CDU EXPERT: Barbie the Movie and the criticism it attracts
24 July, 2023
Who: Charles Darwin University popular culture expert Dr Stephen Kerry (they/them).
Topics:
- Criticism of Barbie the Movie
- Attack feminism and ‘woke’ culture
- Barbie conforms to the hero-trope
Contact details: Call +61 8 8946 6721 or email media@cdu.edu.au to arrange an interview.
Quotes attributable to Dr Kerry:
“Barbie the Movie has garnered wide appraisal, but unsurprisingly it has also attracted criticism. This criticism has come from social commentators who are well-known for their defence of hegemonic masculinity and the tired refrain of ‘not all men’”.
“By repositioning Ken as the protagonist, these social commentators have not only applied a revisionist history to the Barbie franchise (e.g. referring to “Ken and Barbie”) but used the movie to attack feminism and ‘woke’ culture once again. This is not new. The same backlash, from the same social commentators, followed the casting of Daisy Ridley in Star Wars, Jodie Whittaker in Doctor Who, and Sonequa Martin-Green in Star Trek (and many others)."
“The central ideology that is always overlooked by these social commentators is that the repositioning of women, people of colour, and LGBTQIA+ people as the protagonist is itself a backlash against a century of white straight cismen dominating the stories being told in film."
“With the few exceptions such as Sigourney Weaver (Alien) and Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) it is almost always white straight cismen who are the archetypal hero. In Barbie the Movie, however, Barbie conforms to the hero-trope. Not unlike Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings), Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) and Neo (The Matrix) Barbie is the chosen one. Barbie must seek out the wise and reclusive Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) who becomes her Gandalf, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Morpheus sends her on her adventure to the ‘real world’."
“Barbie the Movie is irreverent and fun, from the 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque opening scene to the many cheesy and camp song-and-dance numbers on par with Xanadu and Can’t Stop the Music and it always seem strange that so many people can be so upset about a movie about a doll."
Contact details:
Raphaella Saroukos she/her
Communications Officer
Marketing, Media & Communications
T: +61 8 8946 6721
E: media@cdu.edu.au
W: cdu.edu.au
