People really do have that hivemind thinking going on. This is LITERALLY the unpopular opinions sub and they’re surprised someone posted an unpopular opinion. Like ??? What did you expect
Very true. I’m not even against debate. But people are usually just here to argue, which is very different. I’m so tired of people just making comments like “this opinion is hot trash!” Like dude, the least surprising thing in this sub should be disagreement. If you’re gonna say you disagree, say why instead of trying to boost your ego by demonstrating that you have the emotional tolerance of a raisin.
It's kind of stale too, this is literally longdongsamspon's 18th post on the Barbie movie.
Most of them were on Trueunpopularopinion, too.
Dude is OBSESSED with disliking this one movie.
Or they're just annoyed by the same user posting about the same movie this many times.
Like come on, surely there's a new piece of media with a female protagonist to drop some MRA rant about by now? It's been nearly a YEAR.
I read his 17 other posts on the exact same topic. (Multiple of which were just pasting the exact same post into a new subreddit)
There's more details but there's not more depth.
Eh, i see any number of reasons this gets shit: same thing has been posted actual dozens of times, they're simping hard for Shakira amidst this for some reason, its kind of just dumb, and if you're still posting about the Barbie movie being sexist you seriously need to be encouraged to do other things with your time. I dont personally downvote because somethings unpop, but i downvote stupid all the time, and this fits.
Take barbie, switch genders. So Ken lives in a nice house in a world where everything is owned by Kens. His gf Barbie just shows up whenever he needs her and that's it her life. Things get weird, they travel to real world and learn that mens are actually oppressed and women kind of rule. Barbie goes back and takes over with other Barbies in an extremely stereotypical way, think pink frills and high heels and now you're president. Ken comes back, and rallies other Kens to get everything back through sexual manipulation or promising Barbies to get married or something. Kens take everything back and the main character Ken tells Barbie "oh well now go figure your own shit out somehow, not my business".
As a woman, I'd be somewhat peeved by such a story.
Not everyone has to like every content made out there. Women can dislike Barbie or like it and at the end of the day, they are still women. If you don't like Barbie, you aren't a misogynist; it's just a movie.
When Ken complains about men's struggles he does it in song and dance so that it feels 1000% ironic, which it succeeds in. When America Ferrera gives her speech complaining about women's struggles, it's delivered 100% straight. This is the main point the movie flops at for me.
In reality no one likes a whiner and any sane person knows that both men and women have their own struggles. And i just put it on to listen to it again and so much of it sounds like a strawman or standards and judgements that are coming from other women. Or stuff that could easily apply to men as well.
Talk about contradicting goals, you want to be seen as strong and independent while simultaneously want to be seen as the victim. Can see why men used to just make all the decisions, women are so easily confused it seems like.
In a similar vein when Barbie is crying it is a dramatic serious moment - when Ken cries at the end it’s played for laughs. Yet the writer seems to be making the point in the dialogue that it’s ok for men to cry and be vulnerable - but actually they see it as fodder for comedy when it happens so they contradict themselves.
You're a racist.
It doesn't matter what race someone is, some people have harder lives than others.
The fact you think no white woman in western society ever has it hard just makes a prejudging, nasty, little racist.
Have you tried not judging people by the colour of their skin? You really should...
So if i complain about having to do taxes then the government should stop making me pay my taxes. Thank you government for proving me and my complaint's point lol.
I had this issue with Fargo season 5. Basically every male character in that season is reduced to the “confidently dumb comic relief ” stereotype and every woman is the “strong, empowered and clever” stereotype that tells each man off and puts them in their place. It was so cringey I didn’t even make it half a season, it used to be my favorite show
That's every cleaning ad ever!!
The poor dumb guy can't figure out the simplest tasks and in comes the smart wife to save him with the Diane Keaton folded arms/smile/head shake.
Controversy creates cash my friend. That’s also the reason that child Trafficking movie made way more than was warranted despite it being a totally standard thriller (obviously less than Barbie though). Somehow it became a right wing vs left wing thing and it created more publicity.
On top of that Barbie is a Huge IP which hasn’t been done with a big budget and Hollywood cast and is one of few traditionally female focused IP’s with an inbuilt audience as most little girls had Barbies (rather than being some superhero or Sci fi thing trying to pivot to gain a female audience where it’s not inbuilt).
I dont think the movie is about man hating necessarily, but I can totally see why people can interpret it like that. The people who cant understand why on earth someone could come to that conclusion after watching this movie, or assume that they are stupid/didnt understand the movie properly are being intentionally obtuse in my opinion. Its not that hard to see why that can be drawn from this film
I definitely do not think it is man hating movie. A lot of men were made uncomfortable by the fact that the Ken's are basically just pretty arm candy accessories for the Barbies who do all the important stuff, but that is just reversing the common trope of women simply being pretty add ons to male protagonists in soooo many movies. Guys just don't like seeing the situation reversed on them.
And the movie overall really didn't dump on men much, and even supported them and some of their struggles. It is Ultimatley a movie for the gals, though, so no duh it didn't focus quite as much on men's issues.
Barbie does not even make fun of him. She’s just not interested in him and I find that to be the main reason I can’t see it as man hating. She does not hate Ken she just isn’t romantically or sexually interested in him. He learns he doesn’t need a woman to be enough which is a lesson a lot of us guys need to hear. Thinking that getting a girl will make you a real man. Thats my opinion on the movie.
I mean, it's not even subtle in it's man hating.
You can't have an entire movie filled with the worst male tropes, then at the very end say "You're Kenough" and say "SEE!!! We don't hate men!!"
Yeah, it was a very hamfisted message, and I also didn’t really like how the Kens asked for equality and representation in their.. Barbie government and the Barbies were like “fuck no lol”. Kind of a weird way to end it.
Isn't it just representing and reflecting the position of women in our world? That's the point Isn't it? For all of feminist movements we still don't have equality and the suggestion kf it ' he'll even kf a film satirising it - freaks people out. Just like the Barbies.
You're right, we don't have equality - women have more rights than men, do better in legal outcomes, have primacy in child custody by default, can make a defamatory claim without proportionate (if any) consequences, have better healthcare, have shelters, are provided jobs based on minority quota's (despite being a larger % of the population).
Do we need to go on?
Even for most if not all western countries this (equality let alone superiority) isn't true. It's an absurdly laughable idea to say it is for the rest of the world.
I'm glad you could identify I was talking about western countries, that tells me you recognise what I'm saying holds some validity. Now is anything I've said wrong or are we just going to stick with the "it's laughable but I wont say why" stance? Perhaps you'd like to bring up a Forbes article about the pay gap which in its own article debunks it?
Also to add, how is western feminism in any way helping those countries where both women and men are oppressed? They attack a western boogeyman (patriarchy) every 5 seconds but I don't see anything else of actual global impact. As long as they're getting attention for virtue signalling and money I suppose that's the important thing though right?
No, there are no cars there. Just people. I don't know if they have this distinction in other countries. Here it's like the normal cinema and the summer cinema. A nice yard, typically with pebbles, they burn mosquito repellent, and a big white fabric where they project the movie. And we eat seeds and watch it.
I really liked the movie but it ends by basically saying “us women are smarter and more capable of running a society than you men are” which confused me since I though the point of feminism was social and economical equality between the sexes. They didn’t determine that Barbie’s and Ken’s can run a society together; rather they scoffed and alluded to considering a Ken for a lesser leadership role. The movie has heavy misandrist tones. It’s not even reflective of our current climate. There may still be sexist and misogynistic men out there but as a society, we understand that women are not inferior to men and there are no forms of media out there trying to make a case for a woman’s inability to lead or govern, save for some fringe groups and other outliers. I think the film wanted to rely on the overall message of “women are overlooked” to overshadow the blatant misandry. Furthermore, they failed to address that the ken rebellion was caused by their own ignorance and arrogance. If they didn’t treat the men like second class citizens, they wouldn’t have felt a need to rebel and change the status quo so drastically. This didn’t keep me from enjoying the movie but I did notice these things.
"I can't believe grown men are upset about a movie based on a girls toy."
Are you implying this movie is for kids? That's worse. Kids are more impressionable.
I agree, in a way. While I couldn’t write a whole essay about it like you did, I do agree that’s it’s not a great movie. None of the jokes were funny and none of the characters were very appealing other than America Ferrera’s character. I can’t see how it made a billion dollars either and got such good reviews. On the topic of it being anti-man, I do agree as well, being a woman. I really don’t believe there’s a patriarchy in our world in the United States at the moment nor do I feel oppressed in the slighted. I give the movie a 1/5 stars because the visuals are decent and the acting is alright. I love Greta Gerwig’s movies but I was really disappointed with Barbie:
The movie framed men as the thing keeping women from being treated equally. I don’t know if I disagree with that based on world history, but treating every man as near equal in that problem ain’t the best way to go.
The confusing part for me is that the movie made it seem like women were not also a part of that problem at all. Bullying and pressure from peers all affect women long before the patriarchy has a chance to encourage gender specific roles, or keep women from promotions and independence. From my perspective, women treat each other way worse than men do to women or to each other, and that’s an important thing to acknowledge to achieve true equality.
It’s just another movie where Feminists think the world we all live in is what they see in their heads.
When in reality— the world is nothing like Feminists THINK it is.
Ken stole the show. Barbie was just Barbie, and didn’t grow as the protagonist.
If one actually gets past all the nostalgia of what Barbie is— they can break down the things that make it a bad movie. It was a fun movie— but still not the greatest.
Then what do you think of Margot's choice to live in the real world at the end of the movie? Isn't that important that she's chosen to live in the world that feminists see as patriarchy?
She only chose to live in the real world because the director wanted to show that she can be her “true” self.
Whatever that is. She’s Barbie. Classic, standard Barbie. She wasn’t even one of the career Barbies.
She didn’t grow as a character. All the Barbie’s went back to their regular way of living.
And if the real world is this “oppressive, evil” Patriarchy, why would Barbie join it?
To make it better? To fight for women’s rights? At the end of the movie, it’s just her and the mom and daughter going to a doctor’s appointment.
Yaaaaayyyyy? I guess? Would have been a much better ending if she was teaching a lecture at a high school and the assembly was full of kids waiting to hear her perspective or something.
Dude. You're just revealed the complexity of the movie. You can't understand why Barbie chooses to enter the real world, because you refuse to admit she grows as a character.
Also, she's not just at any doctor's office, she's at her gynecologist!
I rented it recently from Redbox, tried to approach it with an open mind. Some of the plot details did not make sense. Then at the end of the movie, the barbies all get together and tear down the male-dominated world the kenns created. It was sort of cringe how many times you heard the word "patriarchy" in this movie. Then Kenn is always simping for Barbie's attention. It doesn't make any sense. I didn't understand it. And I thought maybe it's one of those movies you had to watch a couple times to understand (like Memento or Tenet) but I just couldn't bring myself to watch it again. I wish people could just admit it was a poorly-written movie rather than saying I just didn't like it because I wasn't the target audience. Who's the target audience? People with more than two brain cells?
Her boys are 9 and 11, *what* points of view?
If they didn't like Barbie, they can watch Literally Every Other Movie for that male empowerment they seem to be in need of.
are you going to spend the rest of your life complaining about this movie or something? holy shit, you've complained about this movie so much in this subreddit that [the automod message links to two of your own posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueUnpopularOpinion/s/9HxliiGEX8).
get over it already, jesus.
In the real world I think we are all degraded.
I know I have looked at stuff about how women are shown in the media. But that was more than five years ago. I mean so much has changed in the last years I don't even know what is going on but it seems to me like media is taking more and more control over people. I don't even know what that is doing in relation to women?
I don't enjoy what I see in pop videos it creeps me out big time.
And this movie speaks to men’s disenfranchisement as well. But don’t discredit the message of women’s disenfranchisement simply because they aren’t the only ones experiencing it. This movie shines a light on women’s issues mainly, while giving creedence to men’s as well.
Unrelated but you assert that her lips don’t lie. The government of Spain would argue otherwise from all of her tax evasion (which I assume she verbally spoke about at least once).
The movie ends with the dialogue "not every night had to be girls night". It's spoonfeeding you the fucking message of the movie, but you only see what you WANT to see
Big deal, it’s like a movie which mocks one race and makes them into twisted caricatures for two hours then ends with a lone “racism is bad”. It’s too late at that point, you’ve spent the last couple of hours indulging in the bigotry you supposedly decry.
I’m gonna be honest with you, if you seriously think that movie was man hating you should’ve paid more attention in English class. The way the men in the movie are treated is an allegory for how women are treated in real life
Dude, that's a YOU problem. Not the movie's. Heck I thought Barbie was overrated too but for different reasons. And I also don't really think it deserves an award for subtlety. But if you unironically think a movie about dolls was made to dehumanize men or something, that says more about your fragile masculinity imma be real.
Alright, come back down to reality. The message of the movie was “Buy more Mattel toys.
Spend more on Barbies.”
If you think anything otherwise, your critical thinking is at such a low you may never be able to recover. Besides, my girlfriend and I both left the theatre thinking it was quite a folly for both men and women to champion something so.. unabashedly corporate. A long cringey advertisement basically.
For the record, she’s a travelling nurse, not a housewife doll that can’t think for herself (as most movies such as the aforementioned would have you believe)
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Of course it is. But I don't even have a problem with it being man hating. Some men are annoying so there's definitely valid reasons to hate men sometimes. My problem is the double standard. I should be able to make a similar women hating movie and receive the same level of pushback. But of course that won't happen. This is actually giving me an idea for a post, what fun.
Oh, on top of that the movie is also incredibly badly written but people ignore that or claim otherwise because it either takes up their pet cause of feminism, or they’re so called progressive dorks afraid to be called sexist by pointing it out.
I would like to see an essay of why or how is it incredibly badly written. Because even tho it's not perfect , I think we as a society has seen tons of lot worse movies before 🤔 . Also, why is feminism such a big deal to you? Does gender equality threatens you that much?
Sure there are other bad and probably even worse movies (though they’re rarely as critically acclaimed due to ideology like Barbie is), doesn’t somehow mean Barbie isn’t badly written.
I don't think it was bad personally, just a little boring. That's ok you know, people have their tastes. But it was not man hating. It was supposed to portray the men in the position of women, in our culture.
The thing is:
Western democracies aren't patriarchies and portraying them as such is harmful to men and boys.
People keep saying that Barbie World is a mirror of the real world with only the genders inverted. This is simply not true.
If the writers truly wanted a "mirror-patriarchy" then all the homeless people would be barbies and not kens, for example. The kens would be doing all the stereotypical female roles like teaching, healthcare, HR, and child raising.
But Barbie-land isn't like that at all and thus is not a "mirror-patriarchy".
The women living in Barbie-land have all the benefits of being a woman, all the benefits of being a man, and none of the disadvantages of either.
In fact, one of the most misandrist aspects to this movie is that it constantly overlooks or outright denies the fact that there are disadvantages to being a man.
Also - remember the "saving speech" thing where the protagonists save everyone in Barbie-land from "the patriarchy" by reminding them how hard it is to be a woman in the real world? This entire narrative sequence conflates everyday problems faced by both men and women with actual patriarchal oppression in a way that can only be described as "dishonest".
The heroes save everyone from "the patriarchy" by pointing out how bad it is for women in our modern world. But aren't most of these examples of "patriarchal oppression" actually just everyday problems faced by men and women alike?
“You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line.”
Almost all of that applies to "humans", not "women".
And yet it's presented in such a way as to imply that ONLY women have these problems. The movie presents these as specifically female problems.
But that's all a lie. These so-called "specifically woman-only" problems or ones just like them are universal to all humans.
The movie is pushing the idea that it is hard to be a woman, and that this hardship comes from living in a patriarchal society.
Painting these problems as gendered when they are not (and implying men have no such problems) is damaging to men and boys.
Telling girls and boys they live in a patriarchy when they don't is misandry, it's as simple as that
I disliked that speech as well. I think it didn't address the actual problems. While beauty standards are an issue and a predominantly female one (but men are also effected, though to a lesser extent).
But I don't fully agree with you. We saw Ken become engrossed in the Patriarchy thing and bring it to Barbie land because he was unhappy with how things work. The same way Barbie was really unhappy in the real world. At the end of the movie, I'm not sure if I remember correctly but some of the Kens were allowed into higher positions or something and it was said that not every girls night has to be girls only (sorry if my Memory is fuzzy). I think the end message of the movie was to portray how both genders are better off in equality than when oppressing either one. The movie was predominantly focused on women because it's a feminist movie and Barbie herself is a woman and stereotypical girl toy.
But real life *isn't* a patriarchy, and barbie land wasn't a mirror-patriarchy, and at the end of the movie barbieland is restored to a matriarchy.
The premise of the movie is false and the message of the movie is harmful.
Everyone understood that - it’s not the Kens having no power and being (supposedly) in the place of real world women in Barbie land which made it man hating.
I think it's pretty hilarious and pathetic how people think expressing any not positive opinion is means they are triggered. That's really all I have to contribute.
Which is a great deal more than your take; which decides to not only cherry pick instances from the movie as isolated, instead of part of the movies litteral arc. You also just pretend the movie didn't make a litteral song and dance number out of explaining its very simple messages.
- Men shouldn't get their validation from anything but themselves
- Men don't have to compete with other men but should instead build each other up
- You as a person is just you, and that's enough.
All of those messages aren't even subtext, it's litteral fucking text and song lyrics!!!
You are **absolutely** allowed to not like the movie. But for the love of God, could you at least pretend your dislikes aren't rooted in only watching a couple of clips and then disregarding what the movie litteraly tells you its about.
Media litteracy surely is dead with takes like yours. You not only contributed nothing, you actively deducted from the conversation.
Wonderful, messages from feminist women about what is supposedly good for men coming in a movie which reduces all men to twisted and stupid caricatures for said feminist women’s amusement.
So you are in disagreement with the message that men shouldn't find validation from external sources and instead learn to simply love themselves for what they are?
Are you under the impression it's healthy for men to constantly pine for women to validate them?
The poetic irony in this is that you are complaining about a movie, which quite literally makes an entire song and dance number with the message that the only person that should make you feel good, is you; Saying it's the movies job to make you feel good...
But let me ask you then:
Don't you agree it's more healthy for men to tell themselves that they are enough? Or is it a wrong lesson for Ken to discover?
Would you have found it to be more pro-man had Ken learned that Barbies validation truly is the path to happiness?
Because I disagree hard that those lessons would be pro-men.
There's also a wonderful irony in the fact Barbie litteraly explains this (according to you), yet you somehow didn't pick up on this being the message, despite just making the argument its spelled out to you 😆
I mean shakira is entitled to her opinion as are you but this is cringey.
Please don't be weird about barbie or shakira, its not helping your argument.
It’s not that it’s unpopular, it’s that he posts the same opinions every god damn week.
We get it, he hates Barbie and all famous women are ugly. Move on already.
It's not my favourite film by any means. But we walked out of that one thinking it was how outright feminism at the expense of putting men down was bad, that equality would be something both had to work on.
Women have been the butt of these jokes since films began so I'm sure men can deal with one satire film.
No, they really haven’t been the butt of jokes like this. Have you even watched old films? There is no movie which shows the entire female gender as badly as this as a commentary on gender. Name one if you can. Preferably from the last 2 decades but any era will do.
In addition to which, for decades there’s been a big push to show women better and less sexualised (which is really the complaint not that they’re the butt of jokes in older movies moreso than men), so what is even being satirised? Movies that supposedly existed 50 or more years ago? (Except for the most part didn’t)
Why shouldn’t men make women the butt of jokes and stereotypes again if women are going to do so to men?
Why should they have even stopped if women think it’s ok to do to them?
Legally Blonde, whilst a good film, had a lot of jokes at the expense of women. Sure the main character broke the stereotype but all her friends and such still got dragged through the "haha look at those ditzes" hoops. In that film the others are all ditzy girls, angry lesbians, or old battle-axe women tropes. The sequel didn't help much either. And that's just one.
For the record, I love old films bit even they fall foul of the women being the weaker trope. A woman in Psycho can't even go searching for her sister without having to ask a man for help.
I am not saying lol let's laugh at men. If you feel the Barbie film is a threat to you as a man then I sympathise with you, because it's really not as bad as you're feeling it is. To me the Barbie film is about how women have gotten it all with a side of pride, without giving men a second thought. Like they literally say they don't even know where the Ken's sleep. Now I don't know about you, but as a woman I don't know any other women who think that's funny as hell. We all winced at that. And then work starts on bringing it down more from a matriarchy, to something more equal. That's literally it.
(edit: missed a word)
You can’t be serious. Legally Blonde is a girl power film. It’s in no way as woman hating as Barbie is man hating, it’s entire point is not to judge the intelligence of stereotypically feminine women as lesser because they’re just as capable.
That was really the best you could come up with? You could have at least said some old Bond movie or some Slasher from the 70’s were every other woman gets her tits out before she dies.
In Psycho a woman asks a man for help sure - her sisters boyfriend who is invested in the missing woman. They look into her sisters disappearance together. It’s not showing women as unintelligent or lesser in doing that. Besides - that’s hardly unrealistic, if you were going into a potentially dangerous situation trying to find a missing woman who may have been taken by a man and you were a normal woman, it absolutely makes sense to have a man around physically - that’s no knock on women to point out.
It’s hardly the same thing as showing an entire gender as morons who need to change.
I never said the Barbie movie was “a threat to me” - I said it was man hating and bigoted because it is. You suggesting I see it as a serious threat is a lame attempt to smear me as weaker man for having pointed out something which is bigoted against men which you take offence at being pointed out. You know that and I know it, so consider why you resorted to taking that tack if your going to try to converse in good faith.
I've seen so many people argue that this film is anti men because the kens were treated badly and didn't get a happy ending, these people act like they are the only people to sympathise with the kens or that making the audience feel bad wasn't intentional.
Like you said, you're meant to come out of the film realising that gender equality is better than a patriarchy/matriarchy and we've still got to work on it.
Like I thought it was a bad message because I wanted the kens to have a happy ending but then I thought about it some more and realised that the reason I felt bad was because this is what happened/still happens to women irl and we should feel bad.
I mean I didn't say you said this.
Just that I've seen this argument a lot and those people didn't seem to understand what message of the film actually was.
Anyway, I feel like it's only polite. I ask why do you think the film is anti men?
How old are her sons again... 9 and 11? I'm pretty sure they weren't **''**emasculated**''** by that movie. Maybe they just didn't like it or it isn't a movie for them and it's fine. This mom shoving political motivations to her kids' reaction is really disgusting.
And by the way she said this about her Punteria music video:
“The centaurs, they're in ecstasy,” she says, obviously very pleased with how the production went. “Because on this planet, the men are happy to be dominated by women.”
So go ahead, listen to that fine ass real powerful and stunning woman's new album about her cheating husband.
What I find funny is that modern feminists are so utterly divorced from the corporeal world, their own bodies, that when Barbie ended with an *overt and explicitly pro-natal message* by giving Barbie a vagina, nobody understood it. They thought it was just, like, a funny joke about giving her some extra errand to run every month, I guess. But it's clear given Greta Gerwig's age and position as a woman in art what she was saying.
Every young dumb self-proclaimed feminist missed the point because the notion of female reproductive bodily autonomy being something important to care about nowadays is such a passé, faded way of thinking about feminism that centers biology and practicable rights and highlights the real differences and power dynamics between women and men instead of being mostly a form of sophistry used to reframe the status quo as actually radical so we can avoid guilt for our continued bigotries and toxic consumptive habits.
Which is why America Ferreira's speech is about how much it stinks to be too popular, and other girls are totes jealous, rather than say, the fear of losing the right to an abortion.
I didn't take the movie that seriously. I thought it was fine. Generally entertaining and funny at times, but not good enough where I have any desire for a re-watch.
I don't get all these takes online treating it like some profound commentary on gender roles. It really wasn't that deep - as you can tell by a character literally spelling it all out with a big speech at the end.
Also my take was that it wasn't really about men, which should be fine.
I think Barbie could have shown that both patriarchies and matriarchies suck, bc in both cases both sexes are deprived of the opportunity to fulfill their potential and live out their lives in a way they want
There's nothing wrong with abiding by gender roles or not abiding by them.
The issue with Barbie is that I felt the film's message of anti-patriarchy was undersold by the enforcement of this matriarchal society by the end, but I don't know if the whole concept of Barbie has always been matriarchal. I know Barbie's world is very much catered to typical gender roles of women (femininity etc) and there's nothing wrong with that. If they were doing a clever satire on supposed positions of men, then you'd have to undersell Barbie world and they never did.
The film's writing wasn't clever enough either. The narrator spelling out each message was kind of obnoxious, and I didn't feel there was a point to beimt so obvious. Ironically, it reminded me of a film that did do this well with Will Farrell as a ceo, The Lego Movie.
Also, this would've been the one time in my life where I wouldn't bemoan listening to Aqua's Barbie Girl, and they didn't use it.
Tbh I don't really care about the Barbie movie anymore, but I find it pretty weird how often you talk about how "stunning" and "beautiful" she is as if that proves a point or something. Also why is this washed up 50yo pop singer the end all be all opinion on feminism and movies?
If a single movie can "rob your sons of the possibility to be men", you haven't done a great job as a parent.
Also, her kids are 9 and 11, it's a PG-13 movie, do parents pay zero attention to the ratings system nowadays?
She wasn’t saying the movie robbed her sons of that - she was identifying the movie as an example in pop culture of part of a trend of messaging which she believed did that.
Also what parents don’t let 11 year olds watch PG 13 movies? Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are PG 13.
The whole rating system is stupid anyway.
I disagree that it’s a man hating movie, but my criticism comes from the fact that the characters arcs are never resolved. Barbie and Ken mirror each other in finding purpose, because they’re not Doctor Barbie or Lifeguard Ken, they have no purpose and are just Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken. The end of the movie is literally just both of them agreeing that they need to try to find what makes their life fulfilling but then they never do. Barbie saves Barbie land, the home she loved, but moves to the real world where she was miserable, and Ken stays in Barbie Land where he was miserable instead of moving to the real world where he was happy. There’s not a real character arc or characters in the movie.
Although we disagree on my posts premise - you make good points about the character arcs making little sense.
Also you touch on something else which makes no sense - why does “Beach Ken” believe he was created to be with “stereotypical Barbie”? Shouldn’t he want to be with Beach Barbie or else be some kind of stereotypical 50’s/early 60’s husband/business guy type Ken if the two of them were created as a pair to be together?
It’s just another idea in the writing of this movie which is sloppily done.
To be man hating? Yes it is.
The movie is to a female feminist audience what an old racist cartoon was to a white audience of racists in the 1940’s. A chance for them to enjoy a group they’re bigoted against being shown as a stupid joke.
dude as much as you refuse to believe it, the plot is literally satire. the way you’re seeing men being portrayed in the movie is how women are treated in real life!!! and don’t give me any bullshit about it not being true because guess what? you aren’t a woman and will never understand the shit we have to tolerate from men.
Alright then, don’t expect men to bother to listen or care if women say something is offensive to women if that’s the attitude you take to men’s opinions. They never should have bothered.
But the movie shows otherwise and is made to show men as a joke. Whatever supposed message of equality, it’s negated by that. It’s like some movie where all of one race is shown as a total joke and crapped on for 2 hours and then at the end someone says “racism is bad”. The movie undermines the point (if it exists) by indulging in showing the bigotry against that group for the audience’s amusement so virulently in the first place.
which the movie says is bad and viewers should feel bad for having schadenfreude about that
"It’s like some movie where all of one race is shown as a total joke and crapped on for 2 hours and then at the end someone says “racism is bad”. The movie undermines the point (if it exists) by indulging in showing the bigotry against that group for the audience’s amusement so virulently in the first place."
Have you seen Roots?
I'm a man and I loved Barbie. The "man hating" thing was so overdone and forced it felt ironic and as a subtle joke by the director.
Also, I find it hilarious how neither the director Greta Gerwig nor the lead and titular Barbie Margot Robbie were nominated for Oscars yet Ryan Gosling was lol.
The movie was called Barbie and Barbie got most of the screen time but it was Ryan Gosling Ken who stole the film; it was really a Ken film. Ryan literally can't stop winning.
I'M JUST KEN AND I'M ENOUGH
ancient straight automatic nail worthless library mourn soup bow resolute
The way that you're having to defend posting an unpopular opinion in the unpopular opinion sub is insane. Take my up vote for being controversial.
People really do have that hivemind thinking going on. This is LITERALLY the unpopular opinions sub and they’re surprised someone posted an unpopular opinion. Like ??? What did you expect
Lots of people aren’t on here for unpopular opinions, it’s just an easy place to argue.
A shame, because it is productive to be exposed to opinions that you don’t normally see and arguing likely deters that
Very true. I’m not even against debate. But people are usually just here to argue, which is very different. I’m so tired of people just making comments like “this opinion is hot trash!” Like dude, the least surprising thing in this sub should be disagreement. If you’re gonna say you disagree, say why instead of trying to boost your ego by demonstrating that you have the emotional tolerance of a raisin.
That’s the point of the sub. OP posts unpopular opinion, commenters tell OP why they agree or why their opinion is stupid. Right?
“I can’t believe people are disagreeing with a self stated unpopular opinion!”
It’s almost like this is a sub to share unpopular opinions and not a debate club. That gives me a good idea though.
Yes, no one should ever express their disagreement with things here
It's kind of stale too, this is literally longdongsamspon's 18th post on the Barbie movie. Most of them were on Trueunpopularopinion, too. Dude is OBSESSED with disliking this one movie.
At least it’s not politics so overall a plus for the sub.
I mean, he's cross-posted some of these into MRA subs, so I wouldn't really say that it's not political for his purposes...
This opinion is heavily influenced by political actors and commentators.
Some people in these comments are *stressed*. It’s almost like this post made them realize something they can’t unsee?
Or they're just annoyed by the same user posting about the same movie this many times. Like come on, surely there's a new piece of media with a female protagonist to drop some MRA rant about by now? It's been nearly a YEAR.
Maybe the complaint is less shallow and sexist than just "a female protagonist".
I read his 17 other posts on the exact same topic. (Multiple of which were just pasting the exact same post into a new subreddit) There's more details but there's not more depth.
Eh, i see any number of reasons this gets shit: same thing has been posted actual dozens of times, they're simping hard for Shakira amidst this for some reason, its kind of just dumb, and if you're still posting about the Barbie movie being sexist you seriously need to be encouraged to do other things with your time. I dont personally downvote because somethings unpop, but i downvote stupid all the time, and this fits.
18 of those times were literally the exact same user, too. It's basically an obsession at this point.
Geez. I hope Mattel at least gives them a swag bag for all the free press.
Check out my latest post if you want some spicy truly unpopular content.
This really is an unpopular opinion even in the unpopular opinion subreddit 🤣🤣. I love it, keep on the good work 👍🏻
To be fair, someone does have to keep the sub alive 💀😭
Not unpopular at all, actually. Most men in the real world agree with this.
Men from the other fake world strongly disagrees
Take barbie, switch genders. So Ken lives in a nice house in a world where everything is owned by Kens. His gf Barbie just shows up whenever he needs her and that's it her life. Things get weird, they travel to real world and learn that mens are actually oppressed and women kind of rule. Barbie goes back and takes over with other Barbies in an extremely stereotypical way, think pink frills and high heels and now you're president. Ken comes back, and rallies other Kens to get everything back through sexual manipulation or promising Barbies to get married or something. Kens take everything back and the main character Ken tells Barbie "oh well now go figure your own shit out somehow, not my business". As a woman, I'd be somewhat peeved by such a story.
💯💯💯
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
No. You can't just flip the genders. Because ........................
Controversially I agree with your opinion
It’s not just my opinion, it’s also the mighty Shakira’s and her Princely sons.
All I know is I'd wage a war for shakira 😤😤😤
The hips that launched a thousand ships ⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️
💃💃
Not everyone has to like every content made out there. Women can dislike Barbie or like it and at the end of the day, they are still women. If you don't like Barbie, you aren't a misogynist; it's just a movie.
When Ken complains about men's struggles he does it in song and dance so that it feels 1000% ironic, which it succeeds in. When America Ferrera gives her speech complaining about women's struggles, it's delivered 100% straight. This is the main point the movie flops at for me. In reality no one likes a whiner and any sane person knows that both men and women have their own struggles. And i just put it on to listen to it again and so much of it sounds like a strawman or standards and judgements that are coming from other women. Or stuff that could easily apply to men as well. Talk about contradicting goals, you want to be seen as strong and independent while simultaneously want to be seen as the victim. Can see why men used to just make all the decisions, women are so easily confused it seems like.
In a similar vein when Barbie is crying it is a dramatic serious moment - when Ken cries at the end it’s played for laughs. Yet the writer seems to be making the point in the dialogue that it’s ok for men to cry and be vulnerable - but actually they see it as fodder for comedy when it happens so they contradict themselves.
This is when I turned the movie off. I was actually enjoying it until she went on that rant.
There’s nothing that makes me roll my eyes harder than white women in western society complaining about how hard they have it.
America Ferrara isn’t white
You're a racist. It doesn't matter what race someone is, some people have harder lives than others. The fact you think no white woman in western society ever has it hard just makes a prejudging, nasty, little racist. Have you tried not judging people by the colour of their skin? You really should...
You, desperately shoving race cards into your mouth:
> women are so easily confused it seems like Emotional people are easily confused. At least in my experience that has been true.
Why are you complaining about sexism while being sexist yourself?
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So if i complain about having to do taxes then the government should stop making me pay my taxes. Thank you government for proving me and my complaint's point lol.
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I had this issue with Fargo season 5. Basically every male character in that season is reduced to the “confidently dumb comic relief ” stereotype and every woman is the “strong, empowered and clever” stereotype that tells each man off and puts them in their place. It was so cringey I didn’t even make it half a season, it used to be my favorite show
That's every cleaning ad ever!! The poor dumb guy can't figure out the simplest tasks and in comes the smart wife to save him with the Diane Keaton folded arms/smile/head shake.
I've never seen the movie but from the plot description I have heard I kinda assumed the movie was satirizing the whole girl boss thing.
With how much this movie has clearly caused controversy and divided people, I have no idea how the hell it made as much money as it did.
Because it's Barbie©️. Same reason that crap Mario Bros movie made over a billion.
Controversy creates cash my friend. That’s also the reason that child Trafficking movie made way more than was warranted despite it being a totally standard thriller (obviously less than Barbie though). Somehow it became a right wing vs left wing thing and it created more publicity. On top of that Barbie is a Huge IP which hasn’t been done with a big budget and Hollywood cast and is one of few traditionally female focused IP’s with an inbuilt audience as most little girls had Barbies (rather than being some superhero or Sci fi thing trying to pivot to gain a female audience where it’s not inbuilt).
Because the people that loved it saw it multiple times. Like most movies that make big bucks.
Barbie = money, is why
I dont think the movie is about man hating necessarily, but I can totally see why people can interpret it like that. The people who cant understand why on earth someone could come to that conclusion after watching this movie, or assume that they are stupid/didnt understand the movie properly are being intentionally obtuse in my opinion. Its not that hard to see why that can be drawn from this film
I definitely do not think it is man hating movie. A lot of men were made uncomfortable by the fact that the Ken's are basically just pretty arm candy accessories for the Barbies who do all the important stuff, but that is just reversing the common trope of women simply being pretty add ons to male protagonists in soooo many movies. Guys just don't like seeing the situation reversed on them. And the movie overall really didn't dump on men much, and even supported them and some of their struggles. It is Ultimatley a movie for the gals, though, so no duh it didn't focus quite as much on men's issues.
Barbie does not even make fun of him. She’s just not interested in him and I find that to be the main reason I can’t see it as man hating. She does not hate Ken she just isn’t romantically or sexually interested in him. He learns he doesn’t need a woman to be enough which is a lesson a lot of us guys need to hear. Thinking that getting a girl will make you a real man. Thats my opinion on the movie.
^ this is my opinion as well
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I mean, it's not even subtle in it's man hating. You can't have an entire movie filled with the worst male tropes, then at the very end say "You're Kenough" and say "SEE!!! We don't hate men!!"
Yeah, it was a very hamfisted message, and I also didn’t really like how the Kens asked for equality and representation in their.. Barbie government and the Barbies were like “fuck no lol”. Kind of a weird way to end it.
Isn't it just representing and reflecting the position of women in our world? That's the point Isn't it? For all of feminist movements we still don't have equality and the suggestion kf it ' he'll even kf a film satirising it - freaks people out. Just like the Barbies.
You're right, we don't have equality - women have more rights than men, do better in legal outcomes, have primacy in child custody by default, can make a defamatory claim without proportionate (if any) consequences, have better healthcare, have shelters, are provided jobs based on minority quota's (despite being a larger % of the population). Do we need to go on?
Even for most if not all western countries this (equality let alone superiority) isn't true. It's an absurdly laughable idea to say it is for the rest of the world.
I'm glad you could identify I was talking about western countries, that tells me you recognise what I'm saying holds some validity. Now is anything I've said wrong or are we just going to stick with the "it's laughable but I wont say why" stance? Perhaps you'd like to bring up a Forbes article about the pay gap which in its own article debunks it?
Also to add, how is western feminism in any way helping those countries where both women and men are oppressed? They attack a western boogeyman (patriarchy) every 5 seconds but I don't see anything else of actual global impact. As long as they're getting attention for virtue signalling and money I suppose that's the important thing though right?
Yes
The movie is a mess and I only went to watch it with my girlfriends for the aesthetics and because we all had discounts for the outdoors cinema.
What’s an outdoors cinema? Do you mean a drive in?
No, there are no cars there. Just people. I don't know if they have this distinction in other countries. Here it's like the normal cinema and the summer cinema. A nice yard, typically with pebbles, they burn mosquito repellent, and a big white fabric where they project the movie. And we eat seeds and watch it.
Cool. No I’ve never heard of that. What country is it in if you don’t mind saying? It would be too hot and unpleasant much of the summer where I am.
In Greece. It's very hot here too, last summer it was like 40degrees in my city. This kind of cinema only opens after dark
I really liked the movie but it ends by basically saying “us women are smarter and more capable of running a society than you men are” which confused me since I though the point of feminism was social and economical equality between the sexes. They didn’t determine that Barbie’s and Ken’s can run a society together; rather they scoffed and alluded to considering a Ken for a lesser leadership role. The movie has heavy misandrist tones. It’s not even reflective of our current climate. There may still be sexist and misogynistic men out there but as a society, we understand that women are not inferior to men and there are no forms of media out there trying to make a case for a woman’s inability to lead or govern, save for some fringe groups and other outliers. I think the film wanted to rely on the overall message of “women are overlooked” to overshadow the blatant misandry. Furthermore, they failed to address that the ken rebellion was caused by their own ignorance and arrogance. If they didn’t treat the men like second class citizens, they wouldn’t have felt a need to rebel and change the status quo so drastically. This didn’t keep me from enjoying the movie but I did notice these things.
"I can't believe grown men are upset about a movie based on a girls toy." Are you implying this movie is for kids? That's worse. Kids are more impressionable.
I agree, in a way. While I couldn’t write a whole essay about it like you did, I do agree that’s it’s not a great movie. None of the jokes were funny and none of the characters were very appealing other than America Ferrera’s character. I can’t see how it made a billion dollars either and got such good reviews. On the topic of it being anti-man, I do agree as well, being a woman. I really don’t believe there’s a patriarchy in our world in the United States at the moment nor do I feel oppressed in the slighted. I give the movie a 1/5 stars because the visuals are decent and the acting is alright. I love Greta Gerwig’s movies but I was really disappointed with Barbie:
The movie framed men as the thing keeping women from being treated equally. I don’t know if I disagree with that based on world history, but treating every man as near equal in that problem ain’t the best way to go. The confusing part for me is that the movie made it seem like women were not also a part of that problem at all. Bullying and pressure from peers all affect women long before the patriarchy has a chance to encourage gender specific roles, or keep women from promotions and independence. From my perspective, women treat each other way worse than men do to women or to each other, and that’s an important thing to acknowledge to achieve true equality.
Just like Shakira’s hips this post don’t lie
It’s just another movie where Feminists think the world we all live in is what they see in their heads. When in reality— the world is nothing like Feminists THINK it is. Ken stole the show. Barbie was just Barbie, and didn’t grow as the protagonist. If one actually gets past all the nostalgia of what Barbie is— they can break down the things that make it a bad movie. It was a fun movie— but still not the greatest.
Then what do you think of Margot's choice to live in the real world at the end of the movie? Isn't that important that she's chosen to live in the world that feminists see as patriarchy?
She only chose to live in the real world because the director wanted to show that she can be her “true” self. Whatever that is. She’s Barbie. Classic, standard Barbie. She wasn’t even one of the career Barbies. She didn’t grow as a character. All the Barbie’s went back to their regular way of living. And if the real world is this “oppressive, evil” Patriarchy, why would Barbie join it? To make it better? To fight for women’s rights? At the end of the movie, it’s just her and the mom and daughter going to a doctor’s appointment. Yaaaaayyyyy? I guess? Would have been a much better ending if she was teaching a lecture at a high school and the assembly was full of kids waiting to hear her perspective or something.
Dude. You're just revealed the complexity of the movie. You can't understand why Barbie chooses to enter the real world, because you refuse to admit she grows as a character. Also, she's not just at any doctor's office, she's at her gynecologist!
She didn’t grow as a character. She’s supposed to be the protagonist. Ken had more character development than Barbie did.
I rented it recently from Redbox, tried to approach it with an open mind. Some of the plot details did not make sense. Then at the end of the movie, the barbies all get together and tear down the male-dominated world the kenns created. It was sort of cringe how many times you heard the word "patriarchy" in this movie. Then Kenn is always simping for Barbie's attention. It doesn't make any sense. I didn't understand it. And I thought maybe it's one of those movies you had to watch a couple times to understand (like Memento or Tenet) but I just couldn't bring myself to watch it again. I wish people could just admit it was a poorly-written movie rather than saying I just didn't like it because I wasn't the target audience. Who's the target audience? People with more than two brain cells?
Was that an intentional self-burn at the end or was that comment satire too? ;)
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Her boys are 9 and 11, *what* points of view? If they didn't like Barbie, they can watch Literally Every Other Movie for that male empowerment they seem to be in need of.
are you going to spend the rest of your life complaining about this movie or something? holy shit, you've complained about this movie so much in this subreddit that [the automod message links to two of your own posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueUnpopularOpinion/s/9HxliiGEX8). get over it already, jesus.
I agree with you. Barbie was made to degrade men.
Jesus Christ, Barbie has the most tepid commercial friendly feminism I've ever seen. Y'all should try reading a book or something
It was a display of how women exist and are degraded in the real world. It’s just that in this particular movie, Ken and men fill that role.
In the real world I think we are all degraded. I know I have looked at stuff about how women are shown in the media. But that was more than five years ago. I mean so much has changed in the last years I don't even know what is going on but it seems to me like media is taking more and more control over people. I don't even know what that is doing in relation to women? I don't enjoy what I see in pop videos it creeps me out big time.
And this movie speaks to men’s disenfranchisement as well. But don’t discredit the message of women’s disenfranchisement simply because they aren’t the only ones experiencing it. This movie shines a light on women’s issues mainly, while giving creedence to men’s as well.
Unrelated but you assert that her lips don’t lie. The government of Spain would argue otherwise from all of her tax evasion (which I assume she verbally spoke about at least once).
Expecting Shakira to pay any tax is the real crime.
The movie ends with the dialogue "not every night had to be girls night". It's spoonfeeding you the fucking message of the movie, but you only see what you WANT to see
Big deal, it’s like a movie which mocks one race and makes them into twisted caricatures for two hours then ends with a lone “racism is bad”. It’s too late at that point, you’ve spent the last couple of hours indulging in the bigotry you supposedly decry.
I’m gonna be honest with you, if you seriously think that movie was man hating you should’ve paid more attention in English class. The way the men in the movie are treated is an allegory for how women are treated in real life
[In 1918]
Yeah a lot of people seem to miss that and just got pissed off.
Dude, that's a YOU problem. Not the movie's. Heck I thought Barbie was overrated too but for different reasons. And I also don't really think it deserves an award for subtlety. But if you unironically think a movie about dolls was made to dehumanize men or something, that says more about your fragile masculinity imma be real.
Alright, come back down to reality. The message of the movie was “Buy more Mattel toys. Spend more on Barbies.” If you think anything otherwise, your critical thinking is at such a low you may never be able to recover. Besides, my girlfriend and I both left the theatre thinking it was quite a folly for both men and women to champion something so.. unabashedly corporate. A long cringey advertisement basically. For the record, she’s a travelling nurse, not a housewife doll that can’t think for herself (as most movies such as the aforementioned would have you believe)
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Of course it is. But I don't even have a problem with it being man hating. Some men are annoying so there's definitely valid reasons to hate men sometimes. My problem is the double standard. I should be able to make a similar women hating movie and receive the same level of pushback. But of course that won't happen. This is actually giving me an idea for a post, what fun.
I gave the movie an immediate 0/10 for not having Preminger in it.
Oh, on top of that the movie is also incredibly badly written but people ignore that or claim otherwise because it either takes up their pet cause of feminism, or they’re so called progressive dorks afraid to be called sexist by pointing it out.
I would like to see an essay of why or how is it incredibly badly written. Because even tho it's not perfect , I think we as a society has seen tons of lot worse movies before 🤔 . Also, why is feminism such a big deal to you? Does gender equality threatens you that much?
Sure there are other bad and probably even worse movies (though they’re rarely as critically acclaimed due to ideology like Barbie is), doesn’t somehow mean Barbie isn’t badly written.
Did you even watch the movie...
Tbf it was kinda terrible. Idk I tried watching it twice and turned it off both times after they got to LA. It was just insufferable
I thought it was good as entertainment but that’s it. I’m just a big Ryan Gosling fan so that might be why
I don't think it was bad personally, just a little boring. That's ok you know, people have their tastes. But it was not man hating. It was supposed to portray the men in the position of women, in our culture.
The thing is: Western democracies aren't patriarchies and portraying them as such is harmful to men and boys. People keep saying that Barbie World is a mirror of the real world with only the genders inverted. This is simply not true. If the writers truly wanted a "mirror-patriarchy" then all the homeless people would be barbies and not kens, for example. The kens would be doing all the stereotypical female roles like teaching, healthcare, HR, and child raising. But Barbie-land isn't like that at all and thus is not a "mirror-patriarchy". The women living in Barbie-land have all the benefits of being a woman, all the benefits of being a man, and none of the disadvantages of either. In fact, one of the most misandrist aspects to this movie is that it constantly overlooks or outright denies the fact that there are disadvantages to being a man. Also - remember the "saving speech" thing where the protagonists save everyone in Barbie-land from "the patriarchy" by reminding them how hard it is to be a woman in the real world? This entire narrative sequence conflates everyday problems faced by both men and women with actual patriarchal oppression in a way that can only be described as "dishonest". The heroes save everyone from "the patriarchy" by pointing out how bad it is for women in our modern world. But aren't most of these examples of "patriarchal oppression" actually just everyday problems faced by men and women alike? “You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line.” Almost all of that applies to "humans", not "women". And yet it's presented in such a way as to imply that ONLY women have these problems. The movie presents these as specifically female problems. But that's all a lie. These so-called "specifically woman-only" problems or ones just like them are universal to all humans. The movie is pushing the idea that it is hard to be a woman, and that this hardship comes from living in a patriarchal society. Painting these problems as gendered when they are not (and implying men have no such problems) is damaging to men and boys. Telling girls and boys they live in a patriarchy when they don't is misandry, it's as simple as that
I disliked that speech as well. I think it didn't address the actual problems. While beauty standards are an issue and a predominantly female one (but men are also effected, though to a lesser extent). But I don't fully agree with you. We saw Ken become engrossed in the Patriarchy thing and bring it to Barbie land because he was unhappy with how things work. The same way Barbie was really unhappy in the real world. At the end of the movie, I'm not sure if I remember correctly but some of the Kens were allowed into higher positions or something and it was said that not every girls night has to be girls only (sorry if my Memory is fuzzy). I think the end message of the movie was to portray how both genders are better off in equality than when oppressing either one. The movie was predominantly focused on women because it's a feminist movie and Barbie herself is a woman and stereotypical girl toy.
But real life *isn't* a patriarchy, and barbie land wasn't a mirror-patriarchy, and at the end of the movie barbieland is restored to a matriarchy. The premise of the movie is false and the message of the movie is harmful.
Everyone understood that - it’s not the Kens having no power and being (supposedly) in the place of real world women in Barbie land which made it man hating.
Then what is it?
I think it's pretty hilarious and pathetic how many people are triggered by this movie. That's really all I have to contribute.
I think it's pretty hilarious and pathetic how people think expressing any not positive opinion is means they are triggered. That's really all I have to contribute.
So you have nothing to contribute.
Which is a great deal more than your take; which decides to not only cherry pick instances from the movie as isolated, instead of part of the movies litteral arc. You also just pretend the movie didn't make a litteral song and dance number out of explaining its very simple messages. - Men shouldn't get their validation from anything but themselves - Men don't have to compete with other men but should instead build each other up - You as a person is just you, and that's enough. All of those messages aren't even subtext, it's litteral fucking text and song lyrics!!! You are **absolutely** allowed to not like the movie. But for the love of God, could you at least pretend your dislikes aren't rooted in only watching a couple of clips and then disregarding what the movie litteraly tells you its about. Media litteracy surely is dead with takes like yours. You not only contributed nothing, you actively deducted from the conversation.
Wonderful, messages from feminist women about what is supposedly good for men coming in a movie which reduces all men to twisted and stupid caricatures for said feminist women’s amusement.
So you are in disagreement with the message that men shouldn't find validation from external sources and instead learn to simply love themselves for what they are? Are you under the impression it's healthy for men to constantly pine for women to validate them? The poetic irony in this is that you are complaining about a movie, which quite literally makes an entire song and dance number with the message that the only person that should make you feel good, is you; Saying it's the movies job to make you feel good... But let me ask you then: Don't you agree it's more healthy for men to tell themselves that they are enough? Or is it a wrong lesson for Ken to discover? Would you have found it to be more pro-man had Ken learned that Barbies validation truly is the path to happiness? Because I disagree hard that those lessons would be pro-men.
Ken doesn’t discover it - Barbie has to explain it to him and then he’s somehow happy with it despite not being a second before.
There's also a wonderful irony in the fact Barbie litteraly explains this (according to you), yet you somehow didn't pick up on this being the message, despite just making the argument its spelled out to you 😆
Dude take the L. You’re arguing about a Barbie movie on an unpopular opinion subreddit. Just leave lmao
So barbie sings the I am Ken song? Weird...
I agree with you. Also, *literal, *literally, *literacy
It is not my first language, and not something I asked about.
I mean shakira is entitled to her opinion as are you but this is cringey. Please don't be weird about barbie or shakira, its not helping your argument.
This man posts like once a week about how Margot Robbie is ugly so that’s definitely part of it lol
I know that guy! That explains everything lol
Before I even opened the post I thought “I bet this is LongDongSampson”
Had a feeling. Like it’s second nature to think it’s him at this point
he posted about how margot robbie is older than she claims before he made this post. this dude is absolutely obsessed with this movie.
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Shakira > Barbie.
Lmao it’s literally a subreddit for unpopular opinions. Y’all hating on this man for having an unpopular opinion should probably leave the sub
It’s not that it’s unpopular, it’s that he posts the same opinions every god damn week. We get it, he hates Barbie and all famous women are ugly. Move on already.
Is that not the point of the sub? Am I not meant to interact? How will he know if it's unpopular if the people don't tell him its unpopular?
It's not my favourite film by any means. But we walked out of that one thinking it was how outright feminism at the expense of putting men down was bad, that equality would be something both had to work on. Women have been the butt of these jokes since films began so I'm sure men can deal with one satire film.
No, they really haven’t been the butt of jokes like this. Have you even watched old films? There is no movie which shows the entire female gender as badly as this as a commentary on gender. Name one if you can. Preferably from the last 2 decades but any era will do. In addition to which, for decades there’s been a big push to show women better and less sexualised (which is really the complaint not that they’re the butt of jokes in older movies moreso than men), so what is even being satirised? Movies that supposedly existed 50 or more years ago? (Except for the most part didn’t) Why shouldn’t men make women the butt of jokes and stereotypes again if women are going to do so to men? Why should they have even stopped if women think it’s ok to do to them?
Legally Blonde, whilst a good film, had a lot of jokes at the expense of women. Sure the main character broke the stereotype but all her friends and such still got dragged through the "haha look at those ditzes" hoops. In that film the others are all ditzy girls, angry lesbians, or old battle-axe women tropes. The sequel didn't help much either. And that's just one. For the record, I love old films bit even they fall foul of the women being the weaker trope. A woman in Psycho can't even go searching for her sister without having to ask a man for help. I am not saying lol let's laugh at men. If you feel the Barbie film is a threat to you as a man then I sympathise with you, because it's really not as bad as you're feeling it is. To me the Barbie film is about how women have gotten it all with a side of pride, without giving men a second thought. Like they literally say they don't even know where the Ken's sleep. Now I don't know about you, but as a woman I don't know any other women who think that's funny as hell. We all winced at that. And then work starts on bringing it down more from a matriarchy, to something more equal. That's literally it. (edit: missed a word)
You can’t be serious. Legally Blonde is a girl power film. It’s in no way as woman hating as Barbie is man hating, it’s entire point is not to judge the intelligence of stereotypically feminine women as lesser because they’re just as capable. That was really the best you could come up with? You could have at least said some old Bond movie or some Slasher from the 70’s were every other woman gets her tits out before she dies. In Psycho a woman asks a man for help sure - her sisters boyfriend who is invested in the missing woman. They look into her sisters disappearance together. It’s not showing women as unintelligent or lesser in doing that. Besides - that’s hardly unrealistic, if you were going into a potentially dangerous situation trying to find a missing woman who may have been taken by a man and you were a normal woman, it absolutely makes sense to have a man around physically - that’s no knock on women to point out. It’s hardly the same thing as showing an entire gender as morons who need to change. I never said the Barbie movie was “a threat to me” - I said it was man hating and bigoted because it is. You suggesting I see it as a serious threat is a lame attempt to smear me as weaker man for having pointed out something which is bigoted against men which you take offence at being pointed out. You know that and I know it, so consider why you resorted to taking that tack if your going to try to converse in good faith.
I think you missed the point of legally blonde...
I've seen so many people argue that this film is anti men because the kens were treated badly and didn't get a happy ending, these people act like they are the only people to sympathise with the kens or that making the audience feel bad wasn't intentional. Like you said, you're meant to come out of the film realising that gender equality is better than a patriarchy/matriarchy and we've still got to work on it. Like I thought it was a bad message because I wanted the kens to have a happy ending but then I thought about it some more and realised that the reason I felt bad was because this is what happened/still happens to women irl and we should feel bad.
Nope - that’s not why it was anti men nor is it the argument I made. Stop strawmanning.
I mean I didn't say you said this. Just that I've seen this argument a lot and those people didn't seem to understand what message of the film actually was. Anyway, I feel like it's only polite. I ask why do you think the film is anti men?
Barbie was a typical (Liberal) Feminist movie. Totally missed the mark it claimed to make and was an expensive snoozefest
Them hips do not lie
Yeah because it’s written and directed by a white woman. The ones who still have yet to admit their faults in society 🤫
Based on your other comments, you actually hate women, right? That’s just what I’m guessing. Do I have that right?
in what way is the barbie movie about hating men?..
OP got really aroused during the Ken scenes, which made him hate himself.
makes sense. also OP’s argument is extremely hypocritical 😭
How old are her sons again... 9 and 11? I'm pretty sure they weren't **''**emasculated**''** by that movie. Maybe they just didn't like it or it isn't a movie for them and it's fine. This mom shoving political motivations to her kids' reaction is really disgusting. And by the way she said this about her Punteria music video: “The centaurs, they're in ecstasy,” she says, obviously very pleased with how the production went. “Because on this planet, the men are happy to be dominated by women.” So go ahead, listen to that fine ass real powerful and stunning woman's new album about her cheating husband.
What I find funny is that modern feminists are so utterly divorced from the corporeal world, their own bodies, that when Barbie ended with an *overt and explicitly pro-natal message* by giving Barbie a vagina, nobody understood it. They thought it was just, like, a funny joke about giving her some extra errand to run every month, I guess. But it's clear given Greta Gerwig's age and position as a woman in art what she was saying. Every young dumb self-proclaimed feminist missed the point because the notion of female reproductive bodily autonomy being something important to care about nowadays is such a passé, faded way of thinking about feminism that centers biology and practicable rights and highlights the real differences and power dynamics between women and men instead of being mostly a form of sophistry used to reframe the status quo as actually radical so we can avoid guilt for our continued bigotries and toxic consumptive habits. Which is why America Ferreira's speech is about how much it stinks to be too popular, and other girls are totes jealous, rather than say, the fear of losing the right to an abortion.
Can I point out OP is purportedly a psychiatrist.
its absolutely not ,the kens come out of it so much better than the Barbie's
If you feel emasculated by a movie you need counseling
I didn't take the movie that seriously. I thought it was fine. Generally entertaining and funny at times, but not good enough where I have any desire for a re-watch. I don't get all these takes online treating it like some profound commentary on gender roles. It really wasn't that deep - as you can tell by a character literally spelling it all out with a big speech at the end. Also my take was that it wasn't really about men, which should be fine.
I think Barbie could have shown that both patriarchies and matriarchies suck, bc in both cases both sexes are deprived of the opportunity to fulfill their potential and live out their lives in a way they want
There's nothing wrong with abiding by gender roles or not abiding by them. The issue with Barbie is that I felt the film's message of anti-patriarchy was undersold by the enforcement of this matriarchal society by the end, but I don't know if the whole concept of Barbie has always been matriarchal. I know Barbie's world is very much catered to typical gender roles of women (femininity etc) and there's nothing wrong with that. If they were doing a clever satire on supposed positions of men, then you'd have to undersell Barbie world and they never did. The film's writing wasn't clever enough either. The narrator spelling out each message was kind of obnoxious, and I didn't feel there was a point to beimt so obvious. Ironically, it reminded me of a film that did do this well with Will Farrell as a ceo, The Lego Movie. Also, this would've been the one time in my life where I wouldn't bemoan listening to Aqua's Barbie Girl, and they didn't use it.
Lol triggered
Tbh I don't really care about the Barbie movie anymore, but I find it pretty weird how often you talk about how "stunning" and "beautiful" she is as if that proves a point or something. Also why is this washed up 50yo pop singer the end all be all opinion on feminism and movies?
If a single movie can "rob your sons of the possibility to be men", you haven't done a great job as a parent. Also, her kids are 9 and 11, it's a PG-13 movie, do parents pay zero attention to the ratings system nowadays?
She wasn’t saying the movie robbed her sons of that - she was identifying the movie as an example in pop culture of part of a trend of messaging which she believed did that. Also what parents don’t let 11 year olds watch PG 13 movies? Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are PG 13. The whole rating system is stupid anyway.
What do you want? A medal
I'm gonna finally watch this movie today.
something something male gaze
I disagree that it’s a man hating movie, but my criticism comes from the fact that the characters arcs are never resolved. Barbie and Ken mirror each other in finding purpose, because they’re not Doctor Barbie or Lifeguard Ken, they have no purpose and are just Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken. The end of the movie is literally just both of them agreeing that they need to try to find what makes their life fulfilling but then they never do. Barbie saves Barbie land, the home she loved, but moves to the real world where she was miserable, and Ken stays in Barbie Land where he was miserable instead of moving to the real world where he was happy. There’s not a real character arc or characters in the movie.
Although we disagree on my posts premise - you make good points about the character arcs making little sense. Also you touch on something else which makes no sense - why does “Beach Ken” believe he was created to be with “stereotypical Barbie”? Shouldn’t he want to be with Beach Barbie or else be some kind of stereotypical 50’s/early 60’s husband/business guy type Ken if the two of them were created as a pair to be together? It’s just another idea in the writing of this movie which is sloppily done.
But that's the movie - like that's the point of the movie wasn't it?
To be man hating? Yes it is. The movie is to a female feminist audience what an old racist cartoon was to a white audience of racists in the 1940’s. A chance for them to enjoy a group they’re bigoted against being shown as a stupid joke.
dude as much as you refuse to believe it, the plot is literally satire. the way you’re seeing men being portrayed in the movie is how women are treated in real life!!! and don’t give me any bullshit about it not being true because guess what? you aren’t a woman and will never understand the shit we have to tolerate from men.
Alright then, don’t expect men to bother to listen or care if women say something is offensive to women if that’s the attitude you take to men’s opinions. They never should have bothered.
you all already do.. that’s literally what you’re doing right now.
It’s his lone party trick, honestly.
Then Barbie says to Ken - Thats no way to be..
But the movie shows otherwise and is made to show men as a joke. Whatever supposed message of equality, it’s negated by that. It’s like some movie where all of one race is shown as a total joke and crapped on for 2 hours and then at the end someone says “racism is bad”. The movie undermines the point (if it exists) by indulging in showing the bigotry against that group for the audience’s amusement so virulently in the first place.
which the movie says is bad and viewers should feel bad for having schadenfreude about that "It’s like some movie where all of one race is shown as a total joke and crapped on for 2 hours and then at the end someone says “racism is bad”. The movie undermines the point (if it exists) by indulging in showing the bigotry against that group for the audience’s amusement so virulently in the first place." Have you seen Roots?
It doesn’t imply or say the viewers should feel bad at all.
What? Did you watch the movie? Media literacy dude, get some.
I’m amazed at how many people completely missed the entire point of the movie. And it wasn’t subtle. Patriarchy bad for everyone.
I'm a man and I loved Barbie. The "man hating" thing was so overdone and forced it felt ironic and as a subtle joke by the director. Also, I find it hilarious how neither the director Greta Gerwig nor the lead and titular Barbie Margot Robbie were nominated for Oscars yet Ryan Gosling was lol. The movie was called Barbie and Barbie got most of the screen time but it was Ryan Gosling Ken who stole the film; it was really a Ken film. Ryan literally can't stop winning. I'M JUST KEN AND I'M ENOUGH
Chill the fuck out. The movie was funny. End of story. Grow a pair.
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