Barbie Smites the Patriarchy
Barbie Smites the Patriarchy
Performance Politics & Political Power
As the new school year unfolds, it will be fascinating to observe whether the Barbie Movie becomes included in classroom curricula across the country, and especially, in Republican dominated states. Certainly, the debates go on outside of, around, and in the environment of classrooms. Can they keep Barbie out?
The Barbie Movie is outrageous, fantastical and weird, and very well done. It also addresses issues that every young person in America knows about and is thinking about as the new school year begins. The new generations are totally aware of the issues that are being imposed on them, from banning abortion to banning history to banning LGBTQIA people.
It is no coincidence that this movie comes after anti-abortion laws and anti-LGBTQ+ laws are proliferating across the country. It is no accident that the teens of conservative America are flocking to see the movie along with Trans and Queer folk. Both groups have been taking TikToks and selfies of themselves to promote the movie as a form of performance politics.
The movie takes on and lampoons patriarchy, rejects shaming, advocates for equal rights, explodes gender issues, discusses how to win and use political power, outs January 6, fascism by name and the Supreme Court. It also shows people “waking up” to the domination of patriarchy, and illustrates what waking up is all about, while never using the term “woke”.
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Link to a longer review below:
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Responding to Barbie article:
Dear Comrades,
Are you out of your minds? This is unbelievable.
Joining the chorus of praise for a skinny white blond icon who trapped innocent girls into false ambitions. Damning any and all other body types to inferiority. Training girls to be fashion plates who focus on dress and mannerisms to win a handsome “well to do” man. Disgusting.
Barbie was presented to us as the perfection of American beauty. Girls died of anorexia to be that skinny. Beautiful Black, Latina, Asian and Indian women were excluded from her circle of perfection.
This article is a blow to all real women who birth and raise children, who manage households, who work when permitted in the same jobs, careers and professions as men, and who emerge as leaders for the rights of all people. It betrays the League and its founding organizations, who were unique among political organizations in promoting and relying on the leadership of women.
We were hoping this was satire. But it isn’t, is it? Instead it condones white supremacy and male supremacy by uplifting and heralding the leadership of a skinny white blond doll.
Damn depressing.
Darryl (Waistline) Mitchell
Cynthia Cuza