They were all absolutely infatuated with him and whispering about how much they wanted to pet him and then shushing each other saying “no that’s rude you can’t! just leave him alone!” so I told them they can pet him if they want and they were absolutely overwhelmed with happiness, while simultaneously being very concerned for his well-being, continually asking if I was very sure that it was okay and that I should please please tell them if I need them to leave him alone.
Basically, it was a great ending to a VERY long day. Sometimes people are really great.
the composition here is honestly close enough to a medieval painting, and just fuckin beautiful in 2138908 ways, that i think we can go ahead and hang this in a museum, thanks
another key moment i really connected with is when the CEO of Martell tried to get Barbie in the box and she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.
like as the little plastic restraint thingys were about to cuff her wrists and she removed her hands just at the last second because something about the entire situation just didn’t feel right.
like she knew or thought she was surrounded by men who had good intentions for her and wanted to go along with what they were telling her to do but something about it just wasn’t clicking that what they were saying was making sense to what they were trying to represent.
that moment right there, that’s called female intuition. and i personally think that intuition and female intuition are similar but they are somehow not the same and here’s why;
It’s important to recognise that Barbie (2023) criticises both the patriarchy AND the matriarchy. Yes, the Ken’s are just accessories to the Barbies. Yes, they don’t have any say in the government they live under. That’s the point, you’re supposed to feel awful, you’re supposed to want the Kens to have their own agency, you’re supposed to want equality. The Barbie movie explicitly states that the way Barbie tears Ken is wrong, so much so that once he finds a safe space for his masculinity and individual identity he’s so excited to share it with the other Kens.
But they go overboard and replace a matriarchy with a patriarchy and now the same issue exists but in reverse. That’s the POINT!! THATS THE POINT!!! Barbie is not anti-men it’s pro equality PLEASE understand this
Something I found very interesting about the Barbie movie was the Ken’s mimicking of patriarchy. I’ve seen some comments putting it as a stance of men’s inherent desire to oppress women but would argue it much more reflects the socialization process many young boys experience that encourages them take on misogynistic views. The kens do not resent the Barbie’s. They’ve grown up in a society the Barbie’s run and the adore and love them. I think you could say that reflects the early stages of life for many boys where often the main role models they know are women, their mothers (as they often have a more involved role than fathers) and eventually their teachers, which women still make up the vast majority of early childhood educators.
The Kens also notably lack a sense of brotherhood at the start of the movie. And it isn’t until they’re in the real world our main Ken experiences positive male attention and approval (which is only due to him also being a man). It is that desire for approval from his male peers that initially drives him to believe in patriarchy.
There is of course also the underlying struggle of his unrequited feelings for Barbie, but none of the kens truly resent the Barbies. They don’t actually want them as oppressed servants. Yes they want their attention, but even during kendom we see them happiest on their cheesy guitar playing group date. They begin oppressing Barbie’s not because it’s what they actually want but rather it’s them mimicking the behaviour of men.
And that is why I think it makes such a great ode to the socialization of young boys to be misogynistic. Boys do not have an innate hatred for women, nor is it something they naturally grow into of their own fruition. But rather it’s a patterned of learned behaviours they in most cases initially mimic for the approval of other men or to gain attention, but overtime becomes a very real ideology then adopt and believe in and likely pass on.
thing about Barbie that I lovedddd was how much all her raw moments were with older women that society often considers beyond their prime
her watching how humanity lives and loves, and immediately being struck by the beauty that comes with aging as she did with the woman at the bus stand– and saying it out loud, as a person who has been hailed as the standard of beauty and its adjacence with youth for so long
getting comfort and sanctuary and a moment of calm in the middle from another older woman, and her guidance at the end from the same lady who helps her understand what she is going through
there is something there about making the heart of the film older women, when the very thing that sets Barbie off on her adventure was the fear of cellulite and aging
