My favorite question to get to know a person better is, “What is your favorite book, and why?”  It’s a great ice-breaking question and reveals a lot about a person.  (Click here if you want to know my 10 favorite books of all time.)  Recently, I have switched to the question, “What do you think about the movie Barbie?”  That question is far more interesting. 

Here is a smattering of the responses:

• “It was hilarious for people our age [meaning GenX].  My daughter didn’t understand a lot of the humor.”
• “It made me sad.”
• “It has a good message.”
• “It’s dangerous and people shouldn’t take their children to it.”
• “Why did they talk about Ken so much when the movie is about Barbie?”
• “Why did they portray Ken so negatively?”

What is it about this movie based on a plastic doll that has everyone so conflicted?  It is the cinematic equivalent of a Rorschach test.  The legacy of the Barbie toy is complicated, so why wouldn’t the movie be?

For the record, I didn’t have Barbie dolls.  My dad worked for Kenner Toys, so we weren’t going to have a bunch of Mattel toys in the house.  We were awash in Kenner made Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Care Bears, and Star Wars figures.  For me, Barbie always represented the beauty standard that I would never be able to achieve.  Barbie was tall with long blonde hair.  I was petite with short dark hair.  Nobody was going to make a doll for a kid like me.   I knew this in my gut at a very young age, even though that truth was never articulated.  Society wanted all women to be a certain way, and I knew early on that I would never be a Barbie.  I also grew up in the late seventies, and I watched Charlie’s Angels.  Little girls who watched that show could see that Sabrina with her short, dark hair got stuck wearing turtlenecks.  (She still carried a gun though, which made her badass.)

Here’s what I think about the movie Barbie.  If you feel that this world is rapidly descending into sin and depravity on a level not seen since Sodom and Gomorrah, then this movie will validate that world view.  If gender politics gets you fired up, and you feel that the role of men in society is constantly being diminished, this movie will validate that world view.  If you want a fun movie to see with your friends and escape from reality, this movie will do that for you.  If you think it is a silly movie about a toy that shouldn’t be taken so seriously, then you are really going to like this movie.

The Barbie movie, much like the Barbie doll, is going to be manipulated in whatever way you choose for it to go.  By itself, the movie has no power, other than the power to stimulate a discussion.

I loved the movie and thought it was one of the best I have ever seen because of the way the story was told.  Take all your emotions out of the movie, and just step back and look at the storytelling mechanics.  The movie had a scene that was a satire of 2001 A Space Odyssey.  The soundtrack was perfectly matched and included the glorious song “Pink” by Lizzo.  Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel and Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie was a stroke of casting genius.  This movie had so much subtle humor that you can’t catch it all in one viewing.  The fact that the only song that ever played in the dream car was “Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls made me laugh every single time someone took a ride. 

Do you see how I just geeked out on the Barbie movie?  That’s what I brought to the movie, my geeky self.  That’s what I projected onto the movie.  I didn’t realize until I just wrote this paragraph that I, too, fell into the Barbie Rorschach test.  I brought my scientific self into that movie and dissected it like a frog in ninth grade biology class.

Years ago, I wrote a blog post about Beekeeper Barbie.  You can find that post here.  You may think that I am the kind of person who would want to be Beekeeper Barbie since I am a beekeeper.  Beekeeper Barbie is not really for me.  I mean, she uses a flow hive, and those aren’t good in this climate.  I realized a long time ago that I could never be stereotypical Barbie.  Weird Barbie is a little too weird even by my standards.  No, I decided I want to be Badass Barbie.  Badass Barbie has a tattoo, wears boots, and has a posse of cool friends that are just one text message away.  Tell me what you think about the movie.  I’ll listen to everything you have to say.  Even if I don’t agree with you, I will still let you ride in my dream car, which is going to be a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am.