The funny thing is, in the scene where Barbie enters the real world and realizes that Mattel is only run by men (after she asks to meet the female CEO), I thought this was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek joke about how Barbie World was basically like pop feminism - a symbolic, commercial representation of girl power sold to people while not actually changing things IRL. But then the plot morphed into Ken introducing patriarchy to Barbie World and it just went sideways lol
Yeah I hated the whole 'bringing patriarchy into barbieland' plotline. The deeper messaging they were shooting for really didn't land for me, and I left the movie wishing they'd just left it as a funny, meaningless comedy.
You just made me realize the problem with the oversaturation of the whole "conventionally attractive girly women can be empowered too!" theme. Like, of course "girly" women deserve respect; nobody's arguing against that (or at least, nobody should). But the problem is, so much "feminist" conversations are centered around the idea of uplifting the conventionally attractive, white, blonde, "girly" cis woman that they're really not saying anything radical or all that important. Yes, you can be girly and smart, or girly and powerful. But the overrepresentation of these conversations upholds the status quo of how femininity should be performed, as well as focusing on the problems encountered by the most privileged group of women, instead of representing the women who don't fit that standard, and the fact that the standard itself should be dismantled. And like, I love Elle Woods (who doesn't?). But if the most prevalent conversation in feminism is "Elle Woods can be blonde and white and pretty and rich AND smart and capable," then where does that leave the women who aren't like Elle Woods? The people who need equality most are largely ignored by this sort of messaging.
This exactly! And on the topic of legally blonde, look at how it treats the (comparatively.) more masculine figure of Enid, a feminist lesbian. The way that she looks down on Elle and seems disgusted with her. How any of her arguments around feminism are supposed to sound ridiculous and are made up problems. In general, masculine lesbians bare so much of the brunt of mockery in media and in general the rule for what even counts as masculine is so low that you don’t even get to see much of it in the first place
Also barbie got arrested for stealing clothes and the police let her go because "she looks good in it anyways". This was an uncomfortable moment for Barbie for sure, but it just skimmed over how privileged she was to have done a crime and just be let go and shrugged off by the cops
To me, feminism simply means women having their agency, rights, voice, and autonomy. The radical idea that women are people. And also, to quote Toni Morrison, to help others. If you're liberated, you must help liberate others too. Otherwise no one is free.
I also like the older versions of Fairy Tale Heroines the most, Pre-Disney/Perrault/Brothers Grimm. In the older versions of Fairy Tales, the Heroine are virtuous, but they were also cunning, clever, self-determined and self-motivated. They were neither kickass girlbosses or passive doormats. They would orchestrate their escape, and sometimes with a little help (be it from animals, a man, or supernatural help). The Heroine has clout, courage, and determination. According to Valerie Frankel in her book 'From Girl to Goddess', the classic Heroine is on a journey to battle for her identity and security. She's on an inward journey, whereas the Hero is on an outward journey (but the two are not always separated or fixed, a Heroine can also have an outward journey).
@sammyvictors2603 I do love a good classic heroine story, characters who aren't a reaction or an adjustment to the real world issues of misogyny in storytelling and cinema, or just the masculine character template but for an attractive woman, but who exist outside of those constraints. The clever maiden that outsmarts the villain, the commoner lady who wants to just enjoy humanity gently, the love letter to the nurturing mother who wasn't forced into that role but represents the well rounded women who choose it in our own lives. I actually really liked this depiction of Generic Barbie as someone who ran a bit of a in world revolution with humility, emotions, and driven by the compassion that started it. She doesn't have to use the patriarchal tools of threats and intimidation but she doesn't have to martyr anyone as an example, she assembles using information about a common interest and wellbeing and having them be free to choose. She's privileged in being able to be successful while staying soft and vulnerable, but she uses it to uplift and share the privilege to do so with others.
To me it’s a movement that’s overstayed its welcome only and exists to further sucker a bunch of guys into believe that’ll one day get them layed if they keep pretending to support it once the men stop supporting it that’s it game over it’ll collapse under its own weight.
with all do respect feminism have supported to much evil for me to ever support. feminism support 1. pornography and the sexual revolution 2.abortion(killing of innocent babies) 3. Divorce laws that destroy men livelihoods with ridiculous child support and alimony feminism is not only not needed anymore it is actively supporting terrible and destructive things. the only positive thing feminism did woman's suffrage and equal pay for equal work.everything else had been terrible
@@lunaloveless7234 oh I meant in the sense that people were going HARD on rachel zegler for saying what she said about snow white and how it's different from the original. Someone pointed out that some of those ppl criticizing her loved barbie, but had no problem dragging rachel for her comments which is exactly what they were praising barbie for doing. Sorry for not being clear!
@@smarterperson16Rachel came across like she hated snow white amd thought the original was trash. Gerwig clearly loves and pays homage to Barbies eras. They were qlways very mindful not to outright bash barbie. I dont see the connection when the main point of critique was Rachel's repeated interviews conveying she didnt like the original
This reminds me of something Anita Sarkeesian said in a podcast that she doesn't like labeling media as feminist or anti-feminist because doing that misses the poimt on critiquing, or something along those lines. And now I can see what she meant, trying to label media as something part of your identity or political identity. We end up focusing more on if we're moral or not for the things we consume which isn't getting to the point of the real critiques. Like The Little Mermaid can be seen as bad because of how Ariel is portrayed as a damsel in distress, while others can see a queer and trans story. That's what so great about media, we can take so many things away from it. It can be interpreted so many ways. But from this I can see and fear that mainstream pop feminism missed the mark on the discourse. If anything, it just shows me that we need more media literacy. Well that and education that focuses on telling all of inclusive history and subjects (such as ethnic studies, feminist studies, non-whitewashed history, etc.) more. But that's gonna be hard since there're also anti-critical race theory and anti-lgbtq+ history bills being drafted and passed (at least in FL it is) which makes me fear for the future. I really appreciate your takes on 2010s pop feminism, I became a feminist in the 2010s and the pop feminism was a great way to start learning. But haven't thought about its shortcomings. Thinking that we could've logic'd everyone out of their bigotry was a naive thought back then. That and choice feminis, ugh. Hopefully 2020s feminism will push the needle farther than we did in the 2010s. Also can't believe this is how I learned there's going to be a Mattel cinematic universe, wtf. Wishbone is going to be a part of it? Okay, capitalism just ruins art.
Interpretation does not mean what it is. Interpretation has been completely co-opted to excuse terrible things so tbh, it isn’t an excuse. And to make it more clear, Ariel can be RELATABLE to them, but the interpretations are wrong. The real fact is, that it’s a Gay love story.
My thoughts on the Barbie movie are very similar: It was a cute, fun, gorgeously made popcorn movie that didn't need to try to justify its own existence by re-heating the leftovers of the pop-feminist trend. In fact, the worst part of the movie is the way it tripped on itself by not committing to a single narrative: It wasn't a mother/daughter movie, a movie about Ken learning self-reliance, or a movie about Barbie becoming self-aware. All of those are in the film, but none of them is centrally focused enough to count as a complete story. If I want philosophy, I'll read a reputable book by someone with an advanced degree. If I want a silly movie about living in a plastic world, I'll go see Barbie.
Yes!! I wanted a central theme and it ended up feeling very odd and disjointed for me. Ultimately, I wish it had just been a fun comedy with no attempts at deeper messaging at all. 🤷♀ The 'take down the patriarchy' angle felt really out of place to me and the messaging didn't even end up making sense between the 3 different storylines.
That's right. It's just a teen girl movie that takes itself too seriously just for the rebranding purposes. The Disney Channel things I watched as a kid have the same vibe to it, the only difference being a bit better acting (we had Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling ffs). And yet they pretend to be those serious philosophers 😂😂😂
thanks for covering the smallpox line & how it was a terrible metaphor - also sad that it was America Ferrera who ended up with that line as she probably has indigenous ancestry herself :/
a lot of valid feminist critique against makeup, shaving, etc is seen as anti woman or chalked up to be “pick me”rhetoric when it’s not. when feminists say they want more for women rather than the boxes we’re born to remain in, it’s seemed like anti femininity. critiquing the patriarchy and how women are taught to adhere to stereotypical womanhood shouldn’t be seen as taking the piss on girly girls. sometimes i feel the need to wear makeup when i think i’m ugly. sometimes i feel the need to shave when i think i’m too hairy. succumbing to those urges is totally valid but acting like you can reclaim them as #feminist when they’re tools of the patriarchy is silly. women are expected to be feminine and submissive. calling a strong/smart woman “masculine” is gross and only encourages gender norms. no woman should be obligated to be anything but to relish in being a “stupid bimbo” just seems odd.
Absolutely. We only feel the need to do these things because of patriarchal messaging - our appearance has historically been the one thing we’ve been able to control, as a gender with little power in society. I feel the same way about Instagram and empowerment through posting thirst traps and hot selfies - isn’t that just succumbing to the same biases and criticism, albeit under the guise of increasing your bself esteem?
absolutely nothing! the problem is that society is determined to convince women that *we're* the problem for the way we look, and that our appearance is the only thing that's important about us. Men are allowed to be plain or 'ugly' and aren't shamed for it like women are.@@citrus_sweet
right? like I can choose to shave my pits because I want to fulfill beauty standards in this patriarchical society, but that doesn't make it a hyper feminist choice. at least when we embrace this ideology, we're actually thinking about what we're doing rather than just making excuses and happily perpetuating the capitalist status quo. my biggest beef is with makeup. stopped wearing it on the day to day in 2013 ish, and now even just standing in that cosmetics aisle thinking of giving my hard earned money to companies which have traditionally preyed on making me feel ugly and insecure (while not targeting men AT ALL) really burns my britches. I mean at least with shaving there's some parallels with men's beauty standards (they gotta manage their facial hair), but makeup is so predatorily one sided it makes me really, really mad.
@@K.C-2049 i unfortunately struggle w wearing makeup to feel confident but it’s all about how you view it. i’m capable of not wearing makeup every day but i’m aware of why i feel prettier when i do. it’s not a crime to do makeup obviously but to act like it’s not a capitalist trap for women irks me. same with crazy skincare/anti aging products. it’s all just companies telling women that they lack value when they’re old, ugly, etc.
There were aspects of it that changed things for the better imo. It’s just that we don’t remember how misogynistic the times before that was. Like the fact that as a woman you were the target of constant jabs at your personhood and you weren’t allowed to acknowledge it ever or you‘d be labeled a harpy. You were also not allowed to have discussions about emotional labor or the mental load or doing most of the caretaking and child raising. Those were all way more taboo subjects then they are today. Some things are not okay to say now that we’re very common in the 2000s, where cruelty towards women was just a lot more accepted overall. 2010s pop feminism was inclusive towards the wrong crowd, the kind of white middle and upper class women who think they had it all figured out despite being naive as shit. And then the corporatism, that was bad but on the other hand, who else was going to popularize the feminist messages and make people open towards them quite like pop culture paired with corporations seeking to make a profit ? The media landscape was already falling apart. I think that it wasn’t all bad, even if it was disappointing. The messages spread where shallow but still important. It gave women a little space to breathe, and by being so obviously flawed it make a lot more young women want to engage with things critically.
@@user-ny2fk9gm1kagreed honestly, tbf progress isnt a straight line and althought it was slippery the outcome from that being a less misogynistic future and a more fair society like at least socially its quite good
noppppe wrong. lol sorry but wrong. as an Old, I can tell you that the times before feminism began to become more mainstream and women started making noise (even about silly termed microaggressions like man spreading lol) were far FAR worse. you had stuff like "The Man Show" on mainstream TV, stuff like the Gamer Awards, as a woman you just felt so unwelcome in damn near every part of pop culture. we got dunked on for everything we did. if you were sex positive, forget it you were a slut, but you couldn't be too prudish either. your 28 year old cousin's friend is hitting on your 19 year old self at a wedding, cheating on his girlfriend in the process? that's great, you should take it as a compliment. it was gross gross gross.
I always hated the backlash to "not like other girls". as someone who probably would have been seen as a "not like other girls' and who did actively distance herself from traditional femininity, I did so because even from an early age I simply hated the idea of being told to like certain things just because I happened to be a girl. I had no inherent dislike for those things, to me they were just what they were, but I identified it pretty early on that the stereotype that being a girl meant I had to like pink and shiny things as "sexist", which was a surprise to my mum I'll tell you. this current trend of hating on "not like other girls" ignores the fact that we had good reasons to rebel against performative femininity and restrictive gender stereotypes, especially in an appearance oriented society where how we dress and present ourselves is so indicative of our characters and beliefs. also ugh choice feminism. I saw through that shit so early on in its existence and couldn't believe so many girls were falling for it.
A lot of people who do this do hate on traditionally feminine girls/women though. I had an NLOG phase and although I did have a genuine love of nerdy things people didn't expect girls to like, I downplayed my love of things like musicals for fear of being judged, and I looked down on hyper feminine things I never had an interest in like I was better. I do agree not everyone who has this phase does it for this reason, but many do.
@@bespectacledheroine7292totally mate, and I mean I can only speak for myself on my experiences here, but I’m sure there were lots of us on both sides. I just think it’s important to remember that the concept of performative feminjnity isn’t necessarily harmless, he way a lot of folks seem to want to make it out to be.
Im sure there was backlash because it started to put girls down who liked girly things and think they were better than other because they didnt like girly things
The not like other girls is hated because of internalized misogyny and treats women like their not individuals and if they like girly things its a bad thing
It's clear from the get go that Daily Wire and conservative businesses has an agenda in making the their own media, their motivations are purely selfish and self-interested and backwards; they want to turn back the clock.
when it comes to female characters and similarly targeted media (ie twilight) being criticized it’s always frustrating because there are legitimate ways to deconstruct how they are written and the evolving tropes that come with them often being written by men or more privileged women, but i feel like people get discouraged from doing so (i’m guilty of this too) because the predominant criticisms of them are based in sexism, so it becomes a “how can we take them back” sort of thing. and yet at the same time i feel like the complaints corporations are responding to are the more misogynistic ones instead of legitimately trying to improve. i’m so tired of both the ‘this fictional little girl is terrible and should be k*lled off’ essays and the disney stan accounts at the same time. i wish we could live in a world where women-centered media was just seen as media with its own differing themes that could be normally critiqued (ie that the live action remakes are horrible not because of feminism, but because of how shallow and artistically hollow they are), as the more legitimate representation there is the more normalized it can become, but we’re just not there yet. i think i’m mostly just reiterating points you’ve already made in this video at this point, but all this to say that there’s so many facets to how societal ills really permeate not only how corporations put out media, but how we consume it and i feel like your videos do a great job at exploring everything in-depth in an informative way. i always feel like i learn something new or gain another perspective when i watch them :)
If women want their work to blend in they need to write for a general audience, which means they need to drop the activism. About 3/4 of the movies on HBO/Starz right now are made by women and minorities, and all of them suck. Dysfunction and victimization are the only themes explored. It's the Lifetime Movie Network-ification of Hollywood. The problem with "pop feminism" is that pop stands for popular. Feminism is a lot of things, but it's easiest to just call it a lie. Aim higher, focus on things outside of yourself, and watch the "inequality" and "systemic" issues fall away. Wouldn't that be preferable? Women writing their own Mr. Holland's Opus or Jaws, rather than spitting in the faces of men? Men being the people who love them.
You using the gender equivalent of “I don’t see color.” Won’t fix anything girl. This has already been done before and you can see where that got us. Next.
If the Kens are a metaphor for women's rights, then the in-fighting in hindsight.. is a lot more messy than I thought. Even if it doesn't intend to promote infighting. (Considering this is WB, home to franchise owned by infamous infighter Joanne K Rowling, yeah.. Bad taste. It would've been better to lean into working together.) Also, for a movie about Barbie, there was an unusual lack of referencing the DVD film era. Anything. That was the Barbie I grew up on, that many have, and yet it wasn't even casually included.
@@joannamarieart idk if this is the actual reason, but in my head the dvd barbies aren't in the movie because it messes with the barbie lore of those movies
@@girlsgokawaiiI also think it’s maybe because those are not the barbies Greta or Margot grew up with? Or for instance the thing about flat feet, I don’t know before the 90s, but in the 2000s we definitively already had flat feet barbies. I don’t know if I make sense?
My only issue with the upcoming Snow White remake is that it will suck because except for maybe two of these remakes, they ALL SUCK. Having said that, it'll probably be better than The Daily Wire's version of Show White.
You're probably right. Anything will be better than Daily Wire's version. I'm even thinking of writing my own version/retelling of classic Fairy Tales, one of them is Snow White, updating a little but also going back to her ancient, Pre-Brothers Grimm roots (and from other versions from various cultures). Snow is a magistrate's illegitimate daughter, but she is a philanthropic young woman motivated purely by compassion, sympathy, and altruism, siding with the underdog, as her mother was one of them (an Esther figure if you will). She is at odds with her Step-Grandmother, a cruel and callous, narcissistic aristocrat who looks down on the common people and fears a prophecy that a granddaughter will not only outmatch her in beauty but also bring about her doom (she's a Cronus figure). The Stepmother is a meek and pleasant woman, kind to Snow White, but fears her controlling mother. Both Snow and the Grandmother meet their demise (it is a bittersweet ending). The Dwarfs are replaced with the Seven Sisters, goddesses and personifications of the seven stages of womanhood, from infancy to senility.
Thankyou so much for this analysis. I'm a feminist and anticapitalist, who actually really loved the movie, but firmly considers it quite minimal on the feminism. Like, my takeaway watching it was "I loved the existential questioning, the comedy, the commentary on unwanted sexualisation really hit something personal, but the feminism of the movie really is a simplified beginner's guide." It seemed to have had an effect on pushing people who defended patriarchal values to try some baby steps in the right direction. And I'm definitely not about to buy any merch knowing what I do about production, they got my movie ticket money this time because they offered a product that I found worthwhile. For me, one of the biggest appeals of the Barbie Movie experience was this global moment of feminine solidarity. I joined the trend of wearing the pinkest things I own to the cinema, I went with a group of friends who all actually have rather unique gender perspectives and experiences, we reflected on our feelings and when we smiled, when we cried in the movie. And we could see all over social media, even others in the cinema and mall partaking in the same experience. And I admit a strong bias towards enjoying it because, even as one of my friends turned to me and said, the Barbie character reminds them a lot of me, my specific intersection of femininity, sexuality (or lack thereof) and privilege was central of the film. If corporations are still scared of giving us a truly more challenging and feminist, anticapitalist project, I think the next thing we need is a moment like what I had for people of different intersections. Making a conventional pretty, white, queer but more invisible woman feel seen is a baby step in what we need, and we'd get so much further in a production world less obsessed with profits.
Yeah the green M&M wearing sneakers Tucker Carlson had a meltdown about that. You know that racist guy who always look like a deer caught in the headlights.
Not to be that person, but “exploring Mulan’s gender identity”. I get where people are coming from but as a very masculine cis woman it’s always super disheartening seeing gender nonconforming women in media being mass interpreted as “no this character was never a woman in the first place”. Like transmascs themselves doing this is one thing (I’ve got a lot of solidarity with transmascs and like I Get It, believe me) but seeing these interpretations made by gender conforming cis people is so, like I said disheartening because that category of people always seem to think of women like me as a “transmasc egg” whereas the transmascs doing this usually don’t. I’d just like to be seen as a kind of person that exists rather than a stepping stone to a different identity.
@@Mildredpotka And? That doesn’t change the fact that I was also once a masculine little girl, and that little girls like me do in fact exist. It also doesn’t mean that not being taken seriously about my identity doesn’t suck.
The best part of the Barbie movie for me was seeing it in theaters a seat away from a little girl and her father. We were in an Alamo Drafthouse, so they had ordered pizza, and the little girl’s short little legs were sticking straight out in front of her on the big seats. She was kicking her legs and giggling and chewing on her big slice and bouncing a bit, and at one point chirped, “I’m so happy!” 🤣 In conclusion, this movie was a kids’ movie. And that’s ok! Not a feminist movie, a goofy Toy Story. With a mom lecturing about the struggles of womanhood interspersed in. Also, Life Size was a hysterical movie premise that deserves a revisit. That movie seems like it’s going to be a horror movie about a little girl messing with forbidden dark magic to bring her mother back to life, and instead her doll does? And THEN the doll can come to terms with the existentialist creator story. Crazy themes there! Even within the film, when the doll thinks she can do anything and everything, then quickly feels out of her element. Even guilt over taking the little girl’s chance to see her mom again.
Not to be pedantic, but the movie is rated PG-13. It's not a kid's movie, lol. It's for 25+ year old women to get nostalgic about their days as kids playing with Barbie. My mother (in her 60s) liked it because she recognized so many of the Barbies. There were plenty of adult jokes in there (not saying a little girl shouldn't be hearing the word 'vagina' cuz it's not a bad word but typically movies aimed at children don't include it lol)
Except the very clear marketing insists it's a feminist movie. And the rating is PG-13. Barbie is sexually assaulted on screen. The plot hinges on a 40(is) yo woman being depressed and getting cellulite. If you go into it thinking it's a kids movie, you've missed all of the very clear messaging they were trying to send out that it's not. Kids can definitely watch it, but just because it's about a kids toy, doesn't make it a kids movie.
Thank you for this video. The issues you've brought up are the same criticisms I've had of Greta's other works - while I loved America Fererra's monologue, variations of that monologue are in Greta's other films (ie Little Women and Jo's speech) and sometimes it comes off very heavy handed, slowing the momentum. I resented it was telling me how I should feel about patriarchy and feminism, rather than letting me empathize with Barbie's identity issues - why does she want to be real? Would she feel the same about wanting to leave Barbie World once her human's crisis was fixed? What about the ramifications of being "dumped" by your human once they reach a certain age, or no longer being deemed "normal" enough to fit in with the rest of Barbie world (Weird Barbie)? The movie was best when it was more like Toy Story, full of meta jokes/self-references with a story line centering around self-actualization and identity. But I think the hamfistedness of the feminism, or at least how it was approached, bothered me.
Damn, I finally see what wasn't sitting well with me. I'm a CIS White man, and my wife loved it, so I didn't feel like I could really say much, but it felt conspicuous that the moral of the story was just that Barbie and America Fererra just needed to self-actualize and everything would be ok! "You've always had the power - just click your heels together and repeat: 'there's no choice but capitalism; there's *no* choice but capitalism; there's *NO* choice but capitalism!'" The real patriarchy was the feels we had along the way - the Barbies submitted to patriarchy not because of coercion, a lack of resources, or violence, but because it's just such a compelling idea that, unless you've been innoculated against it, you won't recognize that you're suddenly suppressing your thoughts and feelings to survive in a world ruled by men?
Sometimes feminism takes the shape of equal but opposite patriarchy. And anyway, both are just products of capitalism. After all, competition amongst the low life brings the best to the front to be conditioned and exploited.
@@lunaloveless7234 are you saying that my analysis is surface level? I'm open to being enlightened if you think that I am missing anything. I'm genuinely trying to understand how this film isn't equivocating about the way that patriarchy actually comes about in a society. Is there any actual advice that this film has for women (or men) beyond just being kind to yourself and others? I agree that is an important step, but it doesn't do anything to actually solve problems of underrepresentation or imbalances of power in society.
Bashing classic Disney movies and needing to make them woke is pointless considering how progressive those old movies were for their time. As crazy as it may sound to some people, it's only natural and not sinful for something to be the product of its time. I can only imagine how regressive we'll look to our grandkids.
@NeggieKnight I don't think so. The movie and it's message were great (the only mainstream movie Ive personally seen that engages in feminisn beyond girls can play soccer too)but that moment felt just a little bit pandery
@@Pink_pr1ncess Because the movie didn't realize it was a description of internal neurosis, not external oppression. I heard critics say, "Men feel that way too!" No doubt. But at least women have a hormonal excuse for it.
this was a great video! you made a lot of amazing points! also when i was listening to this i was finishing my laundry and was taking my barbie blanket my grandma gifted me out of the dryer lmao 😭💀
This has given me a lot to think about. I'd like to add more, but my heads awhirl at the moment, so I'll just say I've enjoyed your work and I always look forward to it.
I agree with almost everything said in this video. But I do have commentary on the critique of the "pick me". I think it's both true that what today we understand as a pick me girl was a way of searching for validation in a world where pushed us AFAB people to be as pink-feminine as we could, to only like feminine stuff, and the ones that didn't have the style that goes with performing gender in that way were mostly ostracized. But after that era of "not-like-other-girls" being presented as the "ideal-woman" to cater men, I think the hate shifted towards hyper feminine women. At the end I think the problem is how society pushes us all to present in a way that's cool depending on the era we're living in, and anybody who's style and/or gender performance isn't what everyone's expecting of them, then the hate will shift to one to the other. What would be nice is to accept that the problem isn't what people choose to prioritize, if girly or not, but to respect every woman choice of life, as long as that doesn't represent discrimination against others.
For me the hyperbolic nature of the Barbie world and the real world was part of the messaging. Maybe it's my own political opinions that affected my opinion but the message that I got from the movie was that patriarchy and capitalism hurts everyone. The tone was also exactly what I was looking for as a fan of the animated Barbie movies (which I still actively keep up with to this day) in terms of a more mature Barbie movie.
My ex-girlfriend was a 2010s white pop feminist, though from a very poor working class background with very close encounters with police and the carcéral system. I would tell her that I felt like a world which was exactly the same but with women in charge would not be better than this one. I’m Latino, so when Kamala Harris went down to South America and told the people there “Do not come,” I was pissed. And, my ex got pissed at me, we had a huge argument. And, it was frustrating that she cared more about women in power than the vast swathes of poor women in Latin America being kept out of the States through oppressive and racist border restrictions. Yet, she continued to uphold the status quo. It was difficult for me to deal with that because it seemed contradictory to her supposed beliefs. But, her idolization of Taylor Swift makes clear why this was the case. Anyway, that was my rant about my ex, I’m glad more class and race conscious feminists are around to comment on bullshit pop feminism. We need to get Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta and Bell Hooks out to our kids. (Also, btw if a pop-feminist girl boss world existed, where it was matriarchy instead of patriarchy, I think transphobia would be just as prevalent, especially if the radical idea of a “one sex world” were achieved, or were to be attempted)
A) I've said this before but I'm glad a prominent corner of the internet is able to have calm rational discussion around this movie. That some people like it, some people don't, and that both can respect each other's opinions. I know this is not the majority of the internet, but I've seen four separate video essays on the issues Barbie has that have all done I think a great job of pushing the discussion beyond a black and white good/bad back and forth. I think that the movie deserves credit in that regard for not being so surface level like most blockbusters to the point that there's no space for nuanced complaints or praise. B) I may receive flack for saying so, but I almost feel like this movie was feminism for men. I know right off the bat people might say that even that in concept is stupid, but personally from the discussions I've had with other men that liked this movie it seems like it resonated with a lot of unspoken feelings about the patriarchy. The whole speech about how contradictive it all is applied just as much to the expectations men are given. We're told we're in charge and can be whatever we want, unless what we want is considered feminine which can in theory be anything. We're supposed to excel at everything, and we're not told what to do when we're actually really bad and not natural leaders. We're supposed to be better than women and self reliant, but our existence is meaningless and pathetic if we aren't in a relationship with a woman. Obviously none of that necessarily applies to entire swaths of under privileged men, and realizing those contradictions isn't going to eliminate the systematic problems no matter what gender heard the speech, but like you said pop feminism really did turn a lot of men away from feminism as a whole. And this seemed to push back against that. If we can agree that this is really a beginner's guide to feminism and not a nuanced take, then I think it's worth noting that a lot of men needed that. I wish they didn't, but I'm glad they finally heard it.
I think part of the problem is that the Barbie movie already had inherent limitations due to the fact that the primary creators were white women. I didn’t love the movie either, as I felt like too many ideas that should’ve been more prevalent in the film were presented and then dropped without much exploration in favor of this watered down “feminism 101 for white women” take on a toy brand. The Barbie movie SOMEWHAT touched on this, but didn’t give it the room and nuance it deserved, bc it wanted to make Ken a “nice guy” and make ppl feel bad for him. While I appreciate that Barbie doesn’t end up with Ken, the actual issues with Ken and his reign of terror over BarbieLand aren’t actually explored. It was just a “look at this guy who discovered patriarchy and became a tyrant because he wasn’t getting laid,” and “now stereotypical white Barbie has to deprogram the other Barbies from their decorative places with the Kens and restore their power,” which is not the story we should’ve been given. There was a massive dissonance with the film and it’s message, which is also due to the consumer-capitalist iconography that it promoted. I love Margot Robbie, but I think this being her passion project isn’t something that we should applaud just bc she wanted to tell a good story with a good message for young people (specifically young cis white women). As far as the Disney princesses go, I’m just tired of that brand and formula. I actually wish other studios would make content more closely related to the original Brothers Grimm and HCA stories, which are infinitely more sociopolitically aware and subversive than anything to come from that mouse house. Obviously, as a queer & neurodivergent “woman” of color, I found almost no representation in the Barbie film or any of the Disney Princess films. And while I’m saddened by that, I don’t even think I’d want these studios to try and touch stories that would give me and others the representation, bc they so obviously wouldn’t do much good with them.
Ironically, Walt Disney’s version of “The Little Mermaid” that he developed in 1941 would’ve been more faithful to the Andersen fairy tale as evidenced by Kay Nielsen’s concept art that showed the little mermaid not getting the prince and reincarnating as an air spirit. Sadly though, Walt shelved “The Little Mermaid” short in favor of producing World War II propaganda shorts. Thus, instead of the Hans Christian Andersen biopic being a live action/animated hybrid produced by MGM and Disney, MGM producer Samuel Goldwyn decided to turn it into a fully live action musical called “Hans Christian Andersen” starring Danny Kaye as the title character. “The Little Mermaid” would instead be told via ballet (tragic ending and all) in the movie “Hans Christian Andersen”.
The closest that Disney got to doing a faithful adaptation of a tragic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale was their 2006 animated short “The Little Matchgirl”.
“The Little Mermaid” is public domain story, so of course there have been countless film and TV adaptations which are much more faithful to the fairy tale than the Disney animated film. Here are a few that are available to watch on RUclips, all of which predate the 1989 animated Disney film: - the 1961 episode of “Shirley Temple’s Storybook” in which Shirley Temple played the titular little mermaid: ruclips.net/video/0KQ6Bkd93To/видео.htmlsi=vmWyiu_0KCrHYer4&t=46s - the 1968 Russian animated short “Rusalochka” (“The Little Mermaid”): ruclips.net/video/D8n6qlEc4gc/видео.htmlsi=Gu-FMUexHynX305d - the 1975 Japanese anime “The Little Mermaid”: ruclips.net/video/rTH3Jpti8IY/видео.htmlsi=4prX1QYDvuzNw6Ud - the 1987 episode of “Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre” in which Pam Dawber played the titular little mermaid Pearl: ruclips.net/video/0V4-i1T6bK8/видео.htmlsi=VtEeO3XNht461nAw
And the reason Ken isn't really into the patriarchy is just... he realizes it's not actually about horses. I hated that bit like he was able to just take over Barbieland because the Barbies just... let him (?) - we don't actually know how that really happened - and then it was resolved magically just with one speech to every barbie and because Ken actually cared about horses. Great. I also think for how much the movie does the whole "barbie is everybody and every ethnicity and body size and yada yada"... the other barbies don't get a personality at all. Or more than 2 lines. The barbie in a wheelchair is on screen for like half a second.
1:58 i think this is the best we could've gotten under the circumstances. I remember there was a version of the movie with Amy Schumer that was planned back in 2016 or 2017. That didn't really turn out so well. And I think there was some rumor I saw floating around that it was supposed to have a crossover with He-Man or GI Joe. Or I might be mixing up my rumors of unmade projects. I understand your cyncism at the whole pop feminism thing though.
Opinions on the Barbie movie has been so divisive within the left-leaning youtube community that it's difficult to know what we [those on the fence within this divisive debate] should feel about the movie.
I think its a good movie but with flaws like the smallpox joke which is more ignorance which is unfortunate, off topic tbh i do love the speech cuz it made sense in context. I think its just a movie, that has a strong message which is helpful and positive although some may think delivery is shaky i thought it was overall a good movie imo.
@@gJonii I know since I personally enjoyed the Barbie movie, thus putting me on the side of left-leaning youtubers who also enjoyed it but saying that would also make me not a good feminist in the eyes of other feminist youtubers like Cheyenne. That's where the issue lies.
@@raphaelmarquez9650Who cares? No matter your political leaning, you’re still allowed to enjoy a piece of media even if some people won’t approve of it. They’re not your parents, they can’t dictate what you are and aren’t allowed to watch/enjoy. Feminism is a multifaceted and complex issue and there’s no guidebook for what is and isn’t okay. Something that one woman considers empowering could be derogatory to another woman. Women aren’t a monolith. Just use your best judgement and decide for yourself based on your own morals and standards.
Omg Thank you!!!!!!! This movie was the most plastic (haha) portrayal of feminism, and it made me SO MAD when, for two weeks, women were attacking other women who didnt like feminine things or had criticisms of the movie.
I want the Uno movie to go ham on being political, make it about Frieda Kahlo and the Mexican Revolution and Diego Rivera and the whole spirit of the times of that, like a Mexican Les Miserables I mean it's a bit genius, E Plurubus Unum, out of many one, UNO. Also it can symbolize the loneliness and isolation of being a misunderstood artist.
its funny you talk about this because I've actually started watching a Japanese franchise that both exists to sell toys but also goes very hard with its anti-capitalism message. It blew my mind that they were a toy company with properties saying hey the system is bad actually tear it down and rebuild it in a way that benefits everyone or look for solutions to problems outside of the Corporate mindset. So it just makes me wonder if maybe the problem is smaller studios with niche fanbases get to be more honest and mainstream media is so lead by corporate they would never dare.
I’m sorry Cheyenne, but I fail to see how you interpreted the smallpox line as “the natives didn’t fight back against colonizers”. The line is merely saying that the natives had no medicine to fight the disease, which makes sense as they were never exposed to it before the colonizers arrived. Since the Barbies had no concept of patriarchy, the commentary is about how Patriarchy disguises itself as being harmlessly pro-men when it is so much more sinister. I’m genuinely shocked as your interpretations are usually on point, but I feel like you’re reading way too much into Barbie and trying to find ways to hate it. We can talk about the ethics of using indigenous genocide as a prop in a Mattel movie, but tbh you straight up misunderstood the line.
promising young woman was a disgusting movie and i say this as a sex worker because i was wholly unprepared to watch an extended scene of a sex worker being suffocated to death. there was no fucking reason for that, violence against sex workers happens irl every single day and as a sex worker i am surrounded by it, and by news of it. it really put into perspective how the people making this film are not as oppressed as they would like to think they are. sex workers as an audience were not considered, we are used as pawns by different groups to make a point as usual, culminating in violence against us. why was the main character only allowed to die once she was pretending to be a sex worker? i honestly have a hard time thinking that that was an intentional point being made. it made me sick to my stomach, it just wasn't necessary. i hate that movie
Excellent video. The general opinion of "The Barbie Movie was cute and fun but not groundbreaking and also that smallpox line was fucked up" is one I can get behind.
I agree with most of the takes in this video, and I usually don't comment on this stuff, but there's just one thing in modern political discourse that really bugs me: The idea that white women are exempt from misogyny. I think it's a dangerous idea, and in a few years we'll look back at the way we talked about "white women" in relation to feminism and...cringe. I don't know if you meant to, but the video implies that white women don't really face serious/dangerous levels of misogyny and that was the leading force behind the pop feminism of the 2010s, but really, being a white woman isn't gonna save you from even the most heinous forms of misogyny, because you're still a woman. Yeah, a white woman ultimately won't face the type of racial discrimination that women of color do (though this view is ultimately very US-centric), but that doesn't protect them from the patriarchy. White women are still raised in families/a society that views women as "the other", a person not seen as a full, equal individual in the way their male family members are. They still lose promotions, educational opportunities, equal chances and are still murdered for being women. It's very telling that even the most privileged and high achieving types of women in this corrupt society, such as millionaire singers and CEOs, still only hold half the power that men in their positions do. So intersectionality to me isn't about downplaying the type of discrimination that a group faces based on another axis of oppression, but rather being able to band together over our shared experiences while also giving support to those who face other issues that are in their way. Just my thoughts on it tho.
I think Barbie works really well as a story, and I wish people would compliment it on those merits more than trying to bolster it as the "voice of a feminist generation". It's pretty flawed as the story of all women, but it's the engaging and heartwarming story of _this_ woman (the character Barbie), and that's all it needs to be. At the end of the day its basically just a really well executed hot pink Pinocchio story and I love that for it
Just watched Barbie on the plane. This movie is like 10 years too late and basically an advertisement. Just how much screen time Mattel got was so telling. At least they did okay by not sexualizing Barbie or making her end up with Ken.
I agree that the characters are fictional and that criticizing a fictional female character is not the same as criticizing real women. However. It's a fact that people are much, much harsher on female characters than on the male ones, and that definetely comes from some misogyny.
My first proper insight into 'feminism' was this very surface level white feminism about manspreading and whatnot. I'd never really taken an interest in feminism before that so when I was exposed to anti-sjw stuff, it was really easy to latch onto that and discredit western feminists. Of course since then I've exercised at least a little critical thinking and have since gotten out of that echo chamber and I do blame myself for being naive and not acknowledging the privilege I had and how that affected my view on western society. What I'm trying to say is, it's no wonder I ended up in that anti-sjw/anti-feminist crowd. Still, I loved the Barbie movie ✨
I honnestly don't get why the choose to do a classic like snow white like please, the 1930's version was already good and no more remake even making it feminist 😭
(Modern) Feminism seems to be a cult the same as any other. It has internal hierarchy where certain people are elevated as speaking divine, unquestionable truths, and everyone else gets to be "liberated" by agreeing with those "speakers for the divine". However, instead of being about sex or death, feminism seems to mostly be formed in a way that the speakers of the cult can use their power to get ahead in their careers or sell things to their followers. As expected, with social power being wielded mostly for personal gain, it gets entangled with existing social power, so you'll also have the "speakers for the divine" more and more focus on issues affecting the upper class at the expense of everything else. I don't think feminism is relevant today, in a way that, it addresses a real problem that it has tools to solve. The world is inequal, but feminism doesn't have a lens through which that inequality could be solved. Without point to its existence, it is left as a platform for grifters seeking personal gain, or those gullible enough to think that being heavily in favor of something will make it happen.
I did heard their recasting snow white actress because she said she hate snow white and Disney took that personally and fire her and recast Betty Cooper to be snow white instead and she's British and she didn't take it very well.
Not quite. There's been a lot of drama and anti-SJW channels spreading misinformation about this whole thing. Disney is delaying the movie's release. This could be for a variety of reasons aside from Rachel Zegler; one of the most obvious ones being the recent strikes. Daily Wire has been taking advantage of the culture war nonsense surrounding the film, and they're producing a Snow White with Brett Cooper meant to be "anti-woke." Rachel hasn't been recast, and she has been pretty silent about Daily Wire's new movie.
Imo, choice feminism becomes a problem when you ignore the need for sisterhood, for women to support women. Not all choices you make will support women, and so not all choices are feminist. But at the same time, it is good for women to exercise autonomy. And in the 1950s America, it WAS radical for women to have a consumer/worker driven identity as opposed to a domestic one. It's just that it's a form of feminism that's too capitalist-friendly to support all women, including exploited factory workers.
I enjoyed this movie, but I wouldn’t watch it again and I wasn’t wowed by it. Maybe it’s because it was so hyped up and my expectations were too high, idk. But I’m glad there r other ppl who see the exact same problems w it that I have, other than the reactionary backlash it has received. The mother-daughter dynamic literally ruined the movie imo. I am so fucking sick of the stressed mom and angsty teen daughter duo that turns into a healthy, loving relationship by the end of the movie. It’s cheesy and unrealistic. Barbie entering the real world is a fun idea, but why they had to use these two characters to do it is beyond me, other than it just feels like straight up pandering. The fact the mom gives the triumphant speech at the end is so lame. Like Barbie is the main fucking character and she does almost nothing in this movie. But let’s give these two boring ass, cookie cutter characters a bunch of screen time for some reason instead lol. Also, as “feminist” as this movie wanted to be, the best part about it was Ryan Gosling and all the Kens, which everyone seems to agree upon. Just sucks they didn’t make a movie about Barbie more about Barbie, I don’t get it.
I think the whole wanting characters in fiction to validate our morals got exacerbated by Trump getting elected President. Once it was clear we weren't going to have someone who would even pretend to represent the best of us to the world, we turned to other sources for leadership and lots of Hollywood actors and writers jumped at the opportunity to fill that void. Now that things are somewhat back to normal and the MAGA threat has been diminished (though not totally extinguished) we're starting to get a little sick of all the moralizing and preaching in media.
Even while the Pop Feminism movement ultimately undermined feminism, it's important to keep in mind that the anti-feminist movement that arose at the same time as the Pop Feminism movement was starting to gain traction is largely to blame for the rise of right-wing ideology.
Omg im finally seeing your videos again. What the heck YT?! I totally agree with your assessment on this movie. Did not slap. Anticlimactic considering the alt right hype lol
No sharpay with her sexual harssment,boxing others was not a victum but I do get the whole annoyance at making the science nerd, basketball player the ones being bullied by the mean drama kids. Since the drama department and other arts departments are undercut, underfunded compared to basketball and science as subjects of importance. It got even more annoying with disneys zombie franchise yes the male cheerleader and his co ed team of hyper femine boys, girls are biggoted toward the football player.
Troy, she was constantly ignoring his no's and trying to force him to be her boyfriend. She even went as far as to dangle his chance at a scholarship over his head in exchange for him to spend time with her and she did quite a bit of touching of him without his permission. Which he was clearly uncomfortable with. @@beethovensfidelio
Bring back 1990s feminism, when heroines were stone cold sociopaths who weren't certain things outside themselves existed. Aeon Flux! Lara Croft! Tank Girl! That shit's where it's at.
I think that Barbie is kinda victim of its success when it comes to its message. A lot of people came to this movie without expecting much cause it's Barbie, and so when the movie happened to be much better than their low expectations, they went and tell everybody how amazing it was. So now you hear everywhere that it is an amazing movie and it is what feminism should look like, so people now see the movie with very high expectations, waiting for it to be revolutionnary or something. And they are disapppointed to see that it is not more subtle or deep than other movies.
Do hunchback an actua feminist story next, esmerda is great too. And ctua good message bout how , not to view women. Asie the reigion part. And if you ever do anime, cross ange is good if the first part has way too much eh fanservice, but its great ese. if going dark paces. And wonderfu human messy with ,many women as center and how they , are human, and messy and in the end worktogether to, And the story take off in the second haf, an its great, it hust goes dark paces too. Through cotent warning i guess too, though the ater is, great, and used so wow
Sounds like the plot of “Life-Size”. Though granted Casey’s “plain”, “boyish” wardrobe is symbolic of her becoming withdrawn and quiet from her friends and everyone else due to the death of her mother. It’s through her Eve doll coming to life that Casey learns to embrace more girly, bright clothes and be more emotionally open allowing herself to be nicer to people including her friends.
Great video as always. This is why i stopped watching movies and most mass media altogether. At the end of the day the only thing that the system is allowed to represent is itself, and the only thing being movilized is our attention as it is the most important resource for techno-capitalism. Most twitter discourse around "woke" movies always devolves into how much money is being made, and both sides feel like money is the ultimate judge. But as images of women and opressed people accelerate they are commodified and all revolutionary action becomes null and re-territorialized
as for the Snow White remake the character herself is literally named "Snow White" therefore a person of color being cast as her won't make any sense this has nothing to do with racism or anything it's yet another example of being so "open minded" that the brains fall out in the same manner as defending age gap relationships with the "consenting adults" excuse
If I could critique this video for a moment: you can quit using phrases like “in my opinion” or “I felt” when you’re talking about these things. This is an opinion piece. You don’t have to tell us you’re stating opinions. We know.
Live action Mulan is the weirdest pop feminist item. Saying "qi" is only for men is such a bizarre take on traditional Chinese culture as to be complete garbage...
I went through a "NLOGG" phase and it was literally just gender dysphoria, I'm a trans-masculine NB. I didn't know that or what that was at the time is all. I wonder how many NLOGG's are just eggs.
full honestly , I don't get why people complain about pop feminisn , when its the one that won. it is the one that you everyone in this coment setion belives in , they just believe a more depressed version of it. like I also hate pop feminisn but all of you people are just pop feminisnt that hate capitalism. and that is a big reason why I hate pop feminism it poision femism to the point that no one can think critically outside of feminism anymore. and like we have some security in the fact that there are a lot of people who do respect women , but that is mostly cause of the work of feminisnt of the past. I feel like we are really screwed if any big chances happen , cause most people thinking around this topic doesn't really exist.
While this video is a great essay into how brands pushing 2010's Buzzfeed pop feminism tend to ignore any legitimate criticism and nuance of that brand of feminism and often comes across as pushing trademarks to sell toys instead of making movies that are good for their own sake..... I kinda wish it didn't sound like you were READING an essay... like, out loud in front of the whole class
I mean, I get this criticism. But although I thought the feminism ideas in the movie weren’t that surprising at all I noticed lots of woman in my surroundings not getting it. Saying that there isn’t that much pressure on woman and that guys aren’t that suppressing for woman. I feel like the movie had to dance on this line between woman that did follow feminist waves and woman that don’t mind the system or haven’t realised it’s there. Because of this we ended up not really pleasing anyone
![mgk - I Think I’m OKAY (with YUNGBLUD) (Sad Version) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7AC1uqQLIg4/mqdefault.jpg)
The funny thing is, in the scene where Barbie enters the real world and realizes that Mattel is only run by men (after she asks to meet the female CEO), I thought this was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek joke about how Barbie World was basically like pop feminism - a symbolic, commercial representation of girl power sold to people while not actually changing things IRL. But then the plot morphed into Ken introducing patriarchy to Barbie World and it just went sideways lol
Yeah I hated the whole 'bringing patriarchy into barbieland' plotline. The deeper messaging they were shooting for really didn't land for me, and I left the movie wishing they'd just left it as a funny, meaningless comedy.
I mean that what feminisms is today is nothing but girl boss symbolic junk that corporations sell to the masses.
You just made me realize the problem with the oversaturation of the whole "conventionally attractive girly women can be empowered too!" theme. Like, of course "girly" women deserve respect; nobody's arguing against that (or at least, nobody should). But the problem is, so much "feminist" conversations are centered around the idea of uplifting the conventionally attractive, white, blonde, "girly" cis woman that they're really not saying anything radical or all that important. Yes, you can be girly and smart, or girly and powerful. But the overrepresentation of these conversations upholds the status quo of how femininity should be performed, as well as focusing on the problems encountered by the most privileged group of women, instead of representing the women who don't fit that standard, and the fact that the standard itself should be dismantled. And like, I love Elle Woods (who doesn't?). But if the most prevalent conversation in feminism is "Elle Woods can be blonde and white and pretty and rich AND smart and capable," then where does that leave the women who aren't like Elle Woods? The people who need equality most are largely ignored by this sort of messaging.
THANK YOUUU I'm tired of the "conventionally femenine women are the most victimized" vibes
Exactly!
This exactly! And on the topic of legally blonde, look at how it treats the (comparatively.) more masculine figure of Enid, a feminist lesbian. The way that she looks down on Elle and seems disgusted with her. How any of her arguments around feminism are supposed to sound ridiculous and are made up problems.
In general, masculine lesbians bare so much of the brunt of mockery in media and in general the rule for what even counts as masculine is so low that you don’t even get to see much of it in the first place
Agreed!
THANK YOU FOR THIS PERFECT EXPLANATION. ❤
Also barbie got arrested for stealing clothes and the police let her go because "she looks good in it anyways". This was an uncomfortable moment for Barbie for sure, but it just skimmed over how privileged she was to have done a crime and just be let go and shrugged off by the cops
To me, feminism simply means women having their agency, rights, voice, and autonomy. The radical idea that women are people.
And also, to quote Toni Morrison, to help others. If you're liberated, you must help liberate others too. Otherwise no one is free.
I also like the older versions of Fairy Tale Heroines the most, Pre-Disney/Perrault/Brothers Grimm.
In the older versions of Fairy Tales, the Heroine are virtuous, but they were also cunning, clever, self-determined and self-motivated. They were neither kickass girlbosses or passive doormats. They would orchestrate their escape, and sometimes with a little help (be it from animals, a man, or supernatural help). The Heroine has clout, courage, and determination.
According to Valerie Frankel in her book 'From Girl to Goddess', the classic Heroine is on a journey to battle for her identity and security. She's on an inward journey, whereas the Hero is on an outward journey (but the two are not always separated or fixed, a Heroine can also have an outward journey).
@sammyvictors2603 I do love a good classic heroine story, characters who aren't a reaction or an adjustment to the real world issues of misogyny in storytelling and cinema, or just the masculine character template but for an attractive woman, but who exist outside of those constraints. The clever maiden that outsmarts the villain, the commoner lady who wants to just enjoy humanity gently, the love letter to the nurturing mother who wasn't forced into that role but represents the well rounded women who choose it in our own lives. I actually really liked this depiction of Generic Barbie as someone who ran a bit of a in world revolution with humility, emotions, and driven by the compassion that started it. She doesn't have to use the patriarchal tools of threats and intimidation but she doesn't have to martyr anyone as an example, she assembles using information about a common interest and wellbeing and having them be free to choose. She's privileged in being able to be successful while staying soft and vulnerable, but she uses it to uplift and share the privilege to do so with others.
To me it’s a movement that’s overstayed its welcome only and exists to further sucker a bunch of guys into believe that’ll one day get them layed if they keep pretending to support it once the men stop supporting it that’s it game over it’ll collapse under its own weight.
with all do respect feminism have supported to much evil for me to ever support.
feminism support
1. pornography and the sexual revolution
2.abortion(killing of innocent babies)
3. Divorce laws that destroy men livelihoods with ridiculous child support and alimony
feminism is not only not needed anymore it is actively supporting terrible and destructive things. the only positive thing feminism did woman's suffrage and equal pay for equal work.everything else had been terrible
the snow white outrage from barbie fans esp is so ironic given that greta gerwig was a cowriter on the snow white movie 💀💀
If you like a piece of work someone puts out that means you have to like everything else they do too? That literally makes no sense.
@@lunaloveless7234 oh I meant in the sense that people were going HARD on rachel zegler for saying what she said about snow white and how it's different from the original. Someone pointed out that some of those ppl criticizing her loved barbie, but had no problem dragging rachel for her comments which is exactly what they were praising barbie for doing. Sorry for not being clear!
@@smarterperson16Rachel came across like she hated snow white amd thought the original was trash. Gerwig clearly loves and pays homage to Barbies eras. They were qlways very mindful not to outright bash barbie. I dont see the connection when the main point of critique was Rachel's repeated interviews conveying she didnt like the original
you... are aware people can like something and dislike something else even if they share people who worked on them, right?
@@prageruwu69 never said they couldn't. Just saying the entire situation was blown out of proportion, lol.
This reminds me of something Anita Sarkeesian said in a podcast that she doesn't like labeling media as feminist or anti-feminist because doing that misses the poimt on critiquing, or something along those lines.
And now I can see what she meant, trying to label media as something part of your identity or political identity. We end up focusing more on if we're moral or not for the things we consume which isn't getting to the point of the real critiques. Like The Little Mermaid can be seen as bad because of how Ariel is portrayed as a damsel in distress, while others can see a queer and trans story. That's what so great about media, we can take so many things away from it. It can be interpreted so many ways.
But from this I can see and fear that mainstream pop feminism missed the mark on the discourse. If anything, it just shows me that we need more media literacy. Well that and education that focuses on telling all of inclusive history and subjects (such as ethnic studies, feminist studies, non-whitewashed history, etc.) more. But that's gonna be hard since there're also anti-critical race theory and anti-lgbtq+ history bills being drafted and passed (at least in FL it is) which makes me fear for the future.
I really appreciate your takes on 2010s pop feminism, I became a feminist in the 2010s and the pop feminism was a great way to start learning. But haven't thought about its shortcomings. Thinking that we could've logic'd everyone out of their bigotry was a naive thought back then. That and choice feminis, ugh. Hopefully 2020s feminism will push the needle farther than we did in the 2010s.
Also can't believe this is how I learned there's going to be a Mattel cinematic universe, wtf. Wishbone is going to be a part of it? Okay, capitalism just ruins art.
Interpretation does not mean what it is. Interpretation has been completely co-opted to excuse terrible things so tbh, it isn’t an excuse. And to make it more clear, Ariel can be RELATABLE to them, but the interpretations are wrong. The real fact is, that it’s a Gay love story.
My thoughts on the Barbie movie are very similar: It was a cute, fun, gorgeously made popcorn movie that didn't need to try to justify its own existence by re-heating the leftovers of the pop-feminist trend. In fact, the worst part of the movie is the way it tripped on itself by not committing to a single narrative: It wasn't a mother/daughter movie, a movie about Ken learning self-reliance, or a movie about Barbie becoming self-aware. All of those are in the film, but none of them is centrally focused enough to count as a complete story. If I want philosophy, I'll read a reputable book by someone with an advanced degree. If I want a silly movie about living in a plastic world, I'll go see Barbie.
Yes!! I wanted a central theme and it ended up feeling very odd and disjointed for me. Ultimately, I wish it had just been a fun comedy with no attempts at deeper messaging at all. 🤷♀ The 'take down the patriarchy' angle felt really out of place to me and the messaging didn't even end up making sense between the 3 different storylines.
@@joannamarieartYou’re better off watching “Life-Size”.
I think the Barbie movie was more about Barbie’s impact on all the things you mentioned, rather than all those things on their own
That's right. It's just a teen girl movie that takes itself too seriously just for the rebranding purposes. The Disney Channel things I watched as a kid have the same vibe to it, the only difference being a bit better acting (we had Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling ffs). And yet they pretend to be those serious philosophers 😂😂😂
The Barbie movie was never going to be THAT movie. It was always going to be surface level…why are you surprised?
thanks for covering the smallpox line & how it was a terrible metaphor - also sad that it was America Ferrera who ended up with that line as she probably has indigenous ancestry herself :/
She definitely does, most Latinos do.
It isn't a bad thing to want some fairy tale escapism.
a lot of valid feminist critique against makeup, shaving, etc is seen as anti woman or chalked up to be “pick me”rhetoric when it’s not. when feminists say they want more for women rather than the boxes we’re born to remain in, it’s seemed like anti femininity. critiquing the patriarchy and how women are taught to adhere to stereotypical womanhood shouldn’t be seen as taking the piss on girly girls. sometimes i feel the need to wear makeup when i think i’m ugly. sometimes i feel the need to shave when i think i’m too hairy. succumbing to those urges is totally valid but acting like you can reclaim them as #feminist when they’re tools of the patriarchy is silly. women are expected to be feminine and submissive. calling a strong/smart woman “masculine” is gross and only encourages gender norms. no woman should be obligated to be anything but to relish in being a “stupid bimbo” just seems odd.
Absolutely. We only feel the need to do these things because of patriarchal messaging - our appearance has historically been the one thing we’ve been able to control, as a gender with little power in society. I feel the same way about Instagram and empowerment through posting thirst traps and hot selfies - isn’t that just succumbing to the same biases and criticism, albeit under the guise of increasing your bself esteem?
What's wrong with being ugly? Some people can't fix their features with makeup to be pretty.
absolutely nothing! the problem is that society is determined to convince women that *we're* the problem for the way we look, and that our appearance is the only thing that's important about us. Men are allowed to be plain or 'ugly' and aren't shamed for it like women are.@@citrus_sweet
right? like I can choose to shave my pits because I want to fulfill beauty standards in this patriarchical society, but that doesn't make it a hyper feminist choice. at least when we embrace this ideology, we're actually thinking about what we're doing rather than just making excuses and happily perpetuating the capitalist status quo.
my biggest beef is with makeup. stopped wearing it on the day to day in 2013 ish, and now even just standing in that cosmetics aisle thinking of giving my hard earned money to companies which have traditionally preyed on making me feel ugly and insecure (while not targeting men AT ALL) really burns my britches. I mean at least with shaving there's some parallels with men's beauty standards (they gotta manage their facial hair), but makeup is so predatorily one sided it makes me really, really mad.
@@K.C-2049 i unfortunately struggle w wearing makeup to feel confident but it’s all about how you view it. i’m capable of not wearing makeup every day but i’m aware of why i feel prettier when i do. it’s not a crime to do makeup obviously but to act like it’s not a capitalist trap for women irks me. same with crazy skincare/anti aging products. it’s all just companies telling women that they lack value when they’re old, ugly, etc.
i think we can all agree that 2010s pop feminism (especially 2016 era) was a bad time for all involved
There were aspects of it that changed things for the better imo. It’s just that we don’t remember how misogynistic the times before that was. Like the fact that as a woman you were the target of constant jabs at your personhood and you weren’t allowed to acknowledge it ever or you‘d be labeled a harpy. You were also not allowed to have discussions about emotional labor or the mental load or doing most of the caretaking and child raising. Those were all way more taboo subjects then they are today.
Some things are not okay to say now that we’re very common in the 2000s, where cruelty towards women was just a lot more accepted overall.
2010s pop feminism was inclusive towards the wrong crowd, the kind of white middle and upper class women who think they had it all figured out despite being naive as shit.
And then the corporatism, that was bad but on the other hand, who else was going to popularize the feminist messages and make people open towards them quite like pop culture paired with corporations seeking to make a profit ? The media landscape was already falling apart.
I think that it wasn’t all bad, even if it was disappointing.
The messages spread where shallow but still important.
It gave women a little space to breathe, and by being so obviously flawed it make a lot more young women want to engage with things critically.
@@user-ny2fk9gm1kagreed honestly, tbf progress isnt a straight line and althought it was slippery the outcome from that being a less misogynistic future and a more fair society like at least socially its quite good
Man, high school was *FUN.*
@@gdragon42069 and being a middle school boy then was also fun, if “fun” meant hating women
noppppe wrong. lol sorry but wrong. as an Old, I can tell you that the times before feminism began to become more mainstream and women started making noise (even about silly termed microaggressions like man spreading lol) were far FAR worse. you had stuff like "The Man Show" on mainstream TV, stuff like the Gamer Awards, as a woman you just felt so unwelcome in damn near every part of pop culture. we got dunked on for everything we did. if you were sex positive, forget it you were a slut, but you couldn't be too prudish either. your 28 year old cousin's friend is hitting on your 19 year old self at a wedding, cheating on his girlfriend in the process? that's great, you should take it as a compliment. it was gross gross gross.
I always hated the backlash to "not like other girls". as someone who probably would have been seen as a "not like other girls' and who did actively distance herself from traditional femininity, I did so because even from an early age I simply hated the idea of being told to like certain things just because I happened to be a girl. I had no inherent dislike for those things, to me they were just what they were, but I identified it pretty early on that the stereotype that being a girl meant I had to like pink and shiny things as "sexist", which was a surprise to my mum I'll tell you. this current trend of hating on "not like other girls" ignores the fact that we had good reasons to rebel against performative femininity and restrictive gender stereotypes, especially in an appearance oriented society where how we dress and present ourselves is so indicative of our characters and beliefs.
also ugh choice feminism. I saw through that shit so early on in its existence and couldn't believe so many girls were falling for it.
A lot of people who do this do hate on traditionally feminine girls/women though. I had an NLOG phase and although I did have a genuine love of nerdy things people didn't expect girls to like, I downplayed my love of things like musicals for fear of being judged, and I looked down on hyper feminine things I never had an interest in like I was better. I do agree not everyone who has this phase does it for this reason, but many do.
@@bespectacledheroine7292totally mate, and I mean I can only speak for myself on my experiences here, but I’m sure there were lots of us on both sides. I just think it’s important to remember that the concept of performative feminjnity isn’t necessarily harmless, he way a lot of folks seem to want to make it out to be.
Im sure there was backlash because it started to put girls down who liked girly things and think they were better than other because they didnt like girly things
At that early age did you think you were better than others because you didnt like girly things
The not like other girls is hated because of internalized misogyny and treats women like their not individuals and if they like girly things its a bad thing
I seen a horrible trailer for Ben Shapiro's new Snow White movie and they showed a picture of Snow White and I thought it was Ben Shapiro in drag.
Brett's Snow White looks more like a vampire than a fairytale princess.
Which in a way is fitting for Brett 😆
It's clear from the get go that Daily Wire and conservative businesses has an agenda in making the their own media, their motivations are purely selfish and self-interested and backwards; they want to turn back the clock.
Why does she look exactly like Ben Shapiro!?? I’m so confused. Are they related? Probably. 😂
Ben seems like the type to do drag ngl
@@billnyestrophywife Maybe. 😂
when it comes to female characters and similarly targeted media (ie twilight) being criticized it’s always frustrating because there are legitimate ways to deconstruct how they are written and the evolving tropes that come with them often being written by men or more privileged women, but i feel like people get discouraged from doing so (i’m guilty of this too) because the predominant criticisms of them are based in sexism, so it becomes a “how can we take them back” sort of thing. and yet at the same time i feel like the complaints corporations are responding to are the more misogynistic ones instead of legitimately trying to improve. i’m so tired of both the ‘this fictional little girl is terrible and should be k*lled off’ essays and the disney stan accounts at the same time. i wish we could live in a world where women-centered media was just seen as media with its own differing themes that could be normally critiqued (ie that the live action remakes are horrible not because of feminism, but because of how shallow and artistically hollow they are), as the more legitimate representation there is the more normalized it can become, but we’re just not there yet. i think i’m mostly just reiterating points you’ve already made in this video at this point, but all this to say that there’s so many facets to how societal ills really permeate not only how corporations put out media, but how we consume it and i feel like your videos do a great job at exploring everything in-depth in an informative way. i always feel like i learn something new or gain another perspective when i watch them :)
If women want their work to blend in they need to write for a general audience, which means they need to drop the activism. About 3/4 of the movies on HBO/Starz right now are made by women and minorities, and all of them suck. Dysfunction and victimization are the only themes explored. It's the Lifetime Movie Network-ification of Hollywood.
The problem with "pop feminism" is that pop stands for popular. Feminism is a lot of things, but it's easiest to just call it a lie. Aim higher, focus on things outside of yourself, and watch the "inequality" and "systemic" issues fall away. Wouldn't that be preferable? Women writing their own Mr. Holland's Opus or Jaws, rather than spitting in the faces of men? Men being the people who love them.
You using the gender equivalent of “I don’t see color.” Won’t fix anything girl. This has already been done before and you can see where that got us. Next.
If the Kens are a metaphor for women's rights, then the in-fighting in hindsight.. is a lot more messy than I thought. Even if it doesn't intend to promote infighting. (Considering this is WB, home to franchise owned by infamous infighter Joanne K Rowling, yeah.. Bad taste. It would've been better to lean into working together.)
Also, for a movie about Barbie, there was an unusual lack of referencing the DVD film era. Anything. That was the Barbie I grew up on, that many have, and yet it wasn't even casually included.
Absolutely agreed! The barbie DVDs are absolutely iconic in their own right.
@@joannamarieart idk if this is the actual reason, but in my head the dvd barbies aren't in the movie because it messes with the barbie lore of those movies
@@girlsgokawaiiI also think it’s maybe because those are not the barbies Greta or Margot grew up with? Or for instance the thing about flat feet, I don’t know before the 90s, but in the 2000s we definitively already had flat feet barbies. I don’t know if I make sense?
@@girlsgokawaiiThey could easily be listed off in the Mattel company "what we do". Like not just Barbie dolls, but shows, movies, books, etc.
I love how nuanced and thoughtful your videos are. You clearly put a lot of research and thought into these videos essays and I really appreciate that
My only issue with the upcoming Snow White remake is that it will suck because except for maybe two of these remakes, they ALL SUCK.
Having said that, it'll probably be better than The Daily Wire's version of Show White.
You're probably right. Anything will be better than Daily Wire's version.
I'm even thinking of writing my own version/retelling of classic Fairy Tales, one of them is Snow White, updating a little but also going back to her ancient, Pre-Brothers Grimm roots (and from other versions from various cultures).
Snow is a magistrate's illegitimate daughter, but she is a philanthropic young woman motivated purely by compassion, sympathy, and altruism, siding with the underdog, as her mother was one of them (an Esther figure if you will). She is at odds with her Step-Grandmother, a cruel and callous, narcissistic aristocrat who looks down on the common people and fears a prophecy that a granddaughter will not only outmatch her in beauty but also bring about her doom (she's a Cronus figure). The Stepmother is a meek and pleasant woman, kind to Snow White, but fears her controlling mother. Both Snow and the Grandmother meet their demise (it is a bittersweet ending).
The Dwarfs are replaced with the Seven Sisters, goddesses and personifications of the seven stages of womanhood, from infancy to senility.
@@sammyvictors2603 Tell me when your book is finished, Sammy. It sounds like a wonderful reimagining!
Thankyou so much for this analysis.
I'm a feminist and anticapitalist, who actually really loved the movie, but firmly considers it quite minimal on the feminism. Like, my takeaway watching it was "I loved the existential questioning, the comedy, the commentary on unwanted sexualisation really hit something personal, but the feminism of the movie really is a simplified beginner's guide." It seemed to have had an effect on pushing people who defended patriarchal values to try some baby steps in the right direction. And I'm definitely not about to buy any merch knowing what I do about production, they got my movie ticket money this time because they offered a product that I found worthwhile.
For me, one of the biggest appeals of the Barbie Movie experience was this global moment of feminine solidarity. I joined the trend of wearing the pinkest things I own to the cinema, I went with a group of friends who all actually have rather unique gender perspectives and experiences, we reflected on our feelings and when we smiled, when we cried in the movie. And we could see all over social media, even others in the cinema and mall partaking in the same experience.
And I admit a strong bias towards enjoying it because, even as one of my friends turned to me and said, the Barbie character reminds them a lot of me, my specific intersection of femininity, sexuality (or lack thereof) and privilege was central of the film. If corporations are still scared of giving us a truly more challenging and feminist, anticapitalist project, I think the next thing we need is a moment like what I had for people of different intersections. Making a conventional pretty, white, queer but more invisible woman feel seen is a baby step in what we need, and we'd get so much further in a production world less obsessed with profits.
Yeah the green M&M wearing sneakers Tucker Carlson had a meltdown about that. You know that racist guy who always look like a deer caught in the headlights.
Not to be that person, but “exploring Mulan’s gender identity”. I get where people are coming from but as a very masculine cis woman it’s always super disheartening seeing gender nonconforming women in media being mass interpreted as “no this character was never a woman in the first place”. Like transmascs themselves doing this is one thing (I’ve got a lot of solidarity with transmascs and like I Get It, believe me) but seeing these interpretations made by gender conforming cis people is so, like I said disheartening because that category of people always seem to think of women like me as a “transmasc egg” whereas the transmascs doing this usually don’t. I’d just like to be seen as a kind of person that exists rather than a stepping stone to a different identity.
You’re a woman not a cid anything sis..
@@Mildredpotka And? That doesn’t change the fact that I was also once a masculine little girl, and that little girls like me do in fact exist. It also doesn’t mean that not being taken seriously about my identity doesn’t suck.
@@sc6658 I take your identity seriously that’s why I’m saying something.
"...And she only got paid 50 million dollars for her role, even though she-"
Even though nothing. 50 MILLION DOLLARS!?
The best part of the Barbie movie for me was seeing it in theaters a seat away from a little girl and her father. We were in an Alamo Drafthouse, so they had ordered pizza, and the little girl’s short little legs were sticking straight out in front of her on the big seats. She was kicking her legs and giggling and chewing on her big slice and bouncing a bit, and at one point chirped, “I’m so happy!” 🤣 In conclusion, this movie was a kids’ movie. And that’s ok! Not a feminist movie, a goofy Toy Story. With a mom lecturing about the struggles of womanhood interspersed in.
Also, Life Size was a hysterical movie premise that deserves a revisit. That movie seems like it’s going to be a horror movie about a little girl messing with forbidden dark magic to bring her mother back to life, and instead her doll does? And THEN the doll can come to terms with the existentialist creator story. Crazy themes there! Even within the film, when the doll thinks she can do anything and everything, then quickly feels out of her element. Even guilt over taking the little girl’s chance to see her mom again.
Not to be pedantic, but the movie is rated PG-13. It's not a kid's movie, lol. It's for 25+ year old women to get nostalgic about their days as kids playing with Barbie. My mother (in her 60s) liked it because she recognized so many of the Barbies. There were plenty of adult jokes in there (not saying a little girl shouldn't be hearing the word 'vagina' cuz it's not a bad word but typically movies aimed at children don't include it lol)
@@wandawalker3190I would qualify it as a family movie, adults get a lot out of it and so do kids.
Aww that's so cute!
Except the very clear marketing insists it's a feminist movie. And the rating is PG-13. Barbie is sexually assaulted on screen. The plot hinges on a 40(is) yo woman being depressed and getting cellulite. If you go into it thinking it's a kids movie, you've missed all of the very clear messaging they were trying to send out that it's not. Kids can definitely watch it, but just because it's about a kids toy, doesn't make it a kids movie.
Thank you for this video. The issues you've brought up are the same criticisms I've had of Greta's other works - while I loved America Fererra's monologue, variations of that monologue are in Greta's other films (ie Little Women and Jo's speech) and sometimes it comes off very heavy handed, slowing the momentum. I resented it was telling me how I should feel about patriarchy and feminism, rather than letting me empathize with Barbie's identity issues - why does she want to be real? Would she feel the same about wanting to leave Barbie World once her human's crisis was fixed? What about the ramifications of being "dumped" by your human once they reach a certain age, or no longer being deemed "normal" enough to fit in with the rest of Barbie world (Weird Barbie)?
The movie was best when it was more like Toy Story, full of meta jokes/self-references with a story line centering around self-actualization and identity. But I think the hamfistedness of the feminism, or at least how it was approached, bothered me.
Damn, I finally see what wasn't sitting well with me. I'm a CIS White man, and my wife loved it, so I didn't feel like I could really say much, but it felt conspicuous that the moral of the story was just that Barbie and America Fererra just needed to self-actualize and everything would be ok! "You've always had the power - just click your heels together and repeat: 'there's no choice but capitalism; there's *no* choice but capitalism; there's *NO* choice but capitalism!'"
The real patriarchy was the feels we had along the way - the Barbies submitted to patriarchy not because of coercion, a lack of resources, or violence, but because it's just such a compelling idea that, unless you've been innoculated against it, you won't recognize that you're suddenly suppressing your thoughts and feelings to survive in a world ruled by men?
Sometimes feminism takes the shape of equal but opposite patriarchy. And anyway, both are just products of capitalism. After all, competition amongst the low life brings the best to the front to be conditioned and exploited.
Wtf
Surface level analysis
@@lunaloveless7234 are you saying that my analysis is surface level? I'm open to being enlightened if you think that I am missing anything. I'm genuinely trying to understand how this film isn't equivocating about the way that patriarchy actually comes about in a society.
Is there any actual advice that this film has for women (or men) beyond just being kind to yourself and others? I agree that is an important step, but it doesn't do anything to actually solve problems of underrepresentation or imbalances of power in society.
@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3This movie wasn't meant to solve any problems. I was written to portray someone's thoughts about womanhood and feminism.
Bashing classic Disney movies and needing to make them woke is pointless considering how progressive those old movies were for their time. As crazy as it may sound to some people, it's only natural and not sinful for something to be the product of its time. I can only imagine how regressive we'll look to our grandkids.
What's woke?
@@jayyello It's best not to know.
The "feminist speech" was a cringe moment in a flawed but amazing movie
How was it “cringe?”
@@Pink_pr1ncessit was preaching like a Ted Talk.
@@gonzoyork1908 that’s the point of a monologue. It’s supposed to be spoken like it’s a speech
@NeggieKnight I don't think so. The movie and it's message were great (the only mainstream movie Ive personally seen that engages in feminisn beyond girls can play soccer too)but that moment felt just a little bit pandery
@@Pink_pr1ncess Because the movie didn't realize it was a description of internal neurosis, not external oppression. I heard critics say, "Men feel that way too!" No doubt. But at least women have a hormonal excuse for it.
Turns out, Konsuming was Kenough, the whole time. What are the odds of that?
just finished the video and it was really excellent (as always), thank you sm !
This video has such great Cheyennergy. It is Cheyennough.
😂🥰
Cheyenne all you do is speak real, and that's why I be clicking on your videos as soon as I see them in my feed!💅
just on time
this was a great video! you made a lot of amazing points!
also when i was listening to this i was finishing my laundry and was taking my barbie blanket my grandma gifted me out of the dryer lmao 😭💀
This has given me a lot to think about. I'd like to add more, but my heads awhirl at the moment, so I'll just say I've enjoyed your work and I always look forward to it.
This is a really engaging and critical video, it's made me rethink my own responses to 2010 feminism
I agree with almost everything said in this video. But I do have commentary on the critique of the "pick me". I think it's both true that what today we understand as a pick me girl was a way of searching for validation in a world where pushed us AFAB people to be as pink-feminine as we could, to only like feminine stuff, and the ones that didn't have the style that goes with performing gender in that way were mostly ostracized. But after that era of "not-like-other-girls" being presented as the "ideal-woman" to cater men, I think the hate shifted towards hyper feminine women.
At the end I think the problem is how society pushes us all to present in a way that's cool depending on the era we're living in, and anybody who's style and/or gender performance isn't what everyone's expecting of them, then the hate will shift to one to the other.
What would be nice is to accept that the problem isn't what people choose to prioritize, if girly or not, but to respect every woman choice of life, as long as that doesn't represent discrimination against others.
For me the hyperbolic nature of the Barbie world and the real world was part of the messaging. Maybe it's my own political opinions that affected my opinion but the message that I got from the movie was that patriarchy and capitalism hurts everyone. The tone was also exactly what I was looking for as a fan of the animated Barbie movies (which I still actively keep up with to this day) in terms of a more mature Barbie movie.
My ex-girlfriend was a 2010s white pop feminist, though from a very poor working class background with very close encounters with police and the carcéral system. I would tell her that I felt like a world which was exactly the same but with women in charge would not be better than this one. I’m Latino, so when Kamala Harris went down to South America and told the people there “Do not come,” I was pissed. And, my ex got pissed at me, we had a huge argument. And, it was frustrating that she cared more about women in power than the vast swathes of poor women in Latin America being kept out of the States through oppressive and racist border restrictions. Yet, she continued to uphold the status quo. It was difficult for me to deal with that because it seemed contradictory to her supposed beliefs. But, her idolization of Taylor Swift makes clear why this was the case. Anyway, that was my rant about my ex, I’m glad more class and race conscious feminists are around to comment on bullshit pop feminism. We need to get Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta and Bell Hooks out to our kids.
(Also, btw if a pop-feminist girl boss world existed, where it was matriarchy instead of patriarchy, I think transphobia would be just as prevalent, especially if the radical idea of a “one sex world” were achieved, or were to be attempted)
This video is the perfect examination of a metamodern cultural epoch.
Yes!!!
Every westworld mention makes me a little bit more happier!
Want to hear your opinion about Barbie since august, thank you very much!
👉👈
A) I've said this before but I'm glad a prominent corner of the internet is able to have calm rational discussion around this movie. That some people like it, some people don't, and that both can respect each other's opinions. I know this is not the majority of the internet, but I've seen four separate video essays on the issues Barbie has that have all done I think a great job of pushing the discussion beyond a black and white good/bad back and forth. I think that the movie deserves credit in that regard for not being so surface level like most blockbusters to the point that there's no space for nuanced complaints or praise.
B) I may receive flack for saying so, but I almost feel like this movie was feminism for men. I know right off the bat people might say that even that in concept is stupid, but personally from the discussions I've had with other men that liked this movie it seems like it resonated with a lot of unspoken feelings about the patriarchy. The whole speech about how contradictive it all is applied just as much to the expectations men are given. We're told we're in charge and can be whatever we want, unless what we want is considered feminine which can in theory be anything. We're supposed to excel at everything, and we're not told what to do when we're actually really bad and not natural leaders. We're supposed to be better than women and self reliant, but our existence is meaningless and pathetic if we aren't in a relationship with a woman. Obviously none of that necessarily applies to entire swaths of under privileged men, and realizing those contradictions isn't going to eliminate the systematic problems no matter what gender heard the speech, but like you said pop feminism really did turn a lot of men away from feminism as a whole. And this seemed to push back against that. If we can agree that this is really a beginner's guide to feminism and not a nuanced take, then I think it's worth noting that a lot of men needed that. I wish they didn't, but I'm glad they finally heard it.
You inspired me to make video essays. I hope you’re doing well
I think part of the problem is that the Barbie movie already had inherent limitations due to the fact that the primary creators were white women. I didn’t love the movie either, as I felt like too many ideas that should’ve been more prevalent in the film were presented and then dropped without much exploration in favor of this watered down “feminism 101 for white women” take on a toy brand.
The Barbie movie SOMEWHAT touched on this, but didn’t give it the room and nuance it deserved, bc it wanted to make Ken a “nice guy” and make ppl feel bad for him. While I appreciate that Barbie doesn’t end up with Ken, the actual issues with Ken and his reign of terror over BarbieLand aren’t actually explored. It was just a “look at this guy who discovered patriarchy and became a tyrant because he wasn’t getting laid,” and “now stereotypical white Barbie has to deprogram the other Barbies from their decorative places with the Kens and restore their power,” which is not the story we should’ve been given.
There was a massive dissonance with the film and it’s message, which is also due to the consumer-capitalist iconography that it promoted.
I love Margot Robbie, but I think this being her passion project isn’t something that we should applaud just bc she wanted to tell a good story with a good message for young people (specifically young cis white women).
As far as the Disney princesses go, I’m just tired of that brand and formula. I actually wish other studios would make content more closely related to the original Brothers Grimm and HCA stories, which are infinitely more sociopolitically aware and subversive than anything to come from that mouse house.
Obviously, as a queer & neurodivergent “woman” of color, I found almost no representation in the Barbie film or any of the Disney Princess films. And while I’m saddened by that, I don’t even think I’d want these studios to try and touch stories that would give me and others the representation, bc they so obviously wouldn’t do much good with them.
Well said!
Ironically, Walt Disney’s version of “The Little Mermaid” that he developed in 1941 would’ve been more faithful to the Andersen fairy tale as evidenced by Kay Nielsen’s concept art that showed the little mermaid not getting the prince and reincarnating as an air spirit.
Sadly though, Walt shelved “The Little Mermaid” short in favor of producing World War II propaganda shorts.
Thus, instead of the Hans Christian Andersen biopic being a live action/animated hybrid produced by MGM and Disney, MGM producer Samuel Goldwyn decided to turn it into a fully live action musical called “Hans Christian Andersen” starring Danny Kaye as the title character.
“The Little Mermaid” would instead be told via ballet (tragic ending and all) in the movie “Hans Christian Andersen”.
The closest that Disney got to doing a faithful adaptation of a tragic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale was their 2006 animated short “The Little Matchgirl”.
“The Little Mermaid” is public domain story, so of course there have been countless film and TV adaptations which are much more faithful to the fairy tale than the Disney animated film.
Here are a few that are available to watch on RUclips, all of which predate the 1989 animated Disney film:
- the 1961 episode of “Shirley Temple’s Storybook” in which Shirley Temple played the titular little mermaid: ruclips.net/video/0KQ6Bkd93To/видео.htmlsi=vmWyiu_0KCrHYer4&t=46s
- the 1968 Russian animated short “Rusalochka” (“The Little Mermaid”): ruclips.net/video/D8n6qlEc4gc/видео.htmlsi=Gu-FMUexHynX305d
- the 1975 Japanese anime “The Little Mermaid”: ruclips.net/video/rTH3Jpti8IY/видео.htmlsi=4prX1QYDvuzNw6Ud
- the 1987 episode of “Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre” in which Pam Dawber played the titular little mermaid Pearl: ruclips.net/video/0V4-i1T6bK8/видео.htmlsi=VtEeO3XNht461nAw
And the reason Ken isn't really into the patriarchy is just... he realizes it's not actually about horses. I hated that bit like he was able to just take over Barbieland because the Barbies just... let him (?) - we don't actually know how that really happened - and then it was resolved magically just with one speech to every barbie and because Ken actually cared about horses. Great.
I also think for how much the movie does the whole "barbie is everybody and every ethnicity and body size and yada yada"... the other barbies don't get a personality at all. Or more than 2 lines. The barbie in a wheelchair is on screen for like half a second.
1:58
i think this is the best we could've gotten under the circumstances. I remember there was a version of the movie with Amy Schumer that was planned back in 2016 or 2017. That didn't really turn out so well. And I think there was some rumor I saw floating around that it was supposed to have a crossover with He-Man or GI Joe. Or I might be mixing up my rumors of unmade projects.
I understand your cyncism at the whole pop feminism thing though.
Opinions on the Barbie movie has been so divisive within the left-leaning youtube community that it's difficult to know what we [those on the fence within this divisive debate] should feel about the movie.
I think its a good movie but with flaws like the smallpox joke which is more ignorance which is unfortunate, off topic tbh i do love the speech cuz it made sense in context. I think its just a movie, that has a strong message which is helpful and positive although some may think delivery is shaky i thought it was overall a good movie imo.
Have you considered forming your own opinion? You don't need to always copy your opinion from the closest majority around you, you know?
@@gJoniiright? reading the op and i’m like… you have ur own brain???
@@gJonii I know since I personally enjoyed the Barbie movie, thus putting me on the side of left-leaning youtubers who also enjoyed it but saying that would also make me not a good feminist in the eyes of other feminist youtubers like Cheyenne. That's where the issue lies.
@@raphaelmarquez9650Who cares? No matter your political leaning, you’re still allowed to enjoy a piece of media even if some people won’t approve of it. They’re not your parents, they can’t dictate what you are and aren’t allowed to watch/enjoy. Feminism is a multifaceted and complex issue and there’s no guidebook for what is and isn’t okay. Something that one woman considers empowering could be derogatory to another woman. Women aren’t a monolith. Just use your best judgement and decide for yourself based on your own morals and standards.
22:48 made me giggle, ya gotta know when to give respect even when criticizing lol
your videos are so amazing!! i love your ability to think critically for yourself and question everything!!💗🌸
Omg Thank you!!!!!!! This movie was the most plastic (haha) portrayal of feminism, and it made me SO MAD when, for two weeks, women were attacking other women who didnt like feminine things or had criticisms of the movie.
I wish I was media literate enough view things the way you do
Only $50,000,000???
😱😱😱
That's like $30mil after taxes 😢 how will she survive
@@austincde she’ll have to sell one of her yachts that she doesn’t use 😢 poor woman
I want the Uno movie to go ham on being political, make it about Frieda Kahlo and the Mexican Revolution and Diego Rivera and the whole spirit of the times of that, like a Mexican Les Miserables
I mean it's a bit genius, E Plurubus Unum, out of many one, UNO.
Also it can symbolize the loneliness and isolation of being a misunderstood artist.
its funny you talk about this because I've actually started watching a Japanese franchise that both exists to sell toys but also goes very hard with its anti-capitalism message. It blew my mind that they were a toy company with properties saying hey the system is bad actually tear it down and rebuild it in a way that benefits everyone or look for solutions to problems outside of the Corporate mindset. So it just makes me wonder if maybe the problem is smaller studios with niche fanbases get to be more honest and mainstream media is so lead by corporate they would never dare.
I’m sorry Cheyenne, but I fail to see how you interpreted the smallpox line as “the natives didn’t fight back against colonizers”. The line is merely saying that the natives had no medicine to fight the disease, which makes sense as they were never exposed to it before the colonizers arrived. Since the Barbies had no concept of patriarchy, the commentary is about how Patriarchy disguises itself as being harmlessly pro-men when it is so much more sinister.
I’m genuinely shocked as your interpretations are usually on point, but I feel like you’re reading way too much into Barbie and trying to find ways to hate it. We can talk about the ethics of using indigenous genocide as a prop in a Mattel movie, but tbh you straight up misunderstood the line.
i appreciate your videos and look forward to them
Oh thank gorsh I wasnt the only one who thought about it like this
promising young woman was a disgusting movie and i say this as a sex worker because i was wholly unprepared to watch an extended scene of a sex worker being suffocated to death. there was no fucking reason for that, violence against sex workers happens irl every single day and as a sex worker i am surrounded by it, and by news of it. it really put into perspective how the people making this film are not as oppressed as they would like to think they are. sex workers as an audience were not considered, we are used as pawns by different groups to make a point as usual, culminating in violence against us. why was the main character only allowed to die once she was pretending to be a sex worker? i honestly have a hard time thinking that that was an intentional point being made. it made me sick to my stomach, it just wasn't necessary. i hate that movie
Excellent video. The general opinion of "The Barbie Movie was cute and fun but not groundbreaking and also that smallpox line was fucked up" is one I can get behind.
I agree with most of the takes in this video, and I usually don't comment on this stuff, but there's just one thing in modern political discourse that really bugs me: The idea that white women are exempt from misogyny. I think it's a dangerous idea, and in a few years we'll look back at the way we talked about "white women" in relation to feminism and...cringe. I don't know if you meant to, but the video implies that white women don't really face serious/dangerous levels of misogyny and that was the leading force behind the pop feminism of the 2010s, but really, being a white woman isn't gonna save you from even the most heinous forms of misogyny, because you're still a woman.
Yeah, a white woman ultimately won't face the type of racial discrimination that women of color do (though this view is ultimately very US-centric), but that doesn't protect them from the patriarchy. White women are still raised in families/a society that views women as "the other", a person not seen as a full, equal individual in the way their male family members are. They still lose promotions, educational opportunities, equal chances and are still murdered for being women.
It's very telling that even the most privileged and high achieving types of women in this corrupt society, such as millionaire singers and CEOs, still only hold half the power that men in their positions do. So intersectionality to me isn't about downplaying the type of discrimination that a group faces based on another axis of oppression, but rather being able to band together over our shared experiences while also giving support to those who face other issues that are in their way. Just my thoughts on it tho.
I think Barbie works really well as a story, and I wish people would compliment it on those merits more than trying to bolster it as the "voice of a feminist generation". It's pretty flawed as the story of all women, but it's the engaging and heartwarming story of _this_ woman (the character Barbie), and that's all it needs to be. At the end of the day its basically just a really well executed hot pink Pinocchio story and I love that for it
…I’m pretty sure Mattel had all those movies planned long before Barbie even came out
no, but you're right. treating barbie more like delores would be fascinating!
¡Gracias!
💗💗💗
Why is your audio reverbing
why is this video unlisted? it's really good.
Just watched Barbie on the plane. This movie is like 10 years too late and basically an advertisement. Just how much screen time Mattel got was so telling. At least they did okay by not sexualizing Barbie or making her end up with Ken.
I agree that the characters are fictional and that criticizing a fictional female character is not the same as criticizing real women. However. It's a fact that people are much, much harsher on female characters than on the male ones, and that definetely comes from some misogyny.
My first proper insight into 'feminism' was this very surface level white feminism about manspreading and whatnot. I'd never really taken an interest in feminism before that so when I was exposed to anti-sjw stuff, it was really easy to latch onto that and discredit western feminists. Of course since then I've exercised at least a little critical thinking and have since gotten out of that echo chamber and I do blame myself for being naive and not acknowledging the privilege I had and how that affected my view on western society. What I'm trying to say is, it's no wonder I ended up in that anti-sjw/anti-feminist crowd. Still, I loved the Barbie movie ✨
Great video!! ❤
I want to watch this but the echo is messing up my brain. 😢 Sorry
I honnestly don't get why the choose to do a classic like snow white like please, the 1930's version was already good and no more remake even making it feminist 😭
Because MONEY!
I don’t think ‘only’ is a word that should come before the number 50 million 😭😭🥴
finally someone is addressing the smallpox comment
Did you say she "only" got paid $50M!!! Was your sarcasm so dry there that I missed it?
I love your videos
(Modern) Feminism seems to be a cult the same as any other. It has internal hierarchy where certain people are elevated as speaking divine, unquestionable truths, and everyone else gets to be "liberated" by agreeing with those "speakers for the divine". However, instead of being about sex or death, feminism seems to mostly be formed in a way that the speakers of the cult can use their power to get ahead in their careers or sell things to their followers.
As expected, with social power being wielded mostly for personal gain, it gets entangled with existing social power, so you'll also have the "speakers for the divine" more and more focus on issues affecting the upper class at the expense of everything else.
I don't think feminism is relevant today, in a way that, it addresses a real problem that it has tools to solve. The world is inequal, but feminism doesn't have a lens through which that inequality could be solved. Without point to its existence, it is left as a platform for grifters seeking personal gain, or those gullible enough to think that being heavily in favor of something will make it happen.
Rock on CL
Good video
I did heard their recasting snow white actress because she said she hate snow white and Disney took that personally and fire her and recast Betty Cooper to be snow white instead and she's British and she didn't take it very well.
Most of this Snow White shit is so weird, I know people hate the girl because ….reasons… but the movies in post production.
Not quite. There's been a lot of drama and anti-SJW channels spreading misinformation about this whole thing. Disney is delaying the movie's release. This could be for a variety of reasons aside from Rachel Zegler; one of the most obvious ones being the recent strikes. Daily Wire has been taking advantage of the culture war nonsense surrounding the film, and they're producing a Snow White with Brett Cooper meant to be "anti-woke." Rachel hasn't been recast, and she has been pretty silent about Daily Wire's new movie.
Imo, choice feminism becomes a problem when you ignore the need for sisterhood, for women to support women. Not all choices you make will support women, and so not all choices are feminist. But at the same time, it is good for women to exercise autonomy. And in the 1950s America, it WAS radical for women to have a consumer/worker driven identity as opposed to a domestic one. It's just that it's a form of feminism that's too capitalist-friendly to support all women, including exploited factory workers.
I enjoyed this movie, but I wouldn’t watch it again and I wasn’t wowed by it. Maybe it’s because it was so hyped up and my expectations were too high, idk. But I’m glad there r other ppl who see the exact same problems w it that I have, other than the reactionary backlash it has received. The mother-daughter dynamic literally ruined the movie imo. I am so fucking sick of the stressed mom and angsty teen daughter duo that turns into a healthy, loving relationship by the end of the movie. It’s cheesy and unrealistic. Barbie entering the real world is a fun idea, but why they had to use these two characters to do it is beyond me, other than it just feels like straight up pandering. The fact the mom gives the triumphant speech at the end is so lame. Like Barbie is the main fucking character and she does almost nothing in this movie. But let’s give these two boring ass, cookie cutter characters a bunch of screen time for some reason instead lol. Also, as “feminist” as this movie wanted to be, the best part about it was Ryan Gosling and all the Kens, which everyone seems to agree upon. Just sucks they didn’t make a movie about Barbie more about Barbie, I don’t get it.
I think the whole wanting characters in fiction to validate our morals got exacerbated by Trump getting elected President. Once it was clear we weren't going to have someone who would even pretend to represent the best of us to the world, we turned to other sources for leadership and lots of Hollywood actors and writers jumped at the opportunity to fill that void. Now that things are somewhat back to normal and the MAGA threat has been diminished (though not totally extinguished) we're starting to get a little sick of all the moralizing and preaching in media.
Even while the Pop Feminism movement ultimately undermined feminism, it's important to keep in mind that the anti-feminist movement that arose at the same time as the Pop Feminism movement was starting to gain traction is largely to blame for the rise of right-wing ideology.
Omg im finally seeing your videos again. What the heck YT?! I totally agree with your assessment on this movie. Did not slap. Anticlimactic considering the alt right hype lol
No sharpay with her sexual harssment,boxing others was not a victum but I do get the whole annoyance at making the science nerd, basketball player the ones being bullied by the mean drama kids. Since the drama department and other arts departments are undercut, underfunded compared to basketball and science as subjects of importance. It got even more annoying with disneys zombie franchise yes the male cheerleader and his co ed team of hyper femine boys, girls are biggoted toward the football player.
When did Sharpay sexually harass anyone?
Troy, she was constantly ignoring his no's and trying to force him to be her boyfriend. She even went as far as to dangle his chance at a scholarship over his head in exchange for him to spend time with her and she did quite a bit of touching of him without his permission. Which he was clearly uncomfortable with. @@beethovensfidelio
@@alorapendrak9752True! 😢
Bring back 1990s feminism, when heroines were stone cold sociopaths who weren't certain things outside themselves existed. Aeon Flux! Lara Croft! Tank Girl! That shit's where it's at.
Ilsa Koch! Myra Hindley! Susan Atkins!
Stone cold sociopaths!
I think that Barbie is kinda victim of its success when it comes to its message. A lot of people came to this movie without expecting much cause it's Barbie, and so when the movie happened to be much better than their low expectations, they went and tell everybody how amazing it was. So now you hear everywhere that it is an amazing movie and it is what feminism should look like, so people now see the movie with very high expectations, waiting for it to be revolutionnary or something. And they are disapppointed to see that it is not more subtle or deep than other movies.
👍👍👍
Do hunchback an actua feminist story next, esmerda is great too. And ctua good message bout how , not to view women. Asie the reigion part. And if you ever do anime, cross ange is good if the first part has way too much eh fanservice, but its great ese. if going dark paces. And wonderfu human messy with ,many women as center and how they , are human, and messy and in the end worktogether to, And the story take off in the second haf, an its great, it hust goes dark paces too. Through cotent warning i guess too, though the ater is, great, and used so wow
21:20 the woman is a bit of a victim to be far to her
They might be feminist because it’s a board term, but the important issue is to not stop at feminism.
Barbie would've been amazing if it was about a femcel loser whose old barbie comes to life and helps her get her life together lol
Sounds like the plot of “Life-Size”.
Though granted Casey’s “plain”, “boyish” wardrobe is symbolic of her becoming withdrawn and quiet from her friends and everyone else due to the death of her mother.
It’s through her Eve doll coming to life that Casey learns to embrace more girly, bright clothes and be more emotionally open allowing herself to be nicer to people including her friends.
Great video as always. This is why i stopped watching movies and most mass media altogether. At the end of the day the only thing that the system is allowed to represent is itself, and the only thing being movilized is our attention as it is the most important resource for techno-capitalism.
Most twitter discourse around "woke" movies always devolves into how much money is being made, and both sides feel like money is the ultimate judge. But as images of women and opressed people accelerate they are commodified and all revolutionary action becomes null and re-territorialized
as for the Snow White remake the character herself is literally named "Snow White" therefore a person of color being cast as her won't make any sense this has nothing to do with racism or anything it's yet another example of being so "open minded" that the brains fall out in the same manner as defending age gap relationships with the "consenting adults" excuse
That’s stupid. Rachel Zegler is half white.
If I could critique this video for a moment: you can quit using phrases like “in my opinion” or “I felt” when you’re talking about these things. This is an opinion piece. You don’t have to tell us you’re stating opinions. We know.
Live action Mulan is the weirdest pop feminist item. Saying "qi" is only for men is such a bizarre take on traditional Chinese culture as to be complete garbage...
"She only got paid 50 million dollars..."
Cry me a river. XD I'm sorry, but I have 0 sympathy on that front.
I went through a "NLOGG" phase and it was literally just gender dysphoria, I'm a trans-masculine NB. I didn't know that or what that was at the time is all. I wonder how many NLOGG's are just eggs.
The girls that get is get it ❤ you guys are just Bitter 🤗 Barbie is a Pop culture Icon ❤
full honestly , I don't get why people complain about pop feminisn , when its the one that won. it is the one that you everyone in this coment setion belives in , they just believe a more depressed version of it.
like I also hate pop feminisn but all of you people are just pop feminisnt that hate capitalism. and that is a big reason why I hate pop feminism it poision femism to the point that no one can think critically outside of feminism anymore. and like we have some security in the fact that there are a lot of people who do respect women , but that is mostly cause of the work of feminisnt of the past. I feel like we are really screwed if any big chances happen , cause most people thinking around this topic doesn't really exist.
While this video is a great essay into how brands pushing 2010's Buzzfeed pop feminism tend to ignore any legitimate criticism and nuance of that brand of feminism and often comes across as pushing trademarks to sell toys instead of making movies that are good for their own sake..... I kinda wish it didn't sound like you were READING an essay... like, out loud in front of the whole class
I mean, I get this criticism. But although I thought the feminism ideas in the movie weren’t that surprising at all I noticed lots of woman in my surroundings not getting it. Saying that there isn’t that much pressure on woman and that guys aren’t that suppressing for woman. I feel like the movie had to dance on this line between woman that did follow feminist waves and woman that don’t mind the system or haven’t realised it’s there. Because of this we ended up not really pleasing anyone