If you're skeptical about Barbie, go watch it.

SPOILER ALERT- Please know if you read further, I will be sharing the plot and spoil the movie to share my analysis.

Have you heard of Barbie?

Wow, the Barbie movie. I was disappointed until I talked to my boyfriend about it. Since I had seen all the awesome marketing and was getting obsessed with all the PINK and the Barbie Marketing fanfare in the air.

What's the ending?

At first, I was analyzing the plot as I normally do and thinking about the finale where Barbie gets a vagina. Yay! Barbie is a real woman. So transformational, I can’t believe I just waited for that ending. Almost feels like a Pinocchio ending.

Is this really how it ends?

I pushed further, I started thinking “okay, Barbie goes to the real world and back and then each world (Barbieland and Real-world) continue to perpetuate their own form of government?”

Okay, I knew that misogyny is still strong in the world and there are problems we need to change, but so what? Was the Barbie movie just blatantly pointing out the obvious?

It wasn’t until my boyfriend mentioned that this movie was very “inclusive” and “made him think a lot”, that I realized this movie was bigger than the plot and me. The movie did not just perpetuate what I knew but it showed him how the different the world could be. And I started to see as well, as he shared how easy and welcoming it was to discuss this movie and its ideas.

My boyfriend mentioned that it was very eye-opening to see in relation the patriarchal world, but starting from a matriarchal world and how the world doesn’t have to be the way it is. He references the moment Barbie goes to the construction site to get some female affirmation. And I agree it was a very simple and climactic moment when Ken gets up from the escalator to the revelation of “patriarchal bros supporting each other”. This moment is when Ken realizes that men are important and valued and can live a life with “patriarchy, trucks, and horses.”

I was laughing at the moment when Ken relished in the discovery of his patriarchal transformation as he began looking down on a female doctor; I was desensitized by the everyday encounter or stereotypical behavior throughout history or even how commonplace the interaction seem. I even thought this was a comic relief moment thinking how menial Ken’s behavior was. But this doesn't have to be funny, it could even be rude or uncalled for.

As I dug further, I hit an epiphany, the movie wasn’t about the outcome of Barbie, but was about the outcome of the people watching Barbie.

What does Greta want?

By the outcome of the people watching Barbie, I meant what does the Barbie director Greta Gerwig want to evoke?

What is the outcome of a successful movie?

Change?
Ripple effect?
Awareness?
Transformation?
Societal evolution?

It was the scene when the weird Barbie started a sanctuary to deprogram the programmed Barbies, that I started to see, the parallel of the movie and our world.

For those who haven’t seen the movie, watch the movie.

Kendom - How did it go down?

The Kendom world had reprogrammed Barbies to be subservient to the Kens by taking all that the Barbies’ had and instilled a system that made women no longer in control of their own autonomy. I still don’t know how Ken did that in a day, but will further investigate.

It was with the deprogramming one by one of the Barbies that they were able to build a revolution and have the Kens pitted against each other, almost how women have been pitted against each other in our American history. Are you starting to see the magic? Because I was–what's the big deal with Kendom? what's the big deal with Barbieland?

The Kendom world represented a mockery of women while the Barbie world represented a world of women self autonomy and vice versa for men; however, making either gender feel less than or even lacking in autonomy. Greta’s Barbie movie ending leaves us with a blueprint for how to spot Kendom behaviors, when men are trying to assert dominance over women; not in a sexy way, but in a harmful way, setting back the whole society of women, leveraging the ripple effect, and it all started with only one Ken.

What is the movie asking of us?

The ending also helps us realize that in order to overthrow the patriarchy, all women needed to be deprogrammed, if not one by one, in order to even stand a chance to gaining autonomy. The women then need to stand together.

Seeing women act the way they do in Kendom, damsels in distress for others to save them, I knew that it was wrong. But the irony is that right after watching the movie at 11pm, I saw young adults on the street mingling around the bars and I noticed a drunk girl and a drunk guy standing close with the guy holding a vape saying, “Haha, I have an invisible leash on you with the vape. You see it?” I saw modern day Kendom behavior right before my eyes.

The scenes in Kendom where women act in accordance to men were almost a template for how some interactions between men and women occur today, when dignity is taken away. And it was almost like the movie itself is the deprogramming. So thanks Greta for getting so meta and making the movie so simple and easy to watch. And making a ripple effect transforming everyone to be a new person hopefully equipped to being aware of misogynistic behavior. So if a wo/man is ever in a misogynistic/misandry relationship, pull her/him out and deprogram her/him. Tell them they deserve dignity, respect and have full autonomy to leave. They have every right to instill boundaries to be treated with respect.
The tricky part is the small stuff like off-handed jokes, passing subtle gender-biased knowledge from misinformed social media, being asked to do something out of social hierarchy/gender myths (getting coffee for the manager) or any micro-aggressions.

Micro-aggressions are common, everyday slights and comments that relate to various aspects of one's appearance or identity such as class, gender, sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, mother tongue, age, body shape, disability, or religion, among others.

Freedom, is almost what I left only with, is what Barbie in the movie represents. And when Ken says “Ken is me. Ken is me.” It occurred to me Greta was saying, “You should decide who you are. Don’t let society define you just because it’s always been this way.”

And lastly don’t let anyone take away your autonomy or pit you against another person/group/race/gender. If they do, then they win. This point is strong for me and some may not see this clearly. But this is relevant in 'Model Minority' Myth, political campaigns, admissions quotas, American vs non-Americans, Han vs minority races, and more. Unity and autonomy is where dignity and liveliness can thrive. Dig deep for what you stand for and understand where the story is coming from; don't blindly believe the dialogue that's written for you.

P.S. Where are my asian Barbies?

Want to hear about my gripe with the Barbie? Check out my Dark Side of Barbie post.