The time has come, ladies and gents: Barbie has finally hit the big screen!!!!
As someone who's already seen the movie twice, I'm truly and deeply obsessed with it. It's hilarious, meaningful, and overall just freaking brilliant.
Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Issa Rae, and Greta Gerwig DID THAT. Through their powerful performances and directing, they stirred a lot of intriguing thoughts and analysis — especially from women.
This inspired Reddit user u/zeusthethics to ask the women of the community: "What did you think of the movie?" Female movie-goers had a wholeeeee lot of opinions about Barbie — all of them different, but nonetheless 100% valid.
So, here are some women who didn't hold anything back, and revealed what they really thought about Barbie:
Warning: MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD! 🚨
1. "I enjoyed Barbie. I understand they wanted to point out the patriarchy and feelings geared towards women, but I related to Barbie in a sense of not knowing your purpose. I'm going through my own little crisis right now when it comes to my meaning and purpose in life. I really enjoyed that aspect of it."
"It had it funny moments, too. Lizzo's song when she's singing what Barbie is doing in the beginning of the movie, and then singing the same song with lyric changes later on is hilarious to me. Also, Ryan Gosling as a himbo is a low-key fantasy come true, so I'm satisfied :D."
2. "I really liked the overall message and the sort of more existential undertone it took on. I think that was my favorite part of the movie. The subtleties of Barbie arriving in the real world after being horrified with her cellulite, then seeing an older lady at the bus stop and admiring her beauty even though she wasn’t 'perfect.' In my opinion, this film did a great job in those quieter, more emotional scenes. That part genuinely made me want to cry."
3. "To be honest the movie itself didn’t blow me out of the water, but the communal experience around it did. It was just such a joyful expression of womanhood. It was nice to have this where the overwhelming response was so positive, it drowned out the downers. So many communal female experiences are squashed, but this one was too big to put down."
"Yes!!! During the interval, when I went to buy popcorn, a lady about my age (dressed in all pink) beamingly said: 'Hi, Barbie!' and I said it back to her."
4. "I saw it yesterday with my 15-year-old daughter, and we loved it. I loved all the pop cultural references, the feminist points, and anti-patriarchy of it all. I think the movie was also very self-critical of the Barbie doll as a skinny, white, perfect kind of doll."
5. "There were definitely some funny parts, like Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie — I laughed so hard I snorted. The ending was a little cheesy, but overall Barbie made some really important points."
6. "I loved watching the reality of existence set in for Barbie as the movie went on. You really get to see what a lot of women face and have no idea how to articulate. The homage to Ruth and her daughter was exactly the kind of validation needed to see through the fact that Barbie was based on a real-life person, and isn’t just an idolized fantasy that so many people think. I went with my boyfriend and it was almost as empowering for me to watch it with him and see the emotional validation that Ken got and felt. It was so good."
7. "I'm disappointed that so many people seem to (at least in my mind) be missing the point of the film? It's not anti-men, and it's not women supremacy. Instead, it shines a light on how important it is for everyone to have self-esteem and value that is based on them rather than external validation. It was highlighting how important it is for there to be balance instead of domination on either side. I enjoyed it — I wouldn't watch it again (except to try and see Lucy Boynton in the movie, as I completely missed her), but I think it's a useful film for everyone to see."
8. "Not all the men were portrayed as bumbling idiots (which, TBF, would've been fine by me because it's happened relentlessly for female characters in hundreds of other movies and TV shows). Gloria's husband was just chillin' at home learning Spanish, there was also Allan, and Ken #2 explicitly referred to a Barbie as his friend."
9. "The set design and costume design really blew me away. The stunning visuals and the small details, like the proportion of the house to the dolls. The way they move, fall, lay down, and the thickness of Barbie's braided hair. The wigs of the mermaid Barbies were so reminiscent of the plastic hair. Also the varied plot lines similar to how I would play with my Barbies and combine every possible genre into one. These were all the subtle details those who didn’t grow up playing with Barbies wouldn’t notice. I explained all of this to my brother on our way out, lol."
10. "It was really good, but not perfect imo! The acting was really good, but it didn’t feel like Greta Gerwig had much of a unique voice. I don't know — her direction was fine, but not as good as her other films. Barbie was supposed to be an anti-capitalist film, but when it’s produced by Mattel (a huge corporation whose motives are mainly money and advertising), it just felt weird. It felt like maybe they pushed out some of Greta’s direction in favor of this and a more predictable viewpoint for social commentary."
11. "The last scene where Ruth tells Barbie: 'Mothers stand still so their daughters can see how far they’ve come' was complicated for me. Maybe because I am struggling with the idea of motherhood, and that feeling like I’m sacrificing myself, my dreams, and desires aside to be 'mom.' That sentence almost tore a hole in my heart thinking about my own mom."
12. "There's an obvious complicated duality to Barbie dolls. Yes, she is everything — a doctor, a teacher, an astronaut. HOWEVER, her body shape is unrealistic, and she's permanently young. I think Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach did a stellar job pointing out that duality."
13. And: "The more on-the-nose scenes (basically any part with Sasha or Gloria) were okay — simplistic, but in a good way. It’s meant to expose audiences who aren’t familiar with feminism to how much societal pressure is placed on women. So maybe it wasn’t revolutionary for some, but I hope it impacted someone who hadn’t put much thought into those things before. Plus, when we realize that the monologue was delivered to Barbies who had never before been exposed to being treated less-than, of course, it makes sense that Gloria (America Ferrera) wasn’t going to burst out in a monologue about radical feminist theory. Keeping it simple was definitely the vibe, and I can understand why."
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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