Barbie: Hurawatch

Barbie: Hurawatch

Blog Article

Similar to the rest of the western hemisphere, I and my teenage daughter have closely followed the buzz around the new Barbie movie over the past few months. While I am not an ardent devotee of rushing to the theatres on the opening weekend to see the newest release Hollywood has to offer, my daughter and I noticed that our plans conveniently matched with Barbie’s release weekend. So a mother/daughter date was in order; the movie was captivating enough to ensure that we spoke about it the whole way home. Below is an (if anything, only slightly slanted) review from the perspective of a woman’s issues therapist and mother of boys and girls, which is, also a Christian.

As for me, was Barbie a good movie? Yes. Barbie a bad movie? Yes. Do I recommend watching Barbie? Yes and no. So, I shall start my review by opening up to you the doors to the magic of and.

It's common for us to perceive things as either fully good or fully evil, but very little takes the form of a dualistic universe. In simplistic terms, you can turn Barbie into a hero or demonize her, but the reality is that neither one would be completely accurate. Similarly, life is both hard and beautiful at the same time, and Barbie the movie had redeeming themes while simultaneously containing terrible messages.

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There were parts of the film that absolutely caught me off guard, such as Barbie's journey to the real world where she quickly realized that her attempt at “saving women” had failed. Rather, her attempt ended up putting a magnified version of the “do it all and do it all with a smile” pressure on women. Indeed, the movie had some nuggets where they did call out the objectifying body style and clothes choices of the Barbie creators. Furthermore, while trying to make fun of the men, the movie ended up making them into incredibly unattractive ungodly caricatures of manhood. If it is universally agreed upon that it is distasteful for men to objectify women and to live life (self) centered around beer, sports, and material toys, then let culture and Christianity have a common enemy.

For me, the highest point of the film was when America Ferrara’s character gave her speech describing the experience women face in the form of pressures we deal with.

Blended perfectly was the approach that life is not perfect and as Ruth puts it, "none of us look like Barbie and that is ok." In one of the scenes, Barbie looks at the face of an old woman. This marks the moment where Barbie understands the essence of true beauty. 'You are beautiful ' she tells the lady and the old wonder replies, 'I know.'

Ken is a bit of a dummy in this film (more of this in the bad), but he is certainly charming. The film is laced with wonderful underlying content about the mother/daughter relationship and that to me warrants the perfect mother/daughter date for a teen daughter (not for kids though). SPOILER ALERT: Barbie after all can choose to be human and along with the perks of being one comes embracing the frailty of the human experience like cellulite and heartbreak, and yes – OBGYN visits.

This movie has bad language and way too many sexual jokes. This is an example of how lax Hollywood is when it comes to religious values. Women wear objectifying outfits even after Barbie realizes that dressing that way does not aid women in helping advance noble causes in the real world.

This movie's most terrifying moment is the 2-minute-long opening scene where young girls are shown playing with baby dolls. In this particular scene, the director depicts motherhood as “boring,” and eventually, the girls smash their babies for a more stimulating—Barbie-inclusive—life. Feminists argue that this scene further perpetuates the negative perception of motherhood. Raising children is a cherished gift from God. Even as a therapist and business owner, the most selfless and greatest honor I have ever experienced in my life is being a mother; this film would have been exceptional had it supported family values.

The Kens in Barbie Land are depicted as clueless idiots, while the real world men are portrayed as womanizing, beer-drinking simpletons. God bestows dignity on his creation of sons, which this movie does not offer much of. Sasha's dad is the closest redeeming example: loving toward his family, but also “an idiot” for having his mastery of learning new languages. Godly men are wild-at-heart and still respectful, unlike, and see worth in women beyond their physicality. Ah, and there that word is again.

Lastly, I can't leave this review without showing some love for my favorite character, Weird Barbie.

Weird Barbie is that Barbie who has “been played with too hard” and we all had her. She has the “choppy wiry haircut” from the early scissor experiments and is permanently stuck in the splits. The other Barbies call her weird behind her back and to her face but they all realize that Weird Barbie’s less than ideal life experiences have brought her more wisdom than high heels ever could.