“Barbie” big hitembarrassed those who expected the film’s awakening to dampen box office enthusiasm.
The success of “Barbie” is not just about getting people to buy movie tickets. Stream a soundtrack of customized Barbie tunes, track Margot Robbie’s matching outfit re-enactment at press stops around the world, call your friends, and have matching bubblegum for everyone. They wear pink and flock to theaters. The social phenomenon surrounding “Barbie” is bigger than the movie itself.
The most obvious reason behind the “Barbie” craze is a brilliant and extensive marketing campaign that includes a real-life dream house on Airbnb, a giant dollhouse in Dubai, and dozens of brand partnerships. But many successful campaigns don’t elicit as positive a response as this one.
The magic of “Barbie” is not in the publicity stunts, but in how unapologetically girly the movie and its advertisements are. There was no part of the film designed for men, and the marketing team wanted the world to know that.
This shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it sets ‘Barbie’ apart in a world where women are rapidly disappearing. Thanks to the progressive left, women’s sports are no longer just for women. Sorority clubs are also beginning to allow men to participate. Anyone who speaks out against it is quickly labeled a bigot, and many women are humiliated into silence.
Men don’t get turned down at the cinema, but they don’t come to see “Barbie” in the first place. Movie theaters are one of the places women can go to celebrate their femininity around other women, so it’s a little sad that movies are fully awake.
Not a single male character isn’t portrayed as a clumsy, at least at some point—except for the charming, vanilla Alan. Men are not superior at Barbieland.
When women take the lead, Barbieland is presented as a utopia of girl power. When the men take the lead, it becomes a fraternity picture of hell. The solution to this problem that the Barbies have come up with is to switch places by date, pitting the Kens against each other and forgetting to vote on a day that is important to Barbieland’s democracy.
Of course, having only one gender in power doesn’t make the world any better, pitting one gender against another doesn’t improve anything, and men are just cartoons for female bosses. It should be more than a foil. None of this silliness, however, had a negative effect on the film’s box office success. Women are so hungry for female-only experiences that they happily ignore the reductive and ridiculous stories in pseudo-documentaries about childhood toys.
Some of the awakening messages contain some core truths, such as how difficult it is to live up to your expectations as a woman. “Barbie” has done dozens of jobs, all of which are painted smiles that resonate with women who feel they have to juggle impossible responsibilities while making it look easy. I will definitely call you.
But “Barbie” missed an opportunity to show that just because being a woman is hard doesn’t make it beautiful, special, challenging, and most of all, not unique to women.
Angela Moravito is a Visiting Fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.iwf.org).
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, non-partisan news distribution service, is available free of charge to legitimate news publishers capable of serving large audiences. All reissues must include our company logo, press byline, and DCNF affiliation. If you have any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
