Observations, insights and thoughts about this pink Era of Girlhood Healing
Oh what a time to be a girl and a woman!
I usually use this sentence ironically, but this time I’ve caught myself using it in a more optimistic manner, given the global attention we’re finally given thanks to blockbuster events like the Barbie movie release and Taylor Swift’s iconic Eras Tour.
Michelle Goldberg’s Opinion piece in the New York Times about “The Hunger Fed by ‘Barbie’ and Taylor Swift” (a must-read!) started an interesting conversation within our company about the meaning of this movement for our work and our clients.
As one of the (proud) resident Swifties of the company, who just went to the Eras Tour concert last weekend and recently watched the Barbie movie, I am still unpacking these undeniably emotional experiences and trying to find the right and most accurate response to “how was it?!”.
While there is an abundance of headlines and posts on LinkedIn praising the smart marketing moves and their commercial impact, I can’t help but feel that there is one big, and much more nuanced part that is missing: the social discourse in real life and online on platforms like TikTok, which goes so much deeper and raises much more provocative questions and interpretations of gender dynamics.
(For the full experience I invite you to listen to Billie Eilish — What was I made for in the background)
“Thanks to Barbie all the problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved. Or so the Barbies think.” says the narrator in the Barbie movie.
Didn’t we all? Feminist burnout is looming after years of constant and neverending battles from basic equality to more serious and pressing issues like #metoo and abortion rights. The truth remains that it is just so difficult, if not exhausting, to be a woman who can rarely get it right (Billie actually just made a board game about the impossible expectations women face every day) — which is probably why the monologue of America Ferrera’s character Gloria in the Barbie movie resonates so strongly with many women. While it has been widely shared on social media, it — unfortunately unsurprisingly — also got its fair share of criticism for being too reductive and simplistic when taken out of context. Maybe it is, or maybe it is just the right level of depth to explain to a fictional movie character who has never experienced the patriarchy before, what these social norms are like? Regardless of your conclusion, the emotion in the movie theater was undeniable.
The sentiment about the movie seems to be changing on a daily basis — first it was impressive and well received, then it was portrayed as simplistic, then it was great again and then the casting choices were criticized as not being diverse enough:
(Meanwhile Oppenheimer generated backlash in Japan for making the development of weapons that killed upwards of 200,000 people in 1945 part of a pop culture phenomenon and there are still people alive to date who are still alive and dealing with the consequences of the [bomb] testing but hey.)
I couldn’t help but feel like there still is a harsher “merit” scrutiny on women’s achievements, which are often met with disbelief, criticism or questions, making us feel like we need to justify how and why we deserve what we got.
“The Nobel Prize in Journalism goes to Barbie!”
“I worked very hard. I deserved it” — is Nobelprize Barbie’s response.
(Read: not a thank you, but the need to establish a causal relationship between the two.)
The double standard applied to women’s performance is sadly real as many studies still show (Lean In and McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2022 report, World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023 — only to name a few), leading to the widespread feeling that you can’t never do it and be right. Not even the language you might use, since assertiveness will easily be understood as aggressiveness.
I also couldn’t help but notice how it reminded me of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for the Woman of the Decade Award at Billboard’s Women in Music 2019, where she calls out her own experience of just never doing or being enough — a theme she has tried to put into words in her song The Man:
Cause I’m so sick of running as fast as I can,
Wondering if I’d get there quicker,
If I was a man?
And I’m so sick of them coming at me again,
’Cause if I was a man —
Then I’d be the man!
They’d say I hustled,
Put in the work —
They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve.
Interrogating the “brash, outdated themes that have long perpetuated a patriarchal society” in a caricatural and parodic manner is the main theme of the Barbie movie as we all found out during its release. But one of the most fascinating debates (in my opinion) happened afterwards on TikTok. For a movie about women for women — there suddenly was too much talk about one man (Ken) and too little about a second one (Allen).
Ryan Gosling’s great performance and singing prowess and anthem “I’m just Ken” got its (deserved) recognition and even turned into a TikTok trend of users innocently and proudly showing off “their Ken’s job” to the song. But then the mood shifted and it was called out for being the opposite intention of the movie: if it’s a movie about Barbie (= women), why are we talking so much about m/Ken? This then created the counter-trend of girls and women highlighting their (own) Barbie job. Why do we always tend to fall into a male-centric narrative, almost like it’s a reflex?
And while we’re at it, why don’t we talk a bit more about the portrayal of positive vs. toxic masculinity? That’s what TikTok seems to believe: Allan didn’t get nearly enough credit for being Barbie’s one male ally and provides actually so much more depth to explore and analyze.
Is he the one character who manages to describe what it feels like for queer men to live in today’s society, and often feeling isolated. Or is actually problematic to “queer code” Allan when he’s the only male character who is representing positive and healthy masculinity?
See? Plenty of thoughtful insights, conversation and nuance happen outside of the mainstream news headlines.
But there is currently a much bigger movement underway: a re-found appreciation for being a girl/woman (and to openly embrace it).
One of my favorite effects of the Barbie movie is its widespread, cultural impact and how it managed to claim a whole color and create a visible ritual of female celebration. I don’t know how big the hype is in Europe, but you can’t go anywhere in Los Angeles without running into someone wearing pink — women and men alike (and hey, apparently wearing pink makes you happier). The same happens with glitter, sequin outfits in whichever the Eras Tour resides or waves of silver wherever Beyoncé passes through. It’s like there was a secret code before which signaled belonging to an exclusive club, but now it’s being shown openly and creates a community — one “Hi Barbie!” or friendship bracelet exchange at a time.
And I find it to be a very female, wholesome and nurturing community. Thousands of girls and women are currently embracing the #girlhood trend on TikTok, where they show what they love about being a woman/girl to Billie Eilish’s song “What Was I Made For?”, inspired by the touching video montage seen in the Barbie movie or other girlhood appreciation moments.
Being a #girlsgirl (basically “A girl who has respect for female etiquette. A girl who is not petty and strives to be ethical and decent in her dealings with her female friends.” as Urban Dictionary would accurately define it) is the new aspirational standard, which frankly is beautiful and healthy — and seems so opposite to the challenges young men seem to be facing: a loneliness epidemic or even a full on crisis as Christine Emba explores in her “Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness” essay.
Don’t get me wrong, girls have also been girling up until now, but it felt like there was more scrutiny attached to it. I’ve experienced it myself: I have been laughed at a lot in the past for being a Taylor Swift fan (which has only abated as her global success increased) or going on Hot Girl Walks (which is basically the healthy ritual of going on a daily walk).
I’ve tried to identify with friends what made it feel so different now? When did we make the switch from judgment and criticism to appreciation and an open celebration? Is it the cultural momentum? Or is it maybe that we finally have universally accepted receipts for the value of it: the numbers and favorable economics?
No one can deny both Barbie’s (the only billion-dollar blockbuster solely directed by a woman) and the Eras Tours’ economical impact to date (where even the Federal Reserve credits Taylor Swift with boosting hotel revenues and local economies with her TSwift Lift). But let’s not forget that there’s another female force touring at the moment: Queen Bey who is on her Renaissance Tour. After causing a temporary inflation in Sweden when she kicked off her tour in Stockholm, there’s also a true economic halo, coined the ‘Beyoncé Bump’ by Yelp, which positively impacts local businesses along her tour route, specifically Black-, women-, and LGBTQ+-owned establishments.
So yes: Barbie, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé undeniably are true commercial success, proving their business savviness, as well as a genius usage of a marketing budget and brand activations, but I believe that only focusing on these metrics, tactical takeaways and the ‘female dollar’ would be reductive and even a limited view on the cultural momentum and big opportunity to keep pushing progress towards more intentional and supported girl- and womanhood forward.
I’m a (Barbie) girl in a girls’ girl world — and I’m here for this new Era of womanhood and reclaiming untamed girlish joy and am looking forward how our interests can maybe, hopefully, actually change the world.
(Please note that these thoughts are my own and by no means the only way to look at it. This is my personal opinion shaped by my own frame of reference and personal experience.)
