Today was the first day that both our kids are in day-care all day. Effectively the end of our parental leave. Me and my SO decided to treat ourselves to a movie and saw Barbie. We figured if the conservative sphere was getting pissy about it, it must be good.
Anyone else see it?
I wasnât expecting much. I have to say, I donât think I could have ever expected this movie to be what it was. Itâs campy, funny, colorful, and steps on your throat with itâs message and hardly letâs it off. I say that as positivity as someone can.
Itâs amusing to me that some people think the movie is anti-man. It did make me feel mournful for my daughters inevitable loss of innocence. A corporate, big budget toy advertisement of all things. I think thatâs the most surprising part. In some ways Barbie is the most unlikely and perfect vehicle for what the movie has to say.
I donât know. Itâs conflicting because, at the end of the day itâs a huge corporate puff peace, but also⌠What else could deliver itâs message to so many people?
Havenât seen it, donât plan to, donât care to tbh.
But having talked to some people about it, this is my takeaway: âMessagingâ is simply a new tool of marketing, especially âsubversiveâ messaging. Youâre not buying a car - youâre committing a revolutionary act of activism against climate change and fossil capitalism. Youâre not buying an ethically farmed, grass-fed, local steak, youâre fighting animal cruelty and big farming lobbies with your consumption. Youâre not simply dressing up skandidly in pink to watch a multi-hundred million dollar Hollywood production of Barbie produced and approved of by its parent company, giving new legitimacy to that old rubber toy franchise and boosting sales numbers. Youâre totally subverting gender roles and criticizing capitalism by doing so.
Imo youâre not. Youâre just buying a new car, munching another steak and going to the movies again promoting one of the most famous IPs of all time. Itâs the same thing weâve done our entire lives. Changing the messaging around the act without changing the act, doesnât change the act. Youâre just doing the thing.
There canât be anything really subversive coming out of the hegemonic culture industry. By the very nature of its production, via the commodification it undergoes, it has already become toothless and assimilated. Neoliberal anti-capitalism is just the newest sales-pitch. Itâs along the lines of âdiverseâ CIA targeting officer recruitment ads. Just like capitalism canât produce true anti-war movies, it canât produce anti-capitalist or real anti-gender-role movies. It would be self-defeating if it did.
That being said, if you enjoy it more power to you. Nobody needs a grand narrative of subversion and messaging to go see and enjoy a movie at the theater. If you get something deeper out of it, even better.
OP literally asked âWho saw itâ and you respond âHavenât seen it, donât plan to, donât care tbhâ and then give an opinionâŚ
Unreal.
Because OP literally only asked whoâs seen it all the answers here are plain yes/no ay?
This âyou have to experience something to comment on itâ is liberal individualism anyway. I donât have to be a farmer to comment on the impact of climate change on farming or climate change more broadly.
Youâd have a point if I had commented on the movieâs writing, aesthetic, picture, acting performances, score, etc. But I didnât. I made a general point about the nature of cultural products under capitalism and the laws that govern this movie as much as any other.
If you havenât seen it and donât care about it, then how are you able to discuss anything within the movie and give your opinion on its content?
Imagine a film critic giving his opinion and in the end saying âI actually didnât watch the movieâ.
You are just formulating an opinion based off of what youâve heard other people say, and it comes across as pretty foolhardy and arrogant.
The farmer example is also not applicable at all, because thatâs still something you can research and find data on independently. You canât independently gather data or an opinion on a movie. Unless you read the plot summary I guess, but that competently destroys the point of it being a movie.
No investigation, no right to speak.
And no, reading the plot summary or watching a YouTube analysis isnât investigation.
I could not have said it better myself. We need to be much more critical especially of media that purports to have some kind of âradicalâ or âsubversiveâ message because i guarantee you, if itâs made it to the mainstream it most certainly does not. Products made by big corporations may carry superficially anti-corporate messages but in reality they just serve to reinforce consumerism by getting people to believe that by consuming they are doing something radical.
You can make this same statement, which I donât disagree with, about every film. Itâs technically correct, which is the more boring kind of correct. Since most Normans are not at that point on the ideological world view scale, the movie exists in a whole different context for them. I think giving the Norman cultural context, this movie is subversive by that standard. It exists in a state of equilibrium between corporate revisionism and subversive cultural critique. Any tip of the scale in one direction or the other leads to either a vapid mass market blockbuster or a wildly unwatchable but biting satire that no one bothers to see.
We could discuss those ideas, but I think you would need to see the film in order to critique it for itâs content. Otherwise, we can return to the time honored traditions and write long winded shibboleths back and forth to each other, like two squawking crows at dawn, broadcasting our belief systems to the greater murder, without really saying anything of substance.
Imho, the Barbie movie is the biggest trojan horse in cinema history. It has nothing that resembles anything âbarbieâ done previously. For good or bad, it is a success and noone can argue but just think about how many mothers/fathers didnât even think of the age rating of the movie and took their kids to watch a highly politicised story. As it is with many things in life, thereâs a time and a place for everything, imo, and this sort of approach to ideologies is becoming more and more like religions, where they target the young. Aside from what I personally think about the movie, I donât want my kids to have to worry about politics or anything other than living their lives as kids, innocent and joyful and that we as parents will keep on working in the background to keep them safe and fed and loved, thatâs it. Being a parent is hard, I tell yaâŚ
Have you seen the movie? And to blame the movie for kids watching it is absolutely ridiculous. Put the blame where it should be, with the parents.
Also, newsflash about kids and teens: They donât give a fuck about politics and arenât going to give a shit about what is getting the rights panties all bunched up. They want to watch a movie and laugh, and if you could get over yourself, youâd have a good laugh too.
Quick personal question, do you make your kids go to church?
Iâm not religious but their mother is Jewish and so they go to the synagogue. Why is that?
Youâre concerned with political messages in a movie (mostly about women in power) and then force religion on your children. You do see the irony right?
A Trojan horse with neon lights announcing the hidden soldiers and surrounded by anti-Greek protesters.
if you have a kid youâre doing an absolute disservice to them with that attitude. like if u have a girl youâre gonna be like nah that wasnât sexism dont worry ur pretty little head? everything is political. especially parenting.
e from what I personally think about the movie, I donât want my kids to have to worry about politics or anything other than living their lives as kids, innocent and joyful and that we as pare
I was referring to kids, not teenagers. The movie is rated PG13 but in fact kids aged 5 or 6 and over are watching itâŚ
Lol man, every women I know has a story about being sexualized by an adult man when they were a child. Every, single, one. None of these men were considering wether it was the time and the place to shatter their innocence. That seems like more of a real threat then the âideologiesâ of the Barbie movie.
Iâm sorry you seem to be missing my greater point here: Our daughters will be sexualized by a man even while they are still children, not just teens, robbing them of their childhood innocence, which is far more damning then me or you taking them to see the Barbie move⌠Where most of the films message will fly right over there heads, but could create an opportunity to have a conversation about the fact above.
Iâll back up the previous commenter. Every single woman i know was sexualised by adult men as children. Children, not teens. Like 6-7 onwards was the first I remember personally. Prepare them. Yes you want them to have that perfect childhood and be children, but they also should know that men can be creeps and itâs not their fault and not acceptable, and what to do when it happens.
uh yeah itâs up to the parent to know if their kid is mature enough. Thereâs nothing in that movie that could scar a kid like an R rated movie could, what more do you want? do you want them to literally start making parents bring birth certificates to movies to prove their kid isnât under 13???
Yeah I saw it.
Itâs good. And worth watching. But there are so many people on social media saying this is going to be revolutionary for the feminist cause.
Youâre right about the corporate puff piece part. And the rehabilitation of Ruth Handlerâs image like she was anything other than a cynical capitalist whose creation played a huge part in calcifying the concept of gender roles in generations of children that came after her.
Mattel signed off on the movie. It exists with their permission and approval. They are not going to start or enable a cultural revolution against their own interests, and if they reinvent themselves so that it is in their own interests, theyâll be doing it for profit, not for the liberation of women.
But fuck if anyone will listen to the skepticâs take. This thread is the first discussion Iâve come across where saying negative things about the movie (not even saying itâs bad, just criticizing) doesnât result in a dogpiling of misogyny accusations.
The face of feminism in 2023 is a fictional character and itâs copyright belongs to Mattel.
I watched it a while ago and had fun, but the barbies literally vote patriarchy away, so itâs just your harmless liberal âfeminismâ piece.
Iâve seen it twice, I thought it was really fucking funny, me and my friends were cracking up basically the whole show. I do think they shouldâve been harder on capitalism, of course, I thought it leaned way too hard into girlboss territory.
