Marie PhD
  • Home
  • Politics
  • #OccupyCongress
  • Overview
  • Domestic Violence
  • Food

Barbie addendum

1/25/2024

0 Comments

 
As an addendum I’d like to point out those ‘petty jealousies’ that a Barbie said in voice over, get a great many women killed. I am worrying that those 'petty jealousies' are so dangerous and are being described as merely described as ‘petty’. But of course this film was in the guise of a kids film and hence does not address the serious problems women face with the reality of the patriarchy, that some men feel they are obliged to monopolize the full attention of a woman they treat as basically a servant.

Previously I said that I don't blame girls for not knowing where the Kens' sleep. I now wonder whether the it was an attempt to illustrate the problems with 'power'. Did men really engineer our society to diminish the power of women?
Probably not deliberately. So why do women have so much more power now? In my opinion it is because our society isn't dependent on women reproducing and thus women have more time and then have more money. While women have been spending all their time making themselves attractive (to men and each other, but now more than ever women are obliged to look attractive to other women because we've internalized the sexist need for women to be ornaments, it is women's only real purpose (or our genetic material is the only reason society's collective idea behind  women's individuality)), woman have to manage homes which entails cooking, cleaning and the family's social interaction and psychological health.

The other thing I think worth noting is that Ryan Gosling won so many awards for him singing ‘I’m just Ken’. He did a great job and he was charismatic, but so was Margot Robbie. Her falling down when she was so depressed was funny and brilliant. And her telling off the builders was excellent, ‘we don’t have genitals’…

Do we go out of our way to reward men for acting more like women?

Why do we reward men so much for doing introspection? Showing their feminine side? And then there was the hot single dad in ‘bad moms’, and abalone females reward male abalone by conceiving more of their children if the male imitates a female abalone. I’ve read this but I can’t find a reference now. Perhaps the female is selecting for novelty or intelligence or ingenious?

Is there more at work here?  Ryan Gosling claimed disappointment over Margot Robbie and the director of Barbie Greta Gerwig neither being recognized by the Oscar nominating committee?

I am pleased Ferrera and Gosling were nominated but Robbie was an excellent and intelligent choice for Barbie and Gerwig did a brilliant job. 

Have you ever noticed that no man when asked if he’s being sexist ever admits to being sexist? I am sure the Oscar nominating committee will also say they were not being sexist. 'They just hide it better’.
0 Comments

Barbie

1/13/2024

0 Comments

 
I recently watched the Barbie movie, 3 times on HBO because I fell asleep while watching it each time.

I liked many things about the movie. I loved the scene where the Kens are serenading the Barbies with the matchbox 20 song: push. Mainly because the music is great but the lyrics are awful: I need you to understand it’s not my fault I treat you badly.

Should men ever need to take responsibility for the way they behave? Only with each other I suppose?

Another interesting thing was Barbie had no idea where all the Kens slept in Barbie world. After all Barbie world is modeled on the imagination of young girls of the real world. So I forgive the young girls of our world for their narrow concerns.

Curiously, I never played with dolls as a young girl or so I was told by my mother. Then later as I approached puberty I did. And Barbie became what I imagine adults think ‘action figure’ toys are to boys. She did the things I thought I’d be doing when I grew up, the things I thought I’d be doing when I was 18-22. I had no idea what I’d be doing, yet the reality was vastly different to what I had imagined. But I had so little exposure to reality and that’s why I don’t blame young girls for not knowing where the Kens sleep.

Yes the Barbies were very ‘woke’ and came to realize they weren’t completely ‘woke’ by the end of the film.

Another film for females, and the ‘public’ (male audience) cried so completely because it happened. Most TV and movies are written for men, the owners of movie studios and TV just assume their audience is male because they themselves are male. And that’s because males feel entitled to exist in their own bubble (kinda like how young girls don’t have any idea where the Kens sleep). And look how much money is spent on entertaining males: every action film, all sports, most TV… the only TV not made for men is daytime and do men watch that? I know I seldom did and now it’s very easy to avoid it completely. Do women as an audience complain about being excluded from quality entertainment? No.  Despite the trite representation of women in film, the Bechdel test was invented for a reason.

Even in Rom-coms men get more lines than women and the older the male actor, the more lines he gets, yet the opposite is true for women.

The only genuine purpose for women in films is to be a trophy for a male, a prize he gets for no reason other than that he appeared in the film. He doesn’t have to chase her, he doesn’t have to build the relationship, she just falls into his arms and we have to assume they live happily ever after.

The other times men cried about movies made for women (in my memory), the films Wonder Woman and the Sex and the City movies, both awful movies, the latter was developed by a man, and designed to sell products to women.

I have no idea the purpose of Wonder Woman, perhaps it was to test the waters, can comic book movies attract a female audience? Or even a male audience? Apparently it did find an audience because it did make money.

I think Mattel hasn’t been selling as many Barbie dolls because of the sexism associated with Barbie. The project was announced in 2009, so it is plausible. So Mattel thought they’d take the bull by the horns a la Lego movies, which actually turned out to be entertaining originally. These days I find the Lego franchise boring.

I wanted to address is the voice over when Helen Mirren says if the studio want to sell the idea that Margot Robbie feels ugly then they should rethink Robbie as the studios choice for generic Barbie. Robbie is great looking, but it’s not like she walks around with a mirror knowing exactly how she looks every moment of the day. She’d be criticized for extreme narcissism if she did. And while I don’t blame Mirren for the line or Robbie for her appearance, it seems to have been written by a man, do people genuinely think Robbie has a great day everyday because life is perfect for her? Beautiful women don’t have emotions that make her question her existence as something other than just merely beautiful? Beautiful women have bad days too and it’s trivializing to think otherwise.

On the other hand, I bet Robbie has a great deal of experience with men touching and feeling her up. I hope not for her sake but men can be and are awful when it comes to rape, and wandering hands… like in the scene when she hits the guy who hits her yet she’s the one (and Ken of course) who got arrested. I remember one women saying after years of being felt up and touched, that she finally grabbed the then latest guy by the balls (who had touched her inappropriately) after his hands wandered inappropriately. Immediately she was accused of assault by a member of her male audience. The woman was shocked. After all she’d been assaulted continuously during her life yet no one admitted she’d been assaulted, indeed why was her body considered public property and she was not allowed to respond in kind? After all the guy she’d assaulted, she said, looked quite delighted with her grabbing of his balls.

I sometimes wonder if men treat women the way men wish women would treat them?

The one thing I genuinely loved about the Barbie movie was how she said she didn’t love Ken.

I really have no idea what love is. I remember a teacher asking us what love was one day in school, and as normal I answered and my answer was: still liking a person despite knowing all their faults. The teacher was kinda surprised and thought it wasn't a bad answer.

I know it’s chic to love unconditionally. Unconditional love is all very fine until you can’t rely on your partner. I think it is possible to love unconditionally if there is no need for expectation. Not everyone we love might be someone we can live with. So perhaps unconditional love might mirror something like agape. Google defines this as Christian agape or love. Personally I think of love as being something or someone that helps us survive; things that/people who threaten our survival we hate, or should hate, depending on our conditioning.

I think there is plenty for us to think about in the Barbie movie so I definitely recommend it, I think those who made the movie wanted us to think about it too given the beginning of the film.
0 Comments

    Author

    I am interested in progressive politics, women's rights, science & art. I believe the only way we'll survive is if we help each other.

    Archives

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Anarchy
    Animals
    Atheism
    Austerity
    Banks
    Bodies
    Caitlyn Jenner
    Charity
    Children
    Communication
    Community
    Conservative Christianity
    Conservatives
    Conspiracy
    Constitution
    Corporation
    Corporations
    Deficit
    Deregulation
    Despotism
    Disenfranchised
    Duggars
    Dylann Roof
    Environment
    Equality
    Facebook
    Feminism
    Food
    Foreclosure
    Gender
    God
    Gop
    Gop Primaries
    Government
    Guns
    Hastert
    Healthcare
    Hierarchy
    History
    Humans
    Independence
    Kindness
    Knowledge
    Law
    Libertarian
    Libertarianism
    Limited Liability
    Loneliness
    Love
    Mating
    Medicare
    Men
    Military Industrial Complex
    Motherhood
    Nature
    Obama
    Obesity
    Occupy
    Orwellian
    Pedophilia
    Politics
    Power
    Powerlessness
    Premium Children
    Prostition
    Punishment
    Rape
    Revolution
    Richard Dawkins
    Sanity
    Sex
    Slut-shaming
    Status Quo
    Stock-market
    Suicide
    Teachers
    Transgender
    TV
    Us Corporations
    Violence
    Vulnerability
    Welfare Queens
    Women
    Women's Work
    World Domination

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.