Does the Barbie film make a serious point about modern men?

by Feyi Adegbite

Hello, 

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This article contains spoilers. 

If you haven’t seen Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film yet the odds are very high that you know who (or what) Barbie is. Mattel, the maker of the doll, estimates that in the 64 years since Barbie was created, the doll has attained a level of ‘more than 99% global awareness’. That’s a bold claim and perhaps difficult to verify, but it’s not too far-fetched to believe that the majority of people on the planet would recognise a Barbie doll if they saw one. 

The challenge of making an original film about a toy that everyone recognises – and probably has an opinion on – is considerable, but the numbers would suggest that Gerwig has succeeded. At the time of writing, the Barbie movie has made $1.18 billion at the box office worldwide, making it the highest grossing film ever directed by a woman. And there’s no denying that it is a cultural phenomenon that has been difficult to ignore in the summer of 2023. The Barbie film has seen audience members in pink filling the seats in cinemas still recovering from the pandemic. The movie has been banned in Vietnam for a controversial scene containing a map that appears to depict China’s contested territorial claims in the South China Sea. Lebanon and Algeria have also banned the film, believing it ‘promotes homosexuality’ and defies traditional gender norms. Kuwait has outlawed screenings of the film too, claiming it promotes ‘ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order.’ Like the doll herself, no amount of bubble-gum pink and pastels could prevent the Barbie movie from being a political and politicised film.

In some ways, Gerwig had no choice but to engage with the baseline politics of Barbie directly. With a pinch of salt, the main conflict of the film can be summarised as ‘Barbie vs The Patriarchy’, or as the film’s tagline expresses it: ‘She’s everything. He’s just Ken.’ For reasons I’ll explain below, after watching the film my immediate reaction was: ‘Hang on, was the Barbie movie really all about men?’ I Googled this question when I got home and initially saw several reviews, predominantly by male authors, echoing this question but going even further to claim that Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, stole the show. Some female critics made a similar point, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. There’s something ironic about honing in on the tortured man who plays second fiddle to the female lead in a satire about the patriarchy. But I couldn’t deny that I’d felt this too. So I want to explore this question further and ask, despite all its whimsy, does the Barbie film make a serious point about men?