r/Multifandom • u/AgitatedOne57 TAWOG, TADC, Cuphead, DW, 5SOS(BS), SPRUNKI, MLP, and NNSG • 6d ago

Question❓ Fandom you feel is like this?

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Nobody gets to make fun of my ms paint drawings shhh

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u/leo_sousav 6d ago

Loved the movie, everything was great and it’s unfortunate some people cared more about making a meme out of it rather than the message. I just didn’t really appreciate the typical Disney Chanel “save the Barbie’s with a wacky plan” bit, felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the writing

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u/Apart-Performer-331 6d ago

I really hated that child, the way she spoke was so forced.

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u/registername1 5d ago

Tell me what the message was. I like Barbie movie because it’s a Rorschach test. What did you see?

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u/hhhhhhhhhhhjf 6d ago

The message wasn't good though. They immediately go back to disriminating against the Ken's and don't learn a single thing.

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u/RussianBot101101 5d ago

That's... the point? The movie tackles representation of women in IRL fields through the Kens. The Kens are given a little bit of power and are told that's enough for now. It's supposed to be an inverse of IRL trends. Even now so many right-wing mouthpieces are telling women to go back to staying in the house and stay out of the office, whether business or government.

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u/hhhhhhhhhhhjf 5d ago

Yeah, we get it. Still fucking shitty when they could've just actually solved the problem and wrote in a message about how we need to treat everyone equally. But no, after an entire movie of buildup and talk about women's struggles in the real world they go right back to subjugating the Kens.

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u/RussianBot101101 5d ago

That doesn't do anything at all. The entire point of the ending is to make people go "hey wait, that's not fair to the Kens" (ofc it's a comedy and no one's supposed to actually be getting their panties in a twist) and then be forced to realize that's happening to women irl. If you just say "everyone be equal," the way the audience can engage with the movie completely changes and the desired outcome is lost.

The idea is to get people who empathize with the Kens to come to conclusions that they should with women. "Oh man, they should totally let the Kens have more representation and give them more opportunities to join productive society" would send a more logical individual to then apply that to the problems of actual people (gerrymandering, educating themselves on what DEI initiatives actually are, the legal battles against women, etc). It's supposed to promote self awareness.

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u/hhhhhhhhhhhjf 5d ago

They spent the entire movie discussing all the ways that women are oppressed in reality and then did nothing about it. Wonderful message.

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u/RussianBot101101 5d ago

I don't believe you understand the movie on a fundamental level, nor do I believe you understand movies as a political medium. The movie isn't about providing solutions to everything, it's about identifying problems and promoting self awareness so that individuals may reach solutions individually. It's to get people to think, and it's supposed to stick with people. If it wrapped up neatly and nicely, it would be instinctual to dismiss it or forget it the moment one walked out of the theater. The Barbie movie stayed in public discussion longer and better than Oppenheimer because the latter had nothing to say and wrapped itself up nicely and neatly in the end. If you want to promote discussion, you cannot terminate it before others have the opportunity to speak. Barbie offered challenges, flipped sex discrimination paradigms, and provided opportunities to viewers to reflect on its inconclusiveness.

I ended deleting a massive portion of this comment as I could write an entire essay (and may do just that in the future), but I don't think it would have gone anywhere or have done anything for you. I recommend exercising not only asking why something is the way that it is, but exploring the viewpoints of people you don't initially agree with using a mind willing to see things from their perspective.

As a too long; didn't post (lol), if I had to give a very short answer as to why Barbie doesn't offer up a solution, it's because of this:

Any equality-utopic solution depicted in Barbie would wholly fail the movie's message as it would depict a fictional world where a call for equality isn't callously minimized or dismissed in the face of evidence by the privileged to a reality of privileged who do minimize and dismiss that call in the face of evidence everyday.

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u/Memedotma 3d ago

were you expecting a policy brief?

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u/Dennis_enzo 4d ago

So the message is that women would be just as bad as men if they were in power?

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u/Lucy_Gucey 3h ago

I mean maybe? There shouldn’t be a power imbalance to begin with.