Barbie (2023)

Barbie was a surprisingly fun, if silly, story created from nothing more than a toy line. Typical of Gerwig’s films, it tried to have a lot to say and, typically, it had a mixed level of success in doing so.

Just briefly and superficially, here are the ideas that jumped out at me on a single viewing:

The Patriarchy, Feminism, and Justice vs. Power Dynamics

Barbie did a good job of showing the silliness of the patriarchy and its effects on society. Firstly, this fantasy set up a world in which women rule. Their entire existence is centered on them and men exist to serve women. In this fantastical world, everything is sweet and nice, because the Barbies are sweet and nice. Everyone is happy and fulfilling their purpose. However, when they go into the real world (which is a hard disbelief to suspend), they discover that things are not great. People are not nice. Everyone is struggling to find purpose. The men are sort of in charge, but not in the way that the Barbie world has the women in charge. They are vaguely aware that there is something called “Patriarchy” but they don’t really exercise it. Ken is indoctrinated in the idea of Patriarchy, and upon his return he takes over the Barbie world. He does not really want this power, however, as his purpose for existence is to be the help-mate of Barbie.

Things really fall apart for the story when the Barbies discover the means to snap themselves out of the patriarchy spell. They simply need to complain about their lives and the way Kens treat them. This allows them to wake up and regain power. If only it were so simple in the real world. The problem is that the real world is not working the way it was designed, and despite the power struggle between the sexes and the significant gains women have made, some won’t be happy until the power dynamic has been reverse, not balanced.

Gerwig’s Frustrating Form of Femenism

A common thread in most of Gerwig’s stories is a form of feminism that insists that women cannot trully be themselves in a relationship with men. In “Little Women” she changed the story to have Jo remain single at the end. Here in Barbie, despite Ken being created for Babrie, she cannot be true to herself and end up with him. Frustratingly, Ken’s lot will be to go find a new reason for being, because he is being denied the very purpose for which he was created. And that brings us to the most frustrating idea of the film…

God, Purpose, Expressive Individualism and Its Empty Promises

In this story, we have an actual world that was created by a creator, with a purpose in mind. The problem is, however, that this creator is a mere human being. As in all mythical god stories that cultures invent, we can’t conceive of a god that is anything more than another creature like us. The Barbie creator is happy to admit that she had no clue what real purpose she could give her creation. Barbie has superseded her creator’s designs. And what is this much greater purpose? She does not have a clue as to what it could be. It is nothing more than “discovering herself.” The film ends with Barbie reaching a nirvana that is nothing more than the clueless, flawed, “patriarchal” real world. Her heaven is our own recognizably flawed world!

Instead, in this real world that is flawed and broken due to our own desire to “discover ourselves” and reject our created purpose, we have an actual transcendent God. This God has given us purpose and knows how we were created to live in harmony with each other and the world. The answer to our problem is not, “go discover yourself and be ‘true’ to whatever version of yourself you invent.” (Talk about pressure and a destiny of failure!) Instead, we ought to turn to our creator and discover His designs and paths to a fulfilled life.