Barbie McWorld

My expectation of the Barbie movie being deeply feminist and excessively woke shattered when confronted with an underlying message that appeared disconnected and purposeless (not to mention highly incoherent). The film ostensibly extolled the virtues of women’s empowerment: it included, for instance, Nobel Prize-winning Barbie, a Black Female President Barbie, and an all-female supreme court. But empowerment was relegated to the realms of Barbie World alone. In the ‘Real World’ of the film, by contrast, best embodied by America Ferrera’s character Gloria, women face overwhelming societal pressures. In this reality, girls aspire to engage with a relatable ‘ordinary Barbie’, as opposed to the extremely attractive, eternally blissful one portrayed by Margot Robbie. Unsurprisingly, this portrayal was deemed offensive, according to the mandate that Barbie must represent the prevailing state of American women: overweight, ailing and trapped in boring and depressing jobs.