So, you recently attended the Barbie movie, and let’s just say you “dragged” along your boyfriend, father, brother, or any male you know. You left the movie sobbing over the emotional representation of girlhood, but the male in your life either hated the movie, or completely missed the message. Best case scenario, they just want the “I’m Kenough” sweatshirt, and are oblivious to the call for feminism.
Why do men hate a movie about dolls with such a passion? Many cite the wrongful treatment of the Kens in the movie, claiming the whole movie paints men as objects. Wow, that has never happened to women in media ever *cough cough Margot Robbie in the Wolf of Wall Street.* Unfortunately, it is my job to inform you that anyone who hates the Barbie movie for the “mistreatment of men” or the “feminist agenda” is exhibiting a red flag.
Now that we have diagnosed this person in your life, whoever they may be, what is the course of treatment? For starters, do they actually understand the plot of the movie? For many, nuances are overlooked. Yes, at the end of the movie the Kens do not achieve full equality, this is a call to the fact that women still have not achieved full equality. The first female Supreme Court Justice was nominated in 1981. The message is not that men should be stripped of equality, the movie rather illustrates the centuries it has taken women to progress to where they are. Hopefully after having a candid discussion about the movie, this person’s viewpoints will progress. I call this Ken education, or Kenucation.
I’ve also heard men state that Barbie’s experiences in the real world are exaggerated, such as the immediate sexual assault she experiences. Anyone who has this stance, first of all needs to understand that movies have a limited time to convey plot points, and second of all needs to shut up. One in four women will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, not including verbal harassment, and this metric is widely accepted and has been peer reviewed dozens of times. If this person in your life denies this metric, you may have encountered a terminal red flag. I’m sorry but my only advice is to cut them out of your life. Bye bye, fact denier Ken.
Lastly, we need to discuss the light red flag. Yep, the Ken idolizer, or “I’m just Ken” singer, or the “I’m Kenough” sweatshirt wearer. Don’t worry, I do all of these things too, so not all people who fit into these definitions are a light red flag. Generally, this person is not that much of a red flag, but I have discovered that many aspiring Kens, although they love the movie, also missed the point of it. Some of these Kens think that the movie was about how men are enough (kenough), or they simply do not acknowledge the feminist plot of the movie. This flag is more pink, probably curable, you may just need to spell out the plot of the movie for them.
