Netflix gave me “free” access to Barbie so I watched it and had fun and then lamented over how many people completely missed the point. It was cute, and did what I figured it would do, I don’t know how much dumber you could make the concept of humanism, or make it more accessible. Okay, there were intelligent jokes that sailed over a lot of heads, but hearing people being completely bemused by the end result, I don’t know what they were expecting. It certainly didn’t deserve as many Oscars as people claimed it should, but it was fun, it served its purpose. It made its point. Calling Barbie a fascist doesn’t have to mean much more than that, it was entirely tongue-in-cheek, it wasn’t even begging you to take it that seriously. It spells out its premise, it doesn’t demand anything other than a slightly opened mind but sadly this still broke people up and caused arguments because they couldn’t cope with nuance and irony. It’s just asking you stop obsessing about fucking genitals and let people be human.
If anything I learned the new plastic smell I got from ponies counts as a Proustian moment. I expected the whole thing to just annoy me but it didn’t. I mean it even played with Cambellian conventions and poked fun at the hero’s journey, it mocked the film industry and pointless societal conventions designed to make sense of the confusion of being human. It was trying to be nice about it, palatable and safe. If you’re offended at all, you’ve absolutely missed the point. Even if Greta had no idea what she was doing she achieved something. It really was fluffy Marriage Story.
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