Greta Gerwig’s hot pink fever dream revolving around her favorite childhood toy has received absolutely nothing but positively raving praise from fans and critics… kind of.Viral online reviewsofBarbieby commentators like Ben Shapiro and The Critical Drinker called the movie “a flaming piece of dogsh*t” and “the greatest lie ever told,” decrying the film as woke for reinforcing liberal political themes that run counter to traditional conservative beliefs, such as that men and women can’t be happy together, or that matriarchy is somehow better than patriarchy.
The harsh reviews have some merit, if presented so extremely, as burning dolls has recently become a popular protest against the movie among many, “in the mostOppenheimerfashion.”
However, those reviews miss the most obvious critique of the film. ThatBarbie, which openly rejects the unrealistic standards that the doll of the same name sets upon women, is one big ad for that same doll that creates the problem in the first place. The real-life toy company Mattel which makes the Barbies hasn’t changed their dolls or policies to support women as Mattel in the movie does and isn’t likely to, as changes would be very costly and risky.
The Barbie Movie Is Supposed to Be a Satire
TheBarbiemovie has beenlabeled the ultimate satire by many, a clever comedy that goes beyond simple laughs to offer subtle commentary on social issues, particularly feminism, patriarchy, and gender roles.
The matriarchal Barbieland is fantastically cartoonish; the patriarchy which dominates the real world is just as goofy and exaggerated.Barbieisn’t very clear about it, but it does depict the problems with a world exclusively dominated by one gender, as the other feels subjugated, as Barbie did in the real world or Ken did in Barbieland.
TheBarbiemovieexplicitly condemns the unrealistic standards that the doll sets upon women. It doesn’t add anything to the discussion about the doll that’s been going on for decades, but at least the movie acknowledges the controversies and damage it has done for a long time. This would ideally be the turning point of the doll and company for the better. But that isn’t the case.
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Mattel Hasn’t Changed Anything
In the movie, the Mattel CEO changed their stereotypically perfect Barbie dolls with “Ordinary Barbie” to more accurately depict the true and realistic woman in the real world. But in the real world, Mattel hasn’t done anything similar, keeping the Barbie dolls the same.
The only change was done by the independent artist Nikolay Lamm usingCDC data to create the Lammily doll, with accurate proportions of the average young woman. Mattel is usingBarbietocash in on its product instead of engaging in any change.Barbiehas made nearly half a billion at the box office in just over a week, not including the skyrocketing toy sales and future movie purchases later on. Why should anything change when making money like this is so easy?
In fact, the real CEO of Mattel, Ynon Kreiz, has openly admitted to the company’s “ambition is to create film franchises” in an attempt to launch aMattel Cinematic Universewith as many as 45 different sequels and spinoffs based on their brands to join in on the movie trend of interconnected franchises which has racked in billions and billions, most famously like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (both would ironically be abbreviated as MCU). This practically proves that this whole movie will only reinforce the unrealistic standards it condemns, refusing to change its very, very profitable ways.
Related:Is Greta Gerwig the Future of Blockbuster Cinema?
The Barbie Movie Only Sells More Barbie Dolls
Barbie lost much relevance during the 2000s due to her role in shaping unrealistic body imaging among children, as well as her mono-ethnic white-only appearance becoming the source of much criticism. Disney’s doll based on Princess Elsa from the smash pop culture hitFrozenin 2013 has nearly dethroned Barbie as the world’s best-selling doll over the past decade.
A significant reconfiguration of the brand in 2019, which included multiple ethnicities and varying body types, revived Mattel’s fortunes and the doll’s place as a key revenue driver. Barbie sales, in fact, comprised around a quarter of the toymaker’s overall billings in 2022, meaning that Barbie could still beprofitable if done right.
Even before theBarbiemovie was released, sales of the Barbie dolls in anticipation of Gerwig’s film gave Mattel a big bump in the stock market, raking in a few more million dollars beforehand and likely much more afterward.
