Barbie and Sasha
I have to say I really appreciate the Sasha character in Barbie. I see a lot of my middle school self in her.
I too was a girl who adored Barbie as a kid, but then I got older and got a first taste of What The Real World Is Like (inequality, sexism, etc.)
And then I rejected Barbie because I internalized all the misogynistic crap that had been projected on her and she became a symbol of All Shitty Things Women Are Expected To Be (brainless, useless, only exist to be pretty assistants to men).
Hence, I fell deep into a “not like other girls” phase because I desperately didn’t want anyone to think I was one of those girls (“”brainless bimbos who have no thought in their heads but boys””). I wanted to be taken seriously, and as someone who was already a bit tomboyish, I felt like I had to reject everything Barbie represented in my eyes.
But then I got older, and a tiny bit more nuanced, and realized Barbie being bubbly and pink wasn’t the problem: The problem was the assertion that anything considered “girly” can’t be smart, or useful, or anything but an empty shell.
Barbie is far from flawless and perfectly unproblematic, but the older I get the more I realize that she wasn’t the problem: It was the flawed people and world around her that were.
Anyway, Sasha does a great job illustrating that push and pull between what Barbie used to mean when you’re an innocent kid versus what she can become when you start to grow out of childhood and get your first taste of the real world and how deeply unfair it can be, especially to girls.
Anyway, Barbie is great go see it.
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I've been Going Through It pretty hard lately. Times have been rough, and in these times I turn to escapism. And it got me thinking about the importance of it, and how it can save us. And how for me this has manifested in giant monsters beating the hell out of each other in movies, and giant monsters are very often used in allegorical n metaphorical ways for things.
So as a way to express my feelings n thoughts on escapism n vent how I been feeling I made this comic n put a lot of thought into it. While for me the Bad Times Beast here is depression specifically, I intend it as a general metaphor for Going Through It so I hope this resonates with other people saved by escapism too, and that whatever you're going through you are able to find the strength to get through. Even if you need some help from your special friends on the screen or in the pages.
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