Not often does a movie earn fascination from the entire country and leave viewers with such conflicting interpretations. But Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has done exactly this: some see the movie as a celebration of millennial motherhood, while others see it as an outlet for female angst, and still others think it’s an anti-man rallying cry. Yet even amid these wildly conflicting interpretations, what’s clear is that the movie is far more than a kitschy story about a plastic doll.
Notably absent from the discussion is the movie’s quiet critique of transhumanism. Barbieland, a realm that parallels the human world, is a society of deified womanhood. Barbies are an immaculate race of women who run everything, from the Supreme Court to the construction industry. Every night is girls’ night. Kens are superfluous ornaments to the Barbies’ dazzling brilliance.
But in Barbieland, no one has children or parents, wrinkles or cellulite, food or drink, or even genitals. Barbieland is the logical outcome of a feminism that aspires to empower women—in their beauty, talents, professions, relationships, and sexuality—beyond their natural human limits. Barbie isn’t anti-feminist; rather, it gestures toward a more humane feminism, one that encourages women to embrace rather than erase aging, mortality, and mothering.
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