are attracted to women, something that is actually normal in biology and based off of the design of men and women. So he takes this movie and says that it's revealing this oppression against all women and any man who doesn't fit a white heterosexual male. And he continues saying, one of the dirty little secrets of patriarchy is that not only does it exclude and punish women, but it also harms men who

don't meet the very narrow definitions of manhood that are most favored. He's now not only saying that patriarchy harms women, but he's saying that it has a false definition of manhood. That is something that is definitely a movement of feminism, not especially recently. Not only that we need to redefine what a woman is and how her role fits in society, but also we need to redefine manhood, including the dismissal of all stereotypes. So any idea of a hardworking man, you know, using a shotgun and going hunting for his family, or working the ground, or being a traditional man in the masculine things that he likes is all of a sudden oppressive and hurtful to women and hurtful to men who don't associate with those stereotypes, which is simply just not true because we all have

likes and dislikes and women and females have different feminine likes that men don't have. And that is completely natural and normal. Why? Because we are biologically different. And our likes and dislikes associate with how our bodies are structured, what we are made for and frankly the design of the Lord and the way that he instills passions in our lives. Okay, going on to a second article that was titled, This Barbie is a feminist. Greta Gerwig's Barbie reckoned with her fraught legacy.

It says, in Barbie, Greta Gerwig pushes a message of feminist disruption into the mainstream. It's a huge start. This is by Lynn Lipkin. And she says, the ending seems to return to what actual women need to be in charge of their own bodies. While I'm not sure the film was finished before more recent reproductive rights developments, the implication of Barbie showing up to this very real type of appointment is not lost. So this is referring to the very end like I was talking about when she goes to the gynecologist. And this is why my point is that we shouldn't be celebrating this as some sort of return to

female biology, but in fact, exactly what this author says, that it is women need to be in charge of their own bodies. Yet again, another second wave feminist movement idea. That's about as much as I'm going to discuss from Ms. Magazine. The one other thing I wanted to bring in is an article from the New York Times that talks about anxiety in the age of Barbland. So this analyzes the thoughts of depression, thoughts of death that Barbie has at the beginning of the movie that launches her into why she goes to the real world. This is by Marine Dowd. And she says, it is a major topic among moms. Daughter struggling with anxiety or the effects of anti-exhaxatism medication, which can include weight gain and loss of libido. Many young college women are ping-ponging

between anxiety without pills and the numbness and bodily insecurity with them. So Dowd is commenting on society and the surge in depression in our society, but then she connects this to the song that Barbie sings at the beginning of the movie. She says, Billy Eilish's song in the Barbie movie, What Was I Made for, became the anthem of anxious and depressed young women. So here's the song. I'm going to play a few seconds of it and then explain it. So if you didn't catch that, that was, I used to float. Now I just fall down. I used to know, but now I'm not sure what I was made for. What was I made for? So I wanted to focus on this. What was I made for? because I think in a really ironic way that feminists are not trying to say, in reality, this is the root of the issue of feminism.

Is they're rejecting what they were made for? Betty Friedan rejects the idea of motherhood, rejects the idea of being a wife and why that is beautiful. In reality, they're rejecting a design. And they reject the creator, God, who made that beautiful design. but a rejection of this design in reality just creates chaos. And it's so interesting that this author of the New York Times is observing why all of these spikes and depression and anxiety are going up because there's a loss of hope because there's a loss of purpose because no one knows what they were made for.

And so the solution to that is to turn to God's words, to turn to what he says and how he defines his creation, namely that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and that he is. called you by name and he has redeemed you and he knows his children and he is faithful to them and so we can define ourselves based off of what we know about our creator and we know him as a father we know him as our savior and that is what gives our life purpose and meaning thanks for listening to strength and dignity i'm macaela estruth and you're listening to radio free hillsdale 101.7 fm