The Barbie Movie: Giving The Iconic Doll A Voice

         Barbie: A symbol of empowering feminism or unrealistic degrading standards for women? Sasha and her mother in the Barbie movie show two different views of this iconic doll. When Sasha meets Barbie in real life, she expresses her dislike for Barbie because she is a representation of sexualized capitalism and unrealistic beauty expectations for women. Since Barbie is a doll, this only feeds into men looking at women as objects, and therefore women don’t like Barbie. By automatically assuming that Barbie was in the real world for Sasha, this shows society’s expectations of who is playing with Barbie — young girls. However, since Barbie came for Sasha’s mother instead, it shows that Barbie is for everyone, regardless of age. 

The main reason Barbie is criticized is because of her unrealistic beauty standards for women. Many people say this is evident in the movie because Barbie is scared of getting cellulite and having flat feet. However, I think that deep down this represents a fear of something greater — losing her sense of empowerment. Barbie feels empowered and in control in Barbieland, but loses this when she goes to the real world. However, when Ken arrives in the real world he gains a sense of empowerment. Barbieland and the real world show two different sides of the gender inequality problem: one place where women feel empowered and men feel insecure and beneath women, and one place where men feel empowered and women feel insecure and beneath men. Yet, even though Barbie realizes the real world is different than she thought and women are not the ones in charge, she still chooses to live in it at the end of the movie. This shows that Barbie wants to make a difference for girls in the real world, which is ultimately what Barbie represents. 

The Barbie movie was very important for understanding that this is what Barbie truly represents. As the NYT article says, “Most of the time she can’t utter a word, yet she’s believed to speak for the critical mass of us.” The Barbie movie gave this inanimate object a voice and chance to show what she stood for — empowering women and showing them all that they can be: a doctor, nurse, athlete, or anything else she sets her mind to.