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“Women truly can have it all….as long as they’re incredibly beautiful, of course.” That always seems to be the punchline in movies.

Its honestly mind-boggling to see all the hatred from people toward this movie dismissing it as "woke feminist propaganda" when it has such a shallow, inoffensive concept of feminism.

How refreshing to see valid, legitimate criticism of the Barbie movie that isn't coming from an anti-woke dude bro. I loved every second of this.

"You can't girlboss without a bit of labor exploitation" is A+

Living in a conservative country where even this "basic level feminism" is seen as extreme, I genuinely appreciate the movie for at least creating a talking point here, but also love your critiques, a point of view that I did not think about. Thanks!

Since i study sociology I sometimes have to remind myself, that most people don't think about social hierarchical structures like sexism as much as I do. During the scene in which Sasha's mom complains about all the expectation placed on women I seriously cringed, because of how obvious and well known those problems are. My mom and my sister cried during that same scene and afterwards talked about how cathartic it was that someone had put into words what they always felt like. And I'd rate at least my sister as relatively socially aware. That this kind of shallow feminism is to so many people groundbreaking is almost incomprehensible.

The fact that Barbie, an extremely popculture safe version of feminism is something considered so abrasive just because it acknowledge a system over individual makes me really upset how behind we really are.

The movie felt a lot like baby's first feminism. So while shallow for those more well versed in the movement, for a stunning amount of individuals, the Barbie movie pried open their eyes for the first time. For that alone, I am grateful, for I hope those people keep following that feeling leading them into deeper critical thoughts on the world around them. For that alone, I am more pessimistic than I was before. Thank you for the video.

I feel like this movie did a better job as a critique of toxic masculinity and toxic male in groups (I.e. manosphere and similar) rather than the feminist extravaganza it was perceived and presented as.

I liked the movie, although it isn‘t a feminist masterpiece. I also knew that it won’t be anti-consumerism or anti-capitalism (Mattel as a brand was involved). I just enjoyed watching a well made hollywood movie. A pleasure I allow myself once in a while.

After watching the movie I was left a little disappointed in the message. I wish this movie was about aging because they set it up pretty well. Revealing that Barbie was actually the mother's toy made me cry like a baby because it meant that the mother loved Barbie because it was her connection with her daughter. That rant at the end? It would have been way more powerful coming from Sasha instead. As girls, we expect to get things like height, boobs, womanly curves and beauty. Instead, we grow hair in places we don't want, we gain weight really quickly, and we start to bleed and ache every month. We stop being innocent girls and become sluts and bitches. This is why Sasha is so angry, and she projects that anger onto her mother, who is seemingly happy living in a patriarchal world. It would have been beautiful to see a mother and daughter bond over womanhood and the struggles it brings with it. Also, Barbie telling the old woman she's beautiful would have just fit better in a story about aging.

9:26 - I work in the toy industry, and this point here is one of the WEIRDEST things we see everyday. When you poll parents, the feelings towards diversification tend to go from neutral at worst, to really positive at best, negative perceptions are very rare. That said, diverse dolls do not sell. I mean, they do, but the gap is astronomical. Blondes are usually always #1, Brunettes are a close second. And then you have this major gap between those two and every other ethnicity that is white-looking, and then you have black dolls. So far, nothing out of the expected, except there is a very weird phenomena. If a store owner sees that Blondes sell more and they want to save shelf space, they might buy just the blonde ones. Result? Blondes don't sell, or at least at a much lower rate than the market medium. Weird right? But if the same store take away a few blonde dolls from the shelf and adds diverse dolls, the diverse dolls will still not sell, but the blonde ones start selling at a much faster rate. And even weirder, often people of other races will still pick the blue eyed blonde over their own ethnicity, even if both are available. Basically the current understanding is that either due to marketing, personal preferences, indoctrination, or anything else, people still prefer traditionally looking dolls, but because of the general awareness of the effects dolls have in girl's self-image, parents feel guilty about buying the product. But, when parents see that the brand is* socially aware (*we are talking about a very surface perception here), they feel more comfortable buying the product even though the doll is the same exact one they considered harmful. This even happens with other issues, for example, baby toys sell more blue and pink if there is a neutral color like green, yellow or white. A socially aware parent doesn't want to buy blue for boys and pink for girls, but if they see they have the gender neutral option, they will happily buy blue for boys and pink for girls. Basically, people want options to exist, but they still want the standard product. (This doesn't fully apply to products that have known characters, so something like disney princesses or marvel heroes will work differently to some extent).

To me the movie isn't a feminist epic film, it's a satire that doesn't take things too seriously.

I’m glad you touched on the mean spirited portrayal of sasha. She’s the movie’s “feminist”/anti barbie mouth piece but she’s also a hyper feminine mean girl bully. Despite feeling harmed by barbie her only role is to realize that Barbie is important to her mom and that she needs get over herself and shut up. Terminal case of activist character.

I heard “Kirby Barbie” instead of curvy Barbie and man I was so excited for a minute

I remember sitting in the movie and thinking it was odd how they trivialized the higher ups of Barbie as “silly little guys” when in fact they’ve profited off of the commodification of little girls’ insecurities for decades, all while perpetuating harmful stereotypes about femininity and covering it up with appropriated “girl power”.

I loved the Barbie movie, but I really appreciate your critiques. It features a surface-level feminism without digging deeper.

1. Margot Robbie has been paid $12.5 million for her lead part in Gerwig’s movie. 2. The workers on the Barbie doll assembly line are paid $2 an hour. 3. Therefore, to earn Margot’s money, each worker would have to work 6,250,000 hours. 4. Given their 12-hour shifts six days a week, this amounts to 1,669 years of utterly tedious and repetitive labor.

I remember as a child, my parents were reluctant about what barbies they gave me, sticking to academic barbies, like ones with medical degrees and such. And then one year, my aunt bought me a princess barbie. And I pretty much only played with her from then on.

"There is no ethical consumption under capitalism" is a phrase that will never be proven wrong

the bumbling board room of men at mattel felt almost like weaponized incompetence, like “haha mattel can’t possibly have had ulterior motives, they couldn’t even get through an automatic gate 😜”

One of the things that struck me as weird in the movie is that Ryan Gosling's Ken recognizes that he and the other Kens have been marginalized in Barbieland, which leads him to invert the social order and create a cartoon-stereotype of patriarchy. Then, Margot Robbie's Barbie and America Ferrera's Gloria restore the matriarchal status quo and put the Kens back into their place as second-class citizens (but also grant them token representation in minor political roles, dangling the carrots of self-actualization and eventual systemic change to placate them). It's weird to me because the movie acknowledges that a hierarchical gender-caste system is a major problem in this universe, but it doesn't actually aspire to systemic change. It just puts the Barbies back on top of the hierarchy and stresses the importance of individual fulfillment. I want to give the movie credit and believe that this was the satirical point they were trying to make (self-actualization as distraction from systemic problems), but I genuinely cannot tell if that's what the film creators intended.

thank you SO MUCH for including citations when a fact is mentioned, not just when directly quoting something. working on a paper in this area and being able to find the articles is SO helpful

20:48 not the video cutting from the “curvy” Barbie to Margot Robbie and their bodies being exactly the same 💀

On your note about them ignoring the factories and workers -- in the movie, directly after Ken begins living in the Mojo Dojo Casa House, there's a brief scene where the CEO excitedly says, "These are flying off the shelves!" and we see a warehouse full of already-packaged Ken houses being loaded onto trucks. There are no design meetings. There is no production. The CEO seems almost surprised by its existence. It's implied that the decisions in Barbie World just... magically make toys in our world come into being. When we consider how they're trying to turn the lens away from Barbie as a product made in factories, and make us not think about the labor issues and constant plastic pollution... that little scene gets really unsettling.

The other funny thing about a Frida Kahlo Barbie is that a lot of Kahlo's paintings weren't child-friendly in the slightest. I'm also reminded of how the movie Coco treated her as a punchline

Barbie tells the old woman, "You're beautiful," and it's supposed to be revolutionary... But all I could think about was that it was reinforcing the idea that all women can ever aspire to be is "beautiful". Not wise, smart, generous, caring, vibrant. Just beautiful.

I had to watch Barbie for a film class a month ago. I shared some of my frustrations with the film and I was the only one who saw it this way. It's refreshing to hear a perspective like this.

Honestly, Barbie was exactly what I thought it would be: training wheels for people who are just starting to get into actual feminism beyond the shallow girlpower commercials that are available for the general public. I felt so alone during the monologue because I could feel dozens of women having one-in-a-lifetime epiphanies around me, but I had already learned all that was said from random tumblr posts when I was 15. I had spent so much of my time reading article after article, book after book, thinking about all that I could experience in the world if only I wasn't bound by the identity of being a woman, that I felt like there was nothing for me to relate to. The movie was pretty, the message was cute, but I felt like I needed more nuance, more subtlety, something raw that actually encapsulated womanhood and girlhood, but I realized that a movie about a toy could never feature the amount of violence and rage that defined the experience of being a woman. It is a very necessary step, but it made it painfully clear how far behind the general public actually is when it comes to feminism. *Edit*: if you felt personally attacked by what I said, want to accuse me of whatever stupid delusions you have about my personal world view based on a youtube comment, want to accuse me of whatever oversimplified trope such as a pick me girl, don't like feminism, refuse to understand where I'm coming from, refuse to develop your own reading comprehension skills, or if you just feel like bothering someone; this is my warning for you before you come tell me all that: I don't care. Keep it to yourself, or keep in mind that you will not like my answer to your complaints. Keep scrolling and have a nice day.

I would've loved to see you analyze the role of Weird Barbies and their queer coding in the film. They might've been my favorite part (along with Ken getting red-pilled within seconds of entering the real world, which was fucking HILARIOUS). The You Should See The Other Guy podcast also had a thoughtful critique of the film. I personally loved it as a theatrical experience but I also knew roughly the type of girlboss feminism that I was getting into with it.

I hate when I get got by marketing campaigns. I just wanted to wear sparkly pink clothes and feel empowered as a woman :( You’re so right though, I came out of Barbie both having an identity crisis and feeling bad about my body. I had no idea they had all those beauty industry partnerships!!! Terrifying honestly

strong agree with this video essay. When I came out of the film i felt immedietly uncomfortable and icky. I didn't have the ability to put it into words to my friends who seemed to really love it, but I realise now that part of it was that I wanted and thought that the final message of the film was going to be equality... but it j u s t missed it, and i felt so awkward. the whole film felt awkward and plastic and fake.

As someone who's been collecting disabled Barbies, not only was Frida whitewashed and commercialised but her disability was all but erased.

Thank you for validating the weird icky feeling I felt after seeing this movie. It was a visually incredible entertaining comedic movie that I did enjoy for the most part but there were just so many aspects that fell flat and felt off that I couldn’t quite explain and this video sums up my feelings perfectly.

THANK YOU FOR THIS. I took my daughter to see the movie and we left feeling awkward. She (9yo) said "I thought it would be more fun but it was mostly confusing grown-up stuff". I couldn't shake the feeling that I must have missed something because the anticlimactic end felt like the "moral" was "Yes, it sucks to be a woman, but we put up with it anyways 🎉" not a very comforting takeaway, though I only heard others saying the movie moved them to tears and I 🤨 couldn't relate

This was brilliant. I was thinking that Barbie is being defended in the same way that women singers like Beyonce get defended whenever their cosplay of liberation language for relatability that translates to album sales and ticket sales gets critiqued. I'm so glad you took it back to Spice Girls because yes of course!

Weirdly I actually felt prettier after watching the movie. I think because it really helped heal my inner child with all the pink and glamour but I was very happily surprised that the movie took a feminist turn that I didn’t expect but was happy to see. It wasn’t perfect but touched on how so many women feel.

This entire film screamed "Look guys! We aren't misogynistic anymore and acknowledged our past! Please start buying our toys again!!"

One of the problems that I've often seen when people talk (or make media) about subverting stereotypes is that in doing so they also tend to uphold those stereotypes as the norm. They seemingly aren't able to phrase things in a way that isn't "Remember, it's okay to be weird and different from everybody else! That doesn't make you an ugly terrible person like they think you are!" Can't we just... exist?? Why do people feel the need to point out how different someone is and then reassure them that being different isn't wrong? Reminding people that they are different from societal norms, even if it's by attempting to "subvert" that stereotype, only reinforces the idea that those societal norms are.... normal. Something expected and unchangeable. It reminds people that they will be judged for being different, and that often prevents those people from being open about their differences out of fear or self-consciousness. A society cannot simultaneously say "We are all different and unique and we respect those differences because everyone is equal" and "People who are too different will be judged by everyone else, and that is something they need to 'overcome' to 'be themselves' " (This was brought on by the part where you commented on how the barbie movie made you feel worse about your body because it reminded you of how high the standards are)

I love that you highlight the worker's issues. That's so often ignored in today's consumerised feminism (and so much more important than some stupid girl power product).

thank you for the little pro-labor rights treat!! 💝💖💗

The movie really entertained me-- but not for the same reasons as my friends. I loved the dance choreo, and couple one-liners, the movie is gorgeous! ...but I couldn't understand why one of my friend's was crying during the big "feminist speech". It didn't feel like something to cry over; on the contrary, I was cringing. I've never had any sort of body image problems with Barbie, and I still don't, but I came out a little bitter about their idea of feminism. That speech about "men's expectations for women" felt so obvious, so shoehorned, like they had it in just to say they're progressive. Maybe I'm just a hater, but I really did like the movie! Regardless, there was a tiny seed of cringe inside of me by the end of it. Ironically, Ken's journey of mistreatment and his reaction to it felt more feminist. Still, the music is great and I've never felt negatively impacted by how Barbie looks, so I'll just be here singing along to more Dua Lipa.

This was such an eloquently spoken and non-cliché criticism of barbie, both the movie and mass-produced product. I cannot emphasize how much of an effect this had on me and I hope in my future writing I can try to do this topic a fraction of the justice you do!!!

From what I've seen, the film does a pretty good job of deconstructing cis men's (toxic) masculinity through Ken (a lot of the praise of the film was more about him than Barbie), but it seems that in case of Barbie herself, the message is again "You can become anyone and do anything....as long as you keep up the appropriate amount of femininity"

I agree with this video wholeheartedly. I went to see Barbie expecting it to be a fun goofy movie with a feminist message, but I came out feeling... Confused. I wouldn't mind the film not being groundbreaking except that everyone is treating it like it is

Dutchie here. Feminism is considered everywhere here, on the workplace, at home, everywhere. Yet we are not there yet, and most of us feel like we can't complain, since our country is overall further than others. Yes, it's shallow, simple minded feminism, but it starts a topic to talk about. I watched it with my mom and grandma and they said "finally someone that says what we think". Yes its shallow and trying to prove a point that Mattel isnt sexist, but it starts a conversation. A basic conversaation, but one that isn't often held,

i truly love this essay. while watching the movie, i constantly experienced whiplash & the anti-climactic messaging was surprisingly underwhelming. i wanted more nuance to barbie's pink feminism. yes, ultimately weird barbie, allan, and the other discontinued barbies/kens help barbie un-brainwash the others, but they're not included in the celebration. they're barely thanked for helping, or even recognized for how they, too, are affected by the kens' oppression. there was so much room for intersectionality. i truly loved how we got to see barbie with the old lady, but the impact fell apart so easily with how clumsy or shallow the other messaging was. rambling now, but love this video so, so much, it truly voices things that i could not write myself.

They didn’t even have Gloria (who’s job is will ferrell’s secretary I believe) get a promotion at the end of the movie. They made all these jokes about how the management at Mattel are all men and then at the end they *let* Gloria come up with her own kind of Barbie (who’s literally called “ordinary Barbie” and is implied to be based off of how she sees herself??) and frame her idea getting green lit as a huge feminist moment.

I never even expected Barbie to be particularly feminist. Nor did I expect to see myself represented, because I was never the kind of girl/woman represented by Barbie. So yeah. All of this criticism is 100% true, but, as you said, this movie was always going to be like this. On an artistic level, I liked it. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and is mostly just fun and a bit ridiculous. After a decade plus of "superheroes but without all the silly colorful parts" movies, it really did feel like a breath of fresh air. I wish we could have movies like this that are NOT blatant ads for giant corporations.

Finally someone who talks about this while the Barbie movie and its marketing is making so many others ignore the fact that the feminism is so surface level and on the nose. Thank you.

Honestly, I completely agree with this critique. It really tried to make so many points but they al fell flat and seemed fake. Another thing that seemed that so off to me in the movie was that when Ken takes over Barbieland and the Barbies finally try to outsmart the Kens, instead of making a good plan, they use JEALOUSY and turn the Kens against each other. This makes it seem like women can't really do anything other than use jealousy and their attractiveness to distract men or whatever. Why couldn't they bring proper reform through reason? Idk this movie mostly icked me out even though it was entertaining in places.

There was a scene where the Barbies try to defeat patriarchy by manipulating the Kens into fighting a war. I was ready to be super excited or super disappointed based on whether they realized that was in fact a key role offered to women in the patriarchy, and it would likely reinforce patriarchal structures of violence and control. In the end I was kind of meh - the Kens seemed to learn a bit from the experience, but the Barbies didn't do as much analysis of it as I hoped. But overall I went in without a lot of expectations and I enjoyed Barbie's emotional journey.

I've loved Barbie ever since I was a little girl. I remember getting my first Barbie and dreamhouse for Christmas when I was 4 at Christmas. I really really really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was fun, theatrical, full of heart and a proper homage to Barbie's history. But I totally understand that this movie wasn't this big feminist masterpiece. Barbie, like literally everything nowadays, is a brand. Every TV series and movie is to sell tickets and merch, media corporations just want more money. Although Barbie was definitely made with waaaaaaaay more love and care than any of Disney's recent live action remakes no one asked for or any movie based on an already existing property, it doesn't escape this problem. However, where the movie lacks in "feminist" ideals, I feel like the Barbie movie does a way better job at talking about toxic masculinity and how harmful it is to both men AND women. Barbie experiencing sexual harassment and assault in the real world was jarring for her. She never experienced men being so disrespectful to her before, meanwhile Ken finally feels respected. In Barbieland the Kens don't have much if any power, and Ken felt like he wasn't being respected by Barbie. He goes to the real world and see men dominating the work force and athletics and stuff, and he finally feels understood and validated. Then when he brings the patriarchy to Barbieland, he does it to lash out at Barbie. He yells "You failed me!" in anger and frustration cause he didn't feel respected. The Barbie movie is a much better commentary on how toxic masculinity is harmful, and often a result of men being hurt and humiliated. Young boys find solidarity in the red pill community because their feelings are validated, and as a result they lash out at women, when the problem is their own standards. Ken brought all these specific rules for behavior because he thought it would earn Barbie's respect. But at the end of the movie, Ken says it was hard being a leader, and he's embarrassed to cry in front of Barbie, when she then tells him its okay. She apologizes to HIM. A lot of people have said "if this was TRULY a feminist movie then Barbieland should have been equal for Barbies AND Kens" and all I have to say is that it wasn't the point. The narrator even says "And soon one day the Kens will have just as much power in Barbieland as women do in the real world." Like thats the joke, its satire. Kens not having much power in Barbieland is a direct comparison to our world and how women STILL need to fight to be treated with respect in 2023. Thats the point of that ending. I could also say that the Barbie movie does a much better job at telling men AND women, "You DONT need to do everything in order to be worthy of respect. Simply existing as a human being should be enough. And there are many people happy with being ordinary, and thats okay" Stereotypical Barbie didn't want to be extraordinary, she just wanted to exist. She was happy doing normal things and simply being alive experiencing the wide range of human emotions. Being a human being is enough Anyway that was my take on the Barbie movie. Was it a feminist masterpiece? No. Did it excel in other areas? Very much. Was it a fun theater experience? Absolutely. I got dressed up and everything

This isn’t my take personally, but I watched another video (it was on instagram so sorry I can’t link it) by a Jewish woman who criticized Barbie’s very concept, which goes against what a lot of people say. Basically the doll Barbie was based off of stemmed from a comic made during nazi Germany where she was a very sexist stereotype, while also asserting super white supremacist ideals of what a woman should look like. Many people look at this story and think it incredible that a formerly nazi character was turned into an empowering doll by a Jewish woman, but the person I was watching disagreed. Instead she pointed to the fact that during the time Barbie was created Jews were trying incredibly hard to assimilate into American culture, and she saw it as a more of a sad story where a Jewish woman enforced a stereotype of beauty that was based in Aryan ideals. I personally am not Jewish so I can’t give that much of an opinion aside from the fact I find it interesting, but I will say Barbie never ever sat right with me. I’ve heard a lot of people in the wake of this movie say “it wasn’t Barbie that made me hate myself, it was society,” but as a an AFAB person I have to say that Barbie, while not the root cause, contributed heavily to my self-esteem issues. Sure, Barbie didn’t create these standards of beauty, and it wasn’t the doll telling me I was ugly compared to my peers, but being called fat and ugly throughout my childhood took on a certain punch when the people who were saying that happened to look just like Barbie and idolize it as the best doll. I mean, Barbie literally had a doll that came with a magazine saying not to eat! I do get that Barbie was a big deal since basically all girls had beforehand was baby dolls, but how empowering could barbie truly be when many of the outfits she originally had were for jobs like housewife cook?

I remember being annoyed about the big feminism speech because the Barbies have zero idea of what being a woman feels like. They are dolls and have never faced true patriarchy, only the play antics of the Kens. It was a great speech, but it just didn't apply to the Barbies in my eyes and was obviously just there to show off to the audience how progressive the movie was trying to be.

agreed, the thing that sticks out most to me is that we know damn well most of the merchandise for this movie was made using sweatshop labor, not very girl power to exploit other people, including many women, in foreign countries.

“It’s a mainstream film made for the widest possible audience trying to reach everyone at the same time without saying anything of any real substance” loved that and I also think the same thing could be said about Oppenheimer. Great video!!

“It’s (Barbie) just a bunch of faux feminist marketing” that sums it up

I just LOVE how you give reference to EVERY fact and research you mention so we could check it ourselves.

It is hard finding a review about this movie that isn't just "Uhh feminism *spit* bad" but finally found the actual level headed, objective take I was looking for that can actually see the movie for what it really is, while showing me the injustices of mattel and a not public enough perspective on what barbie truly is. Glad I found this.

i watched this movie two days ago and the only word i could use to describe my takeaway was "underwhelmed". this video just read my mind and so constructively put together everything the movie was lacking. there was nothing new said in this movie, gloria's speech is a regurgitation of so many tiktok audios and i couldn't find a real lesson to be learned. i walked out of that theatre just realizing how little commentary they made on the real issues of women in the current society and played exactly into that.

As much as I loved the movie (and I really really enjoyed it!!), it made me feel really self-conscious of the cellulite I’ve had for years (which I’ve been insecure of my whole life). I’m sure it wasn’t the movie’s intention, but ever since I saw it and saw that cellulite was portrayed in more of a negative way I can’t help but feel worse about it. I’m pretty sure that that part was put in the movie to point out how ridiculous something small like cellulite could affect Barbie since she’s used to smooth legs and perfection among other things, I have no clue and I don’t know. When you brought up that when you left the movie it made you feel self-conscious of yourself it kind of solidified that for me as well. The cellulite joke in the movie was great and all and I found it funny when they had it on the goodbye banner and stuff, but I guess it struck a chord and left me more insecure about my body than I was previously (and I’m still really insecure and self-conscious about it). I loved the Barbie movie though!! I definitely recommend going to see it more than once since I felt there were some plot holes, but it was overall really good!! Plus dressing up for it too of course. I waited for over a year for this movie and it’s nice to finally see it :) :)

Another thing I noticed in Barbie that didn't quite sit right with me is the ending for all the Kens in Barbieland. I'll start with a disclaimer that I am a cis male who saw this movie, just to make my perspective clear. At the end, the Barbies regain power, and decide that maybe someday, the Kens might be kind of (but also not really) equal to the Barbies. That struck me as a really odd choice for something claiming to be feminist art, because it never addressed why the Kens felt ostracized or abused in the first place. And even though it did the bare minimum to recognize that inequality exists, it comes across as vindictive that the Kens must be punished by Barbie society for lashing out against their oppressors. I'm not saying that Ken's actions are excusable, but I am saying that true feminism would explore his motive and try to remedy the situation in a way that is fair to all residents of Barbieland. Because feminism isn't supposed to be just about girl power. Feminism is supposed to be about treating all people with respect. It's hard for me to see Barbieland as feminist when it seems really hesitant to give any respect to half its residents.

I think the movie was a good start to the topic of feminism for an audience that might not be that much into that topic. But sure it’s lacking in depth and I wish it would have had more time. Ps: of course it’s a capitalist movie that is trying to sell a brand so it can only get that critical and self aware. I still think it did the best it could.

I was feeling this through the movie and no one else seemed to be able to see past the fun and hype for the movie. This is validating thank you

this is possibly one of the best video essays I will see this year, INCREDIBLY jampacked with nuances and commentary on all sorts of different facets, and the dryness with which you conveyed them made for a seriously entertaining watch for something that causes you to question so much at the same time. the quote and delivery on "is liberation factory made? and if so who's working in the factory :|" was harrowing and hilarious, I loved that part :P

The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. (Audre Lorde) By the same token, feature length advertisements will never never stop being the advertisements they are paid to be. Whether it’s the Nike movie, the Barbie movie, the Transformers movie, or whatever. Our childhoods were filled with advertising covered up with paper-thin stories to appeal to the common denominator in social classes-boys like war, girls like fashion! Those properties will never give us anything but the advertisement.

Thank you for sharing about the real women making the toys :( I cant stand how aweful their conditions are :( This whole thing is so upseting and reflects most big buisnesses. I just feel so depressed about the world.

The words "carefree consumption" hit me hard. I can't tell you how much the idea of winning a "toys'r'us shopping spree ruined my brain in ways I haven't come close to recovering from. Wow.

THANK YOU! This was an incredible explanation as to why I felt it was lacking and how empty I felt after watching it.

when I started this video I had planned to finish it later but I was compelled to watch it all the way through. this was amazing!! so many good points I haven't seen other people bring up yet♥♥♥

I loved this movie I think we could always do better but just to have a movie speak to the female experience and expose young women, at least even if it’s a little taste, it felt good honestly it left me feeling community with women

I often get scared to watch videos that are critical of movies I like because “what it ruins it for me?” But this video was awesome. You had a lot of good points and brought up things I wouldn’t have thought of. It’s great to have a new perspective, keep it up!

thank you so much for making this, it's been tough for me to explain to my friends & family what i dislike about barbie and they just say i'm too cynical/etc. i kinda had to give up and say i liked it anyway.

13:20 I understand the point you're trying to make here, but I think painting the Disney Beauty and the Beast 1991 story in this way is very disingenuous to what the film actually portrays. Belle made an agreement with the Beast, in exchange for her father to be set free. He didn't imprison her, he was actually shocked that she'd stay in his place. Belle refuses to even see the Beast in the beginning, even when he was being "nice". She had no hesitations with running after the Beast lashed out at her. He screamed at her to "get out" and she did. When the Beast saved her from the wolves, you can see how she initially goes to her horse to leave but changes her mind. The Beast showed regret the moment she left and then risked getting injured to save Belle. Even when they go back to the castle, Belle isn't meek about her frustrations with the Beast! She doesn't start falling in love with him until he shows actual change! It's the servants that are the ones actively excited at the chance of Belle being the one to break the spell. The Beast voices how he knows that Belle could break the spell, but in the beginning he is doing the bare minimum to get her affection. The Beast didn't keep her there because he wanted her to fall in love with him, it was because of their agreement. If you genuinely believe this is what the movie showcased, please just go rewatch the movie. Don't just reuse the same "stockholme syndrome" takes that have gotten immensely popular and ignore a lot of the movie. It makes the point you're trying to make, weaker.

your commentary is spot on, I was unsure when I left the movie that I felt sort of unfulfilled. The watered down feminism, seems like they were just trying to hit quotas, they put 2 plus size barbies, one disable barbie and one trans barbie and that's all the representation these communities need. They tried to appear "anti-capitalist" with the goofy CEO and the executives but you also need to buy the barbie chatime tea, buy the barbie crocs, buy the new barbie clothing at cotton on and forever 21, buy barbie makeup at Ulta. This movie was made to make people spend money. They spit out broad feminist statements that essentially any decent person watching the movie would agree with as the movie can't tackle any real issues but only the looming idea of the patriarchy.

T H I S. I feel millenials are the first generation to be successfully coporation-ized. Our whole identities are tied to the products we consume, because we associate childhood wonder with the products we consumed when we were kids. And as generations go by, this seems to be becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

The film was supposed to be empowering for girls but when Barbie went into the real world and saw how women thought about her it felt like the film was blaming women?

Thank you for making this video. It really highlights the horrors we all pretend to ignore and never question.

thank you for this video. its a massive part of the conversation that ive not seen being had i dont think anyone who actually is trying to change things would rally behind a movie thats main reason to exists is to sell a toy

Thanks for your video!! My sister and I both came out of the movie with a sense of disappointment we couldn’t explain, but when we started talking we came to this same conclusion: the film tries to say so many things and ends up saying nothing. Non of the problems have any kind of consecuences, not even in Barbieland -a fantasy world where anything could happen- where Kens are still considered inferior (and, of course, no changes or inclusion in the Mattel CEO team). It was a cool movie to watch, but I just wish they didn’t try so hard to present it as role-breaking and super progresive because it came out so flat it ruined the experience of a movie that could just have been fun. It seems strange to me everyone is loosing their minds over how good it is (i’ve read articles ranking it as one of the best films of the decade) and so little criticism about something that felt so obvious to both my sister and i

Quick correction: Barbie actually wasn't the first non-baby doll to be successful in America and the Bild Lilli doll wasn't actually intended for men. The mjtanner channel on KZfaq made a great video on this but basically, to simplify it, Mattel has rewritten history to make it seem like Barbie was the first and best of its kind. Also the point of the original Beauty and the Beast movie isn't that Belle learns to love the beast. It's that the beast learns to love her and therefore learns to put another person's needs in front of his own. Lindsay Ellis also made a good video about this.

I HATED the Barbie movie. I found it deeply INSULTING. It was poorly written, with too many themes it didn't nail down properly. And at the end we still had Kens being treated as lower-class citizens and Barbie just wanted to wear comfortable shoes and see a gynecologist for her new real lady parts? Female anatomy was the height of her feminism and the culmination of your journey despite her never mentioning that's what she wanted??? I shook my head and said "you've got to be kidding me". It addressed cellulite and aging as a terrible thing and never showed us any different in the story. One comment to an old lady does not count as a full story arc. At no point did Barbie embrace that for herself or lose her Hollywood beauty nor make a choice that would show her prioritizing anything above looking good and having her house back. The Barbies being tricked so easily by the Kens made them look insanely stupid. I sat there wondering if the film was also insulting real women for "falling for misogyny". And it was soooo easy for the Barbies to reverse, are they trying to say real women aren't trying hard enough? This whole film is a joke on women, men and feminism. I have no idea who this movie was even made for. I'm fairly conservative and the lack of respect to women was infuriating. Yet so many women are eating it up? It makes me feel sick. They're applauding a joke at their expense. They're paying to be pandered and talked down to. Barbie should have been so much better. It could have been a fun, campy, girl-power movie. But while it looked that way from the marketing, I found it a major bait-and-switch scam with a bitter pill to swallow, instead. I'll never buy another Barbie. Not as a gift, nor as a collectable. I'm so tired of their shallow view of women. I loved her growing up but I feel totally betrayed by the both the film and the Barbie factory conditions. Shame on Mattel. I'm sad they're green-lighting 17 more films based on toys because they obviously learned the wrong message from "Barbie".

This is THE BEST review/breakdown of the barbie movie and brand I've EVER seen!! Thanks for making this. I learned SO MUCH.

Barbie is an avatar of the American middle class consumerist woman herself repackaged as a consumer product and is a subject of constant fascination and controversy over her sexual nature. Therefore the correct director for the Barbie movie was actually David Cronenberg.

I had a lot of disagreement over my interpretation of the movie with my other progressive friends... When I was growing up, I liked watching the animated barbie movies with my sister. When I went to see the new one, I had no expectations. I knew it was a commercial product, and that it was pay-rolled by Mattel. But you know what? I can't think on how to make a more leftist movie out of this material. The facts of the matter are that Barbie is for better or worse popular as hell. Mattel would make a movie anyway, and of course they want money, they're a private company. They care about their bottom line and nothing else. Your criticisms of capitalism and cynicism of Mattel are well warranted. More needs to be done about the workers, the environmental effect, and the effect that these dolls have on young girls' self-perception. But you know what? When I saw the movie, I saw the only thing that could get through to my consumerist sister. Something that gave her things to think about. A seed of sorts. I think the movie is great when it comes to moving centre people over to the cause of feminism and anti-capitalism. And to see a company like Mattel do this to me feels like a huge concession to the movement on Mattel's part. The movie didn't for one sec consider "but our world is equal", no, it pointed directly at the problems (at least the "western" problems), like the lack of representation, lack of power, and unequal employment opportunities. it gives the viewers a tangible understanding of what patriarchy is, which is more important to radicalize people than a century of theory and obscure books. I don't know if I'd call their movie-CEO likeable - He tries to kidnap barbie, cares only about the bottom line, is against making "normal barbie with normal problems" at the end of the movie (until the advisor says it would make money) And is generally portrayed as a hypocritical clown who doesn't know anything, yet is allowed to control everything. Sure, he's portrayed somewhat sympathetically despite that, but this movie is literally paid for by the real CEO. There's not much more I can think of to make his image worse in this context. I am of the opinion that despite what Barbie dolls really represent, a lot of girls grew close to these dolls. And it should be noted in the political critique of the brand. It's a very personal matter to many, and wide proclamations that "barbie bad" while true, may be fruitless - people who are emotionally attached to something would rather defend those things than to accept criticism. A better approach is, in my humble opinion, to make it fun, make it optimistic in the beginning. Offer a new way forward. This way is much nicer, and most importantly more productive when it comes to moving more people to the cause of feminism. I really think that this is far better than the pop-feminist mockery that is Disney's live-action Mulan. I prefer barbie over the messaging of that movie any day. And I do think there's more public support needed for feminism. Lately the internet has been filled with misogynists and misogynistic content, while real-life conditions have probably not gotten better in Europe / America. Wherever I look, people hate on feminism, which is sad. it is my belief that it doesn't need to be THIS bad, it's just that the left is too preachy to effectively communicate our ideas. Sorry for rambling a bit. It's just that I think too much about that movie, lmao. I concede that there's many things to be desired when it comes to this Barbie's politics, but it is a really good movie, and in my opinion, in these conditions the movie couldn't be better. EDIT: OH ALSO I COMPLETLY FORGOT. There is like NO LGBT representation in the movie, which is really weird for a clearly progressive movie about all the different kinds of women. This should not be skipped or forgiven.

while I don't disagree with the criticism of the movie, the movie still did the best it could in it's position. I mean we can't expect a groundbreaking movie regarding feminism, controlled by Mattel. It's imo crazy that they even allowed the slightest criticism. And yes barbie is perfekt looking, that's the point of barbie and the ending, to let go of the high Standards we enforce on women. the movie also mentions that casting a beautiful actress to make the point they are trying to make is a bit illogical. Besides that, feminism is also for beautiful women, every women suffers because of the patriarchy. Yes the movie is going to sell stuff, it's a Hollywood movie. The matter of the fact is: We life in a capitalistic society, we will regardless of what we do always contribute to capitalism, avoiding consuming media that could possibly be fake feminism is not going to change the situation, protesting is going to change the situation, spreading information, regardless of how superficial the reason for the information is are the important actions to take. One could argue that even this video is trying to profit of feminism because it's using a trending movie to gain reach for a living. But that's okay, because we live in a society under capitalism.

Am i the only one who never thought of this movie as a piece of feminist work? It has always been a satire to me. The only thing i will say is that it is a movie made with women in mind and it feels good to have that. I was glad to see some people have moments of realisation in the cinema. If thats what it took then goood

finally someone said it, i'm tired of being told i just "don't have enough media literacy" every time i try to criticize the barbie movie. it mentions real problems, but it really fails when it comes to tackling them.

I loved the movie and mostly see it as a good jumping point for a lot of interesting talks on gender and gender dynamics (I especially latched onto "weird Barbie" who felt like an accurate portrayal of the outsider feeling of being a queer woman in heteronormative woman spaces, but she was still a side character and small part). And ALSO I had some hang ups and am very glad to see a criticism that isnt misogyny or just "the feminism is preachy."

Great video. I came away from the film with a feeling that something didn't quite sit right with me, but couldn't put it into words. This video gives a voice to those feelings I had.

Just came across your channel, and I love this analysis. Also, I am reminded of the Peter S Beagle line, "There are honest men in the world, but only because the Devil considers their asking price to be ridiculous."

I didn't watch the movie thinking it was going to be some kind of monumental commentary on anything. I didn't think it was supposed to be, so I guess seeing these criticisms about unmet expectations and stuff just throws me off. Barbie did make me cry, though. On three separate occasions throughout the film. Not because I felt "seen" or whatever during the speeches about the struggles of being a woman, but because of the scenes that made me think of my mom. Just made me appreciate her more, I don't know. I love my mom. I never really thought the Barbie movie was supposed to achieve all the things people are saying it failed to because it's Barbie. But all movies warrant criticism, and everyone receives movies, or any media, differently. I just thought it was fun.

I should be allowed to vote this video up more than once. I loved the Barbie film but the messaging felt hollow.

Brilliantly put, thank you. I think the EFFECTS of a film are what's most important. You said you came out feeling bad, and all I currently see online atm is grown women plastering themselves into a barbie and pulling ditsy expressions. Great for little girls.

👏👏thank you so much for this. was looking for a review like this that articulated everything i was feeling but couldn't put into words

I personally had a great time at the Barbie movie, but it did kinda feel fairly steeped girl boss feminism or even an ad for how good Mattel and their products are, even while I was watching it. I’m super glad to hear your critiques of this, or even just any critiques that don’t mischaracterize the movie as violently misandrist

When I came out of the movie I was wondering why they allowed it to be made when it so heavily criticises them. Now that I've watched this I realise that the only reason they allowed that criticism to be aired was so they could be seen on the right side of things.

My boyfriend has to listen to me rant about the fact that the movies feminism had no substance every time its brought up. They talked about women never being good enough, and we all already know that. It never made any more points in how to change the way we view women or even talk about the actual bases of feminism which is equality or equity. It provoked no new thoughts about it or ideas on how to face a misogynist world.