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Barbie and emotional labour
MANY SPOILERS! Proceed at own risk.
I could say many things - overall I loved the movie and all the many things it did and Margot Robbie is gorgeous and I laughed a lot. (The Godfather! Zack Snyder! Using mansplaining to bring the Kens down: Genius. <3)
But having the whole Emotional Labour Thread in my head, one thing really stood out:
Women do all - all - ALL - the emotional labour in this movie.
Gloria helps to solve Barbie's existential crisis (and then goes on to save all the Barbies), basically by listing how shitty it is to be a woman existing within the patriarchy. But then, once Kendom has been dismantled (and yes it sucks that Ken didn't even have a place of his own - but he didn't ever talk about it, nor did he try to change things in an equitable way, he just stole Barbie's house and then the Kens made all the Barbies into their servants) Barbie then has to go talk to him and make him feel better about himself and help him out of his crisis. Without being angry or resentful or in any way holding him to account for his actions, instead having to gently guide him through accepting the fact that she just doesn't feel the same way about him that he does about her. (Sidebar: I love aro-ace Barbie!)
And it's not like there weren't other candidates for this. Clearly all the other Kens are equally clueless, but we have the whole Mattel board RIGHT THERE. Although their solution is: 'Barbie should be in love with you!' so they're also useless. Or (a much better option - I wouldn't trust an all-male board with much), Aaron Dinkins, our nice everyman, could have stepped up and talked to Ken, being the counterpart to Gloria; the (male) human to guide Ken through his uncomfortable emotions.
I think this is my one main issue with the movie. It's funny and tongue-in-cheek and very very silly, and 99% of it works for me. But this one thing, the way Barbie has to carefully attend to a fragile male ego, just sticks in my throat. Also I can't tell if this is a deliberate choice, or if this is so built in to our culture that they never noticed what they were doing. Everything else is sign-posted - "We have had TWO women on the board!" - but this is played completely straight. Or as straight as anything in this movie. OTOH it might be a deliberate result of the Real World (patriarchy) seeping through to Barbieworld.
IDK. That thread is like the glasses in They Live - not that I wasn't aware before, but it really hyper-focusses on the issue in ways that make you see everything in a different light.
I could say many things - overall I loved the movie and all the many things it did and Margot Robbie is gorgeous and I laughed a lot. (The Godfather! Zack Snyder! Using mansplaining to bring the Kens down: Genius. <3)
But having the whole Emotional Labour Thread in my head, one thing really stood out:
Women do all - all - ALL - the emotional labour in this movie.
Gloria helps to solve Barbie's existential crisis (and then goes on to save all the Barbies), basically by listing how shitty it is to be a woman existing within the patriarchy. But then, once Kendom has been dismantled (and yes it sucks that Ken didn't even have a place of his own - but he didn't ever talk about it, nor did he try to change things in an equitable way, he just stole Barbie's house and then the Kens made all the Barbies into their servants) Barbie then has to go talk to him and make him feel better about himself and help him out of his crisis. Without being angry or resentful or in any way holding him to account for his actions, instead having to gently guide him through accepting the fact that she just doesn't feel the same way about him that he does about her. (Sidebar: I love aro-ace Barbie!)
And it's not like there weren't other candidates for this. Clearly all the other Kens are equally clueless, but we have the whole Mattel board RIGHT THERE. Although their solution is: 'Barbie should be in love with you!' so they're also useless. Or (a much better option - I wouldn't trust an all-male board with much), Aaron Dinkins, our nice everyman, could have stepped up and talked to Ken, being the counterpart to Gloria; the (male) human to guide Ken through his uncomfortable emotions.
I think this is my one main issue with the movie. It's funny and tongue-in-cheek and very very silly, and 99% of it works for me. But this one thing, the way Barbie has to carefully attend to a fragile male ego, just sticks in my throat. Also I can't tell if this is a deliberate choice, or if this is so built in to our culture that they never noticed what they were doing. Everything else is sign-posted - "We have had TWO women on the board!" - but this is played completely straight. Or as straight as anything in this movie. OTOH it might be a deliberate result of the Real World (patriarchy) seeping through to Barbieworld.
IDK. That thread is like the glasses in They Live - not that I wasn't aware before, but it really hyper-focusses on the issue in ways that make you see everything in a different light.