ideas live forever

[tsuki_no_bara]

so i finally got to see barbie today and i really liked it. it looked fantastic - barbieland is so obviously, perfectly fake and pink and whimsical and plastic, and stereotypical barbie's clothes are so cute, and all the barbies in fact look adorable and perfect (and those shoes, holy cow, my feet hurt just looking at them) and even tho they're

Comments

[amberdreams]

Yay for tomatoes and random pepper!

I'm glad everyone is enjoying Barbie so much but it left me a bit disappointed. I did enjoy it, mostly, but I think maybe it didn't go far enough, somehow. Interesting that you loved that final visit to the human gynaecologist because that felt like a slap in the face to me - discussing it with other US friends I think it's because we don't have the same regular schedule for that here, so to me that was like - whut? She's pregnant???! How is that supposed to be liberating?

Also I think having OG Barbie choose to end up in the horrible, messed up patriarchical world we live in, rather than be part of building a more equal, better society in her own world didn't feel like a victory.

[tsuki_no_bara]

the random pepper is very, very slowly turning a color. sort of. so it might be red when it's finally full grown.

the gynecologist's office just seemed like... she's fully human now, and like it was a little callback to her telling the guys on the boardwalk that she didn't have any genitals. (and she's so chirpy both times. chirpy in the gynecologist's office is just weird.) and i figured she went back to the real world rather than stay in barbieland because she wanted to help people - she wanted to make girls' and women's lives better, make them more empowered, etc etc - and she can't do that in barbieland. she can maybe help make barbieland a better, more equitable world for all the barbies and kens, but how does that help people in the human world? y'know?

[amberdreams]

Yeah, I can see that on reflection, but at the time of watching, that gyno visit seemed a bit contrary. But we don't have the regular contact with a gynecologist that you guys seem to in the US, so I think that's why it seemed so out of place to us.

[tsuki_no_bara]

so it's basically a little cultural disconnect? i wonder if folks in other countries had the same reaction you did.