AMARAH GHORI
Staff Writer
America is a Patriarchy
My earliest memories as a child include me playing with baby dolls. Pushing them around in their strollers, putting them to bed and “feeding” them.
Playing with toys that represented housework was normal. I loved my kid-sized toy iron, kitchen play set and vacuum cleaner. Doing motherly tasks was already subconsciously rooted in my upbringing.
Little did I know that these games and toys that I had were also normal for a lot of other girls, and we would continue to be conditioned to be “traditional women” throughout our young lives.
The “Barbie” movie is a powerful story about womanhood and the patriarchy that we experience. Barbie is portrayed as who you think she is, the embodiment of the “perfect” woman. She lives in Barbie Land – a world where women run everything. Among many other careers that the Barbie’s have, there is Doctor Barbie, President Barbie and even Nobel Prize Barbie. Barbie is this woman that can do it all and she does it flawlessly.
Throughout the movie, you come to realize that being “perfect” isn’t something as attainable as society makes it seem.
After Barbie takes a trip into the real world, she comes to realize how much American culture is different from Barbie Land. She finds the girl that “plays with her,” and starts to experience the same feelings. Depression and sadness are the main feelings her human has, as she is a mother who is tired of feeling like she needs to be perfect all of the time. This begins to reflect onto Barbie in the movie and she starts to become un-doll-like.
There was a beautiful monologue delivered in this movie by America Ferrera’s character on how, as women, we are expected to do a multitude of different things but it’s impossible to be everything at once, even though that’s what society demands of us. This is so beautiful and it truly depicts the country and how it is always expecting women to know and do it all.
It’s the hard truth for our world that, as women, we have no control over these things that happen to us.
I feel that it’s important that a movie like “Barbie” was able to address and shine light on different social situations in this society. It feels like a breath of fresh air to have this in the media because women have been fighting for their rights for years.
The most recent compromise of our rights has been the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which led to a loss of healthcare, as well as freedom, over women’s bodies. The case of Roe v. Wade protected the right to have an abortion. Abortion is necessary in so many regards. It’s sick that people were able to change the accessibility of it, all in what seemed like the blink of an eye. America is a patriarchy and it thrives on the downfall and control of women.
Why is it that women can’t make decisions for themselves?
In regards to the Supreme Court, making this decision is reversing years and years of progress for feminism in this country. Women have lived in a society, especially in America, where we are expected to do things with a smile, even if what we’re expected to do is a double standard.
MARISSA BURR
Opinion Editor
America Is Demanding Unattainable Perfection
If the initial hype and massive press for Greta Gerwig’s 2023 “Barbie” movie weren’t enough to convince you to go see the film in theaters, the records it set in the box office should have been. All of the pink, fashion, star-studded cast and feminism compiled together in a little less than two hours were reasons that people both loved and hated the film. And for those who haven’t seen it or read much into the plot, you’re probably asking the question, “Why is a movie about a doll so controversial?”
Simple answer is that it isn’t; it’s just that the very people the movie calls on their faults are the ones making the most noise.
In the film, Margot Robbie stars as “Stereotypical Barbie” in Barbie Land, a world separate from the reality that we live in. The dolls live somewhat naively in the sense that they believe that when the first Barbie doll was created in 1959, she gave young girls in our world the confidence and inspiration to become anything they wanted and live their best lives. Yet, when Robbie’s character starts to malfunction in her universe, she must travel to the real world and find the girl she belongs to that doesn’t feel as perfect as her Barbie is.
After making it to the real world, Barbie and her stowaway Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, quickly realize that this place is nothing like the world they’re from. Within five minutes of roller skating down the streets of California, Barbie is cat-called and has her butt smacked by a complete stranger.
Ken notices that here, men are in positions of power and treated as higher beings just because of their gender. He takes this “novel idea” of patriarchy back to Barbie Land and implements it.
Suddenly, President Barbie is opening beers for volleyball players and Doctor Barbie is in a lingerie-like maid’s costume serving the other Kens. Now, Ken has taken over Barbie’s dreamhouse and discarded her and everything she built for herself, just because he was upset that she didn’t love him.
In crisis about not feeling worth anything because of the way the men have treated her, Barbie gives up and doesn’t want to live anymore. Her human Gloria, played by America Ferrera, with her tween daughter Sasha, is distraught that their society has broken someone whose life was perfect.
Barbie’s life was perfect because everyone loved her, and now she knows that in the real world she’s hated because people think she’s too sexual for young girls, or that she represents unrealistic standards of beauty. She, just like every other woman, is hated just for being one, while the men get to be respected and venerated only because of their gender. Their personalities, goals, accomplishments, or kindness have nothing to do with the way they are treated.
At the lowest moment, Gloria gives the movie’s most notable monologue that has resonated with women everywhere:
“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong. You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas.
You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault. I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don’t even know.”
This speech near the end of the movie silenced theaters. It brought me to tears because every word she said was true, and no one can deny it.
Look at the female celebrities Americans fawn over: Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, the Kardashian family and so many more. They are held to sky-high standards of beauty and excellence but the second they step out of line, the world will tear them down. If they get plastic surgery, people will call them fake, but if they let themselves age naturally, then they won’t be pretty enough. If they don’t have kids then they’re not going to have a fulfilled life but if they do, we are never going to stop critiquing them as a parent. If these are the standards we have for women that as a society we claim to “love,” then imagine how hard it is to be an ordinary one. In this seemingly cookie-cutter movie about a hero’s journey, viewers are met with complex emotions and reactions to situations new to Barbie but completely common for today’s woman.
The “Barbie” movie showed the world what people expect from women: pink, shoes, smiles and perfection. It also dug deeper and portrayed what men really want: someone subservient and doting that they can use as they please.
But what do women want?
The film answered that as well. Women want to feel seen and heard but not as an object of desire or something to critique and make better. Women want everyone to see them for who they are inside and on the outside, and appreciate that they are here and trying. In America today, perfection is unattainable, even from Barbie. No matter what Barbie, Margot Robbie, or even I do, it will never be enough to satisfy.
Women aren’t perfect, and continuing to demand that will always keep us from truly advancing as a society.