I saw the Barbie movie this Sunday, (July 30). It was as much fun as I expected and surprisingly thought provoking. It commented on identity as a creative construct, best left to the individual. The magic of personal identity is that you get to decide what it will be. You create it. In Barbie Land there are many versions of Barbie and Ken—more versions of Barbie than Ken. Each one was created to address the diversity of identification. In the real world, at the beginning of life, you are defined by your parents, siblings, and authority figures, but the final definition is yours.
Matriarchy or Patriarchy
Another topic touched upon is the value of a matriarchal or patriarchal organized society. In this film a matriarchal society is represented by Barbie Land and a patriarchal society is represented by the real world. Neither one is inherently better than the other, just different. Eventually in Barbie Land the two forms of organizing society find a balance and function effectively together. The Barbies still govern though. Patriarchy has been adopted by the real world. We can see its weaknesses very clearly and are aware of its fragility.
In Barbie Land the Barbies govern and have strong bonds. The Kens don’t rule. They have adversarial relationships with each other as they try to win the attention of the Barbies. In Barbie Land the Kens are relegated to the status of eye candy without being objects of sexual desire. There is gender but, no sex in Barbie Land.
The Barbies appear to be better balanced than their Ken counterparts. Their confidence comes from more than the fact that they govern Barbie land. Their security comes from within. The movie suggests that through their play with the dolls, the young girls, the doll’s person, project their desires onto the Barbies giving them an inner core of purpose. The Kens in Barbie Land don’t have that same core of support. The girls in the real world playing with Ken dolls don’t project much of their desires and dreams onto them or pay them much attention because they are accessories to Barbie.
Barbie is Broken
When Barbie’s person, Gloria, played with Barbie as a young girl and still does as an adult, although now for different reasons. As an adult she became more keenly aware of the oppressive nature of the patriarchy that rules in the real world. Her play with Barbie takes on darker tones and causes her Barbie in Barbie Land to lose her normally sunny disposition. This is hilariously illustrated by her feet going flat, grounding her. Barbie is no longer able to walk on her toes and accentuate her high heel shoes. Leading up to the flattening of her feet, she is having one of her nightly Dream House parties and finds herself contemplating death and muses about it aloud. Everything stops dead and she must pretend that she meant something else to get the party back on track.
Barbie just wants things to go back to the way they were and to do that she is told that she must go to the real world, find, and “fix” her person. Like all protagonists, Barbie must go on a journey. While it isn’t mentioned in the film, I believe that Gloria, Barbie’s person, is experiencing depression. She is frustrated at work and her daughter is growing apart from her. Her daughter will have nothing to do with the doll because to her, it symbolizes the suppression of women. The doll has a different identity between the two generations.
Barbie’s instinct is to make her journey alone but finds that her Ken has sneaked into her car to go on the journey too. While he doesn’t completely slow her down and does offer some assistance, it becomes clear that he isn’t there just for her. Ken is looking for meaning beyond “beach.” Barbie searches the real world to find her person while Ken looks for the meaning of masculinity.
They find themselves in Venice Beach, CA, a very colorful place that is a peculiar blend of fantasy and reality. Barbie is confused to see that the real world is a patriarchy. Women are there, but not as solidly represented as the Barbies in Barbie Land. The real world is primarily ruled by men and this of course, intrigues Barbie’s Ken. He is attracted to all the fetishes and symbols of “male culture,” believing that embracing these elements makes men and gives them power. He does not understand that dolls are fetish items that draw power from those who engage or play with them. Not too many boys or men are playing with Ken dolls in the real world.
Mattel’s Box
Barbie encounters her maker in the real world, Mattel. Matell is not her creator. They produce and distribute the dolls, but Barbie’s creator was Ruth Handler, part founder of Mattel with her husband. She had to push hard to get Barbie made. The current board at Mattel are all men. They appear silly, cartoonish, and not very effective. Their version of patriarchy is not stable. It is missing something, but they see themselves as very much in charge. They want to return Barbie to her “box,” because having her on the loose in the real world is dangerous to the patriarchy. Barbie’s presence in the real world could upset the delicate balance of the world they have constructed.
However, the box that she was packaged in is not her point of origin. Her origin begins when she is removed from the box for play. The “box” is a metaphor for the social pressures that shape our identities at the beginning of our lives. Through living we become our own person and we can’t go back to that box. It can’t contain us anymore. Barbie must willingly return to the box and the board tries to trick her with the promise that all will be as before. Barbie does not fall for this deception. Escaping from the box before the men at Mattel can secure her in it, she encounters her creator who helps her to escape the Mattel building so that she can return to Barbie Land. Gloria and her daughter rescue her from the building and return with her to Barbie Land.
New Barbie Land
Ken left the real world before Barbie. He went back to Barbie Land to recreate it in his newfound vision of the real world. A world where the Barbies pay attention to the men and forget about themselves as individuals. Barbie arrives back in Barbie Land to see Ken’s changes and sets about undoing it. Gloria breaks Ken’s propaganda spell from the real world. She reminds the Barbies that there is no one neat little identity for all of them to aspire to, and that it is okay to just be yourself without having to be “perfect.” The Barbies distract the Kens from making their world permanent through law by exploiting their egos and getting them to attack one another out of jealousy. The takeover of Barbie Land revealed to the Barbies that the Kens cannot be taken for granted. They had to improve their relationship with them so they could exist together without an undercurrent of strife.
Once Barbie Land is restored, Barbie, encouraged by her experiences in the real world and realizes that she wants more than stereotypical Barbie. Her adventure has expanded her identity. There is no going back to the box of Mattel or Barbie Land. I think this was a very important statement. We can’t go back to the box. It can’t contain us, and it doesn’t define us anymore. We can’t go back to the 50s, a time when we believed that everyone knew their place. We are in the 21st century now and we are being called upon to expand our consciousness, to be more inclusive and accepting and to try different identities. There are some who would be more comfortable if we went back to the way things were, but things aren’t that way anymore and have been changing for quite a while.