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Why the Barbie Movie Left Me Wanting More
Unpopular opinion: The Barbie movie may be feminist, but we still have a long way to go. . .
I am the Barbie movie’s target audience: a huge Greta Gerwig fan and a left-leaning millenial woman who used to love Barbies as a child. As soon as I heard it had a feminist slant, I knew I wanted to see it. And yet, when I saw it, it left me with this lingering feeling, wanting more. . .
Don’t get me wrong: The casting was great. I loved the music and the incredible set production. And I laughed alongside the rest of the audience. So what was the problem?
I realized the movie made me come to terms with my own not-so-good feelings toward the doll and the impact playing with Barbies had on my own self esteem. I know, it’s been studied many a time before but the doll had the same effect on me as a child growing up in the eighties it did many little girls. The movie brought back memories of me as a child wishing my hair and skin color could just be a little but lighter, my eyes a little bluer. I remember wanting to look exactly the dolls that I played with, which at the time were all long-legged, lithe and impossibly curved. It was the first time I recall not liking the way I looked and the first time I learned about the ideal of female beauty.
