‘Barbie Movie’: Feminist or Just a Money Maker?

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If you’ve been online since summer you’ve probably seen the frenzy that the “Barbie” movie has whipped up and the conversation it has opened up around performative feminism in media.

The biggest critique I have personally seen against “Barbie” being a feminist movie is that people view it as a soulless, two-hour long commercial made exclusively for the purpose of selling more Mattel products, rather than as a piece of media meant to provoke thought and discussion around a more serious topic like feminism.

But if something being made to generate revenue discounts the significance of its message that heavily, I’d argue that no media that brings in major amounts of money is able to be considered feminist or to have any real weight in the discussion of complex social issues and topics.

Almost every large-scale piece of media has been, at its core, made with the sole intention of generating more money, and I don’t think that profit alone is enough to remove its meaning. The monologue Gloria – a key character played by America Ferrera – gives in just a few minutes of the movie has a more raw and unfiltered take on feminism than I have seen given in any movie.

I have taken my favorite portion of the monolgue, and put it here along with the opening piece, as I believe reading it speaks more for its worth than I ever could:

“It is literally impossible to be a woman…

…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…”

Further than the content of this movie, its director, Greta Gerwig, is well known for her direction and writing on other feminist projects, such as “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” and I think Mattel choosing to hire her for the Barbie movie was far from an accident.

In tandem, having Margot Robbie as the lead role further makes me believe that the production of this film was meant to be inherently feminist, as Margot has been very outspoken about feminism and the representation of women in popular media as a whole. Her roles in many movies have left her playing very one-note, highly sexualized characters, to the point of her starring in “Birds of Prey” as Harley Quinn, which is rife with parody of that character’s over-sexualized nature in the “Suicide Squad” movie series.

Having two women with a notable, vocal track record of feminism who also had faced significant ridicule for their respective roles in more fem-focused media was the perfect starting point, and their continued commitment to making the Barbie movie actively displayed as a feminist piece of media, rather than have it treated as an implied feminist media, solidifies my belief that the barbie movie is, indeed, feminist.

The choices taken at every turn were made to purposely curate an environment that fostered feminist ideals, to the point of slapping the film’s viewer across the face with it. And I believe these ideals being so prevalent at the core of a mainstream piece of media speaks volumes more than its profits ever could.