Barbie is everything but she’s not anti-Ken, just about male fragility and patriarchy

Before the lights dimmed inside the theatre for Barbie, I saw a group of boys hop on to their seats in the row just ahead of mine. They were happy and excited to have got the best seats- centre middle row. The film began. In all its pink effervescence, Barbie cleverly sets the stage to unpack themes of existential dread, gender politics, and consumerism. It is a bubble gum explosion of truth bombs, one after the other. When the lights returned at the end credits, I witnessed the same boys look at each other with an air of confusion. They stood up and left in haste. (Also read: Barbie movie review: Greta Gerwig plays around with a smart satire, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling have too much fun)

In Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, the stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) begins to have thoughts of death. She finally makes the decision to journey into the Real World, outside of her Barbieland. Ken (Ryan Gosling)- he’s only an afterthought sort of a boy-toy, also joins along. It is in the Real World where Barbie realizes the stark contrast. Men leer at her while the women scoff; and the girl with whom she believes to be the owner- Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), gives her a scathing reminder of why she hates her. Meanwhile, Ken is ecstatic on witnessing the real world concept of patriarchy. He dares to go back to Barbieland to turn the tables- it will soon be Kendom.

The feminism in Barbie is neither new nor groundbreaking. The venture into the Real World is a pragmatic narrative decision; where Gerwig’s script, co-written with partner Noah Baumbach, is conscious of the play of contrasts. What it tries best, is to amalgamate the parallels and ask whether the Barbie doll is a feminist symbol or an expectation of those parameters in the first place? The line is blurred because she’s seen to represent certain standards to which little girls should aspire. Which are definitely narrow and limiting. On the other hand, the idea where Barbie is in every occupation and can be anything. So, she is also subsequently representing patriarchal femininity. When compared to the patriarchy of the real world, where is the dissolve?

When Barbie returns to Barbieland, it’s a loss of agency all over again. The Kens have taken over the place. From here on, Gerwig does more telling than showing- how Barbie will have to reprogram the other Barbies back to their original selves and turn the Kens against one another. The Kens fall for this trap quite easily- but this is not where Gerwig’s interested to leave out. One of the most deceptively intelligent scenes appears late in the second half when Barbie literally tells Ken that he also has to find his identity by his own. Barbie does not hate Ken, she hates patriarchy. Barbie has hope for the Kens. She has zero hope for patriarchy. Equally important here is how Barbie, in all her reflective, gradually growing self-awareness, finally accepts how their treatment of Weird Barbie is wrong. Ostracization of her was wrong.

Ultimately, when Ken has his moment, Barbie accepts that there is room for his own journey of discovery and unlearning. Even as Gerwig tears at the ways in which patriarchy turns men into fragile, egoistic and lonely figures, there’s compassion and a certain sense of revelation. Pointedly, its not the Barbies who have a sense of path to find themselves and who they are. That space is given to the Kens, who have the real arc of self-exploration. Barbie might have gained confidence and courage after the trip to the real world, but Ken does not. He somehow loses even the fundamental template of his role. He has to find it all from scratch. So yes, there’s hope for him anew.

So I wonder what those boys felt when they left the theatre with such trepidation. In fairness, I want to believe that the film did not live up to their expectations. Or maybe it did, but only too slightly to express it fully. Yet, something also tells me that this might not just be the experience that they thought they were promised. Barbie is a film that is not necessarily trying to wear itself too seriously around the edges of feminist discourse. Yet it wants you to know the burden, and the demands of modern day feminism. There’s no easy way to dance off the anxiety that the Kens find themselves in at the end, but they also know that the competency required for the positions is rather too much work. He’s no more an accessory. The Kens wouldn’t want to let go of that earlier fantasy. Not all Ken.