Last Sunday, I went to the drive in to see the new Barbie movie and for some reason it’s taken me a few days to put into words how I felt about it.
Before heading to the movie, I was told from strangers and friends alike that there was quite a bit of politics throughout the movie & therefore I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
However I was honestly pleasantly surprised.
For context, I grew up LOVING Barbie. I’d add her to my Santa’s Wish List every year and I wanted to be just like her. However, what kid hasn’t wanted to be her at some point? With her long blonde hair, big blue eyes, and “perfect” body?
Between my sister and I, I think we had enough shoes & outfits to last our Barbies a lifetime - thinking back it’s probably how I became a shopaholic (I’m kidding…. Kind of).
But, if I’m being honest, when I started losing my hair at 5, a bald Barbie didn’t exist, and so I no longer could relate to her.
No matter how old you are, it’s never easy to feel like you don’t meet societies standards of beauty & feel like you have to look a certain way to be successful in life.
That’s why I was so pleased to see that the new Barbie movie had characters from different ethnicities, coming from different backgrounds, who worked different types of jobs. The movie provided a Barbie for almost every minority group, while also featuring Barbies with visible (and non visible disabilities). One Barbie was in a wheelchair, while another had a prosthetic arm.
The movie also touched on subjects like anxiety and depression.
While there wasn’t a bald Barbie featured that I saw (despite Mattel releasing a new line of Barbie Fashionistas in 2020 with a prosthetic limb, alopecia & vitiligo), it does make me happy to know that people around the world will potentially go into the cinema and see themselves in Barbie.
Barbie was criticized for promoting a narrow, unrealistic ideal of what is beautiful, however, I felt that Greta Gerwig, as well as the cast, crew, etc were able to capture Barbie in a new light and showcase society’s diversity.
Representation really does matter and I feel like the new Barbie movie accomplished that.