Barbie Was Already Kenough

Written by K.M.D.

I’ve always been a Barbie girl. Ever since I was little. My favourite of the Barbie films was Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses. I had over 30 Barbie dolls which are now lurking in some tub under my bed. Oh, and one Ken. So, it was no surprise that I went into Barbie 2023 with high expectations.

I saw the movie twice. Once with my mother and her friends – a group of women born in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the decades that saw the rise of Barbie. Then for the second time with my boyfriend. These experiences offered different viewings of the same film. My mother and her friends were ultimately disappointed as they felt it did not quite get there. My boyfriend thought it was a fun film, and as an actor, wished to be in the Ken dance number. I, on the other hand, saw both sides. Barbie is fun if you go into it not expecting much, or for it to be a cinematic masterpiece. If you expected more and had a love of Barbie growing up, you’ll be left wishing Barbie was done a little differently.

Not everything about this movie was up to making pink the new black.

I’ll start with what worked for me. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were phenomenal in their roles as Barbie and Ken respectively. Gosling’s Ken was the highlight of the movie for me and I haven’t been able to get ‘I’m Just Ken’ out of my head for weeks. Simu Liu paired well with Gosling for a rival Ken. The three cast members of Netflix’s Sex Educationthat were in Barbie, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa and Connor Swindells, were also sensational. The choreography, the costumes and the set design all worked well to create the magical pink aesthetic that is Barbie. The songs, for the most part, were effectively implemented within the movie, especially the emotional depth of Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ during one of the film’s excellent montages. But not everything about this movie was up to making pink the new black.

What disappointed me most was that Barbie 2023 is not a kids movie. Too many things would fly over little kids’ heads and not in a Shrek way. The intellectual conjecture also felt out of place in a fun movie. Okay. You can speak big words Barbie, we get it. Barbie, stereotypically, is built from the dreams of little girls. For this movie not to be made for them felt wrong. After all, Mattel is a toy brand. We grew up with Barbie, but these little girls are now growing with Barbie. This could have been a movie that spoke to both audiences easily enough and yet it chose not to do so.

There was also an issue of too many storylines. If I had to tell you what Barbie’s main storyline was, you’d be confused. It’s about being a woman but it’s also about masculinity and the patriarchy but it’s also about toys becoming human and the human experience in general. And it does not balance these things well nor offer conclusions or answers to all the questions it raises.

America Ferrera exclaims: “It’s hard to be a woman,” but the speech, for the most part, hits flat, mainly because these impossible standards can also be applied, quite easily to men too. When she talks about women being told to be skinny but cannot say they ever want to be skinny, while true, still has a male equivalent in gym and six-pack culture. A different approach to this monologue could have packed a more emotional punch as everything she preached about applied to humanity, not just women.

It must be noted that Barbie also became human, even when she hated the human world after experiencing it firsthand. So, why did she even become human in the first place? Sure, she enjoyed an emotional moment there and observed the spectrum of the human experience; however, she called the “Real World” messed up and cried over it. Barbie did not need to become human to be special or relatable. She was already kenough as it was. Margot Robbie’s Barbie left me wondering why she ever wanted to become human in the first place.

In the end, the best thing about the Barbie movie was the hype and the product collaborations we got out of it. We got to dress up in pink and drink raspberry and berry flavoured bubble tea from Chatime (I recommend the Strawberry Swirl). We got to be comfortable in the stereotypical depiction of femininity. We laughed. We cried. And most importantly, nobody died. But for an icon, Barbie was just a bit less than iconic. Ken however, was perfectly kenough.

6 Kens out of 10 Barbies

Photo credits: E News