The Gospel Truth of "Barbie"

 

gospel truth - noun - something that is absolutely true (Google).

It's a challenge to find truth these days, especially gospel truth, since so many prefer to live inside of lies. Let's face it. It tends to be safer to deceive the self. However, every once in a while, there comes a social phenomenon that speaks veracity albeit in a roundabout way, and audiences take notice. Take the recent billion-dollar-grossing, movie-hit "Barbie," which uses innocence to underscore guilt in our society. As good satire purports to do, it quietly exposes human flaws between the breaths viewers take to recover from bouts of laughter. 

What "Barbie" does well is return to the war between the sexes. In brilliant, pastel, technicolor "Barbie Land," the film's first setting, viewers see hordes of Barbies of all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. as happy, healthy, successful, prosperous, intelligent, whereas they see the Kens existing as obscure objects who have little identity and virtually nothing to do but "beach," or stand around and look pretty on sand. Of course, the depiction is a magnification of a world in which women rule. Yet once Ken gets a taste of the real world of L.A., thanks to Barbie who needs to return there to save herself and the other Barbies, he joyfully uncovers the opposite of Barbie Land in that the patriarchy or his male people rule. Soon, he returns to "Barbie Land" intent on making a change for what he feels is the better. The transformation he poses amounts to "Kendom," a land wherein men can be their stereotypical, self-possessed selves and Barbies are reduced to "long term, long distance, low commitment, casual girlfriends." Ugh! (Did this phrase ring true, especially for me as my relationship with my own long-term, long-distant L.A. guy is perhaps a living example of Ken's false ideal.)

If "Barbie" does shine a flashlight on the gospel truth about relationships between women and men, we are in trouble. Lurking beneath the skin of this heavily made-up satire is the realization that we need to look closely at how we treat each other and what our priorities actually are. In both Barbie Land and Kendom, the self (or just which sex is more deserving to reign) seems to take precedence over other selves (humans sans labels), so much so that there isn't enough time to give to worthwhile pursuits, such as unselfish, loving relationships. In life, our undying quest for identifying labels, meaningful, lucrative work, and effective technology consumes us, eventually making us anxious and/or depressed, another truth that the movie exposes in one scene via the innocuous play of human eight-year-old girls. As we watch and listen to "Barbie," we guffaw at the exaggeration of the fictive aspects, but when we leave the theater, we realize the themes that the film presents really aren't anything to laugh about. As they say, "The truth hurts."

On the other hand, the positive takeaway is that there is hope: hope that the millions of audience members who have seen the movie at least once, if not more, won't accept the movie at face value. "Barbie" is eons away from a kids' movie. So if you haven't seen it, please do. It might change something about your own life. 

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