Since hitting home theaters on July 21, 2023, the glamorously pink-infused and women-centric blockbuster “Barbie” reached an all-time excessive within the field workplace, exceeding revenue expectations by snaring $155 million from its opening weekend alone.
So as to add the icing on the strawberry-flavored cake, Greta Gerwig, co-writer and director of “Barbie,” made unexpected field workplace historical past by scoring the top-grossing premiere ever for a movie directed by a lady.
Such pivotal milestones are actually a trigger for celebration. Who would assume to bash the all-empowering movie embraced by critics and movie-goers alike?
Sadly, the Barbie film has obtained outrage from a horde of male viewers who consider the comedy movie is anti-men.
In only a few days, the movie has been rewarded with a collection of excessive reward, however not for nothing. With a forged, director, and story pushed primarily by ladies, it’s hardly shocking that the movie could be loaded with feminist undertones.
Nevertheless, some male viewers (and non-viewers) have engaged in discourse surrounding the best way the movie negatively sheds gentle on males, notably with respect to Ken, Barbie’s companion.
In line with TikTok consumer Sydney’s (@sydneyyxmarie) video on the platform, she believes that the choose male bunch who deem the movie as “man-hating” have utterly missed the purpose of the film.
In shiny pink textual content, Sydney wrote, “Me occupied with all the boys who known as the Barbie film ‘man-hating’ and the way plenty of ladies stated it was really very beneficiant to males and at worst confirmed them as foolish little guys fairly than deliberately malicious, then realizing that to males that IS ‘man-hating.’”
She continued, “Males who’ve introduced into patriarchal requirements of masculinity would RATHER be portrayed as mindlessly violent and malevolent than be portrayed with any similarity to how they’re used to seeing ladies.” The consumer concluded, “They’d fairly be evil than secondary.”
The video obtained feedback from individuals who felt ‘Barbie’ was ‘too sort’ to males.
A consumer commented, “Did not give it some thought like that, however omg it is sensible. They’d fairly be deliberately merciless than emotionally weak. That’s nuts.”
Others felt that the film had portrayed males in a method which will have been greater than they deserved. “Genuinely the film handles ‘males who really feel misplaced within the altering world’ with such kindness and delicacy. It is too sort to males,” one wrote.
“Barbie is just too sort to males. They don’t deserve the good thing about the doubt. They misplaced that privilege,” stated one other consumer. A last consumer added, “Very ironic that the film is under no circumstances radicalizing hating males however their reactions certain are. As per common lmao.”
Talking of people that missed the purpose of the movie, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro readily voiced his objections concerning the Barbie film in a 43-minute rant, which opened with a short clip of himself throwing Barbie dolls right into a dumpster and lighting them on fireplace.
As for the remainder of the video, Shapiro traversed right into a rabbit gap of inaccurate claims, the place at one level he stated, “The essential form of premise of the movie, politically talking, is that women and men are on two sides they usually hate one another,” solely additional proving how simply such grappling matters, even in its most light-hearted kind, are sometimes misunderstood and ignored by males.
‘Barbie’ just isn’t anti-men — nevertheless it loosely asks males to query society, gender roles, and themselves.
We as a collective undeniably reside in a patriarchal system divided by subsystems, which manifest their very own traits and cultures which have traditionally been set in place to maintain males on the forefront of all operations.
As a consequence, there was little room on the makeshift pedestal for ladies to occupy with out dealing with extreme prejudice, violence, and criticism from males and even fellow ladies counterparts. The movie makes no effort to cover this actuality, and rightfully so, even within the fantastical realm of Barbieland, however its method is much from man-hating.
A lot of the story goals its concentrate on imagining a world beneath a matriarchy whereas reconsidering simply who or what Barbie really represents — that’s, if she has to signify something in any respect. The movie additionally tackles themes of poisonous masculinity and the notion that the patriarchy instills dangerous expectations onto each men and women.
One of many movie’s foremost story arcs begins when Ken accompanies Barbie on her journey to the true world and turns into impressed by a male-driven actuality that later incites him to impose his findings onto Barbieland, a spot the place Kens are ranked as second-class residents.
By the tip of the film, nevertheless, Ken realizes that the patriarchy isn’t all that it’s cracked as much as be. In reality, it’s fairly exhausting.
Whereas portray a matriarchal panorama of the world by way of Barbieland, the movie means that merely reversing the roles of women and men received’t remedy the world’s issues because it nonetheless alienates folks within the course of. Such is the case with Ken, residing within the stifling world of multifaceted Barbies and the endless “women’ nights,” to which he feels unhappy and serves no objective… nicely, apart from “Seaside.”
Total, not solely does the movie not hate on males, nevertheless it highlights the inner turmoil society nurses into all of us by way of our unrealistic expectations of one another — and, extra importantly, of ourselves.
Xiomara Demarchi is a New York author and frequent contributor to YourTango’s information and leisure group. Preserve updated with them on Instagram.
