When you enter the wonderland of my office, it will all take you a second to guess that my favorite color is pink. Yes, I’m typing this from a pink shabby chic recycled desk. A pink lampshade hangs above it. To my right is a rose quartz crystal – for the woo-woo uninitiated, it’s baby pink and touts unconditional love. The color makes me happy and considering I spend quite a bit of time here, that’s not a bad thing either.
Even though I’m 52, pink is a color I’ve always loved. It screams girly, feminine, other. Three words that can also describe Barbie. Yes, she’s skinny, has big breasts and is blonde. So what? She was and remains a delightfully plastic and frothy fun toy that millions of girls of all ages and generations are drawn to because she allows us to live our very best lives.
So after seeing the trailer, I’m even more #TeamBarbie.
Let’s be clear that this isn’t one of those worthy movies that are usually made by overweight middle-aged men talking about their art.
For Millennials and Generation Z, Barbie is a godsend! — which “Legally Blonde” was to Generation X like yours.
Samantha Brick explains why she’s over the moon that Barbie wasn’t “woken up” – as she says the franchise is all about “escape, fun and happiness”.
Meanwhile, she also said she’s glad the aesthetically pleasing leads – Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling – weren’t cast through an exercise in ticking boxes
It amazes me these days that we still have to question the cliché that a woman who wears pink is obviously just one lipstick short of a makeup bag.
The Barbie philosophy is about escape, fun and happiness. Something that is in short supply in the world of 2023.
No wonder TikTok has a Barbie filter (try it!) and dozens of Barbie hashtags. I’m not the only one who spends hours watching the Barbie dance tutorials either. This summer, Barbie isn’t about putting questionable, highly processed foods on an outdoor griddle, it’s about shimmering in some pink, adding an extra dash of glittery sparkle and embracing your inner feminine icon.
Do not believe me? On TikTok, the Barbie hashtag had 43.6 billion views and the Barbie Challenge had 948.5 million views. The Barbie Movie 2.1 billion views. Like me, millions of young women are captivated by the positive and happy spirit that defines Barbie’s world. Women of all ages, shapes and ethnicities have fun embracing their inner Barbie.
Unsurprisingly, the challenge is simple: tons of pink, buckets of glitter, tubes of lipstick, and lots of ultra-feminine clothing.
Yes, they can indulge themselves on their social media, but can they indulge in real life? I do not believe that.
They would be shot down by the Wokerati.
We live in an extremely boring age of wakefulness. No one is allowed to be their authentic self for fear of rejection.
I was, of course, that runaway, that woman who always wore what she damn well liked. For decades I was the boyfriend at the wedding or the boss at the office, dressed in a pink Pepto-Bismol dress or a hot fuchsia suit. I know people giggled behind my back, but didn’t I care? nope
‘God, I looked amazing that day’: Samantha revealed at her first wedding that she got married in a pink floor-length shift dress and dubbed herself a ‘walking barbie’
Samantha said she’s “grateful” that the upcoming Barbie movie captured the true girliness and fun of the franchise and didn’t wake it up
That can only explain why I got married in a pink floor length shift dress at my first wedding – god I looked gorgeous that day. Blonde hair and just the right side of Frou Frou. I was a talking Barbie bride that day.
As for the film, of course it took a female combo to bring Barbie to our big screens: Luuvie’s favorite feminist director Greta Gerwig and the genius Margot Robbie. It comes as no surprise to me that while the film was being filmed, there was reportedly a worldwide shortage of pink paint. Because her mantra was clear: go pink or go home.
Thankfully, the role didn’t dry up entirely, and the aesthetically pleasing leads — Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — weren’t cast through an exercise in ticking boxes.
Still, I have no doubt that the usual suspects are ready to tear Barbie apart.
We all know the body positive guys who thump in the tub and complain that Barbie is — gasp! – tall, blond and thin.
Of course, those same killjoys will honk about how demeaning it is to be fluffy and pink—but demeaning to who, exactly?
If you’re looking for a radical feminist manifesto, you’ve come to the wrong screening.
Yes, she has distorted body measurements. She guiltily represents a glorious hyper-femininity. Has anyone brought up the flip side of that argument with all those yawningly boring superhero movies and how far do the main characters stray from most dad bod sporty guys? No – because it’s fantasy. While for us girls, Barbie is a frothy fantasy.
On my Twitter timeline, women are already discussing what they will wear to see the film.
These are smart women who undoubtedly need to do it again! – sweetly dispel the misconception that women are fat if they love all things girly.
Barbie is definitely not a children’s film. It’s a nostalgic dip in a time in our lives when Barbie gave us permission to be whoever we wanted to be.
You see many of us women buying our movie tickets today, working in boardrooms, running companies and dealing with six-figure budgets — but growing up, we spent hours playing with our Barbie dolls. We want to remember the world we created. I’m not ashamed to say I played with it until I was a teenager.
The inevitable negative hooray of the coming days will be that there is nothing more ominous to a male-led world than overtly feminine women who love unabashedly girly clothes in bright colors. We’re not supposed to be shiny, and if we are, we certainly can’t have a brain. We’re not allowed to dress our character the way we want, and if we do, we’ll be labeled a jerk. Is not it crazy?
If God is a woman, then of course the movie Barbie should win the Oscars. It goes without saying that “Barbie Bimbo” Margot Robbie had to accept her award in pink heels, a heart-attack-inducing short dress and wisps of frothy blonde hair.