I don’t know how successful sales of Barbie have been since they invented them, but I’m guessing BIG. And at some point, a massive decision was made. About Barbie’s feet. The designers and marketing people at Mattel had 85 hours of meetings and decided… that Barbie’s feet should forever and always be at 45 degrees to her leg. Ok, she’ll never be capable of standing, walking, running, playing sports or paddling in the sea. Unless she puts on her shoes. Which have such high heels as to create a level playing field and give her balance. (Note: Barbie identifies as a woman, hence the pronouns, even though she lacks a womb. And other bits and pieces normally associated…)

The Barbie movie is clever. Brilliantly clever. And brilliantly funny. It should be stupid, and it succeeds. But in a clever and funny way, so we’re amused, entertained and… given food for thought? Well, the whole movie is a recycled feminist treatise against the patriarchy. But here’s the clever bit. It comes about because the tables are turned.

‘Barbieworld’ as they call it, is a wonderfully happy, smiley, plasticky, ever-sunny place where everyone is beautiful and everyone is called Barbie. Of course they’re not all blonde, Mattel has covered every ethnicity imaginable over the years. There’s Ukrainian Refugee Barbie, Butch Barbie, Boat-person Barbie, Rape Victim Barbie and Woke Barbie. But there’s no men. Except… Ken.

And he has no penis. So living in a world with 7,850 total perfect babes is not as cool as one might imagine. But Ken’s not about sex. He’s about being noticed. Being included. Little girls play with their Barbies, but only sometimes will Ken be involved. He totally lacks ‘validation’ which he can only get from Barbie. One of them. Thus he has no control of his life or even actions, living only to serve Barbie. So think 50s, 60s Real World and you see the sociological and philosophical implications at work. Oooooh, that’s deep. For fucking Barbie!!!! How awful for men to be totally dependent on, subservient to and at the beck and call of, women!!!

When ‘the boys take over’, Barbieworld goes (plastic)-tits-up and its chaos. But no spoilers.

And there’s Margot Robbie. All dressed up in 57 different totally Barbi-licious ways. All pink. There’s some other cast members too but, quite frankly, who cares?

Happy Barbie-Tuesday

A xxxx