Movie Review “Barbie”; It’s Hard to Be Normal

I was finally able to watch Barbie on Netflix. When I saw only the title, I thought the movie was for kids, but the theme focuses more on adults social aspects, such as gender equality and mental health. This movie will definitely entertain people who have played with Barbie dolls, and those who have not.

In Barbie's world, all the women are independent and achieve their dreams, and Ken is a kind of foil to Barbie and is always pushed around by her. On the other hand, when Barbie and Ken enter the human world, Barbie is sexually harassed, and a patriarchal society influences Ken. He becomes obsessed with male power and starts bossing her around.

It’s like Barbie's world and the human world are interchangeable in gender perspectives, and you can see how difficult it is to survive in the real world through the filter of gender. What’s interesting is that Barbie, who should be a girl’s idol, has been criticized by women because Barbie’s perfection has tormented women, giving the idea women have to be beautiful and in good shape. That’s Barbie’s reality, and the scene strangely convinced me.

Throughout this film, I empathized with many of the difficulties that survive in modern society, and I understand how deeply rooted it is in the gender framework. Gender perception and viewpoints may vary depending on culture and religion. In my country, Japan, many companies try to employ the same ratio of male and female executives. However, I frankly feel that I just wanted to be recognized for my effort regardless of gender, which makes more sense to me. It sounds pretty normal, but even such a simple thing is complicated by the filter of gender. I realized this and had mixed feelings after watching Barbie.