Film Name: 芭比 / Barbie
When you use absurdity in reality to show your own little heart, you will be regarded as false, embarrassing and carrying personal goods; but when you use reality in absurdity to show its own strange and bloody cruelty, you can tell the truth of the whole world. Barbie is the best foreign-language movie I’ve seen this year; it’s fun and funny and whip-smart and in-your-face, so how can you not love it?
In fact, I personally don’t like this (Western) gender narrative, because in reality it hides too much dirt and sleaze under the banner of “correctness.” …… But it turns out that a really good story is enough to turn any claim into a miracle! The story of “Barbie” is one of the best of the best. Barbie is the closest movie to my idea of “affirmative action” (I wonder how many people understand that “women’s rights are affirmative action”), that we are human beings and that we shouldn’t be so easily defined, men and women, young and old, present and future. (Warm note: Spoilers will follow.)
The first scene of Barbie opens with the little girls smashing their old-fashioned dolls in their hands as the sexy Barbie dolls come out of nowhere. Compared to the dolls and toys of the past, which were primarily designed to suggest and discipline girls to take on the role of their mothers, Barbie, which allows girls to project their own visions of the future, is nothing short of a descending blow – tradition is dead, Barbie is here to stay!
This scene, presented as an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, seems to be about the progressive meaning of Barbie dolls, but in fact it is a foreshadowing of the girls walking from one trap to another, and the main tone of the movie, which is full of playfulness, quirkiness, absurdity and irony, is already visible here. It’s no exaggeration to say that, even if we don’t consider the ideology, the unique audiovisual performance of “Barbie” is worth the price of admission: the main tone of pink color throughout the whole film (including the “real world”) is bright and vivid without being too eye-catching, especially the costumes, props and sets in the “Barbie world”. In particular, the costumes, props and sets in “Barbie World” fully restore the gorgeous and colorful toys, with complementary singing and dancing performances, the viewing experience is very comfortable and enjoyable. Whether you are a man or a woman, a lady or a woman of honor, you should come to see “Barbie” to wash your eyes.
“Barbie Land”, an imaginary world comparable to ‘Toy Story’, has successfully deepened our stereotypical impression of its existence. This is an absolutely “perfect” mirage, a big bubble of fantasy, Barbie (Barbie) can be engaged in any occupation, to achieve any achievement, as a male Ken (Ken) can only serve as the background plate of Barbie …… wonderful and false, simple and brainless. “Because I’m a Barbie/female, I can be anyone”, Barbieland’s simple and crude logic is obviously wrong – the best example of this is Ken’s quick application of this logic when he came to the human world and was exposed to the reality of the patriarchy. “I’m a man, I can do anything”, and was immediately taught to be a man. In the real world, there are more rules and restrictions on top of the logic of “male-female differences”, and you have to go through at least a more specialized and systematic learning process to become a doctor, a manager, or a lifeguard.
Barbie is nothing more than a toy to cajole and perfume girls with unrealistic fantasies, so it’s only natural that girls will turn their noses up at Barbie once they’re a little older and exposed to some of the truths of the world. Of course, bursting the bubble of Barbieland is only the first layer of Barbie’s narrative; the next layer of Barbieland’s brokenness and derisive mockery of the human world is the more watchable drama. Since the logic of Barbie’s world’s behavior is false and stupid, what should be used to improve it? The movie is the first to give the wrong answer, using the real-world “patriarchy” to transform it – since Barbieland itself is a sterile, non-toxic greenhouse petri dish, when Ken brings back the “patriarchy virus”, it quickly becomes a “virus of patriarchy”. When Ken brought the “patriarchy virus” back, it quickly infected the entire park, because the “cellular structure” of the two is so similar that it’s easy to invade. Sounds funny, doesn’t it, but I’m afraid I can’t stop laughing when I think about how that line of thinking is consistent with “subverting patriarchal society with ‘women’s rights'”.
Under the female perspective, the man’s ego, bossy, greasy is further amplified, this “wrong to change the wrong” ridiculous, the discerning can see, “change the group to impose the power” is certainly not the way out. However, when the strong and weak positions are reversed, the same set of theories becomes very confusing …… Take the example of the young girl Sasha, who has not played with Barbie dolls since she was 5 years old, and at the same time, she has also become the most fierce critic of Barbie “feminists”, who believe that objectification of women’s toys has poisoned the world for a long time, and has caused a lot of harm to women’s health and well-being. At the same time, she became the most vocal “feminist” critic of Barbie, believing that toys that objectify women are so harmful that she wanted to burn all the fascist Barbies to the ground. This is also the misunderstanding that many “feminist advocates” easily fall into: they create new “right standards” in order to defeat the original “wrong standards”, and they oppose for the sake of opposition, in the name of progress. On the basis of opposition for the sake of opposition, the reality of victimization is repeated in the name of progress. Unbeknownst to them, the standards that are most harmful to women are the ones that come from all directions (including their own).
Barbie” in the most out of the circle of the line, when Gloria this a large part of the heart from the heart of the spit, she clearly pointed out that those labels and definitions imposed on women, full of all kinds of irrational contradictions, as long as you go to comply with the doomed to failure, because there is no perfect image of women, not even the Barbie are not an exception. Afterwards, Barbie and Gloria and other people for the other Barbie “antidote to break the curse” way, is to use a sentence to point out this set of contradictory standards of absurd and ridiculous. What’s even better is the later Barbie’s ploy to take over the power, so that the ken kill each other – we often use the term “female rivalry” to poke fun at the “small pattern” of competition between women, but ignored the “male rivalry” between men. We often use the term “female rivalry” to poke fun at the “small-scale” rivalry between women, but ignore the fact that “male rivalry” between men has been the wider and more common norm for human beings over the centuries. Watching the ken’s fight with each other at the slightest provocation, one day on the beach in a bloodless war, the other day in a dance competition under the “female gaze”, I was really numb to the climax.
What an absurdity and what a word… The “patriarchy” has been stripped of its underpinnings. …… The dismantling of the patriarchal society was a relief for Ken, who had long since stopped wanting to be a leader, but who had to stay muscular and tough to initiate the change, and who was in fact, just as trapped by the “standard definition” of masculinity. He is also trapped by the “standard definition” of masculinity. Ken’s paradise is just a reversal and imitation of Barbie’s paradise, and it’s not hard for Barbie to overthrow the world. …… The question is, faced with a new choice of Barbie and Ken, where do they go from here? This is the third layer of Barbie’s narrative, and the final point of the entire story. Obviously, all people do not want to reset the world, back to the original brainless big bubble, that is to drive history backwards, TAs long for affirmative action, is not defined, whether Barbie or Ken, can be in the case of unfettered to find the meaning of their own existence.
In addition, “Barbie” to make fun of the real world is also no mercy, such as Mattel’s CEO does not know how to respect women, but emphasized that the company has two female employees, “I have a lot of Jewish friends,” by stacking armor to avoid the politically correct attack, and finally heard that it can make money before agreeing to produce” Civilian model” Barbie …… Those self-deprecating jokes originating from Mattel and Warner also add to the movie. Irony aside, as pungent and pungent as Barbie is, it’s still ultimately a gentle, harmless film that uncovers a little bit of the real world, flirts with the polarization of gender narratives, relieves some existential angst, and offers a touch of soothing solace, and that’s enough. Women or men, it’s okay to want to fall in love, get married, procreate, work hard, get laid or whatever, please don’t be defined and please don’t define others. Watching “Barbie” deliver a performance that far exceeded expectations, and looking at the controversy surrounding the film’s release, scheduling, and stance, as well as the strife still mired in the quagmire of the male-female dichotomy, I have also come to realize once again that reality is far more absurd than the movie.
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