Sienna Seychell

Last edited: October 2023

Friends in Barbie booth. Photograph: Sienna Seychell

Barbie, a timeless icon is turning 64. With three years away from the average Australian retirement age is this new movie too little too late.

The must watch film of 2023 starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken was overhyped.

With the large publicity and seemingly high ratings surrounding the box office hit, I was eager and impatient to watch. Dressed in my pink outfit and out in the town with my girlfriends, I opened cinema 10’s door with enthusiasm and with high expectations for the film.

I was just one of many who paid to watch the film which contributed to its big successes of holding the number one spot at the box office for four weeks after it opened. The new movie wasn’t a child’s film like the animated Barbie movies, instead it was geared towards teens and adults. With Mattel creating ‘Barbie land’ as the Barbie dreamhouse we grew up playing with. The film set even required so much pink paint that it led to a worldwide shortage!

Social media took over the face of the new Barbie movie, with many fans raving about it and the ‘deep’ meaning and perspective of womanhood and the feminist movement. This perspective left me increasingly confused as I watched the film. The film barely scraped the surface on these issues. Woman in the 21st century deserve more of a voice and not a company like Mattel just seeking another avenue to gain money.

“Barbie was a brand in crisis. Sales plummeted across 2011 to 2015 against the cultural backdrop of a rise in body positivity and backlash against a doll that represented narrow ideals and an impossible beauty standard.” The Conversation RMIT Associate Professor Lauren Gurrieri wrote.

I’m not taking the ‘anti-woke’ opinion that many men have had on this film, but instead asking for more from a company that left woman suffering with unrealistic body and beauty standards for years. Mattel’s new take on body positivity and womanhood is too much too late for the woman who had Barbie create standards in society that have impacted our whole lives.

Research found by Oregon State University that girls who played with Barbies, “perceived that more occupations were possibilities for boys than were possibilities for themselves.”

This film is yet another money-making scheme for Mattel. You could see ads throughout the whole film for their brand and product. It took away from the film to make it seem like a two-hour long commercial.

It felt like children’s movie that was easy-going to watch filled with many cringey ‘heart-warming’ scenes, but it missed the point I think Greta Gerwig was trying to create. Barbie did not truly encapsulate the real and raw experience of being a woman. However, I’m not denying the few touching scenes throughout the film. The scenes that mentioned and discussed the many problems that woman face in society and how the patriarchy we live in is flawed. Although I felt like it touched more on the manhood and how Barbie was trying to win back her Barbie land after Ken establishing his Kendom more than focusing on real woman experiences.

Particularly with the TikTok trend with the ‘Billie Eilish’ song, What was I made for, supposedly encapsulating a greater and more profound meaning within the film I was saddened. Left disappointed with the overall hype and publicity of the movie.

I was expected to leave feeling empowered, but instead left laughing at those who were crying at the end as my friends, and I exited the cinema.

For further information contact Sienna Seychell

Contact email: sienna.seychell@gmail.com