âKenoughâ: Is 'Barbie' more revolutionary for men than women?
Top image: Warner Bros. Pictures
91´ŤĂ˝ PhD studentâs paper argues that the hit film exemplifies âmasculinity without patriarchyâ in media
M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real DollĚýand co-host of the podcast LA Made: The Barbie Tapes, describes Greta Gerwigâs Oscar Award-winning, box-office behemothĚý as âincredibly feministâ and widely perceived as âanti-male.â
Meanwhile, conservative critics rail that the movie is âanti-manâ and full of âbeta malesâ in need of a testosterone booster. Conservative British commentator Piers Morgan called it âan assault on not just Ken, but on all men.â
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91´ŤĂ˝ PhD student Julie Estlick argues that Greta Gerwig's award-winning film Barbie is "a really good film for Ken."
But University of Colorado Boulder women and gender studies doctoral studentĚýJulie Estlick sees things differently. In her recent paper, â,â published inĚýFeminist Theory, she argues that the movie is âa really good film for Ken.â
On first viewing, Estlick noticed a woman nearby having a âvery visceral, emotional responseâ to the now iconic monolog by actor America Ferrera, which begins, âIt is literally impossible to be a woman.â
She wasnât particularly moved by the speech, and walking out of the theater, she realized she didnât see the movie as a clear-cut icon of feminism.
âI really questioned whether the film was actually about Barbie, and by extension, women, at least in the way people were claiming,â she says.
Once Barbie was available for streaming, Estlick took a closer look and arrived at a heterodox conclusion:
âBarbie is not anti-man; it is pro-man and is not necessarily a revolutionary film for women, at least not as much as it is for men,â she writes in the paperâs abstract. âThis is because Barbie espouses non-hegemonic masculinity through cultural critiques that are rare to see in popular media.â
Hegemonic vs. toxic masculinity
For Estlick, âhegemonic masculinityâ is a kind of stand-in for the âtoxic masculinityâ so often featured in media: superheroes, gangsters, vigilantes, killing machines who are also âlady killers.â Always strong, rarely emotional, such men are absurdly impermeable to harm, and sport chiseled features and perfectly sculpted abs, she says. Yet many are also âman childrenâ whose âultimate prizeâ is to have sex with a woman.
âThat kind of media comes at the expense of women, works against women, and often oppresses women by sexualizing and objectifying them,â Estlick says.
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In the film Barbie, the patriarchy ultimately doesn't serve the Kens any more than it does the Barbies, argues 91´ŤĂ˝ PhD student Julie Estlick. (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Non-hegemonic masculinity is strong without being oppressive, and supportive and protective of women without regard to any quid pro quo. It allows for men to openly express emotions and vulnerability and to seek help for their mental-health struggles and emotional needs without shame, while retaining their strength, vitality and masculinity.
âIt does the opposite of hegemonic masculinity,â Estlick says. âIt works alongside women and doesnât harm them in any way.â
The Kens are first represented in the movie as clueless accessories to the ruling Barbies of Barbie Land. But after Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling) and Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) find a portal to our world, Beach Ken returns and establishes a patriarchal society in which women become mindless accessories to hyper-competitive men in the thrall of hegemonic masculinity.
But ultimately, the patriarchy doesnât serve the Kens any more than the Barbies.
âAs people always say, menâs worst enemy under patriarchy isnât women. Itâs other men and their expectations, who are constantly stuffing men into boxes,â Estlick says.
Which isnât to say that women donât also enforce strictures of hegemonic masculinity.
âWhen little boys are taught to suppress emotions, little girls are watching. They are watching their fathers, and fathers onscreen, acting in certain ways,â Estlick says. âGirls internalize toxic ideologies the same ways boys do.â
Allan the exception
In Barbie, there is just one male who stands apart from Kendom: Allan, played by Michael Cera.
âAllan is positioned as queer in the film in that he is othered but not less masculine in the traditional understanding of the word,â Estlick writes. He âdeviates from the conventional canon of masculinityâ and âuses his masculinity for feminism and to liberate women while also protesting patriarchy.âĚý
Allan doesnât fit into Kendom, with or without patriarchy. As the narrator (voiced by Helen Mirren) notes, âThere are no multiples of Allan; heâs just Allan.â
The character is based on a discontinued Mattel doll released in 1964, intended to be a friend to Ken. Fearing the friendship might be perceived as gay, the company swiftly removed Allan from store shelves, later replacing him with a âfamily packâ featuring Barbieâs best friend Midge as his wife, and a backstory that the couple had twins.
In the film, non-toxic Allan is immune to patriarchal brainwashing and sides with the Barbies in re-taking Barbie Land.
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â(T)he film can be understood as a vital framework for masculinity that allows for vulnerability, emotion and heterosexual intimacy among men,â says researcher Julie Estlick. (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
âRight off the bat we see (Allan) as queered from the rest of the Kens and Barbies,â Estlick says.
But Beach Ken, too, eventually senses that heâs not happy in the patriarchal society has created. In one of the movieâs final scenes, a tearfully confused Beach Ken converses with Stereotypical Barbie from a literal ledge:
âYou have to figure out who you are without me,â Barbie tells him kindly. âYouâre not your girlfriend. Youâre not your house, youâre not your mink ⌠Youâre not even beach. Maybe all the things that you thought made you arenât ⌠really you. Maybe itâs Barbie and ⌠itâs Ken.â
In other words, Barbie is rooting for Ken to claim his individuality.
âBeach Kenâs house, clothes, job and girlfriend all represent boxes that society expects men to tick, but this scene illustrates that it is okay to deviate from normative behaviors of masculinity and that manhood is not solely defined through heteronormative bonds and behaviors,â Estlick writes. And âit is acceptable for men to admit to a woman that they need help.â
Barbie is pure, candy-colored fantasy. But in our world, Estlick believes it points the way toward further non-toxic media representations of masculinity and ultimately contribute to better mental health for men trapped in a âman boxâ â as well as women who have borne the burden of menâs self- and societally imposed strictures on their own humanity.
â(T)he film can be understood as a vital framework for masculinity that allows for vulnerability, emotion and heterosexual intimacy among men,â she concludes. It â(opens) the door to the creation of more media that subverts societal expectations of toxic masculinity.âĚý
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