So me and my siblings decided to watch the Barbie movie. (There will be spoilers going forward)

Some of the jokes were ok, mostly its messaging felt like what an out of touch liberal thinks feminism sounds like.

Lost it when they defeated the patriarchy by

-ing harder than anyone has ever done before.

Also, this has got to be the first movie I've seen that is pro-voter disenfranchisement.

The two Kens unaffected by the patriarchy being shitty queer stereotypes annoyed me but not sufficiently that I wasn't like

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

at one of them being Rob Brydon.

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I found Barbie and Ken's journeys of self discovery pretty funny.
Ken's self actualisation comes from rocking out with his boys and doing sick dance battles.
Barbie gets a UTI.

The movie, from what I could tell, is trying to demonstrate the ideas of how patriarchy works by getting the audience to feel bad for the Kens, who (like women in the real work) hold no positions of power and are the "second sex," accessories of the Barbies but not whole persons themselves. Then the Kens rebel, but they don't break the Ken/Babrie dichotomy, instead replacing matriarchy by patriarchy which obviously doesn't work. The main Barbie is clearly not OK with this status quo, hence why she leaves in the end, because she sees "her" Ken as a real person worthy of being enfranchised and elevated to the status of human. The Barbie world is just an inversion of our world, and it doesn't seem to me the movie is saying that's a "good" thing so much as it's using that inversion to explore what patriarchy is and what it means. Just because a movie shows you something doesn't mean it endorses it.
- In no part of my post did I say that this movie presented the status quo of Barbieland's matriarchy as a positive thing.
  One thing it fails to adequately address in its discussion of patriarchy is how it's enforced upon society. In the film's conception of patriarchy it's a component of society that has always existed and feminism (Keninism?) is a reaction to the natural status of things. As opposed to how the patriarchy of the real world is the product of centuries of hegemonic enforcement.
  
  I don't think that the choice not to present the origins of patriarchy necessarily means it's being shown as the natural state of things. It just means that they didn't think that was an important thing to include. That's definitely a decision you can (and should) level valid criticism at, but I think that's different from saying they're presenting it as natural.
  
  Absolutely, I think you're right in that the movie is still fundamentally out of touch liberal feminism but perhaps I'm a bit kinder to it than you are. Certainly assuming that "natural" state of patriarchy is a major flaw with how all liberals think; nothing is ever historicised, nothing was ever created or evolved, it's always been like this and therefore to change anything is difficult, oft times inconceivable. To admit the patriarchy was made is to admit it can and will be unmade, and that it is propped up by centuries, millenia even, of violence, violence almost enitely absent in the movie. Granted, at the end of the day it's just a long ad for a toy anyway.

Also, this has got to be the first movie I've seen that is pro-voter disenfranchisement.
Without a shadow of a doubt, this has got to be one of the interpretations of all time
- Well there's the whole plot thread where the Barbies all heroically work together to make sure none of the Kens can vote.
  I don't think the intended message was voter suppression is good, but that's how it shook out imho.
  
  Electoralism and voter suppression (effectively) will solve patriarchy is a kinda sus conclusion to roughly 30 minutes of dialogue appropriately identifying the isolation of capitalism and the failures of feminism under patriarchy
- but it is

The two Kens unaffected by the patriarchy being shitty queer stereotypes
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That seems like some proper gen x brainworms from whoever wrote or directed the movie.
- Noah “families are broken by repression” Baumbach and Greta “Mumblecore Darling” Gerwig wrote it so it’s the perfect blend of gen x brainworms and Milennial cope
  
  40 year olds are millenials now? Damn time is going by fast
- Yeah, it doesn't feel like it was supposed to be spiteful. This film radiates out of touch boomer liberal energy.

Good review, appreciate it! I am also now going

at Rob Brydon being in this film, I had no idea lmao

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