The Hitler-connect in the first movie is obvious. The second film’s ‘fascist leader’ link is more subtle: a married couple from Lucknow imagine they’re Jews incarcerated in Auschwitz and are getting gassed to death – and, er, this makes them fall in love.
To save myself from this assault on the senses, I went to watch what’s been touted as the feminist movie of the year: Barbie. Greta Gerwig‘s biopic-adventure of the Mattel doll is drawing crowds even here in India with halls full of women and men wearing pink. Some young men I saw in the cinema I went to, even came dressed as Oppenheimer – which means, wearing a brown fedora.
We’ve been hearing about how subversive Barbie the film is. To me, even before I saw the Margot Robbie-starring movie, it seemed like an elaborate, very smart satirical way to sell Barbie dolls to a whole new generation.
There are no trans women in the movie’s Barbieland. But in the film, trans actress Hari Nef does play Dr Barbie. Unlike in the film, there are no plump – or, as we say in India, ‘healthy’ — Barbies in the ‘real world’. In Mattel’s world, you can be a tinker, lawyer, doctor, spy, but you still need to have the perfect figure, blow-dried hair, and arched feet. There are Black Barbies. This is a big deal, given that there are no Black or Asian Kens, or even slightly tanned ‘Mr Barbies’.
Which brings me to the best part about the film: Ken. It’s poetic justice that in this film, Ken has always been Barbie’s accessory. Gerwig brings back gay icon Earring Magic Ken and Sugar Daddy Ken, played by Roy Brydon, as spectacularly camp. It’s Ken who finds his own identity in this film and Ryan Gosling makes him a charming, lovable character. What I’ve always loved about Barbie the doll – despite never having played with any as a child – is that she’s had her own Dreamhouse since 1962, owned her own car, held down very impressive jobs, not been bankrolled by a daddy or husband, and not got distracted by motherhood or a husband. At best, Barbie babysits. She went to the moon much before Neil Armstrong did, and was POTUS before Hillary Clinton thought of running for president. But despite Gerwig’s multi-Barbie world, Mattel has always made sure that their star doll kept breaking the glass ceiling while maintaining her size 6 figure. Keep in mind, if you actually did look like Barbie, your neck would be too thin to support your cranium. As a real woman, she would have to crawl on all fours, weighed down by her ample bosom. Also, while she might have owned a home, Slumber Party Barbie came with a weighing scale that was stuck at 49 kg and had a ‘How to Lose Weight’ manual with the directions ‘Don’t Eat’! Bulimia Barbie?
So, while Robbie & Gosling and their supporting cast may distract you, don’t for a minute think that Mattel is selling a feminist dream here. They are selling Anorexia dolled up as Gloria Steinem dolled up as Robbie.
Mattel’s own findings around a decade back had shown that ‘customers thought the doll was shallow, materialistic, too perfect and not reflective of the world around her’. In 2015, Mattel introduced a Barbie who had vitiligo, another with Down Syndrome, a bald Barbie, a curvy Barbie, a short Barbie.
In 2018, Mattel lost $533 million. Revenue had plunged by $2 billion in five years. So, in 2023, they simply bankrolled the $145 million-odd Barbie film with Warner Bros. I don’t know about making feminist cinematic chic. But I have to hand it to Mattel. They’re definitely going to be selling more dolls and may even get to take home some Oscars as producer in 2024.
