Been seeing a lot of takes like this and I appreciate where they're coming from, it's a good idea to be especially wary of excessive criticism aimed at things made by and for women but like. Yes you do see hot takes about Marvel, and the lego movie, and Batman films. To say this with your whole chest you have to spend zero time in leftist circles and pay zero attention to criticism of big blockbuster movies or just. Yknow. Lie to make your point.

More relevantly you see this specific thing happen whenever a big corporation makes flaccid listless gestures towards progressivism for the sake of their bottom line. Because the end result is always too toothless to have meaning for leftists while still being offensive enough to right wingers simply by virtue of having a lot of women or gay people or people of colour in it to have them frothing at the mouth. Sexist dudebros hating Barbie doesn't shield it from feminist critique, they were going to hate it whether it succeeded or failed but it can still fail.

And as nice as the big feminist speach in barbie is I have to wonder if its primary purpose is to actually uplift women so much as it is to shut down criticism of the movie and the brand. If even Barbie can't escape this criticism what hope is there for the rest of us, right? Except Barbie isn't a real woman, she's a plastic toy made in sweatshops by a brand attempting to rehabilitate a progressive image out of a long history of being criticized for its portrayal of women because that's what will boost sales. This movie is part of that, and pointing that out is important.

You don't need my or ayone's permission to enjoy the Barbie movie, if it was meaninful to you I'm genuinely happy for you, if you just thought it was fun and funny, great! But to act like the only reason to criticize the movie is sexism is glossing over some very real problems and like, straight up falling for the corporate propaganda. Yes every big blockbuster movie actually does get criticized bc they are political tools that serve the people in power. Not every big blockbuster is also being sold as a feminist masterpiece though, so you probably are gonna hear it more about Barbie. You'll also hear it more about Barbie bc people are hypercritical of women and that will motivate some critique, but to assume bad faith is to shut out conversations that need to happen.

i really like this video on the b4rbie movie. i did like the movie, to clarify. i thought it was fun, i thought some of the feminist stuff was really good. spoilers ahead obv, but i really enjoyed the section where she has a breakdown and talks about all the contradictory stuff women are supposed to be. i liked the section where shes talking to ruth about wanting to be human and to be a woman despite it all. i liked that part of the message was that a lot of men need to fuckin get hobbies instead of their personality being Woman-Liker. i LOVED the songs being camp and mostly actually made for and about the film instead of using generic pop songs (tho the billie eilish song was jarring and took me out of it).

However. i did think it was pretty,,, superficial. some of that was because its a corporate product and there wouldve been restrictions on what gerwig could do. like she cant criticize the mattel board too much, because it would "make the company look bad." like mattel refused to call the movie feminist, and i think theres an aversion to calling the movie anything too concretely subversive, maybe because that turns the "ive been saying this for years!!" aspect into not relatability, but being behind the times, or worse, performative. which it is.

BUT i also think it really played into the Girlboss feminist schtick. like that in the end they went back to a matriarchy. i dont think the film was saying matriarchy bad, and im not even trying to say that it would be equally as bad as patriarchy bc i dont know nor do i care. but i do think it had that vibe of "men are stupid, right ladies?!? we know best with our woman power ;)" which feels a little weird tbh. even the little comments like implying that a president would NEVER dress like that or a woman would have to be BRAINWASHED to want to be a housewife is uncomfortable to say the least. the final gynocology joke at the end felt really reductive even with a trans woman in the movie. it felt weird for her to go to the queer-coded b4rbies to get help and then they stop mattering when they arent helping cishet b4rbie society. and no butch b4rbies, obviously.

it felt like they were going "see? woman power!! but dont forget to be respectable!!" despite halfway through talking about how hard it is to be respected as a woman. and this is most egregious when they have sasha going on an honestly reasonable and well-founded rant about the negative social impact of b4rbie which is then not really brought up in a meaningful way again. shes played for laughs and its only addressed as a "we hear your criticisms but theyre very silly bc barbie stands for woman power so there. 😊" like she calls b4rbie a fascist and thats a whole joke, which is really fucking weird tbqh.

but my point is that its ok to be critical of the way women are treated and what is expected of women, and its ok to be weird or ugly or whatever!! up until the point it makes you ACTUALLY ugly or tooOo much of a deviant (like dressing in revealing clothing as a professional, or criticising consumerism which is just a silly thing to do because why would you EVER-), in which case you just hate women and make the cause look bad.

anyway, i thought the movie was fun. it looked great, the soundtrack was fun, the casting choices were pretty good, and i liked the real talk about how hard being a woman can be. at the same time, it was a very long ad for b4rbie. it was corporate, and mostly sold a very girlboss, shallow look at feminism. a good entry point for like, men who think women arent oppressed but love their girlfriend enough to TRY to understand, or for middle aged women looking to hear something nice about their existence, or people looking for a fun summer movie with a few funny bits. not a great movie for film nerds or riotgrrls or trans people or anti-capitalists.