“Barbie” Feminism

I wouldn’t watch “Barbie” on a bet; I wouldn’t waste my time or money.  But, having read about it and its wild popularity, I did want to know if it’s truly as horrifying as it seems.  Now I do; it is.

The film has been roundly criticized as a tedious rehash of 80s feminism and a political diatribe masquerading as art.  And, if this article in Elle is any indication, that’s spot-on.  Toward the end of the movie a character played by one America Ferrera delivers a soliloquy that distills the message - just in case viewers, browbeaten for the previous 100 minutes, hadn’t figured it out.  Thanks to Elle, a grateful world can now read the whole sorry thing.

It’s not long, just 327 words, but Elle tells us that, “every word hits hard.”  The speech comes after “the Kens” have “turn[ed] Barbie Land into a patriarchy” (of course they have) requiring Ferrera’s character to “speak[] plainly to the greater, painful truth of being a woman in America,” aka, Barbie Land.  And that, in turn, “awakens the other Barbies who were brainwashed under the “Kendom.”  The horror, the horror.

Such for-the-ages writing can’t have been easy for writer/director Greta Gerwig to produce, and sure enough, Elle informs us that she and Ferrera “spent months refining it into the final version,” doubtless leaving readers fairly quivering with anticipation.

But, as expected, it’s just the usual feminist claptrap, which “leads you to an overwhelming question” - “huh?”  From the outset, sensible readers simply wonder what this person is barking about.

It’s literally impossible to be a woman in America.

Huh?  What does that even mean?  Does she know the definition of the word “literally?”  How can anyone make such an assertion in light of the fact that there are about 168 million women and girls living here with more arriving daily?  But perhaps an explanation is forthcoming.  Alas there’s not.  Instead, we get more assertions like “you can’t grow old.”  Huh?  Or “you have to be a boss.”  Really?  Women have to be bosses?  Then there’s “we always have to be extraordinary.”  Huh?  By definition, all women can’t be extraordinary.  And on and on; it just makes no sense.

After the “huh?” comes the whine; every parent has heard the words and tone of the speech; they’re pure 12-year-old - “it’s so unfair; they never let me do anything!”  Of the 22 sentences in the speech, 17 of them are some version of “women aren’t allowed A,” or “women are required to B.”

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean.

… etc, etc.  Now, while our hypothetical 12-year-old may have a legitimate complaint about her parents, these women are supposedly adults and don’t.

For one thing, having attained their majority, they literally (yes) don’t have to do anything they don’t want to as long as they obey the law.  No, you actually don’t have to be thin and most women aren’t.  You don’t have to be healthy, but don’t you want to be?  And no, you don’t have to be a boss; most women aren’t that either.  And on and on.  The screed isn’t just loony, it’s childish too, but also meant to be taken seriously by grown-ups. 

Plus, the assertions of the speech are contradicted by basic facts.  So, women “can’t grow old,” but they significantly outlive men.  Asking for money is crass?  Tell that to the millions of divorced men who’ve been kicked out of the house they paid for and are paying child support and alimony to their ex-wives.  Turns out that women are altogether capable of asking for money.

You have to answer for men's bad behavior… 

Oh, how so?  I can’t imagine an example and Gerwig offers none.  But the reality is that (a) women are treated far more leniently by the criminal justice system and public discourse than are men and (b) women’s bad behavior is routinely just overlooked.  The say-so of a woman, whether true or false, can lose a man his job, future jobs, his reputation, marriage, children, etc.  Mothers often violate family court orders without consequences to them.  And any allegation of domestic violence made by a woman against a man, whether true or false, can inflict dire consequences on him.  Men often pay a steep price for the wrongdoing of women.

And, speaking of men, does Gerwig not understand the obvious, that, with a few tweaks in language, but none in content, the exact same strictures and expectations bemoaned in the speech apply to men?  Does she believe that society places no expectations on us to look good, be healthy, earn money, not be mean or rude, etc.  So, is it “literally impossible” to be a man in America?  “Barbie” is just feminist agitprop, so inconvenient questions are never asked.

Perhaps most amazing of all is that the film and the speech exist in a society in which every possible privilege is accorded to women and girls.  Read John Tierney’s piece for the gist of the matter and my commentary on it.  How is it that Gerwig, et al, convince themselves that they’re hard done by when, decades ago, the entire elementary and secondary educational system were refigured to conform to girls’ preferences?  What about the literally hundreds of programs, scholarships, student centers, etc. on college campuses that benefit solely women and do so in plain violation of federal and state laws?  How is it that pop culture routinely depicts men as violent buffoons and women as wise and moral?  Why are only 40% of college enrollees men without a peep of concern from anyone?  Same question about the 75%+ of suicides who are males.  The list of special pleading for and special treatment of women at men’s expense is virtually limitless, but the geniuses behind “Barbie,” tell us the U.S. is a wasteland of misogyny.

 Why?  Because it works.  Female humans have long known the power of the “damsel in distress,” - the ability to gain the attention and protection of men - which is all this speech is.  That originated as a necessary way to help ensure the survival of the species by offering special protections to women.

Today, enhancing human reproduction is hardly Job 1, but long-evolved habits die hard.  Men still fly to the rescue of distressed females and women, including feminists, know it.  That explains the success of feminism; it has always relied on male power structures to “come to the rescue” when the fair sex cried or cried “foul.”  Some may think it an irony that feminism, that loudly ballyhoos women’s strength and independence, would owe its success to the most traditional of all sex roles, but it does.

So there we have it - “Barbie,” a story about a little girl’s doll told by adults to try to convince adults that the more privileged sex needs still more privilege and that the less privileged sex needs to provide it.

Our decline continues.  We make it anew every day.