Thoughts on Barbie
When the Barbie movie first came out I'll be the first to admit I was a bit ambivalent. I wasn't a big Barbie fan as a child and I do think that in many ways historically the concept of Barbie has served to perpetuate the idea that women have to meet societal beauty standards. But people started to ask me if I'd seen it (which seemed odd to me) and then I started to see memes on social media about the film and my interest was piqued. It helped that Greta Gerwig is already a legend so when yet another friend asked about it, I decided to go. Armed with a Meercat 2 for 1 Wednesday ticket and a tub of popcorn, we took ourselves off to the cinema. By the time I watched the film that day I had already read a number of articles and opinion pieces about it. Phrases like feminist propaganda, anti-men and super-woke were as prolific as joyful, empowering and enlightening. There seemed to be camps within the camps if you know what I mean. Both conservatives and progressives seemed to ...