Therapist Reacts RAW to The Barbie Trailer 

The original idea for Barbie stemmed from a German doll marketed to men (sexually). That's where the unrealistic proportions come from, men's fantasies... as well as the "bimbo" aspect.

Yes classically hilarious! How about do the splits Barbie, the orcale Barbie? The tortured Barbie in every house across America;. She's in the wrong non barbie clothes, ink scribbles on her face, her hair chopped and does the splits involuntary because she's been broken by hyperextension of hip and forced to do the splits. Thats at least one of my grandkids Barbies. I love it cant wait to see it. Its adorable, overbearingly plastic and pink and brilliantly cast with a very thought provoking message on superficial expectations in social culture. Sure has the "cancel culture " bigoted knuckleheads like Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz melting down 😂😂

Very interesting!

Thank you for sharing!

I love this!! It makes so much sense! And dressing in pink was her way to stick it to the system. Like "yes, I can be a badass, confident, professional, independent person and wear what I want!" Those vibes (: I actually really enjoyed watching the Barbie movies growing up because they did have those messages of staying true to yourself. The whole wearing pink thing reminds me of the movie Legally Blonde. Elle literally becomes such a feminist and isn't afraid to be who she is - a kickass, pink loving woman - on top of getting into a field of study that is both difficult and dominated by men! She said, screw you ex fiance, I'm literally going to become a lawyer just to spite you.

Considering that the very first wedding Barbie came out in 1959, the same year the original Barbie came out, I find the idea that the creator wanted Barbie to remain independent hard to believe. Regardless, she never has been considering she's been married to Ken from the start. And that's where the problem lies. What matters isn't the message that the creator wanted for Barbie, what matters is the message Barbie actually puts in girls' heads. Barbie from the beginning, Barbie's measurements have been such that they are quite literally impossible for any woman to achieve--and yet this is what Mattel is selling us as the ideal we're supposed to live up to. Psychological studies have shown that girls as young as 8, with healthy body images and high self-esteem, are found to be less confident, and wanting to diet after just a few minutes playing with Barbie. The original Slumber Party Barbie, who came out only six years after Barbie debuted, came with a miniature scale permanently set to just 110, and a Barbie sized diet book titled "How to Loose Weight," with the words "DON'T EAT!" on the back. When the first talking Barbie was created, one of the phrases she said was "Math is hard!" until parents thankfully lashed out about it. How the hell are girls supposed to believe they can become doctors or STEM researchers thanks to Barbie, when they're being taught the message that math is difficult by this exact same doll? When you have a doll that has impossible height and weight standards while promoting the idea that "math is hard," that Mattel making her the bimbo she is, not us! So, contrary to your claims, Barbie has never been independent, and has in fact, promoted terrible body images and horrible self-esteem in women, while actually promoting the idea that we no, we don't have the ability to do anything--not as far as math is concerned! If you want to like Barbie, that's fine, but don't do so based on erroneous facts, while remaining blind to the very real harm studies have shown Barbie to have on girls--harm that's self-evident just by taking a *truly* realistic look at Barbie. You can't, afterall, truly call yourself a feminist, while turning a blind eye to the very damaging impact that both psychology and history have proven her to have on girls. It's only by being truly honest about the damage she does and continue to work to make her better that she can truly have a positive impact on girls

@@crow_feather I'm sorry but raging about realistic measurements on a children's toy is a little ridiculous. I'm a guy and playing with barbies as a boy helped me express my more nurturing feminine side even though I wasn't supposed to like a girls toy. Also, barbies may project a harmful body image but harmful things can be reclaimed and turned into something emancipatory like the b-word is inherently sexist but calling yourself a b!tch is feminist nowadays bc you take it back and flip it on its head.

I think I saw an interview with Gosling talking about Ken this way

I believe the creator of barbie actually intended it that way. Something about female empowerment. Not sure if that's true, but considering when it was created, it was needed at that time.

​@jennyspeicker4712 well, that's a miss representation of feminism. Men should be the equal partner in emotional maturity as well.

@ljeans531 I never said feminism. I said female empowerment. When barbie was created, it was about making women more than an accessory for men, it was about making them equal to men.

@@ljeans531 while that is what modern feminism should embody, that is not what the climate was at that time.

Not true there were actually several fashion dolls like Barbie for girls far before Barbie existed many of those dolls were from companies created and run by women. In fact Barbie was a ripoff of a German doll Lilli. They took the doll reverse engineered it and made Barbie from it. What separated Barbie from the other doll’s already out there was how they marketed her constantly on TV which the other doll companies found TV adds to be unprofessional unintentionally allowing Barbie to dominate the market. The whole “there was only baby dolls” was a lie Mattel has been pushing so they can erase all the dolls and their women creators from memory so they can claim to be first.

That sounds so good on paper right, like that’s what society tells us is, “hashtag goals” but after reading about the Universe 25 experiment I’m just like ok let’s go back to wholesome living, let’s as women learn to be mothers again and stop letting ipads raise children!

@@AlauraJones or maybe a better idea, let's teach all kids how to parent, and let girls and boys choose if they want to be a stay at home parent. Let boys learn to take care of babies as well, and encourage their nurturing instincts, instead of limiting girls to a life way below their capabilities. Being a parent is cool, if that's what you want to focus your life on, but for many to be limited to that, would be alike to hell on earth.

​@@dizzyizzy7403the Lilli doll was based on a Bild cartoon geared towards men. Lilli was sassy, and ambitious, but also a golddigger, exhibitionist, and floozy. The cartoon always consisted of a picture of Lilli talking, while dressed or undressed in a manner that showed her figure, usually to girlfriends, boyfriends, or her boss. To a policeman who told her that two-piece swimsuits are banned in the street: "Oh, and in your opinion, what part should I take off?"

@@CrisSelene it was actually a newspaper comic strip about a secretary and from the surviving strips there wasn’t a lot of undressing. The most notable ones was a strip where she’s in a changing room with a guy trying to sneak a peak but the context often left out is that what the guy is doing is framed as not ok and that’s he’s betraying her trust being another failed date and that guys doing this won’t get to keep going on dates with pretty girls like lili. the swimsuit one you pointed out was supposed to frame the officer as being unreasonable and her smartly handling the situation with a funny quip pointing out his unreasonableness not that she’s a floozy in fact she’s actually quite the romantic trying to balance being a working woman and find a good guy in the changing times Germany was facing during her run. The whole she was just a loose girl thing was again another false narrative pushed by Mattel from The toys that made us” documentary funded by Mattel as well as several articles published interestingly enough when the truth about the shady history behind Mattel’s hostile and legally questionable acquisition of the toy was surfacing again funded by Mattel.

Also the shower doesn't throw real water because you would always pretend shower your barbie lol

I've gone to see it 3 times and picked up something new every time.

Exactly! Barbie world is dreamt up by and for little girls!

As someone who DID walk my barbies down the stairs, I am offended and feel under-represented :P

Barbie has been every profession under the sun...but she's never been a wife, and she's never been a mother. The message has always been _be your own person first._ Barbie has always been progressive.

@@Siansonea With all due respect, that's absolutely not true. There have been countless versions of Barbie as a happy bride over the years..."Dream Bride Barbie," "Sophisticated Wedding Barbie," even bride versions of Barbie by fashion designers Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang, to name just the tiniest few of the multiple versions of Barbie as a happy bride. Simply Google wedding Barbie, and you'll find enough versions to make your head spin! On top of this there was a Homemaker Barbie that came out for a while, complete with a cooking set! Barbie has most definitely been a wife, multiple times over! As for being a mother, Mattel came out with Midge, Barbie's friend who looks exactly like Barbie. She came complete with infant and toys. You could even buy a crib and changing table for her! Barbie's message has **never** been about putting yourself first, and has always been one that we, as women, should be the idealized version of all things for society--including wife, mother, and happy homemaker. Regardless of what message anyone may wish Barbie embodied, multiple psychological studies have shown that that is exactly the very toxic message she sends to girls. Such a message is the antithesis of the message that we should put ourselves first, and is exactly the sort of toxic message we need to stop pushing onto girls! We also need to end the idea that there's nothing progressive about wanting to be a wife or mother, and that you're not either progressive or a feminist if you want either of those things. That simply shames women who want either, when there is absolutely nothing wrong with either one. To spread the idea that feminism or being progressive is about putting ourselves first spreads the harmful belief that we as women need to all be selfish and self-serving. That only shames women who want to be in caregivers of any sort, while promoting the toxic idea that progressive women only give a damn about themselves. In reality, however, the truly progressive belief is that women have the right to be whatever the hell we want to be--including wives and mothers, because that's the belief that's truly supportive of all women.

That’s so awesome! When I was a kid I wasn’t a big fan of Barbie because I felt like it was too girly (I was very tomboy). I’m realizing through people like you just how important of a toy/role model she can be for kids of all types. Glad you are creating a great experience for kids!

@@crow_feather oh, Barbie has been a _bride_ tons of times. She has participated in lots of wedding photo shoots-as a model. But she's never been a *wife.* And also, Barbie has never _shamed_ the idea of being a wife and mother, her best friend Midge became a wife and mother and that was celebrated. But Barbie stands as the less typical path for women, the one that the real world has not historically celebrated. Women who choose to become wives and mothers are hardly shamed or denigrated for making that choice, it is literally commonplace. But career women have been derided since women started having careers. So for the main character of the line to be a career woman was a declaration that this brand wasn't going to play to the conservatives.

That sounds very fun

I did a school project on media and feminism and we went to a toy store to get photos of rows of sexist pink aisles and buff angry action figures etc. but we got there and there were disabled and "plus size" (fairly normal size, but that's what it's marketed as, it's a step at least), doctor barbies, etc. and everything was shockingly politically relevant. The boy's section was sort of what we expected.

If Barbie has been in every career under the sun including a doctor, how come Ken is so perplexed by the idea of a Female Doctor?

@@The482075 I have no idea, because they literally have in the advertising Hari Nef as "This Barbie is a Doctor". Also a nobel price winning physicist barbie, president barbie and Supreme Court Justice Barbie. Ken may be broken.

@@wwaxwork "Ken may be broken" I💙U 🤣

⁠@@wwaxwork@The482075 based on that interaction, I have a theory that the Barbour movie is going to be about the fact that toxic masculinity is a learned behaviour. In Barbie land, Ken knows that Barbie can be anything but when he gets to the real world, he’s taught about male privileges and toxic behaviour. Just a theory, but I think it would be interesting.

Three sisters. Yeah I also thought there was only teen Skipper but they've added 2 more, the youngest is in preeschool

Barbie has responsibility for her sisters and has her own career / home.

Barbie has endured because she has reflected the society around her (and has been adapted to reflect the times), while being enough of a cipher to allow kids to project their own fantasies onto her. As I’ve commented in a couple places on this video, I was little when Barbie and her friends were first introduced, and my friends and I made up stories in which our Barbies were housewives talking about how World War III was about to happen. This was during a time when the roles of women were very limited: we could be nurses, teachers (including nuns for us Catholic kids), or mommies. And that’s what we imagined for our Barbies.

Too bad Barbie never had to register for the military draft, and too bad all the other feminists didn't have to either

I did. I defenetly wanted to be as brave and coragously independent as Barbie.

My Barbie’s were doing some kinda messed up stuff back in the day. Super glad I didn’t grow up to be like them 😂

​@@aria9311one of my barbies had a sex change when i was younger. Didnt even think i was making it trans. My friend helped me. It was the most ken looking barbie (like weird barbie, but somehow a boy...def was played hard with before i inherited it.) We didnt have enough ken dolls, like 1 or 2...so we made another out of one that didnt even look like a girl to us. Never thought twice about it.

@@Rhaenarys I dont think my mom ever bought me a ken doll so Weird Barbie always ended up being Ken lmao

As a kid I just cut off my barbies hair and I drew on her 💀 i used to think it was too girly (I used to be a tomboy) even tho I secretly liked barbie HAHAH

My favorite Barbie series is Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse

And now, there are many moms like me that say go for it. The information now shows that boys benefit from playing with dolls. It helps them to develop in their interpersonal relationships and even home lives. I'm sad you had to hide that part of you. I bet you built a rich world in your mind with those dolls!

I legit made "school" with my Barbies and had them go out to movies on weekends and basically live a whole week of life every time I played with them. Sometimes they went camping, especially in the summer. Depending on the time of year they did a reflection of what I did just in barbie world. It was so fun and I always cared more about the other outfits I got or made, not the original my babies came in usually. I cared more about the actual babies herself with the hair color, style, eye color, and skin type that I wanted for my next type of family I was creating. It was like Sims before Sims existed haha

This. My Barbies and Kens acted out all sorts of character storylines from different gentrs. X-men was a favorite of mine.

I had a whole cinematic universe that developed over a couple of years, with each doll's story lasting several months. There were single moms, ninjas, secret fairies, ambition, loyalty, dreams, betrayals... and one thing I recently remembered is that whenever I learned about something I couldn't process (abuse, unaliving, non-consensual physical activities) I would play it out with my barbies in an attempt to understand what makes people do something like that. My "villain" that did all those things was a doll that my bully's mother gave me to "make amends". I later split the doll into 6 pieces (limbs, head, body) and threw each one away in a different place to ensure she would never have an intact body. Man, childhood was wild. edit: btw, I never had a Ken, so 3 of my barbies (or rather knockoffs) had short hair (cut by myself) and mustaches scribbled on, so when talking about unrealistic body standards, I don't think kids care. For me, it wasn't a female-body-shape, just doll-shape. As for beauty standards, my mom was officially the most beautiful woman on earth, a plastic doll could never.

Jonathan Decker said it similarly "You can project yourself on Barbie..." I did, well the same, and of course all the cool stuff, I was not ready but seriously curious about. Like all that realtionship stuff e.g. But also living in fantasie worlds, we saw in movies. That's why we loved playing Barbie with friends. We refelcted on what we saw in real life or fiction and composed storylines together. Whatever excited us. A child doesn't need the realism grown ups miss in Barbies body typ. We wanted true storylines in pretty colors and outfits. And there is absolutely nothing wrong in letting your child live in a save space. The real world with body shaming, pressure of norms, pressure of achievement will enter their lives soon enough. Barbie was never just blond, dumb and accesoiry to a rich men. She was the absolut opposite. She was her own story. Just as we projected our stories on her fictional world. And I personally loved my very girly pink childhood with her prominently in it.

@@gracieofgod8899 heck yeah! X-Men!! I love X-Men!

Yes! 😂 Most especially when they are reviewing The Barbie Movie!

oh yes, please kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Who has donuts for breakfast???

@ I do way too often lol

Lack of toys for girls on the market ?? Are you joking ?? I'm 75. We had a zillion toys available back then. It was heaven

As a lifelong feminist and a lifelong Barbie collector, I can tell you that these are not mutually exclusive ideas. Unless a person subscribes to the toxic idea that a feminine woman can't be feminist. Being feminist doesn't mean you have to pretend to be a man.

@@Siansonea I understand where you're coming from. However, as I and many others see it, the unhealthy ideals Barbie promotes have nothing to do with promoting femininity--which I and many feminists I know embrace wholeheartedly--and everything to do with promoting toxic ideals of what being a woman is. Barbie is found to have a slender body figure that women in our culture have been taught to idealize, despite the fact that it has been shown that it is quite literally impossible for any human to achieve it. Studies have shown that girls as young as eight with good self-confidence and a healthy body image have started seeing themselves as fat, and wanting to diet after just a few minutes of playing with Barbie. When the original "Slumber Party Barbie," came out in 1965, she came with a miniature scale permanently set to only 110lbs, and a diet book entitled "How to Loose Weight," with an impossibly slender shillouette of a woman standing on said scale on the cover. In all caps letters on the back it read, "DO NOT EAT!" An outrage was rightly started when talking Barbie came out, and one of the many phrases she said was "Math is hard!" It's been found in psychology that when a phrase is repeated enough, you begin to believe it, and this was the phrase Mattel wanted repeated to young girls at the most crucial state of their development, as they played with this Barbie. This is a belief that girls then carried with them to school. All of this barely even scratches the surface of the highly toxic messages Barbie has promoted over the years, ones that have absolutely nothing to do with femininity, and everything to do with destroying a woman's feelings of self-worth, by doing so at the early developmental stages, when girls are the most susceptible to the messages they're given, messages that therefore have the biggest impact on their self-image throughout their lives. Considering that Barbie is held up as the ideal in our society of who a woman should be, I think we need to be very careful about what messages that ideal promotes. It therefore pays to be highly critical of the messages Barbie promotes so as to make sure that they're healthy, not just write off criticisms of Barbie as being against femininity when they are by no means that, and need to be listened to for the sake of promoting the healthy self-confidence that girls deserve.

@@crow_feather Dayum, I should look up studies about Barbie. Fortunately, some people in the comments seem to have noticed better the "I can be anything" part of the toy!

@@crow_feather There are a ton of things more strongly promoting the toxic body image than Barbies. Models in magazines - that are already impossibly thin and yet get photoshopped if there is any imperfection. Celebrities, actors - what we see in the movies and on television. And now instagram and other social media influencers. Barbie is not the bad guy here.

​@@crow_featheryou just come across as a shallow uneducated "feminist." I am NOT proud to have you as a peer in the community.

Oh I’m expecting a lot.

And suddenly, that line makes me cry. I didn’t know about Barbara Handler- thanks so much for sharing that!

Sorry but no. Ruth Handler didn't "design" anything. A German company (Bild) had been selling "Lilli" dolls since 1955, and 4 years later on a trip to Hamburg , Handler *bought* several of the Lilli dolls. She basically used their doll to make a mold, made it vinyl instead of hard plastic, and removed the molded shoes and earrings. That was it. That was all the design she did. In fact, Mattel had to BUY all patents and copyrights to the Lilli doll from Bild.... because they literally *copied it* .

No, that person on the bench is not Ruth Handler.

Now that I’ve finally seen the movie, the scene Did make me tear up, but the actress playing Ruth Handler (“ideas”) is Rhea Perlman (from 1980’s “Cheers”). The woman on the bench is a famed costume designer, Ann Roth, who’s a friend of the director. Those are iconic movie moments ✨

peyton place had nothing on my barbie daytime dramas. mostly pg rated since i was young enough not to know about adulty stuff but old enough to know adult sometimes "did bad things".

This👆Playing with Barbies always involved hours of soap opera level plot lines. And you could change the story each time you played with them. Durability is also a interesting point. They were also a great size, you could bring multiple with you at a time and had tons of outfits to help tell new stories.

When I was little (in the early 60s), the storylines my friends and I imagined involved housewife Barbies talking about how there was going to be a World War III. 😳

Well said! Totally agree with you. Barbies are insanely durable

I mean Barbie is about as extreme in proportions as a cartoon character is. It kind of makes sense. Take away that and what you are left with is independence, kindness, success, and multiple other things. Idk I sometimes wonder if we adults are the ones imposing these body image ideas about Barbie onto kids ourselves. We often make assumptions about what kids are feeling or should feel about things. I would love to hear what kids think about Barbie instead.

That's one thing about shows and such that has always bothered me that the smart, nice, but Always Dowdy character has to have a "makeover" to be liked/loved/appreciated/be professional/to move forward. Seriously, we can choose to be all of those things, plus take care of ourselves.

I've never heard of another family but my own who were forbidden Barbies. In my case, it was because my mother thought their bodies where too sexualized for young girls and gave us floppy baby dolls instead. They did not interest us and we ended up playing more with puzzles and books and our jungle gym and sports. For us it was probably the right call for the wrong reason, because I remember being bored silly at friends' houses, when my little girl friends would pull out their Barbies and want me to join in Barbie play. oo

I was little when the original Barbie came out, and my friends and I didn’t see her as anything mysterious. Our stories involved Barbies as housewives or teachers or possibly nurses. The roles in which we’d seen women were limited, and so (sadly) were our imaginations.

I’m pretty sure that a couple of years ago Ken and Barbie officially broke up. So she is happily single, and still has a healthy positive relationship with her ex. Something to aspire to indeed.

Idk some of those barbie houses are pricey, I might not even be able to afford that

That opening scene! It got me. I knew at that moment I would love it.

My mother was extremley anti-Barbie too (but not a feminist). She just didn't like how they look I guess, so I never got one untill 14 and I was such a good girl that I never even came up with the idea of buying one with my pocket money. When i was 14 I got a fashon doll similar to Barbie because my younger brother won it and gave it to me but at that point I was almost to old for toys.

Agreed. Barbie was a real pal.

Damn right. Kindness first, then ambition, and lastly beauty. That’s not to say that she won’t try to do her best to have all three. She’s a real go getter.

She's Elle Woods 🎉

Lots of poor white people in America.much more exist poor than the 1 percent rich white.

I just saw the movie, so this comment comes from viewing the movie rather than the trailer. In Barbie’s world, women have all the privileges. Men are treated as second class citizens. It’s similar to the real world except that women are in charge. Most of us would not want to live in Barbie’s World because it doesn’t represent a world with equality for all.

@@LorettaLJ Isn't that deliberate though? Flipping the genders to show what it's like for women in the real world? I haven't seen the film but friends have talked about it, and that was their takeaway.

My Barbies were always fighting bad guys and saving the world. They often fell in love with my brother's Transformers. I don't know what this says about me but it was fun 😂

I never had a Ken, although I had a Barbie, Midge, Skipper, and Skooter. Looking back, I think that was a sign of how I would later come out. 🌈

Kiddles! Did you have any Flatsies? My favorite was the one with blue hair.

It's a good thing he's a therapist, cause I'm gonna need it after seeing that 😂 I hope this wasn't too mean a comment. I love Jono.

I loved his singing! 😂

I just want to know what happened to Kate's character 🤣 Lol

@@RoseTintMyWorld-cr5zo Did you ever watch Rugrats? I imagine she's the equivalent to Angelca's doll Cynthia. The one you draw on and chop her hair and do "beauty" experiments on lol

@@FlagCutie Yes! Lol, she has definitely been through it like Cynthia 🤣

It's Ryan Gosling's anti-Notebook movie! I got a sense he was mocking himself through Barbie. There's a good stash if satirical Easter eggs in this. Helen Mirren being the narrator (damn shame she never got to say anything about drinking "whiskey from KENtucky") with the lead in from 2001 gave me a good laugh. Will Farrell with both the Lego movie AND Stranger than Fiction 🎸 snippets. My hope is that this becomes a cult classic and doesn't turn into a trope of subpar sequels.

The one with Tyra Banks! I loved that movie. I even remember the song: Shine bright, shine far, don't be shy, be a star - where you live, where you are, BE A STAaAaAr! 😅

@dejah2553 OMG YES!!!!! Oh such a great movie! It was funny & heartwarming & all around an underrated film

Plenty of people went after Bratz. There's a few tutorials out there that show how to de-bratz one of those dolls. That said, I adopted a Disney doll (long story) that turned out to be from the Tinkerbell line: now THAT is a doll body that probably got complaints. Maybe they got away with those bc they're meant to be faeries, but I suspect a bunch of princesses have the same body.