Come On Ben, It's a Barbie Movie

Shapiro's Barbie whinge is almost as long as the movie itself!

Ben Shapiro laments that the Barbie Movie is two hours of incomprehensible rubbish during his 40-minute deep dive into the film.

Do you see the problem already? His complaint goes almost as long as the movie!

He protesteth too much! I suspect Shapiro liked Barbie a little more than he lets on!

Ben’s hot take on the Barbie Movie is that the film makes no sense. My hot take is that if you expect a movie about plastic dolls to make sense, you’re doing movies - not to mention dolls - all wrong!

Shapiro reckons the movie’s plot is nonsensical. I would argue that was evident to everyone in the cinema when they realised most of the movie was set in Barbie Land.

(Spoiler Alert: There’s no such place as Barbie Land. It’s made up. Ergo, the rest of the movie is highly unlikely to make sense)

But worse, Shapiro reckons the movie’s characters make no sense. Whoa. And here I was thinking Ken was going to be an entirely convincing persona full of complexity and nuance.

Doh! I knew I should have seen Oppenheimer.

Ben’s second hot take on the film is that the Barbie Movie is full of contradictions.

Well sure, the film’s makers advertise the fact. The film’s promo is literally a contradiction …

"If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you.”

There you go. It’s almost like the Barbie Movie can be whatever you want it to be. Kind of like playing with dolls, right? Which I think is rather the point.

If you want to go all political on the movie, leftism is full of contradictions. Contradictions aren’t a bug in progressive politics, they’re a feature.

For instance, the movie includes a transgender barbie. How very progressive.

But, at the same time, the very first thing Barbie does after transforming into a real woman is visit her gynaecologist to make sure she has a vagina. How very conservative.

Barbie is such a contradiction! No kidding. She’s a woman. Oh, and the film is made by leftist progressives, as I was saying.

The one part of Shapiro’s critique I do agree with is that the movie’s target audience is entirely unclear.

Is the movie for mums and their little girls? I thought so. (I want to point out at this juncture that I saw the movie entirely for research purposes … hand on heart)

Or is the movie primarily for adults?

I’m pretty sure kids would enjoy the movie because it’s so visually engaging, but I doubt they would understand much of the dialogue at all.

As for the grand message of the movie … well Shapiro is pretty much spot on. The movie pits men and women against each other from beginning to end and, in the end (major spoiler alert) the movie concludes that men and women need to discover themselves without needing each other.

Barbie doesn't love Ken. She certainly doesn't need him.

Ken is encouraged not to need Barbie. He must discover himself without her.

The truth is that men and women do need each other. We are different but equal. Feminism has sought to erase the differences as if it’s some kind of competition.

Anything he can do, she can do.

The trans movement has returned the favour by erasing the differences completely.

Anything she can do, he can do better not only as a he but also as a she.

As a result, we are all more confused and miserable than we have ever been.

The Christian worldview teaches that God made men and women in His image … so men and women are equal, and yet different.

The differences are not meant to be a source of competition. We were created to be complimentary.

Men and women were not intended to be in opposition to each other but were created to be in partnership with one another.

That’s a Judea-Christian worldview that you won’t find in a Barbie Movie.

But if you went to Barbie looking for a plausible worldview, you’re doing movies and worldviews - not to mention Barbie - all wrong.

For the record, I liked the movie. I laughed a lot.

PS …. They could have improved the Barbie Movie by merging it with the Oppenheimer movie (also good) to create Barbieheimer … a film about a woman who is so beautiful she can literally destroy the world. A kind of BarbieKong but for thinking people.