Fine, I’ll talk about it! The Barbie Movie came out this summer and it took girls by storm. No one has specifically asked me to write a column about this, but I feel like it would be wrong not to discuss my thoughts at some point. I mean, pretty much every girl, gay, and they that I know, was counting down the days till Barbie hit the theaters. And the movie did not disappoint. It covered a lot of ground, leaving us with a lot to think about.
I, like many, have some issues with the pro-Mattel messaging, but I’m going to ignore those and talk about them in a different week. There were so many good and beautiful themes in this movie and honestly, I cried at least three times. A quick disclaimer before I get into it, this will contain some spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet and want to experience it for yourself, maybe come back to this article after you watch it.
The first moment that really got me was when Margot Robbie, as Barbie, was sitting in a park, looking at the people living their lives around her. Although the previous scenes highlighted the imperfect parts of our world, this one gave the audience a brief reminder of why it’s all worth it. Then, the whole experience is wrapped up by a nice exchange between Barbie and a woman waiting for the bus where they both tell each other that they are beautiful. Another moment was when Barbie finds herself in a kitchen, sitting with Ruth Handler, the maker of the Barbie doll. Barbie says, “the real world isn’t what I thought it was,” and Handler replies, “it never is, and isn’t that marvelous?” Finally, the last moment that got me was when Barbie became human and the montage played of what looked like home movies showing women in all stages of life, growing up, graduating, achieving goals, living.
Underneath the plot of the movie and the less subtle themes, the Barbie movie had me thinking about what it means to be a girl. At some point or another, we all grow up and realize that we aren’t like the dolls that we played with as kids, we’re humans. Before she becomes human, Barbie asks Ruth, her stand-in mother figure, “so being human’s not something I need to ask for or even want? […] It’s just something that I discover I am?” When we’re little, we picture ourselves and our future as being so shiny and perfect like Barbie. We don’t include heartbreak, or pain, or uglines. Then we get a glimpse at what being a woman really means, and some of it sucks, but some of it is so inexplicably beautiful. That’s what it’s all about, the chaos, the pain, and the beauty of growing up as a girl. Our mother figures who watch us go through the same things they did and have to let us figure it out on our own. In the end, we all make the same choice that Barbie did, not to be perfect but to be human, to embrace it all.
