Review of Barbie (2023) by Robertoortiz64 — 08 Aug 2023

A Very Conflicting Film on Many Fronts For Me.

Growing up, I was a pretty big fan of the old Barbie Direct to Video Movies. Being a boy growing up in the late 2000s I had to watch them while everyone else was asleep, like I was doing something taboo (which it kind of was at the time). Girls in elementary and middle school would talk about them, but I knew if I even said a word about it it'd be constant scrutiny, from them and my other classmates. Those films, as well as the Tinker Bell ones, WInx Club, Monster High, Totally Spies, they all were very formative for me as a kid.

Recently, as an adult, i've finally been able to talk about these things and be open about liking them, and I was very excited to see this movie. Going into the theatre was fun, seeing everyone dressed up in pink was neat and I was having a blast through the first half of the movie. Once they got to the real world, I was still laughing at all of the patriarchy jokes they were making, as I thought the movie was making the point that both worlds were broken and they had to work together to fix them. However, as the movie went on, it just felt like the narrative was screaming at me in the theatre that I shouldn't be there. Even if I loved the sets, the performances, the acting, the jokes, I couldn't get past that this movie of a character that I personally really liked was reaffirming all those childhood traumas of being othered as a man who liked things considered "girly.".

The movie seems to set out to break gender roles, but it honestly just reinforces them by alienating a lot of people who would really love to support its other message of humanity and everyone being flawed in their own way. These "Girls Rule, Boys Drool" narratives are, in my opinion, very juvenile and only serve to hinder any progress we can make in breaking gender norms and making everyone feel comfortable to be themselves. I loved literally everything else about this movie, but a movie that makes me feel like less of a human being will never not be painful.