I've walked past the Barbie branded selfie booth, sat through the reel of old commercials that precede the previews, and watched Margot Robbie learn to cry, and I’m still not sure what “doing the thing and subverting the thing,” which Greta Gerwig claimed as the achievement of Barbie in a recent New York Times Magazine profile, could possibly mean. This was the second Gerwig profile the magazine has run. I wrote the first one, in 2017, which in hindsight appears like a warning shot in a publicity campaign that has cemented Gerwig’s reputation as so charming and pure of heart that any choice (we used to call them compromises) she makes is justified, a priori, by her innocence. This is a strange position for an adult to occupy, especially when the two-hour piece of branded content she is currently promoting hinges on a character who discovers that her own innocence is the false product of a fallen world. But—spoiler alert!—the point of Barbie’s “hero’s journey” is less to reconcile Barbie to death than to reconcile the viewer to culture in the age of IP.
“Doing the thing and subverting the thing”: I haven’t finished working out the details, but I think the rough translation would be Getting rich and not feeling feel bad about it. (Or, for the viewer: Having a good time and not feeling bad about it.) One must labor under a rather reduced sense of the word “subvert” to be impressed with poking loving fun at product misfires such as Midge (the pregnant Barbie), Tanner (the dog who poops), and the Ken with the earring, especially given that the value of all these collectors’ items has, presumably, not decreased since the film opened. Barbie may feature a sassy tween sternly informing Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie that the tiny-waisted top-heavy billion-dollar business she represents has made girls “feel bad” about themselves, but if anyone uttered the word “anorexia,” I missed it. (There was a reason Todd Haynes told the story of Karen Carpenter’s life and death with Barbies, and it wasn’t because an uncanny piece of molded plastic has the magical power to resolve the contradictions of girlhood and global capitalism.) There’s a bit about Robbie going back into a box in the Mattel boardroom, but Barbies aren’t made in an executive suite; they come from factories in China. On the one hand, it’s weird for a film about a real-world commodity to unfold wholly in the realm of ideas and feelings, but then again, that’s pretty much the definition of branding. Mattel doesn’t care if we buy Barbie dolls—they’re happy to put the word “Barbie” on sunglasses and T-shirts, or license clips from the movie for an ad for Google. OK, here’s my review: When Gerwig first visited Mattel HQ in October 2019, the company’s stock was trading at less than twelve dollars a share. Today the price is $21.40.
Christine Smallwood, Who Was Barbie?
8K notes
·
View notes
Ken's progression OUT of color
This is kinda a cornplate thought that I had nowhere else to put but I love how in the Barbie movie(SPOILERS), Ryan Gosling's Ken's outfits symbolically showcase his "descent" into full patriarchy mode over time.
At the beginning of the film Ken's beach outfit (his default) has an equal balance of pink and blue. Pink is obviously Barbie's color, and shows Ken as fitting well into the femininity and style of Barbieland, while blue could be argued to be Ken's color (a scene later when he's especially confident features him wearing all denim blue, and the stereotypical gender of these colors, especially when found in kid's toys, supports these basic binaries as associated with these colors).
When Ken decides to leave Barbieland with Barbie to delve into the outside world, his color scheme goes full pink, desperate enough to be with Barbie that his attire reflects how dependent his identity is on hers at this stage.
However, it isn't long before Ken's exploration of the real world leads him to exciting new discoveries about the patriarchy and what it can do for him. Here he is introduced to a newfound sense of self independent from barbie, and while he still carries a pink scarf around his neck, the rest of his outfit has devolved into black and white while hers has remained colorful. As he pursues this new-to-him idea further, his worldview is becoming less unique, pretty, and vibrant(in addition to becoming much more masculine).
It is only his scarf that ties him to Barbie now, and upon making the choice not to follow her to Mattel, he becomes fully independent, losing the scarf and any trace of pink in his attire the next time we see him in his mojo dojo casa house coat and beach off outfit underneath.
In his most masculine moment during "Just Ken", he and the other Kens all wear a uniform of the most traditionally male ben shapiro outfit ever: A T-Shirt, belt, and dress pants. All black(and no white either to contrast like the previous 2 outfits). It's fitting that the Kens, in their destructive warpath, imagine themselves as perfectly cleaned up yet violently masculine dancers in their heads, their outfits devoid of all of the flair and character of Barbieland.
(excuse the shitty picture) After Ken has his little self-growth moment, his new sweatshirt reflects the changed and much more balanced man he has become, much more accepting of himself and a life where he can co-exist with Barbie without being with her. This outfit is again an almost perfect balance of pink and blue, both sides of Ken now a bit more at peace, his colors not pushed out by the LITERALLY black hole of toxic masculinity.
The color scheme also matches the roller blading outfit, so perhaps it shows a somewhat intermediary stage of Ken's development wherein he is still attached to and at peace with Barbieland, but where he is starting to become more independent as well.
anyway these are all fun and i genuinely have no fucking idea why Mattel didn't cash in on literally making dolls of all the characters and their outfits these would be so fun to own
9K notes
·
View notes
the slytherin boys + barbie
draco: pouts when you say you’ll go with pansy but also refuses to dress up as ken, or dress up in the slightest. would take you both to watch it and surprises you last minute on the day by wearing a pink t-shirt he borrowed from enzo. rolls his eyes when you get excited but is actually very happy with himself for it.
mattheo: would want to do a double feature with oppenheimer too. makes it a whole date scenario. buys all the snacks but makes you carry them in your purse. wants to dress up for oppenheimer (???) so he wears a suit and a fedora and tells you to wear a pink minidress for barbie. highkey the best dressed couple to go see the double feature, everyone comments on it and he never lets it go. (“see!! I told you it would be cool to dress up for both.”)
theo: would say he’s only dressing up if he can wear the shirtless ken in the fur coat outfit. buys the tickets and the snacks and helps you pick your outfit even if he’s still pouting because you won’t let him wear the mink coat. has the “I’m just Ken” song stuck in his head for a week after and sings it non-stop, drives everyone insane. talks in your ear all the way through but in a funny/cute way, with jokes. (I firmly believe he would do this with every movie though). orders a “I am Kenough” replica hoodie and wears it to smoke in the astronomy tower.
enzo: had a google alert set for ticket release day bought them with the intensity one would buy taylor swift concert tickets. does not care in the slightest for oppenheimer. would wear a full pink outfit with you and possibly even let you bleach his hair to be ken as long as you promised to dye it back after. (“look, cousin, now we match!”, draco refuses to speak to him for a whole week.)
tom: agrees to go and will wear one of your pink scrunchies on his wrist as a gesture of love, and it works. does, however, love your barbie outfit and makes sure to whisper some very dirty things to be sure you know. is stoically thrilled when you surprise him with oppenheimer tickets for the same day. holds your hand through barbie and kisses your knuckles occasionally. scoffs when you laugh at all the ‘typical men’ scenes (Zack Snyder cut of Justice League 💀). is deeply concerned when you play “What Was I Made For” on the way home after and immediately switches it to the “Barbie World” credit song
3K notes
·
View notes
not delusional sano brothers & haitani brothers.
-> haikyuu & jujutsu kaisen version
shinichiro sano.
“shin,” a little girl calls for her brother. curious hands safely holding shinchiro's phone as she runs through the shop to find her brother. reaching her destination, emma stands on the tip of her toes, holding out his phone up to his face, “who's this girl?”
shoving his cigarette down into the ashtray, shinichiro lifts emma onto his hip. he squints at the phone's screen before looking back at his eight year old sister with a smile, “curious?”
“mhm!”
emma sways her head side to side waiting for an answer from him. shinichiro takes his phone from her, placing it into his pocket while he walks out from his shop and to the house.
“she's my girlfriend.”
“GIRLFRIEND!?”
emma slaps both hands on her mouth, wide eyes looking at her brother in genuine shock. embarrassment settles in shinichiro, he did not need his little sister to shout so loudly. was it really that shocking!? he sets her down the moment he stepped into their home, letting out an airy laugh as he smoothens emma's skirt, “yes, i'm not lying.”
emma's face merges into another shocked expression, her eyebrows raised and her lips curved into an ‘O’. nodding twice emma runs off into the house, whisper-yelling “mikey! mikey!” she's probably going to tell him the jaw-dropping news.
manjiro sano.
draken's suspicious. mikey's been awfully quiet and smiles to himself a lot. raising an eyebrow, draken takes another sip of his drink, is he going crazy? he judges mikey again. for the fifth time this day, mikey's giggled and smiled to himself like a little girl thinking about her celebrity crush.
“what the hell is going on with you?!” draken questions, he takes hold of a random fork from the table, pointing it at mikey demanding an answer.
“say, ‘ken,” mikey speaks, resting both elbows on and clasping his fingers together, he leans in closer before continuing, “what would you do if you got a girlfriend?”
draken, though holding a normal expression, is currently surprised. what does mikey mean? did mikey score a girl? is he truly going insane? questions that'll never find their answers. opening his mouth to answer, draken immediately closes it—he has to think about his answer precisely.
“i'd probably want to show her off? why the fuck are you asking me this!?”
“perfect answer because you see,” mikey stops himself, he leans over the table to whisper in draken's ear, “I GOT A GIRL!” he shouts and receives a slap on the head.
“first of all, never do that again.” draken rubs his ear, rolling his eyes as he shoos mikey away.
“secondly, are your impulses getting worse? need me to get you your comfort snack?” draken genuinely questions. he thinks mikey's gone insane.
“...don't talk to me.” slapping his palms on the table, mikey dramatically slings his bag on his shoulder walking out the shop with fake tears.
ran haitani.
rindou opens the door after three knocks. he looks at you up and down for five seconds before concluding that you got the wrong house. so what does he do? he closes the door but luckily, ran saw you and held the door open.
“don't lock my girl out, rin.”
“sorry, my bad—YOUR GIRL!?”
rindou stops from walking back to his room and spins around immediately. he points at ran before pointing at you, clearly he's confused. from what rindou remembers, ran's a loser that sweet talks but never manages to get past that, so what does he mean by “my girl”?!
you stand there awkwardly while the two brothers bicker. ran's offended and rindou's just rindou. looking at the two brothers, you decide to stop them and introduce yourself.
“hello, i'm y/n.”
“hi, i'm rindou. anyways, RAN.”
he shouts ran's name, demanding further explaination. and what does ran do? shuffle past rindou while pulling you your wrist. he pulls you in front of him before looking back at his younger brother with a lazy smile, “i'll tell you the details later.”
rindou rolls his eyes, walking into his room but before that, he responds to ran, “you better. good night you two.”
rindou haitani.
“you look like a creep.” sanzu walks up to rindou, resting his cold soda on rindou's head. his eyes move to what rindou's watching and looks back to him with a teasing smile.
“what do you mean by creep.” rindou says, slapping off sanzu's drink.
“well, if i saw a random thirty year old man dressed in dark tones looking at a girl i'd think you're a creep—without context of course.” sanzu defends himself, sitting beside rindou slinging an arm over the bench's backrest.
rindou raises his middle finger to sanzu's face, he's not going to listen to him anymore. unlocking his phone, he texts you.
rindou smiles at your texts which creeps sanzu out. seriously, he's getting goosebumps so he must talk about it.
“gang executive smiles at silly texts with his girlfriend, how unsettling.” sanzu feigns a tremble, looking at rindou in pure disgust as if he committed a crime.
“shut up, pill popper and how did you know..” squinting his eyes at sanzu, rindou questions. how did sanzu know? what was bonten's number two doing to find out such information? how bored was sanzu?
giving rindou a grin, sanzu gives him a vague answer, “i have my ways.”
6K notes
·
View notes