Yet the fact that they see no connection and nothing wrong with this disconnect is deeply disturbing. I can only hope they're just selling their souls for profit and not legitimately believing a completely illogical paradox
Oscillating between claiming to know everything and not understanding "the stuff what the left be" is a classic way of keeping your audience obedient, but also making the more ignorant of them feel OK that they don't understand anything either. Basically the "simple country lawyer" act.
I loved the way the Kens healed their dispute and came together was through an interpretive ballet dance, something often derided for being 'not manly and too feminine'. Through shedding these manly expectations and pressures they come together and are able to support each other
It's also based on the grease sequence ken saw when he arrived on the real world! It's very interesting how in the 70s a group of men dancing and singing about a car was seen as cool and nowadays most just see it as corny or ridiculous
@@rinina Going a bit deeper its also a nod to the costume and set from the dream sequence in Broadway Melody from Singing in the Rain. Gene Kelly is incredible. Billed as a manly man he sings and dances and does a lot of what is called too feminine now
I immediately noticed the Gene Kelly homage and was like, "Did Greta put this in here for me???" 🤩🤩 Hands down the best part of the movie, I love classic cinema
@@Biogrrrl If you watch the behind the scenes videos Greta loved the painting matte backgrounds from Golden Age films like Wizard of Oz, Singing in the Rain etc and she hired painters to make all the backgrounds in most of Barbieland in that style
But what if we tried a system where the power is not held by men or women, but by horses? I think The Barbie Movie really should have explored that idea. I, for one, welcome our new horse overlords. The Neightriarchy, if you will.
Thank you so much for saying that! The whole movie I was so mad because idk it just felt so unfair to the horses? Why did they not get to be the president or have their own mojo dojo casa house?
@@Dee-- I probably would if I was so self serious like you lol But clearly the punchline of the joke is simply to poke fun at the fact that nursing is a female dominated profession. It’s certainly not comedic gold by any stretch of the imagination, low hanging fruit if you will, but pretty harmless all in all. I will concede to you that they do repeat the joke multiple times throughout the movie which is complete overkill so I can see how it might turn stale real quick
Ironically that movie made me as a 6 or 7 year old disassociate nursing with femininity. Now I just see it as another vital healthcare position, no gender roles or expectations there!
...Except the point of the movie is that the people that ridiculed him are wrong and that he didn't join nursing because he wasn't good enough to be a doctor, but rather because he wanted to be a nurse. At this point you're complaining that antagonists exist in films because you felt personally attacked by the fictional character that was written to be wrong.
One thing that amused me during the film is to see the link made between horses and masculinity, while in France (can’t talk for the rest of Europe) horses are strongly associated with women. Shows how all of this is not a grand order, but just cultural.
though it is true that the sport practice of horse riding is often associated with women and girls, the animal itself is associated with more masculine things like knights and warriors, it is seen as a valiant and strong companion that carry them through various adventures, a sign of valor, strength and leadership, and sometimes nobility (i am French, btw)
Truly incredible how a movie that says "what if . . . we could solve the patriarchy . . . by making men feel more valued?" set so many conservatives a-froth.
Yeah I never understood the argument that Barbie somehow made men look weak. A message that men have value on their own as individuals and shouldn’t live only to chase after *or* oppress women is harmful to men? Shouldn’t that be empowering to them?
Exactly, anyone who thinks this movie is anti-men really lacks critical thinking skills. Personally, I found it made me much more sympathetic to men than anything else I've seen. Maybe because I'm a woman, all the Barbie stuff I already knew and understood, however, I felt Ken's story was very impactful. It wasn't subtle, it was literally showing how boys are isolated from getting support from each other and that they are not complete humans or real men without a woman, so their whole lives become a competition with other men to 'get' women. That's really sad. Of course, it's the patriarchy doing this to them, but apparently we can't talk about that :/
@@cavegirl7157 Really? In most cultures, being a bachelor is just fine. But being a spinster is pathetic (and honestly makes life terrible in my country)
I think the thing that makes it difficult for many of us to see the male empowering, value-instilling messages within the movie is that so much of the conversation about men's misguided search for self-worth is communicated through humor, and even sometimes mockery. The Kens are made to look very silly and shallow while competing with each other, and while trying to earn the Barbie's love with guitar skills, over-explaining movies, and so on. And while those things undoubtedly do make us men look very silly and could be helped by greater self-awareness and self-worth, they also mostly stem from deep insecurity and deeply ingrained cultural messages; so to have them addressed/corrected in a format that plays upon those insecurities to portray men's issues as primarily humorous and fair game to make fun of probably pushes a lot of men away from hearing what would otherwise be a pretty readily accepted message about finding your worth in healthier places. I also want to clarify at this point that I'm not anti-Barbie movie and I'm not defending the cruel and mocking ways in which many men have retorted or attacked the movie and/or female empowerment in general; I just hope to explain one of the reasons I see for why men might find it difficult to see the positive messages for them.
@@cavegirl7157 the movie was a role-reversal to me: Ken at the beginning portrayed women in our society, while Barbie portrayed men in our society (much more nuanced, of course). A woman's value at one point in time was completely determined by whether she was married; she couldn't own property or land, she literally had no voice by not being able to vote. Meanwhile men run the show without caring how much or how it would affect women (like the Barbies acted to the Kens). This is what boggles my mind, because it seemed so obvious, so having to explain how the movie wasn't attacking men, but making the attempt to get guys to put themselves in other people's shoes, was absolutely confounding. Essentially having to spell out for people: imagine if the Kens are all women, and the Barbies are men (before the introduction of patriarchy). I think the video addressed the confusing part of the Kens competing before patriarchy being introduced, which you mentioned in your comment, but Ken is much, much more in tune with his emotions pre-patriarchy than he was at any other point in the film (excluding the very end). The issue was that Barbie was dismissive of his emotions (much like how men are dismissive of women's emotions).
I found it a bit of a lost opportunity to not have Ken also face harassment when Barbie and him go into the world in their 80s rollerblade outfits. The harassment women usually get is explicity s-xual with an undertone of violence. But as a gay man, I find the harassment I face to be a mirror image: I get threatened with explicit violence with an undertone of s-xual insecurity. It perhaps could have shown another reason why Ken was so motivated to conform to toxic ideas of what masculinity is
Yeah there's a lot missing in the"real" world. Like I was caught off by how men would hardly ever cat call and harass when another man is around. They respect the man (and his claim on the woman) , not the woman. The problem in not showing that, is that a lot of men don't see the harassment that happens because it happens when they aren't around. A lot of them don't believe women.
I appreciate how your essays point out some of the biggest systemic blind spots in popular media and culture, without shaming anyone on any side of the matter. Zero finger-pointing, guilt-tripping, or blame-throwing. Not at we the viewers, nor at anyone who participated in making or distributing media that has harmful elements in it. Thank you so much for all your hard work and attention to detail!
That is a point in favour of this video. It's frustratingly common for people that want to champion change, do little but point out who "The Enemy" is. It's nice, for a change, to see someone make arguments and reasoning, without going "and this is the person responsible!"
It's useful for those people who like to use buzzwords as a way to rile up their supporters to not clearly define what the words mean or any of the nuances or larger implications of. It only matters that 'our enemies say X, therefore X is bad and a threat to our way of life, and that's why they're our enemies' or however they want to spin the argument to fit
this vidoe is so good, im so happy with the part where he talks about how movies portray male protags as just normal human stories, while female protags are 'a female based story that deals with female issues' and not just this is a human with a cool story, fuuuck me im so happy someone said it XD
It reminds me of one time a black women complained that every black women in a movie had to be an assertive and sassy strong independent black woman fighting the man. She just wanted one movie in which a shy and dorky black teen girl played the lead in a cute romcom with no mention or discussion about race and gender, just one movie. I'm trying to think of high school romcoms that fit that definition, and I'm blank.
It gets even worse when you hear these Red Pilled idiots constantly bring up Ellen Ripley from Alien, or Sarah Connor from Terminator, as examples of how to write a good strong female character. Sure, on the surface, they’re these badass characters that kick ass and all, but if you consider the fact that their major defining character trait is that they’re motherly, it becomes clear that these guys don’t want a female character to just be a human character. Their badass-ness needs to come from wanting to protect (as a mother). Edit: To be fair, in the case of Ripley, this applies mainly to Aliens, which happens to be the more action-oriented film in the series (and the most popular in the series). In the original Alien, Ripley is more of a human character than simply a female character. Also, it’s quite telling that in the third movie (which is widely panned), Ripley rejects motherhood altogether, and the surrogate daughter character from the previous movie, Newt, is killed off before the movie even begins. I also should have pointed out that these female characters that these Red Pill cultists praise are all written by men. That community only want female characters written from a male perspective.
@@eyespy3001 what msjkramey said, often times "strong" female characters are just characters where they turned down the "feminitity" as much as they could (short hair, toned muscles, military, wearing masculine clothing), which is not wrong per se, but if its the only way they are able to portray strength in women, it gets kinda lame. women, like men, also can be strong, if they are physically weak(er) or more feminine, but often times the only way directors can portray strength is through physical strength, or the female character had to go through something extremely traumatic (like the thing that rhymes with grape) that made her "stronger" without them really showing the process of dealing with the trauma and intense emotions that comes with it.
Completely off topic, but with the second and third trait of the patriarchy, my mind went to one of my favorite movies, the devil wears prada. It's a heavy and interesting theme in the movie that Miranda was a woman of power, only able to gain the upper hand by qualities that are often considered masculine. Emotionless presenting, tough decisions. But the film interprets her as a villian, even though the protagonist herself stated if the roles were reversed, no one would have a problem. I think its important to realize the harm of this ideal for both men and women.
@@uchegbudivine6885 To not have emotion is to not have passion. To not have the drive to get out of bed in the morning and act on things. And when the so-called "strong" and "emotionally controlled" find their way into power, everyone is eager to point out how they gained it moreso than how they lost it, often at the mercy of their own insecurities.
The movie calls her a villain at first but later it shows how she has feelings and how much she had to sacrifice for her career. In the end she's the only one who appreciates Andy.
This. I think it's important to see how barbiecwolrd, apart from how it neglected the kens, was flawed in that it encouraged shallowness and pursuit of *perfection among the barbies. When the main barbie loses some of her prefect features, the reaction of the barbies is the freak out and enable her feelings of inadequacy over no longer being perfect instead of helping her get over it. Though not as destructive, it's ultimately a sign of "toxic femininity" for lack of better words.
I think a lot of people missed that barbie land wasn't perfect. I mean they basically exiled her over cellulite. And of course they put the kens in much of the same position men put women, as something nice to look at but nothing to offer to society
I think there's a pervasive misunderstanding of this film that the Barbie world is "meant" to be a utopia. But the rivalry between the Kens, and the very fact that Kens don't have a place in Barbieland except as a Barbie accessory, is meant to depict the fundamental injustice of inequality in any world, not just a patriarchal one. Of course, I say "meant," but it's always dicey to presume the intent of the writer. That's just what I took away from it. But I feel pretty confident in saying that Ken's insecurity in his place in the world was ultimately generated by the Barbie World, just as women's insecurity in their place in the real world is generated by patriarchy. Barbieland may not be a patriarchy, but it has the same problems. And I think it was clever of the film not to resolve this, even after acknowledging it. In the end, there will still be no Kens on the supreme court, let alone the Whitehouse (Pinkhouse?). It's considered progress even to let a second-class citizen like Weird Barbie have a place in the power structure. But Helen Mirren makes the final comment on this, saying that someday, hopefully, Kens will have as many rights as women do in the real world. So long as there's inequality in the real world, it will have its symmetrical mirror in Barbieland. I also think there's something important about the use of the Kens' irrational jealousies against them. Ultimately, empires tend to destroy themselves in exactly this way, for the very reason that patriarchy still doesn't make Ken happy, and of course, once he's conquered the Barbies, he has to project the cause of his unhappiness on someone else, because he's still not ready to accept that it's his own identity that's causing it. As a means of overthrowing the Kens, perhaps starting a war isn't the way. But turning bullies on one another has a way of weakening their power. I don't think it was a bad story choice. Just one man's opinion.
I don't think it's a reach given that the world starts out female dominated, and Ken's are second class. It's neutered to some degree because Barbie World would of course be much more PG or even G vs out reality - so the subjugation of men will be "not as bad" vs woman in our real world. Reversing things in the movie I think makes it clear. You have to worlds with dominate along sex, and both are bad - once FEELS less bad because its G rated, but it's not actually better.
@@xBINARYGODxconsidering the typical tropes of a toy's worst fate as not being played with and related to, the kens are living in their own toy version of hell and subjugation. It's G/PG rated, but Ken talks about being an accessory. Being relegated to no more than a purse, shoe, or at best a pet is pretty horrific
I think Ken’s character arc also supports this interpretation a lot. he struggles to find his own identity in a world focused on Barbies. he doesn’t know where he fits in aside from as an accessory to Barbie. In the end he realises that he is more than just an accessory, he doesn’t have to center his entire existence on Barbie. similar to how a lot of women go through a point of crisis when realising that they don’t have to center their existence on men, because then they need to find an identity for them self in a male cantered society
@DevelpmentandAnthropology according to a quick google search both the most dangerous country in the world (afghanistan) and the most peaceful country in the world (iceland) have slightly more men than women. so the obvious difference is that higher equality between men and women leads to more peace
@@birdiewolf3497 Hmm, I felt this way at first, but then I realized that Ken is basically Marilyn Monroe in every role Marilyn Monroe every played. She's dumb as a brick, and a horrible negative stereotype of her gender, because she's always written that way, but I still want nice things for her. And I feel the same way about Ken. He can be better, and I'm rooting for that, because we all deserve that, as a society.
@@birdiewolf3497 I agree. Too much energy was spent assuaging men's feeling in that movie. But I don't blame Greta. They would have been even more inflamed if not.
@@sophie1564 Exactly!!! They gave him too much time and epic musical number. Then people were crying at the Oscar’s about how people are “missing the point” of the movie because the culmination of the film’s phenomenon was a musical performance about Ken. It’s the film’s fault! The film itself missed the point! We could have spent less time on him and more time on America’s character, you know the real life woman. The woman who was so sad about her life and her relationship with her daughter that she weakened the barriers of reality. The film didn’t explore that at all.
Honestly, the breakdown of patriarchy in the beginning of the video is so good I wanna send this to people just to explain patriarchy to them. Excellent video as always!
UPDATE: We won! After we submitted our fair use argument in an appeal to the Warner Bros takedown, they backed down and this video essay will stay online! Warner Bros had blocked the video worldwide over 19 seconds of Ken trying to surf even though it's clearly fair use commentary with voiceover. Please support this channel on Patreon: www.patreon.com/popdetective
Hii you know id wish your videos subtitles were in diferent langages, im from argentina and i would like to share it with a lot of people but not many people know english enough to watch it
The sequence with all the Barbies using the Kens' insecurities to play them against each other always struck me as strangely regressive given the overall sentiment of the movie. Having the big Unified Girl Power moment revolve around all the female characters acting pretty and helpless and feigning interest in their men's passions in order to manipulate those men into compromising their own bid for power and independence feels like.... the exact kind of fearmongering you'd get from "alpha male" tiktoks.
Yeah, I also felt it after that scene. I mean, I'm not a girl (despite my PFP), so I thought I didn't like the scene simply due to my lack of understanding an average woman's experience. But you showed me it actually was kinda bad. Thank you.
i think the same outcome could have been achieved if the barbies had just been friendly to the other kens instead of pitting them against each other. in a patriarchal mindset, women can't be friends with multiple men (especially when in a relationship, which i'm pretty sure stereotypical barbie was already in at that point) because a genuine friendship between a man and a woman is seen as impossible if it's meant to stay as such, there must be a romantic goal behind it. so by being genuinely friendly to the other kens, the barbies could have realistically achieved the same conflict.
@@miidnxghts you're RIGHT that would have been a great way to really highlight that the issue was the Kens' insecurities, not the Barbies being duplicitous. It could have shown the Barbies making an earnest effort to actually bridge the gap and open better communication channels, and the Kens revealing that they weren't able to see the Barbies as fully realized people with lives outside their romantic relationships (without the Barbies just playing into that perception), OR the other Kens as anything more than competition in their own romantic conquests. Man that might have actually felt like it was Saying Something 😭
I felt icky about that part too, but I read the “regressiveness” as intentional. If you’re going to shape things, the way you do it is important. Attacking the other side is A way to win, but aren’t there better ways? We don’t really get that catharsis until Barbie and Ken apologize to each other, take personal accountability, and start trying to see the others perspective the next day. That’s what I got out of it at least, but your take is totally valid too. Regressive is absolutely the right word to describe the feeling at that part
@@the_piano_nerd4960 that does make sense! I think "it was the wrong solution even though it was effective and personally satisfying, because it was needlessly cruel" is absolutely a good message, and I like that interpretation of the events. Maybe I just wish the third act had gestured to that idea a little more explicitly, but maybe I'd also get that reading more from it if I watched it again with that in mind 🤔
Ha!! Saw this video, screamed, looked at it again, saw it was 30 freaking minutes, screamed again, then clicked on it. You don't understand the depth of my love for these people and their well-made analyses and discussions of sociological concepts ❤❤
I don’t think most people really think about this stuff or are even really aware of it. A majority of both men and women buy into a lot of patriarchal values just because that’s what they grew up around. They aren’t consciously aware they are doing it, and believe it earnestly. They’re not just doing it because they feel they have to or to gain power, but because they truly believe it is what’s right. I think this is one of the biggest challenges with these kinds of issues that isn’t talked about enough. The focus is always on the well-informed on each side, having this epic cultural or intellectual battle, but to most, there is no battle. Even if you’re a woman and a feminist, it is likely you hold patriarchal biases that harm both men and women that you’re not even aware of. I think this kind of cultural baggage creates an immense inertia that resists change.
It’s really easy to replicate the core values of a social system within a political movement that ostensibly aims to dismantle that same system - that note about men trying to dismantle patriarchy through individual acts of righteous violence is especially poignant because I empathize so strongly with the impulse. To try to solve our problems with violence makes a kind of gut sense because we are surrounded by examples of that worldview from childhood, but it all feeds into patriarchy no matter what your expressed beliefs are. It’s so frustrating to try to exit toxicity, only to realize just how much baggage you still have to work to get rid of.
yeah...while i found the movie to be pretty funny and clever at times, its probably because im aware of what barbie is satirizing. it seems like people who dont know what patriarchy is, yet associate it with "men-hating" women, may see this movie and do not understand when its (clearly) exaggerating things. conservatives take everything here at face value, most likely because they dont know how to analyze things or understand them.
What exactly do you mean be "matriarchal" in this case? Because normally, I would disagree and point to many points in history how horses have been seen as animals of the patriarchs, with their love by women & girls alike being a more recent-ish phenomenon. But I'm pretty sure you're using "matriarchal" in a different light here, so I'mma let you explain it.
It’s not surprising people don’t know this. A lot of media still repeats the concept that stallions control herds and choose mares etc. we know now that this is a complete misunderstanding, same way the whole alpha wolf this has been redacted by the guy who started it. The corrections never reach as far as the mistakes though.
It wouldn't be easy that's for sure. The Kens might even beat him up (with nerf toys) but more likely they'd try to shame him back into the fold. Still, even though it can seem like an impossible task, a lot of men are secretly miserable and hiding it. There's opportunity for men to connect with other men over that and make sure they don't blame women for those feelings.
Barbieland started out pretty dystopic for the Kens, although you could also argue it's a cosmic horror setting, with all the strange, unknowable things going on. Egalitarianism is the way towards a better world for everyone.
Really good video, I love that it doesn't paint this movie as perfect in the portrayal of the patriarchy because it certainly isn't, but it presents a nuanced analysis of how it was portrayed. This channel is truly a gem, I've been a subscriber for years now and I'm glad you keep creating this videos.
@@msjkramey I think the reason of being fascist is that only Barbies get jobs and political positions. But actually it's because Mattel doesn't want to make dolls of different professions for the Kens, and sell them to boys. Because it's not "masculine". Have you ever seen a doll that is the father of a baby?
Gerwig did say movies like barbie are simultaneously criticized for doing too much yet not enough at the same time, which... did happen too. Like you said, PCD, i felt like the movie was too kind to Ken after he hurt Barbie. He literally destroyed and stole her home yet Barbie apologizes to him! It frustrates me but i think it was left in as another example of even when men deliberately hurt women because theyre hurting women still have more empathy to see the other perspective and apologize and try to coexist better, yet men are rarely ever held to that empathetic standard in turn
That's true. But. The longsuffering MLK path is usually the only one that really works for a long-lasting change, in the real world. Because the real world fucking sucks.
Right?! And the ken's were cruel in a way the barbie's never were including by attempting to build a wall so that the barbie's couldn't leave the ken's and when they did attempt to leave the ken's building the wall were going to stop them physically from leaving - the barbie's never forced the ken's to be in a relationship with them however the ken's did and they were so misogynistic and humiliating about it too. Like how was the "misandry" in barbieland land equivalent to the misogyny in barbieland and Real world?
I think that's the problem when there aren't enough films that do this kind of thing (and too many others do it as an antifeminist joke)! Like you can't expect one film to do it all, but if it's one of many voices covering feminism topics it lends a useful voice to the discussion.
@@bigiabbythey were literally servants.. close to being slaved to the barbies.. them building a wall was worse than how the barbies treated them?? Imagine living your whole life knowing that your only role in life is to support and follow someone else only when they need you, nobody will console u, you're just an npc.. an accessory
I feel a lot of pushback on women centred media is because the characters main trait is "woman" and thats it. I have no problems with strong female characters (Avatar the last air bender is full of them) because they are richly detailed, flawed but have strengths. They're real people who maje mistakes and need to deal with those consequences. Compare to many modern female charaters (Rey, She-Hulk, Batwoman) they are unlikable, arrogant, condescending and quite often wrong but you can't point it out or you're anti feminist. I don't want a woman on screen. I want an amazing character that happens to be a woman.
@krrrrrrrrrrrr3372 ok, let's compare she Hulk to a male character that is also unlikeable, condescending and rude: Jesse Eisenbergs Mark Zuckerberg in the social network. The difference between them is his character gets some form of comeuppance for being a jerk to people and while he has sucess he is alone. Consequences for actions. You don't like him and you feel ok with the outcome because his good parts don't negate the bad or his actions. For She Hulk she ... gets to be a sucessful lawyer and save the day. Is there any pushback for her actions? No. Any consequences? No. Does she learn anything? Not really. That is not a good story.
Yeah so problem with that. There are some stories that require a Woman to be the one to tell them. Not every Female character can be a "happens to be a female" character, because then some stories that need to be told can't be told.
@lucyla9947 which is not a problem if being a woman is integral to the story. The Barbie movie for instance is an example of the lead MUST be female. But she's more than "female". She's curious, kind, naive, hopeful but can be easily mislead due to her belief everyone is good too. It's when, again, the only trait is "woman" and all other character development stops that I have an issue
26:10 “it’s not women, but patriarchy, that’s blocking men’s access to emotional and physical intimacy” my god THANK YOU. every time that men’s mental health gets brought up in women’s spaces and discussions about unrelated topics, this is the key issue. deplatforming women and women’s issues by trying to silence them with that scapegoat effectively blames women for systems that we didn’t create nor perpetuate. men, if you were truly serious about those topics, you wouldn’t only bring it up during women’s discussions as if it is something we have to fix for you. we’re here with open arms, you only need to reach out
Except that's not really the whole story, now is it? A lot of women still want men to be stoic and think men who show vulnerability are weak and unattractive. You're making this about women vs men when it's really not that simple.
@@screew708 … thank you for proving the point! you’re taking the few and making it representative of all women all while ignoring the role men play in their own suffering.
@@screew708 if you watched the video or read/understood my comment, you’d know i’m not making this about men vs women. it’s the complete opposite. men are making it men vs women when they blame women for the consequences to the systems that men themselves have created. it’ll take us all to dismantle it.
it's just putting emotional care on one half of society when everyone could participate in it. men need to treat men better, men and women need to stop fighting each other and people need to stop frowning upon solidarity, kindness and honest enthusiasm. amen.
No because they always blame women with crap like “men never get compliments, we only get flowers at our funerals, wives don’t do their part when men come back from war etc etc” Like bro y’all played yourselves! There are def women who uphold toxic standards in men but most of us would LOVE it if the men in our lives were more vulnerable with us, but nooo they’d rather shoot themselves in the foot instead
9:22 this this oh this. It is never impossible for women to gain power in a patriarchy, but they will be subject to the same standards, and more often than not exercise the same power dynamic they promised to steer clear from. Case in point, the Girlboss.
Question. If a woman wanted to compete against men in say...weightlifting, would she need to or not need to exercise and train similar to how the men train? I don't get this argument that people try to make when they say that women who try to scale the ladder in patriarchy need to adopt the characteristics espoused by it. Like, as opposed to what? Become better at weightlifting than men by playing tea cup or something? How does that even make sense?
@@nicelypenn um no. Being a boss means different things to different people and how someone should act like a boss. People like trump are bad bosses but a lot of times they are in a high position because this is how society think a boss should act. My dad was a better boss then someone like trump but he wouldn't rise as far as trump because he treat his employees better and CEOs don't like that. Instead of trying to fine new and better bosses we instead go with the tired some archetype because of how it was done in the pass. Women shouldn't need to act like trump to be a CEO since those type of bosses suck in the first place.
@waleuska Suck for who? The workers? Yup. But the CEO is beholden to the shareholders and their representatives. So they have to do good by them, which means maximum exploitation and anything else that might lead to greater profits. Any women that want to rise to the top of a capitalist oligarchy are still gonna have to play by the rules of that system.
@@pumpkinhill4570 sure but that doesn't mean you have to be an asshole to achieve this. You can be nice and still exploit people. Once again there is 1 billion different ways to make money and 1 billion different ways to be a boss. Saying that they need to act this way to succeed just because someone else did it that way is just stupid and wrong.
We can see how Alan, a feminine man, was largely excluded and made the butt of the joke even in Barbie society. I think his role is really hurting the point of why it is patriarchy that hurts men into having to be masculine
Well the Barbie movie itself is not particularly feminist leaning as the video alludes to. But yea on top of that despite generally liking this video I think its use of Allen as an example of a man not fighting the Patriarchy was really misguided. It reinforced patriarchal concepts that conflict and leadership are the only ways to make contributions.
Oppressed by patriarchy and discriminated by patriarchy are two very different things. That's feminism 101. It doesn't directly hurt men if they can still oppress women.
The thing about Barbie is that it doesn't really tackle gender nonconformity, or gender in much of a way beyond masculine men and feminine women. Allan is treated poorly in Barbie society in spite of his femininity - something considered valuable in Barbieland - because femininity is valuable *in Barbies*, not in Allan. Just as in the real world, masculinity is valuable *in men*, but so often derided in women. Even though masculinity is expected of women to do "men's work" they're still degraded for not being feminine because, crucially, the patriarchy doesn't want women doing man things at all. But whether Allen's position as less than in both Barbieland and Kendomland was a purposeful nod to this phenomenon is... unclear. And I dare say unlikely.
Yeah, I really disliked Alans role in the narrative. They could've used it to built an example of a learning ally, but instead it was only played for laughs
Ken discovering that his purpose isn't Barbie, and he's enough is some of the most empovering things I've seen in films. Men are burdened with societal expectations and pressures, and many give up and become toxic and begin ridiculing others. While some finally understand that its not society that matters, but what they believe themselves.
Yeah, as a feminist guy I thought the movie had a lot of positive messages for men, for those willing to look. Stuff like "You can't define your worth by a woman's acceptance", "Learn to appreciate other men and the support they can provide", and "Value yourself even if society won't" are all deep emotional messages in the film. Those messages do get a little distorted however, due to all the conflicting metaphors and themes at play.
He didn't discover his purpose though. Barbie had to regurgitate that fact for him. If he had any agency in pursuing that himself, I would agree but that isn't the case.
honestly, seriously, the most eye-opening realizations i have had about my masculinity has come from this channel. it began with _The Fantastic Masculinity of Newt Scamander_ and has continued with _Patriarchy According to The Barbie Movie._ of all of the professional and personal help i have enlisted has not been able to explain this to me in this way, maybe i wasn’t ready any other way. *Thank you so much for interrogating these things* along with all of your culture sleuthing.
Something I've learned is that the importance of control in a relationship evaporates when you ensure that your relationships are founded on mutual interests and respect. That way, when a spouse, friend, or family member asks you to do something, you don't do it because you "have to", you do it because you want to.
It’s funny you had a clip from Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken because in that movie the women are the only ones who can turn into giant kraken, are in total authority and none of the men or boys have any issue with it whatsoever. Ruby’s dad and Uncle Brill even embody the compassion and emotional support that patriarchy detests men having
@@nicelypennthat's easy, because under the traditional patriarchy women werent really allowed to really do anything or aspire for anything as they were only suppsoed to be a housewife and serve under a man, meaning that the only ones who would be given the time and ability to learn and grow their writing and art skills would be men. Even when women did write, alot of them used pseudonyms/pen names or wrote anonymously to be able to get their work out. Besides, alot of creative type men were often outcasts themselves, when looking into their lives you'll see alot of them have troubled childhoods because of not liking or going after "manly" things. This usually includes being bullied by peers or being abused or treated as a dissapointment by their fathers for not growing up to be the kind of man they wanted. Once they have success theyre obviously treated better but the effects still remain. Patriarchy is bad for everyone.
@@jovianmelendez That's a very stereotypical and narrow view of creative types, especially from a historical perspective. Yes, a lot have had troubled childhoods, but I don't think it's as common as you think it is
I found Barbie to be a simply cathartic movie when it came to woman’s issues but the bench scene with the old lady made me cry. I can’t fully explain it but there was something there with the idea of one woman just genuinely speaking to another, a stranger, and just calling them beautiful for no other reason than to just simply do so. That’s what it means to be a woman, or any minority really. The support and care from those within your group is some of the most important acts one can do and receive and it’s what lets us survive a world that puts us down at any turn.
BTW Patreon supporters can watch a much longer supercut of right-wingers freaking out about Barbie, and another longer supercut of fictional characters saying the word patriarchy. They are pretty funny montages. I will upload them to RU-vid or somewhere for everyone at some point but for now they are here: www.patreon.com/popdetective
The montage of snarky teenagers talking about the patriarchy really shows how films can make a straw man out of feminism. The teenagers are always shown as unserious and grumpy posers who just need to chill out. Their ideas about feminism and oppression come from books, not from any actual experience they've had, and the things they advocate for are often superficial. Legally Blonde is the only example I can think of where you do see concrete ways that women are affected by the system, and how they support each other to navigate through it. And even in that film there is a "feminist" played for laughs as if to say "Elle isn't a feminist. She just went to Harvard to get her boyfriend back, not to make some kind of statement."
Sometimes, I wonder if these videos could be made less partisan. Right- and left-wingers overreacting to things can be funny, but can distance people on the other side of the artificial fence.
Just wanted to point out as well that while it is easily misconstrued, the interpretation of the Kens being pitted against each other to vy for the Barbie's attention + the Barbie's plans to pit them against each other in the end to "let them tear each other down" can also work as an allegory for how women are pitted against one another to rise up in the world of patriarchy as well! :) I feel like the western world has a better grip on a "girl's girl" culture currently to combat this, but I would like to remind you that in some places, it's still pretty cutthroat out there 🥹 **looks pointedly at Asia and its unrealistic body standards for women** 😒😑😑 (For context, I'm a women in Asia that isn't petite, slim and pale)
Exactly. I still hear very commonly from fellow girls talking how they prefer the company of men over women, because of less drama, less judgments, no gossip, etc. And I've witnessed how one particilar girl still stubbornly insist on that despite being ridiculed for her interest by her male friends (make-up), seeing how they bad talk their other friend behind their back and literally experiencing the whole group falling apart due to some petty fight between two guys (and the feud continues on). Ok, it's anecdotal, I don't deny the existence of toxic feminity or some bad tendencied women might have that should be recognized. But... For someone to be this intentionally blind must show to a degree how performative and forced the whole "not like other girls" act is. It might be because I've been in mostly male spaces due to my education path, so I have more experience with them than women, but I've seen so much... Pettiness and shallowness, that I really don't get why it's said that men are above that. I've also met a number of amazing gentle and passionate people, men and women included. I just think that it's generally harder to meet valuable people and you cannot just judge that based on some traits as superficial as gender.
i think it is a common trope in, that men actually would be peaceful and would all be bros if it wasnt for women who are pitting them against each other. So i disagree.
@@KomoraKriogenicznai would go as far as to say that in some men friend groups men dont really care for each other and it is all very shallow, so i agree. I, as a man experienced shallowness in men friendgroups, however i experienced that way less in women friend groups.
Your videos are always the most thought-provoking, profound and moving videos on this site, and I always try to recommend them to friends. Please keep doing what you are doing, and spreading the amazing messages within your videos. Keep up the good work!
Ken seeking validation through Barbie is not gender flipped at all. It is considered one of the more toxic traits of patriarchy not only that women are seen as conquests, but as a man's only source of emotional validation. Men are conditioned to never be emotional, and the only safe outlet they have for their normal human feelings is a girlfriend or wife. It's one of the reasons men will become increasingly violent after break ups. They might still have all the status symbols, but they've lost their only source of human worth, and they feel foolish for having been emotionally vulnerable at all. Edit: You do go on to say all of this, but maybe not make that connection.
Men are plenty emotional. But as usual, you look at things through a female lens and only see traditionally female displays of emotionality as valid. Men might use different words and actions to display how they feel, but we most certainly do feel. And of the tiny amount of men who become violent after breakups do so because they had role models that were violent, not because they followed traditional norms of masculine emotional display. This entire diatribe just reeks of egocentrism and an inability to view things through the lens of a different gender. Judging men's emotions by female standards is not going to get us anywhere, any more than judging women's by male standards is.
Also one of the reasons that widows live longer than widowers. Once men lose their emotional outlet as older men, they tend to break down quicker whereas women generally have stronger social networks in place.
Good point. That's also the source of the toxic patriarchal expectation that women should solely manage the relationship and the man's emotions/ego so that the man only needs to settle in and enjoy.
@@erzsebetkovacs2527the woman also gets to settle in and enjoy tho...wdym? İf you are considering one side of the gender roles, why not see the other too?
So when one man does something really bad, no matter how bad, it's "not all men." But if one movie portrays one man not in a perfect light, but as a complex human being, suddenly it's, "This movie is against ALL MEN!" from these same people?
@@randomusername3873 That's the thing, though, the whole point is trying to unpack how this is a systemic problem, it's not any individual's fault, it's a description of the environment we live in. The comparison I like to use is it's like how I can criticize car dependent infrastructure without criticizing people for driving cars. Of course you drive a car -- how else are you supposed to get to the store or to work if you don't have any public transportation or bicycle infrastructure -- but this doesn't change how harmful it is for everyone to be driving cars all the time. It's harmful, but that doesn't mean you're to blame, it just means you're trapped in a harmful system which both harms you and also causes you to participate in harming others.
The way I saw Barbie Land was as a "feminist " utopia, but created from the mind of men perpetuating/living under patriarchy. Therefore, the characters in Barbie Land are still living under patriarchy, but a flipped, feminine version of patriarchy, where women fill the roles men usually fill in patriarchy, but are still products of a patriarchal system.
Another eloquent and well-thought-out masterpiece... Thank you very much, I will send this video to a few people to help them understand what patriarchy is.
Love that you had to introduce your video with a caveat that "THIS IS NOT GENDER STUDIES IN FILM 4020 THIS IS SOCIOLOGY 1010 and some people need to start here"
Top notch stuff as always. I definitely have mixed feelings about how Barbie approaches feminism and patriarchy (and they're ultimately problems that are a result of the conditions it was created under), but I think this did a great job exploring and expanding upon those core themes. The only thing I'll say is that I don't think right-wing resistance to this film was because of how it challenged patriarchal ideas, I think it's just because in many a conservative mind everything they consider a buzzword means the context can be ignored and what is being said is dangerous or worthless.
I think the right wing reaction was absolutely to protect patriarchy, which is a shame because, as this video illustrates, while the effects of patriarchy are very outwardly damaging toward women, it also harms men in less obvious but still very real ways. For the most part, I don’t think it’s been well explained how patriarchy and terms like “toxic masculinity” are harmful toward men, and the right wing and even centrists have hijacked the terms to mean a hatred of men. For the few who do (for example, Ben Shapiro is an educated man, he definitely knows what it means), being among the first to help dismantle patriarchy opens you up to vulnerability until it is widely adopted. It essentially becomes a Mexican stand off, where everyone is afraid to be the first to put their gun (patriarchy) down, lest the other person doesn’t and takes advantage of the situation.
@@smacain I think you're right that protecting patriarchy is the result and ultimate intention behind it, but the vitriol is specifically because of the language used and the forwardness. The root of fascism, and modern conservatism in general, is one of contradiction and intentional ignorance, and it leaves the people who subscribe to the ideology more dependent on obvious signals and flag waving rather than what anything actually says or means. To many of those who push back against the message of Barbie it doesn't come from understanding or admitting the privilege they hold in the system it challenges, they just see it as signposting that it's on the opposite side of a culture war.
@@user-xsn5ozskwg I agree with you, I am just skeptical of the power-holders. These media giants know they’re misrepresenting the discourse, it’s their viewers who haven’t changed the channel in 20 years and buy the propaganda hook, line, and sinker that feed into the cycle of disinformation. It’s like, the texts from the Fox News talking heads clearly demonstrated they knew the 2020 election was not rigged, but they lied to their viewers, and those viewers don’t even know about these texts because Fox never reported the story. And at even the most milquetoast critique of Trump, the audience fled to OAN, so Fox reversed its stance.
Yea I like the video overall but had a few problems with it. One of them was the way it used populist right wing commentators dislike of the movie as a motivation. These commentators know what the patriarchy means. They are just exploiting under-educated right wing audiences for another dollar or vote. Attacking them for cheap clicks is not effective in countering them. Meanwhile many smarter conservatives are actually fans of the movie and of Gerwig's work generally. Gerwig isn't exactly a right winger but her movies are more a voice calling for moderation in culture wars. People on the right and left often try to claim her works as supporting their side. Leaving this unaddressed especially given the opening which was very "strawmanny" was a mistake.
@@smacain Most of the right wing reaction was from people who didn't see it, and who didn't want to see it, because they just assumed that because it was a move with feminism in it, it must be all about hating men. Their reaction was... reactionary and not really the product of an attempt to protect patriarchy. Purely snowflake stuff.
12:30 "Nolan's film center very important men but none are about their gender" Just a rephrasing: they are all about there gender, just that it is supposed to be viewed as "gender neutral" since "cis het male" is considered as the 'default experience'
Speaking of Nolan movies, I recently rewatched Batman Begins (currently on a Batman fixation at the moment) and it felt really bizarre how no one ever talked about Martha Wayne, yet would talk about Thomas Wayne like he was the second coming. I haven't seen much of Christopher Nolan's filmography to really make any sort of judgement, but from the four movies of his I've seen (The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception to be specific), the guy just seems to be laser-focused on manpain while women don't get much to do other than serving as plot devices to motivate a man or give them extra manpain by dying.
12:47 The worst part is, at the same time that society put those films into a “female experience story”, they blame the film itself for “putting women in a different box than men” as if we wanted to be seen as unequal.
barbie was genuinely such a clever, artistic, and entertaining way to bring attention to the negative effects of patriarchal society, but people were so upset at the idea of criticism against anything male that they couldn't bring themselves to understand it
I still feel it’s so incredibly unfortunate that Barbie was used as the vehicle for this message. Ken, as a default secondary and entirely inferior product is legitimately trapped in a Matriarchy. It naturally gives all the sympathy to Ken. 95% of viewers of the movie did not get the message the movie wished to convey.
I agree many people missed the message. But I think the movie very much intends the audience to sympathize with Ken. I think the movie doesn't have a feminist message as the beginning of the video alludes to. Or at least its message is a pretty warped version of feminism. But this isn't surprising. Gerwig is a moderate in the culture wars. It is much more obvious in her other movies. She is not particularly feminist. And if you really pay attention to the Barbie movie it is pretty clearly meant to have a message of moderation in regards to feminism.
Im pretty sure the only message the movie had to convey was "consume product", with all this other stuff being nothing more than a thin veneer aimed at giving it the appearance of having something meaningful to say, and hence why why that element is so shallow and hamfistedly put together.
@@peterisawesomeplease I do agree, the movie wanted the audience to sympathize with Ken. But I think they wanted us to at least equally sympathize with Barbie. Instead, Ken became the protagonist and Barbie got to go to the gynaecologist… what an odd, odd movie.
It's deeply sad and worrying to me that a movie with an ultimately very peaceful and heartwarming message gets misunderstood so badly just because on the cover, it's a feminist women- movie. I watched it two times in the cinema and absolutely love it, both as a movie and as a message. Men just want to be loved like everybody else, but we are brought up in an absolutely ridiculous way. And like the movie says no, it's neither necessary nor natural. Yes, it has it's roots in anthropology, but so does having a tail. We usually shed the obsolete.
The most beautiful part of Barbie, is that Ken doesn't get his comeuppance by being beaten down, but by being enlightened that he's his own person, a person who can love himself for who he is, without the need to be affirmed by "things" such as a job, a woman etc.
Well done! One note, when Alan confronted construction workers, the reality would have been him being murdered. Confrontation in those moments usually makes things worse for everyone.
True. Men absolutely risk becoming a victim of violence themselves when standing up for women in these sorts of situation and have just as good of a chance at Jackie Chan-ing their way out of a gang attacking them as any woman would, it perpetuates the patriarchal role of the male protector who uses physical violence to protect his property. Men shouldn't feel obligated to throw themselves in harm's way for women, it isn't even about that for the most part. Violence isn't always the solution, especially when it comes to problems of a social nature. Realistically speaking, the situations where men in particular need to stand up for women are social ones such as, for instance, calling out men who casually make sexist comments because they feel safe doing so in the presence of other men. Even in a situation where, say, a woman is being crept on by men and is clearly feeling unsafe and you want to help, you wouldn't confront and try to fight the men, you would try to get the woman out safely. A lot of older women have this sort of "auntie network" thing where they will pretend to know a young woman who is being crept on so she will no longer be a single target and have a chance to escape the situation with her. It would probably be less dangerous for a guy to pretend he's got one of the men mistaken for someone else or to ask them for the way to some place to take their attention off the woman than it would be for him to play the hero and jump in brandishing his fists.
@@rainpooper7088 And even in some rare case where the one "good guy" standing up for women was successful in his fight, it wouldn't accomplish anything, because the men he challenged would simply see him as either a threat or a superior man because of his violent capabilities and tendencies, which should be the opposite of what we want a good man to be. It sends the wrong message entirely when good men think they can just beat all the bad guys up.
Following the definition told in the movie, every country in the world is patriarchal, some more than others (e.g., female genital mutilation in central Africa or mandatory burkhas in the Arabic world). Paradoxically, compared to the rest of the world, England, France, and Germany, (and all their colonies), seem to be the ones with the least oppression. In western Late Medieval Europe, women had as much power, as they have today (in both cases it's actually the most power the women had in all of history, and it hurts me how much people misunderstand the medieval period). Even though women have much freedom, it's no excuse to create male-centric movies and culture. We should strive to make movies that no matter who the main role is, and if it is more masculine or feminine, the movie should be not about the emotions and experience of a gender, but about the emotions and experience of a human being (no matter if it's woman or man, or any other). It should be seen as such and not warped only because the lead role was a woman and not a man. Though, I still see a great value in making movies that do show how difficult it is for women (or men) to live in a patriarchal society. Regarding the race point. White men oppressing others applies to Western countries, which are majority white, but I think it's more about culture because we can see a history of discrimination by anglo-americans against german-americans, Irish (who were treated like human trash), Italians, and so on. You can see similar oppression in Ethiopia, South Africa, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, China, and so on, where the cultural majority oppresses cultural minorities. I think the situation in America is less about some natural evil tendencies of the white race, and more about the fact, that white Americans are the majority group in the country, especially if you compare this to the rest of the world.
This is a gorgeous video essay. Such a brilliant explanation of how sexism plays out structurally, culturally and interpersonally. And how patriarchal ideas don’t benefit men or women. Love your mention of intersectionality. I teared up at the end when you mentioned how important solidarity is between men and women as a way to end sexism and how men should challenge other men on sexism. Your editing is so seamless. I love transitions like 10:36, where you pan up to the sky to cut to the old space clip, and like 12:08, where you fade from Barbie’s face to Oppenheimer. Or the transition at 18:34. You have such a good match of visuals to the voiceover. You use such a breadth of examples; it’s very visually appealing. And I love your supercuts of the use of the word patriarchy in media and the news. Your video has excellent pacing - your cutting to diegetic clips between voiceovers helps process what was just said. Your script is very concise and well-explained and shows a lot of research and care. I love your use of sound and music. And love your cat Madame Curie's cameo in the end! Liked, am already subscribed and commenting to boost you on the dreaded RU-vid algorithm! Also retweeting your vid, I want as many people to see this. Thanks so much for your hard work! This would've taken so long to make
This was really clearly and succinctly explained, and really well paced and edited; thank you for fighting to keep it up and accessible for people! You managed to put into words many of the thoughts I had after watching the film - I felt frustrated by the mixed messages, but didn't articulate this clearly. I know there was a heck of a lot to cover, but it would be interesting to have a part two or companion video to this talking about all the ways the Barbies re-enforce patriarchal values as women, and how deeply rooted this is in the real world - women are entrenched into a way of thinking about themselves that is very patriarchal and reductionist. Thanks again for the time and effort you took to make this!
very excited for the videos in the works! i happened to be reading the will to change when barbie came out and found them to be exceptionally well paired
I was always kind of confused by the big third act plan. They go around to all the Barbies and deprogram them, but they’ve got an entirely different plan for all the Kens. It reads like “when a woman participates in patriarchy it’s because she’s been brainwashed into it, but when a man does, it’s just because it’s in his nature.” There’s a distinct ding effect when a Barbie is deprogrammed but I don’t remember any Ken getting that. So it reads like it’s just something they were always ready and eager to do and not because they too were brainwashed into doing something that hurts themselves because they had no experiences to prepare them to resist it, just like the Barbies. Both the Barbies and Kens were hurt in Kendomland, brainwashed by an idea brought by Ken from our world, but only the Kens seem to be held culpable. And what appears to be a belief in an inherent personality/behavioral/psychological difference between men and women doesn’t read as especially feminist to me.
Yay! I love your in-depth videos. I especially love how you make it clear that feminism isn't about putting men down. It's about releasing them from this system that has hurt women first and then restricted men at the same time. Also, lowkey your episode on Solarpunk inspired me to do a proto-solarpunk reading on 'Sultana's dream' from 1905 a feminist utopia short story but had a lot of the key features of solarpunk. And I got an A for it. So thank you.
All emotional restrictions have placed by women.. ken was of his humanity under feminism. And barbie speech blames patriarchy for stresses feminist fought for
@@ImMaleImProudthat's not true. Men police their own and others' emotions, and women fell in line. And yes, equality and power can be stressful, but living as a second class citizen is worse
I find it hilarious that the movie did such a great job explaining what's wrong and what's right and people STILL misunderstand so much not just about the patriarchy but also about the movie.
You know you live in a patriarchal society when the Barbie movie is 90% about Ken. She's just a bystander on her own movie. If that's a feminist film we still have a loooong way to go
That’s why I didn’t like the movie. The movie is called Barbie and Barbie is supposed to be the protagonist. But Ken basically lives in apartheid state where we are not even sure if he has any housing, so obviously he will get more sympathy from the viewers. The feminist speech done by the mother to wake the Barbies up also doesn’t make any sense, because the Barbies never went through any of those struggles. In the end we also don’t end up with an equal society but a return to the status quo, it basically feels like the bad guys won even tho they are the protagonists. The whole movie is a mess.
@@4651adri It is not a false narrative that patriarchy hurts men. It absolutely isn't. For an example: me and my boyfriend both played through the famous "Depression Quest" by Zoe Quinn (this is a game that was central to Gamergate furor). We talked about it afterwards, and he felt so down about his playthrough because he believed that it was a game where you had no control, and the inevitable end of the game was so dark. While he thought that was a very poignant message, he didn't like the feeling it gave him. I had had a very different experience of the game, however, my ending was getting on medication, getting in therapy, it was a very hopeful ending. He had just chosen poorly and "lost" the game. So we teased out what he did differently- the biggest thing was that he never broke down crying in front of a trusted friend. It never even occurred to him that this would be the "correct" answer. And I think this is wildly indicative of just one way that the patriarchy hurts men- more men die from depression on average, and it is because they 1) hold in their emotions and 2) express sadness as anger, because that is an acceptable emotion for men, but it is also an emotion that pushes support systems away. My boyfriend is not a particularly gendered mindset vulnerable person, and he doesn't care very much about social mores at all, he's happy to watch a romcom, or do "girly" stuff without caring about it, but even he fell into this trap, and it's an unconscious thing we build into boys from a young age.
13:20 I think most recent blockbusters with female leading role are getting backlashed because they focus more on the political speech rather the history. They try to constantly show that patriarchy exist, it's bad and they are better, instead of correctly developing their characters. I always use the series Arcane to prove my point: the leading role in Arcane is a strong woman (physically and mentally) independent, leader, seemingly lesbian and she live in a non patriarchal society. The script focus on the development arc of the characters and it was a blast. Resuming, if your main role personality is centered around not being from a specific gender, you're movie will probably fail
@@dropyourself Thank you for signaling the confusing aspect of my comment. I was arguing what PCD said at 13:20. I don't think the barbie characters lacks development arcs and even if the movie has a strong social/political aspect, it is clear about it and it make the story advance. That's something I couldn't say about The Marvels, The Last Jedi, Ghostbusters ectc
@@maxviellard4260 I disagree. These films are getting pushback (at least from the right) because they're women led. Barbie is good and it still got backlash but that backlash was trumped by praise whereas those mediocre/bad movies don't have their defenders but they still have the same women haters. The backlash has nothing to do with the quality of the film because it's purely culture war bs.
The discourse attacking "the patriarchy" is deeply misleading. Yes society is structured along gender lines, but that's not the result of a misogynistic conspiracy between men to dominate and disenfranchise women. The vast majority of men are harmed just as much or more by "patriarchal" social structures as the majority of women are. It's not a system that benefits men on the whole. The tiny fraction of people holding privilege and power in a patriarchal society are overwhelmingly male, but that doesn't mean that being male automatically grants that privilege. This point is sometimes begrudgingly acknowledged in anti-patriarchy discoursee, and yet that discourse continues to present patriarchy as something that "men" established and maintain. The discourse is characterized by the same vindictive spirit that permeates the broader social justice movement as a whole. A sentiment of bitter misandry can be detected in nearly all feminist critiques of the patriarchy. It is sometimes subtle, often blatant, but nearly always present. These criticisms almost always come from a perspective of "us vs. them". Women are framed as victims and men as villains. No amount of nuance, context, or qualification can change the fact that the emotional core of the discourse is rage and hate. Rage is an understandable reaction to injustice, but there's no justification for hatred. Blame doesn't resolve conflict. It merely perpetuates it. The only way that the patriarchy can be dismantled is if we ALL do it together. Focussing on labels and differences only strengthens the structures causing suffering and injustice. You cannot end war with war.
The thing is: patriarchy doesn't even exists nowadays. We can take a look at charts, articles, statistics and numbers, they all show us that there is no such opression or "structural disadvantages" against women. I think we should find a better word that can actually describe the REAL problems that men and women faces. We can only do that by developing critical thinking, and moving away from ideological dogmas. (sorry, my english is not very good)
Mandatory anything just makes the kids hate it, whatever it is. The only way is to make stuff like this go viral and let the kids come to it of their own accord.
Your point at 13:24-13:34 isn’t very strong because those movies sucked and those characters sucked. Showing a bad movie with bad female characters doesn’t mean there’s hate towards females it means there’s hate towards bad acting and bad movies. If you can point out a good movie with female leads but still got hate that would be a much more compelling argument but I doubt. Can anyone bring up an example of that?
I interpreted that the reason Ken fell into patriarchy the way that he did was because he was basing his feeling of self worth on his ability to “have Barbie”. He saw patriarchy as validating that he should get Barbie just because he was Ken.
Might just be me, but feels like we've been waiting for the colonialism in board games video for years. Don't get me wrong though, definitely appreciate how much work / research is clearly going into it. The video about redemption through death for male characters sounds really interesting too.
You are correct that the movie doesn't have patriarchy at the beginning - it has the opposite (woman in power, focus on woman over second classes men) - which would have just the same problems. It's not that men are in control and celebrated, its pushing one sex/gender over the other(s). If woman in a male dominate world can get competitive in a toxic sense with each other over a man, then men in a world dominated by and for woman would not be different. Keep in mind that the Barbie World is G or PG rated vs our R and X rated world, and testosterone has effects on behavior that is mostly well understood. You are damn if you do or damned if you don't with some of these details when showing a world in a movie or game or whatever - but I don't think the trouble some people have with this film is really the film's fault. Many people who get it still fall for it (the current setup in your real world) - and many others are just bad as media literacy to begin with.
I actually think Star Trek was more successful over all when it did a female dominate society in the first season of Deep Space 9. Ignoring how people from the federation think it's cute (like - they live in world that is not patriarchal at all, why would any subjugation be "cute" to them? Yes, because it's a tv show made in the 90's and 2000's, but you get the point otherwise), there is an episode where a race of people randomly come across the world hole from the other side and arrive at DS9 on mass. It's female dominant, woman take several husbands, and men are a bit emotional and a bit, well, roid-ed up acting a lot of time. This is looked down on by the woman and men are taken less seriously. If you're going to R-rate the world, I think that makes better sense. Certain behaviors rooted in biology are hyper focused on and used as a means to reduce one of the genders. Sort of like our own world, but in reverse. It's not a full movie and the point of the episode ultimately doesn't have anything to do with this reversal (its more about how the Bejoran's become rather selfish post occupation, and won't even help people that would in fact help them with reconstruction because Bajoran's are still mentally wrecked from the brutal occupation, and blah blah blah).
There's Only One God and He is YHWH Jehovah. PLEASE, you, and EVERYONE, if you haven't already, embrace the One True Only God YHWH Jehovah, Only One Jesus Christ His Only Begotten Son and Lord and Savior of our souls and the Only One Holy Spirit. God is good. God is love. Jesus is Lord. Jesus IS coming. Your soul depends on it! I have seen God act in my life. He saved my soul, changed my heart, changed my mind, helped people through me, took care of people in my life, people I hurt before I found God. God is the only reason I was able to reconcile with my dad before he died. God worked through Jesus Christ to save our souls. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead, repent of your sins, accept God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit into your heart and you will be saved. Be baptized in The Holy Spirit, and if He wills, water as well. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, that all who believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ is The Way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father Jehovah God but through Him. Not long after I got saved I prayed to God for help understanding the Holy Bible, and that same day someone knocked on my door asking me if I wanted to understand the Bible. The Holy Bible says, "love thy enemy", "turn the other cheek", "If your enemy is hungry, feed him", "if he is thirsty, give him a drink", "pray for those who persecute you", "do not repay evil for evil". God tells us through The Holy Bible, "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body." Similar with gayness. LORD willing, it may be all sexual immorality and sin, wrong, all humans sin, as The Holy Bible says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." The Holy Bible also says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
When I first watched the film I walked out confused as to the intended message. At the beginning of the story, Barbies and Ken’s essentially live in a Barbiarchy: a society that is constructed to promote Barbie power and authority. It is Barbie dominated, Barbie centred, Barbie identified, and would also argue that is organised around an obsession with control. Eventually the Kens (women) realise that the society they live in is constructed with their oppression as a feature, and they revolt. But this is presented as bad. Kens can’t run a society, they’d ruin everything that the Barbies set up. At the conclusion of the film, the “happy” ending involves taking a vote without the inclusion of Kens, in order to remove all Kens from positions of power, while promising to try thinking about maybe working on the systems of oppression that exist in Barbieland. The scene ends with a joke that Kens can maybe one day hold a modicum of power “like women in the real world”. It felt like the movie gave *individual* characters great arcs, but the allegory of Barbieland implies that the status quo is there for a reason, and those who seek to change existing power structures in society should be happy to be allowed to “not live in the shadows”.
I think it's not meant to show how a revolt against an injust system is bad but to replace one oppressive system with another one. And note the Kens weren't shown as not able to run a society, it was stopped before they actually (legally) took control of the government. And the "happy" ending just showed that even if the oppressing force generally acknowledges the system should be changed it's still a long and painful process with one tiny win at a time.
wrong, the fact that Barbie Land is just going back to its comfortable static quo with maybe some small changes is a reflection of our world right now. The whole point is that Barbie Land is not better, it just seems that way to some degree because its PG/G rated (no war, or killers or outright abuse, etc.) but that each world is equally bad and the reaction of the barbies is how men have reacted over time to woman, at each step of the way. I think you need more practice with media literacy.
@@xBINARYGODxI can kind of see your point, except the ending is played off as a joke, and heavily implies the Barbies are unironically right. I think that's the part that muddles the message; the Kens are shown to be wrong, but the Barbies coming back into power is shown as "right"
@@niceguy191 the narrator says at the end that maybe with time the Kens will have as many rights as women do in the real world. They say that the Kens are even less equal than women today. So unless the movie doesn't say patriarchy is unironically right, it goes out of its way to show that no gender should oppress the other and that both sides suffer if so
@@inawinchester Yes, that's the part we're all talking about. It's played off as a joke, and as if the Kens deserve it or are not ready or something along those lines. The point is that this is not treated like it's a bad thing, which is what people are finding confusing
